[car engine howling]
[screaming]
Narrator: You're looking at pro driver
Alan Ampudia's violent crash
during the 2016 Baja 1000.
While chasing after racer BJ Baldwin for the lead,
he failed to slow down for a steep dip in the course,
and his truck tumbled off the track.
Ampudia walked away from his accident safely,
but he didn't finish.
That type of dramatic shift in terrain
is one of the things the course is known for
and part of what makes the Baja 1000
the most dangerous race in North America.
It's often called
the most brutal road race of any kind out there.
It's physically punishing.
It's not a race that I think you can go into
and assume you're going to finish.
Narrator: The 1,000-mile off-road race has claimed
dozens of lives since debuting in 1967.
Its unforgiving course winds through
the scorching hot desert
of Mexico's Baja California Peninsula.
Racers have to navigate everything from
steep mountain passes to thick sand,
and they use everything from
massive trophy trucks to dirt bikes.
No matter what you choose, though,
you and your vehicle
are gonna take a brutal beating,
especially if you aren't looking out for booby traps.
For 20 to 25 hours, racers trek through
the most remote areas of Mexico,
where a simple mechanical problem
can leave you stranded for days.
You're probably having the best day
of your life racing,
and it's just like a switch.
All of a sudden, like, bloop!
You switch it up,
and everything's going down the hill.
Narrator: The Baja 1000 covers
all different types of dangerous terrain
that can trap your vehicle
if not handled correctly.
Most notorious is the silt.
Jason: So, silt is
this really, really fine-grain sand.
It's almost like talcum powder.
You get almost no real traction on it,
so it's just a momentum game to get through it,
because you're just plowing through it
almost like a liquid, like water.
If you stop, you are going to get stuck in it.
And it's so fine, it comes up
in clouds, in your face,
through every crack in your vehicle,
and they're mostly open vehicles anyway,
but it just covers everything
and gets into absolutely everything.
It is miserable stuff.
[radio chatter]
Narrator: But even if you manage to not
get buried in the silt,
you've still got plenty of challenges ahead.
That includes steep mountain passes
filled with massive boulders.
These areas can be the scene
of some of the race's most violent crashes.
Even though it's a desert race,
the Baja 1000 has plenty of water
for drivers to get through.
Everything from ravines to flash floods
can create water crossings
that'll leave cars floating
and drivers trapped.
Jason: The open nature of most of these cars
means when you go through the water,
it just fills up to, like, your calves or ankles,
and you're sitting in water.
And then when you get out of it
and you're tearing in as much a--
as you're able to tear on the roads there,
and if you're doing that at night,
you're actually, it's freezing.
Like, every sensation that's difficult on your body,
the Baja 1000 will throw at you.
Narrator: The most unique danger to the Baja 1000
is the booby traps set by locals
from towns along the racecourse.
These traps come in the forms of holes,
hidden jumps, debris, and more.
In the past, pranksters have even
redirected floodwaters to create mud pits
that'll stop racers dead in their tracks.
This is why racers warning one another
about different sabotages along the way
is a major part of the Baja 1000.
Lalo: You spend two weeks, you know,
pre-running, recognizing the course,
and marking all your dangers,
and on race day, everything change.
Jason: These booby traps are done
just to make things exciting
for the locals who are around.
They want to see the cars flying in the air.
They wanna see...
'cause who doesn't?
Lalo: Peoples here, they bleed,
they bleed off of racing.
There's places even where, like,
the whole town stops because it's the Baja 1000.
So everyone's just, like, there,
sitting on the side of the course,
to watch these trucks go by.
Narrator: The Baja 1000's biggest danger, though,
is the barren desert it takes place in.
The course travels through some
incredibly desolate areas.
Racers can go for hours without seeing
any signs of human life at all.
It can feel like driving on another planet,
especially at night, when the only lights around
are coming from your car.
If the race's chaotic terrain and booby traps
do leave your vehicle broken down or stuck,
these remote parts of the course
are the absolute worst place for it to happen.
Crashing, running out of fuel,
mechanical problems, or going too far off course
can leave racers stranded in the desert
for hours, even days,
with little to no cell reception.
Jason: This was the area where we had
our most car trouble. The terrain was still so bad.
Like, the silt was so deep
that we kept getting stuck
and we had to sleep in the car.
We got, like, a few hours until dawn.
And then in the morning what Mark did
was he just tramped out
and found a bunch of guys
to help us dig the car out.
Narrator: Jason is an amateur racer,
but professionals aren't immune
from getting stranded, either.
Jason: If you're new, don't go in this
thinking you're gonna finish.
Just assume you're going to fail
probably pretty spectacularly somewhere.
Narrator: Unpredictable really is the only way
to describe the Baja 1000.
Whether you're an amateur like Jason
or professional like Lalo,
competitors can only prepare to expect the unexpected.