How Jimmie Johnson Permanently Crashed out of Baja

"Dusty Ventures" (dustyventures) 09/01/2015 at 12:00 • Filed to: BAJA, CRASHES, OFF ROAD, JIMMIE JOHNSON

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Today Jimmie Johnson is known as one of the most talented and most accomplished drivers in NASCAR, having won six of the last nine Cup titles. Back up two decades, though, and he was competing in a completely different arena, proving himself to be a powerhouse in stadium truck racing, and an emerging talent in desert racing, until a terrifying crash took him out of the desert permanently.

Like many of today’s biggest motorsports talents, Jimmie’s racing career started early, beginning with motorcycles at age 5. Jimmie’s dream was to race Indy Cars, following in the footsteps of his childhood hero and fellow Californian Rick Mears. Mears himself started in off road racing before becoming a multi-time Indy 500 winner and series champion, so when 15-year-old Jimmie got the chance to jump into a MTEG Superlite buggy in 1991 he saw it as the first step to his dream.

Jimmie took to the Superlites immediately, becoming an instant front runner in the class with a win in the ‘91 season finale and earning Rookie of the Year honors. The following year he improved upon that performance with four wins and the Superlite championship. At the same time Jimmie had begun competing in desert endurance races, driving a Class 10 buggy with Tom Schilling and winning the ‘93 SCORE Class 10 championship along the way. Herb Fischel, head of Chevy’s off road motorsports program took notice, and in 1994 the teenage talent had signed with the Bow Tie Brigrade and was in a Grand National Series stadium truck operated by off road superteam Nelson & Nelson.

With Johnson cleaning up in the stadium series Fischel and Nelson decided to put Johnson in a truck for the 1995 SCORE desert season as well, hoping to use the fresh-faced star to contend for the SCORE Class 8 title. Jimmie started strong with a class win at the Parker 400, but by mid-season he was out of the points thanks to a pair of retirements. Nelson & Nelson had just finished building a new Trophy Truck for their star driver Larry Ragland so, with the Class 8 title no longer a possibility, they decided to move Jimmie to the top tier of the sport, putting him in Ragland’s old Trophy Truck. This was the off road equivalent of being put in Ferrari’s second car alongside Schumacher. Jimmie successfully finished his first race in the truck, the Baja 500, but then wadded it up in Barstow.

November came and with it a special running of the Baja 1000, the longest Baja 1000 to date, starting in Tijuana instead of Ensenada, and running about 1,140 miles down to the bottom of the peninsula. Jimmie, just months into his twenties, was determined to show it was no fluke that he was driving one of the baddest trucks for one of the baddest teams in the sport. Despite starting thirteenth on the road he worked his way to the lead, sat out front most of the day, and continued his dominance into the night. He was uncatchable, and on his way to being one of the youngest drivers to ever win the Baja 1000.

Baja is, unquestionably, the most challenging nonstop endurance race in the world, surpassing even the legendary events like the 24 Hours of Nurburgring and Le Mans. Instead of laps made up of familiar corners that a driver revisits every few minutes, Baja is 1000 miles of unique corners, many of them blind and hiding cliffs. The course is littered with boulders (sometimes completely hidden in the silt), water crossings, washouts, large animals, and the ever infamous booby traps. The terrain is so rough it has resulted in cracked teeth, cracked bones, and days of pissing blood. When things do go wrong rescue can be an hour or more away. And, on top of all this, while FIA endurance race regulations restrict drivers from being in the car for more than 4 hours at a time, in Baja it’s a badge of honor to drive the entire race solo, a task that requires being at the wheel for 20-30 hours straight.

Jimmie was still leading as he exited Loreto, cresting the mountains and heading into the twisty, rocky wash on the way to Scorpion bay, nearly 900 miles into the race. It was 3 AM, Jimmie had now been at the wheel for about 20 hours, and he still had four hours ahead of him. Finally out of the seemingly-endless sequence of mountain switchbacks and on a straight section of road, Jimmie put his foot down, wanting nothing more in the world than to see the sun, to see the finish. Jimmie saw neither. At 90 miles an hour he fell asleep.

Jimmie was only out for a few seconds, a simple bob of the head, but it was enough. Jimmie woke to find a sharp right hander ahead of him, and just beyond it a massive rock, large enough to dwarf the infamous concrete !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of Rally Deutschland. There was no time to react. The rock cleaved the right front wheel off and flipped the truck high up into the air. The truck landed on it’s side yards away, slamming down hard in a rocky wash. The impact !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! buckled the cage at the A pillar on Jimmie’s side, and sheared his horizontal sill bar just in front of the main hoop. The truck took another roll, finally stopping on its three wheels.

When the truck finally came to a stop Jimmie found his arm trapped by the deformed cage, his co-driver Tom Gveiss unconscious, and not even the slightest hint of light or life in any direction. It was just about the most terrifying situation a racer could imagine finding himself in. After a few minutes of struggling Jimmie was able to free himself from the mangled steel and climb out of the truck. Tom regained consciousness and managed to get out of the former truck as well. They were safe and largely unhurt, but the desert ordeal wasn’t over. Due to the remote location of the crash there was no way to get a radio signal out to the crew or to SCORE. Jimmie and Tom sat alone in the desert for another twelve hours before their team finally found them. It was more than a full day before they were back in civilization.

Jimmie calls those twelve hours a turning point in his racing career, the point that effectively made his career, saying it taught him that he needed to take fewer risks and become more of a “thinking man’s racer,” less brash driving and more strategy. It also, almost certainly, showed him the dangers of racing, and the importance of driving to reduce those dangers, not invite them.

Jimmie never ran another desert race after that crash. In 1996 Jimmie left Nelson & Nelson and joined Herzog Racing, another legendary off road team, racing a Class 8 in the SODA short course off road series. Herzog encouraged Jimmie to pursue stock cars instead of Indy Cars, fielding him in an ASA circle track car in 1998 and sticking with him all the way through to the NASCAR Busch Series (now the Xfinity Series) in 2001. In 2002 Jimmie moved on to the Cup Series with Hendrick and the rest is history. A history created by a single poor-timed nap.

Thanks to Ronald Schouten for the pictures.

BReLp7dzHM3ytYsE > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 12:17

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This was awesome. Great writeup.

Future next gen S2000 owner > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 12:17

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I swear, the best NASCAR drivers of all time, always came from some sort of dirt background.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 12:18

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Great post! FP’d in 3... 2... 1...

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Future next gen S2000 owner 09/01/2015 at 12:18

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Same with MotoGP.

Future next gen S2000 owner > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 09/01/2015 at 12:26

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I wonder if the ability to use the throttle at a higher level is the result. Being more comfortable rotating a vehicle using the throttle, better knowledge of exactly how much throttle can be applied before excess oversteer occurs, more comfortable in an oversteer situation.

BigBlock440 > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 12:37

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Interesting. One question, he was in the lead when he crashed. Did no other cars pass him that could radio back? Did they all somehow take a different route?

Dusty Ventures > BigBlock440 09/01/2015 at 12:42

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I’ve wondered that myself.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Future next gen S2000 owner 09/01/2015 at 12:42

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Could be. While I’m certainly not the fastest driver in the world, when I was younger and trying to find fun things to do in cars in a grid based suburbia, powerline access roads and construction sites were my playgrounds and all of that pretending to be Petter Solberg definitely improved my ability to control a car with a throttle. When you spend alot of time on dirt doing it in slow motion, it becomes way more natural at the track. I own a first gen MR2, but have yet to be caught out by snap oversteer. Yeah, I’ve spun it plenty (if you don’t spin every once in a while, you’re not finding the limit), but I knew why and exactly what input was wrong. I don’t really have too many friends into motorsport, so I have a tendency to bring them out to autocross to get them into it, and they just can’t seem to get their head around it. Now that I’m thinking about that and how much time I spent holding slides with my right foot in FWD cars back then, I’m thinking about taking one of my spinninng buddies out to a field to teach him about throttle control.

CBus660R > BigBlock440 09/01/2015 at 12:58

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My understanding is that Baja was really free with the route and all you needed was to hit a few key checkpoints, so it’s possible they were on a different line than many of their other competitors. It’s not that way as much anymore, especially with GPS tracking, but there are still options down there. That’s why everyone who want’s to seriously contend spends so much time down there pre-running, they’re scouting out various lines.

ME 4-12 > BigBlock440 09/01/2015 at 13:00

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Took the words out of my mouth.

Clay_T > BigBlock440 09/01/2015 at 13:05

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I’m guessing there are several routes going down.

That, and the competitor’s focus is in the beams of their lights out the front and not looking around where someone might have sailed off into the desert.

Had they built a fire (maybe they did?) they might have been spotted sooner.

Bottom line, it’t a big desert. Lots of places to be hidden in plain sight.

BigBlock440 > CBus660R 09/01/2015 at 13:10

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Sure, but out of all those competitors, not one took the same road he did?

BigBlock440 > Clay_T 09/01/2015 at 13:12

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I assumed the part where they sat alone in the desert meant nobody else passed them, in which case, they wouldn’t have been in anybody’s lights for them to notice.

MC20 > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 13:13

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Now post the video of his Busch wreck at Watkins Glen. Syrofoam saved his live.

OTE_TheMissile > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 13:20

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That’s Ragland’s “Butch”, isn’t it? Was that the end of him or was he able to be repaired?

You hear about “Arnold” all the time but it seems I rarely see anyone posting about Butch...

damnthisburnershitsux > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 13:22

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this is what happens when you use an analog tire pressure gauge kids

Dusty Ventures > OTE_TheMissile 09/01/2015 at 13:36

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It is indeed “BUTCH” (not to be confused with BUTCH, which burned to the ground). “BUTCH” was bought by the Perchansky brothers after the 1995 Baja crash. They spent a couple years rebuilding it, then raced it until 2009, when it was sold... to Jimmie Johnson.

Mister Win Blames People, Not Guns > BigBlock440 09/01/2015 at 13:42

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Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 13:54

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I like the authenticity of grille-headlight assy. A cut above NASCAR stickers.

RazorGP > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 14:16

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Now so much “like a rock” is it?

Jorge Milian > Future next gen S2000 owner 09/01/2015 at 14:21

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Precisely what Danica lacks!

RallyWrench > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 14:24

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Great feature. I’ve seen some yard-saled rally cars, but damn, this was one hell of a shunt. I’m glad he’s still with us. It’s a testament to how well engineered those trucks are and were.

Hammerdown > Future next gen S2000 owner 09/01/2015 at 15:09

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Lots of guys think that the high downforce package currently on the Sprint Cup cars is a disadvantage for the dirt guys. Low downforce is big for the guys with dirt backgrounds as they are used to having a car move underneath them. They like a car loose and slidey so they can hustle it around the track. High downforce is more about picking the right line and holding momentum.

Schrodinger's Fat > Hammerdown 09/01/2015 at 17:44

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that would explain why the playing field has leveled out a bit, and heavyweights like Stewart and Gordon aren’t thriving with this setup.

Kylemaro > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 17:48

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hey! stock chevy delco moraine calipers. just like on my tahoe and my camaro.

Kylemaro > Dusty Ventures 09/01/2015 at 17:49

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thank you for finally telling this, so many people who know of his nascar exploits seem to have a “where did he come from” mentality. i’m glad people can now realize that hes been to the edge and that he wasn’t just handed a ride in a stock car like some people nowadays (cough cough anyone with the last name dillon cough cough)

Kylemaro > BigBlock440 09/01/2015 at 17:52

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they hit fairly hard, flew fairly far and went down a fairly substantial embankment. its incredibly likely that unless jimmie and his co driver had climbed back up a rocky embankment to stand on the racing course and wave for help (i can only asume they didn’t) other racers passing by at speed wouldn’t even notice them, even if they did back in the 90s before every major team had a helicopter on standby rescue would still be hours away and have to wait more than likely to even enter the course to get to them until other racers had gone by

Kylemaro > Future next gen S2000 owner 09/01/2015 at 17:55

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lot easier to maintian a dirt track than a paved one. hence so many more of them exist in america, more dirt tracks, more dirt track racers. more talent rising up

Kylemaro > Future next gen S2000 owner 09/01/2015 at 17:57

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dirt/gravel/snow driving on a loose surface and learning to use broken traction to your advantage is easily a great driver builder. topgear did a sorta similar pointed film awhile back where mika hakkinen taught James may to drive properly on a “rallye stage” (similar to an offroad course although a bit more tame)

Kylemaro > Jorge Milian 09/01/2015 at 17:59

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a racing background

Kylemaro > damnthisburnershitsux 09/01/2015 at 18:00

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1 and a half psi everyone

Kylemaro > RazorGP 09/01/2015 at 18:01

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a rock? sure, the boulder he hit..... eh, thats a bit more than a “rock” lol

BigBlock440 > Kylemaro 09/01/2015 at 18:43

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The wording made it seem like no other vehicles even passed them, but that could be how I read it.

Jimmie and Tom sat alone in the desert for another twelve hours before their team finally found them. It was more than a full day before they were back in civilization.

CBus660R > BigBlock440 09/01/2015 at 21:46

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Well, towards the end, the field is pretty spread out. Could be hours before substantial numbers even show up. At 900 miles in (give or take), the top 10 were probably spread out in 5-10 minute intervals. If they were on a “secret line” that only they knew about, it’s very reasonable. Remember, this was 20 years ago before the advances in tech. Even in ‘13 with real time tracking, it took over 2 hours to get to Kurt Caselli.

ZR2TEN > Kylemaro 09/01/2015 at 23:34

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I was thinking the same thing!

Kylemaro > ZR2TEN 09/02/2015 at 04:20

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if it works it works

pip bip - choose Corrour > Dusty Ventures 09/02/2015 at 08:17

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if you’re going to crash , do it properly!

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > BigBlock440 09/02/2015 at 08:39

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If you crash out at over 90 mph without barriers, you’re probably not going to come to a stop anywhere near where you screwed up. I was in a roughly 70 mph offroad rollover and the car was probably three or four hundred feet from where we crashed and may have gone a little farther were it not for the tree it was against. If the mistake was over a blind crest into a tricky right hander, he could have been far enough away from the road to not be noticed by racers trying to figure out how to get through there, or he could have been on the other side of some sort of crest where he was below the line of sight of the following cars. Throw in that this happened at night, and it just compounds it. Judging by the pictures, there were a number of elevation features coupled with bushed and rocks that could obscure the view from multiple angles, and I’m not certain that the road it’s stopped on is part of the course. Seems narrow even for Baja. If trucks were flying by and that was in the way, it would have gotten out of there way faster.

BigBlock440 > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 09/02/2015 at 09:02

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I get that the drivers could have easily missed them, but I read it as nobody even passed them. I don’t know.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > BigBlock440 09/02/2015 at 09:07

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Ahh, gotcha. Yeah, that’s weird. I don’t know either. Got lost and was away from the course? It happens at Baja.

Hammerdown > Schrodinger's Fat 09/02/2015 at 12:08

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And why guys like Harvick are. There have been several drivers that have said Harvick holds more corner speed and picks up the throttle quicker than those around him. Momentum and knowing how to keep the car from breaking traction.

Dusty Ventures > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 09/02/2015 at 15:09

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The big rock with the scrapes (third crash photo) is the initial rock they hit, just for a sense of where they hit and how far they traveled. I think other trucks passed them and some saw them, but those trucks wouldn't have been able to report it until they themselves were out of the area and able to get in touch with people via radio. And they would have only been able to give an approximate location, not an exact one.

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Dusty Ventures 09/02/2015 at 15:12

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Oh wow, they actually didn’t travel all that far. That must have been one hell of an initial impact.

Dusty Ventures > SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie 09/02/2015 at 15:43

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Yeah, he probably only went 100-150 feet, but I think there’s also a little camera trickery going on, making it look even shorter and flatter. Here’s a photo from further right (the course turned right just before the rock, then jogged back left past where Jimmie stopped), which gives a greater sense of distance.

Pair that with this one and you can see the drop and the severity of the rock bed he landed in (also notice that the big rocks that seem to be around the halfway point in the bottom photo are still out of shot in the top photo).

SidewaysOnDirt still misses Bowie > Dusty Ventures 09/02/2015 at 15:44

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Oh wow, yep. Definitely went farther than it looked, which is good. I’d rather have a drawn out crash then a sudden one.

Dusty Ventures > BigBlock440 09/02/2015 at 15:56

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I did some digging and some thinking and here’s what I found: The road they’re stopped next to is part of the course (at least for those taking this route). The course turns hard right at the rock they hit (third photo), curves left into the wash, goes past where they stopped, and then right again up the hill. Other vehicles passed them, but since Jimmie and Tom were okay and the truck definitely wasn’t rejoining the race all the competitors continued on since there wasn’t much assistance they could give by staying (this is SOP in desert racing, you’re gonna pass dead trucks that you know will be there for hours). Some trucks may have been flagged down and asked by Jimmie or Tom to let the team know they were okay and where they were (this probably happened, but I have no conclusive reports either way), but even then a truck wouldn’t have been able to get that message out until they themselves were out of the radio dead zone, and with no mile markers on the course and GPS not yet accessible for civiliains a team reporting the accident would only be able to give an approximate location. Then, once alerted, Jimmie’s team would have needed to wait until it was safe to enter the area (only way in and out being the hot race course which, as you can see, doesn’t have much room for passing) before they could even begin their search. At the 900 mile mark it likely would have taken at least 6-10 hours for the main pack to have gone by. 10-12 hours in and there would still be stragglers and slower classes on the course, though the gaps would be around the 20 minute mark at least, enough to finally go in and look.

BigBlock440 > Dusty Ventures 09/02/2015 at 16:09

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Wow, good shovel. So it wasn’t like they sat for hours before anyone seeing them like I thought. Lots of people saw them and it was just a matter of waiting for the course to clear. It would still suck to be stuck out there for that long, but it would be much worse if you didn’t see anybody for 12 hours. Thanks for the info.

Dusty Ventures > BigBlock440 09/02/2015 at 16:11

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Yeah, people saw them, but it was 12 hours before any sort of actual help arrived.

SCORE Webmaster > Dusty Ventures 09/03/2015 at 15:05

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Simply a great story from Dusty Ventures on Jimmie Johnson and the crash in the 1995 BAJA 1000 that Johnson says to this day was Turning Point in his star-studded racing career and proves once again why the BudLight SCORE BAJA 1000 is the Best Motorsports Event in all of the world.

zpoyly > CBus660R 03/12/2016 at 16:47

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in 1995 after danny hamel traggic accident a safety program was created and unfortunately the new organisation didnt take it seriously, the tracking system failed to work properly.