The Baja 1000, the most prestigious off road race in North America. It comes around once per year in mid-November, and racers are getting anxious by early October for the race course map to come out so that final logistic details can be planned, and pre-running the course can commence. Everyone wants to win the big one, and the Cognito Motorsports Pro UTV race team would strive for no less.
The Cognito team split the 2015 Baja 1000 course into 3 sections, each section requiring a mini team of sorts to focus on their section of the race. The first section of the race from the start to race mile 250 would be driven by Justin Sheakley with co-pilot Brandon Hong. The middle section from race mile 250 to 550 would be driven by Victor Herrera with co-pilot Ismael Vega. The final section from race mile 550 to the finish would be driven by Justin Lambert with co-pilot Mitchell Alsup, the course this year was only 830 miles long, although at times during the race, felt more like a train wreck via some relentless terrain.
The Cognito team pre-ran the course a few days before the start of the race, each part of the team learning their respective section in anticipation of conquering the terrain faster than any other UTV team. During pre-running, the 3 mini teams all concurred that this would be one of the faster Baja 1000 courses, but did realize that the terrain will make a transformation come race day when the Cognito UTV confronts its challenge.
The team drew a 21st starting position out of the 24 UTV teams entered in the race. Friday the race started right out of downtown Ensenada in Baja California. Within 30 miles into the race after already passing a few competitors, Sheakley and Hong realized the course had transformed into much rougher terrain than had been anticipated. All of the pre running and also the 200 race vehicles that left the starting line before the UTV class had taken its toll on the course, the challenge was fully realized.
By 100 miles into the race, the Cognito Polaris RZR had moved into the top 6 in the UTV field, but 50 miles later would suffer the first issue that would cost some time for repair, luckily the Cognito chase team was prepared. By race mile 460, a couple other issues that demanded attention and repair would set Cognito back with 70 minutes of total down time at that point, but still in the top 5 on the leader board. The roughest part of the race was yet to come as the San Felipe section is known for whoops that seem to never end. The final drivers change was made at race mile 550 in 3rd position on course, but an extensive pit stop to ensure the race car was prepared to make it to the finish, allowed 2 more competitors to get past.
Lambert and Alsup were leaving the pit stop at RM550 as the sun was rising up from the Sea of Cortez at roughly 5am on Saturday. A long highway section of the race course was hypnotic until the course made its way off the pavement at RM585 and the rocky whoops were waiting to claim equipment. By RM 610 Cognito moved into 3rd position again and the chase was on to catch 2nd place. The rough San Felipe desert lived up to its name and although Lambert was making up time on 2nd place, a decision had to be made to back down the pace as the car had taken quite a beating for the first 730 miles, and it was best to back off and hang on to a 3rd place finish rather than risk breaking the car or dnf. The team finished the race in 3rd position with the next competitor 2 hours behind. Team Cognito beat the Baja 1000.
Cognito Motorsports would like to thank our sponsors:
Mystik Lubricants ll Sparks Racing ll Fox Racing Shox ll Rugged Radios Polaris RZR
Method Race Wheels ll ITP Tires ll Rigid Industries
