This is a personal statement;
Hello everyone, for the last few years I've had the opportunity to work with Juan Carlos and I've been part of Baja Voyager and the crew. Some of you know me from the races and the teams I've worked with.
I've been involved in Off Road Racing for a long time having the opportunity to see the greatest this sports has showed us, as also the ugliest, but always carrying the best memories of it.
About the situation and conflict between NORRA and Baja Voyager;
For the last 7 years Baja Voyager has provided different services to the Mexican 1000 participants such as accommodations, shuttle services, transportation, parking spots and many others. We're solutions providers, and we are there when racers need a hand.
I can't remember how many people we've given a solution, there's been a lot, like the time we put the biggest chase truck I've ever seen on top of a flatbed and took it from Cabo to Ensenada, or the time we bailed out a few guys from jail in Cabo because DUI and making donuts on an empty dirt lote. Once I gave my bed in BOLA to somebody that was sleeping outside my hotel room, he was not a Baja Voyager customer, but he was a racer that 5 hours later had to drive from BOLA to Loreto.
We have loyal NORRA customers from years, before the date changed we had 55 customers for the 2020 edition. Some of them requested only 2 rooms and some of them requested 10 rooms.
Loreto seems harder every year; for this edition Baja Voyager is working with less hotel than previous years. Mr. Bill Hernquist mentioned a situation from the Oasis Hotel, we're not working with that hotel as they had to cancel our reservation (we only had 5 rooms) when the date was changed. As of today we're working with only 8 hotels/motels in Loreto where we need to accommodate more than 50 teams.
Unfortunately there's a lot of people that don't believe on the services we offer, and we accept that. But we're thankful we have given a hand to many racers out there.
About BOLA, Baja Voyager rent houses for the racers that request it. If you're one of our customers you know there's a waiting list from our side on BOLA. We need to understand that BOLA is a town with very limited resources and their incomes relay on fishing, adventure travelers and races. As 2010 they had a population of 800. We knock the doors of the people in town that may rent us their houses, they try to get the most benefit of it by asking us for ridiculous amounts of money to let us stay in their houses, we understand it, they need the money and we do everything they can to support them. If you've been a past Baja Voyager customer you will remember there's houses with no hot water or no power, every year we try our best to help the people make those houses a little bit better, bringing new light bulbs, water boilers, paint, door knobs and more.
We've had a good relationship with Ruth from Raquel and Larry for the past years, as of today Baja Voyager only has 3 rooms reserved with Ruth and we haven't offer any extra money to hold our rooms. We believe is only Ruth who has the right to decide who she will rent her place to, she owns it and she's the one with the last word. Raquel and Larry is the only hotel we work with in BOLA, we rent houses.
BOLA is probably the most difficult place to deal with, but I believe they need this kind of events, they probably wait for this race all year long. We still need to understand that we're trying to develop an event that brings 1,400 people in a town that only has infrastructure to hold 1,000.
Let's don't forget, there's teams with limited resources that only need 2 rooms for their crew, but there's also big teams that brings more than one race vehicle and need up to 10 rooms.
Some of the solutions and services Baja Voyager provides are; accommodations, shuttle services, vehicles transportation back from Cabo, parking space with security, bilingual concierge, legal assistance, towing services, mechanics on duty, chase trucks, recovery and extraction, storage (in Ensenada), catering, camping supplies (specially in BOLA), UTV rental, security and more.
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I think NORRA puts a bigger effort every year to develop a great event and bring back home safe and sound hundreds of racers, chasers, crew members and spectators. I believe that the finish line is not when you get the checkered flag but when you get back home from the race with your loved ones.
Baja Voyager will still provide services to those who request it. The Mexican 1000 has given us the opportunity to create new friendships every year and develop loyal relationships with the racers.
Let's don't forget we're all involved in this race for many reasons, some try to proof something, some others just try to have fun, but at the end we're all here for one common reason; to enjoy Baja!
Thank you everyone for your time reading this. If anybody has any questions feel free to DM.
We need to keep together through these very hard times, Baja is waiting for us.
Best,
Julio Baeza
Baja Voyager