Chamlee’s Factory Racing Wins First at Baja 1000
Truck racing superstar Dan Chamlee, founder of The Factory Racing, Inc.has officially won the Class 7 Title at the 2024 Baja 1000 race on November 15-16. This is the 9th Baja 1000 win for Factory Racing, Inc.
On Dan’s team this year were his wife Laurie as Crew Chief. Riding in the truck with him as co-drivers were Montecito’s Kurt Kimball of Granny’s Garage Montecitoswitching as needed with Todd Craven. Their job is to monitor the gauges, watch the Garmin GPS to tell him which turns to take, and keep him alert. If the truck breaks down, they hop out to fix the problem. His “chase team” – aka his team that travels simultaneously with him but along the highways – waits at access roads, monitoring Dan’s truck, and are prepared if the truck requires repairs on the course. The chase team drives in with parts and tools needed to get the truck moving again. Dans chase team were Johnny Williams, Jennifer Craven, Nick Tonelli, Kelley Tonelli, Brennan Tonelli, and Stella Tonelli.
I called Dan on Wednesday to confirm his win. Laurie answered and put us on speaker for my interview.
Q.What was it like this year?
A. It is different every year, especially because they change the racecourse each time and there is the weather factor. This year, however, my main competitor from the 1000’s qualifying races had already stacked his points – I won the 500, but he won the 400 with more points than I had going into the 1000. In order to get the 1000 Championship Title, I had to win the 1000. He and I were within 5-25 miles of each other throughout the race. Towards the end I got ahead. He was 30 minutes behind me and also had so many penalties he ended up being four hours behind me. He had penalties for not driving over the required Virtual Checkpoints on the racecourse. Missing a checkpoint can be easy to do if you turn the wrong way on a corner. Penalties are also issued if you drive in places that the local ranchers along the course specifically asked drivers to not trespass, and if you drive on a road too close to the highway.
Any issues with the course itself?
This year the race was 864.13 grueling miles. We had light rain before the race and at the start of the race, making the course treacherous. And there was no windshield so we had to keep wiping our helmet visors. I drove with one hand on the wheel and one wiping my helmet visor. In one situation, a truck had flipped on its side and blocked the racecourse in an uphill dirt area. I had to winch up the hill around it. The racecourse also has poorly constructed areas that end up like speed bumps and can cause issues.
How did you communicate with Laurie and the crew?
Communication between race truck and our teams has always been a challenge in the deserted mountain roads of Baja but with the new Garmin thread, we were able to satellite text each other via Starlink and see where the competition is.
What was your average speed?
That is deceptive because you can drive faster in some areas than others, the point being to keep moving safely to the finish. My average speed came in at 40 mph, which to the uninitiated seems low, but actually worked out best.
What was your time to finish the race?
I drove the entire time, and it took 23 hours and 12 minutes. However, we had an hour of downtime to weld a component on the truck and then the episode of going around the truck that had flipped, so it would have been 22 hours.
The MJalso lending a few nods to David Ausserbauer, 30,Santa Barbara,who placed 8th riding a Honda CRF450X with his teammates Ryan Liebelt, 44, Reedley, CA; Shane Shorno, 35, Discovery Bay, CA; Jason Alosi, 40, Reno, NV; JD Triffon, 41, Sanger, CA. They finished the race in 21:05:27 (40.97 mph).
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