The Mighty Mini-Van!
Before I got my Explorer, I had a 99 Dodge Caravan that I drove all over the desert and beaches of Baja. It didn’t have much clearance, but the damn thing was unstoppable! I would just air down the tires to about 10 pounds and keep a little speed on & we just rolled along, happy as you please.
A couple years ago, I took the family to San Felipe for a vacation & we took many adventure trips out in the desert. Turns out, we were there at the same time as SCORE was having a race. One afternoon, we were cruising along a nice flat section & saw a red VW Bug all tricked out & covered with stickers, he was going about 40 or 50 & looked like he was overheating or something.
The kids asked if we can get a better look, so we speed up till we get even with him but still a safe distance away. Well, this guy looks over & just freaks!

He keeps looking at us, then down at his GPS & back at us again. The poor guy probably thought he was on the 405 freeway or something. One minute he’s racing in the middle of nowhere & the next, he’s looking at a mini-van full of kids, all smiling and waving at him.
It was a good thing he was going slow though, up a head was a big hill with bunch of people on it & the course curved around the bottom, & when we got up there, a chaser crew was towing out a race car that had just run over a refrigerator at speed & ripped off the front axle.
I remember reading one of the SCORE drivers in the Baja 1000 saying “if your out in the middle of nowhere & you see a group of people… They’re there for a reason!” Seems the locals like to build big jump ramps or dig big holes, or just pile up old furniture & dead animals, right in the middle of the course, & then sit back & watch the carnage!
