Anyone who has been in Baja very long, like the persons in question here, should know "safe" places to test or to pre-run at race speed. The San Felipe whoops are most likely not a place you will run across a local, except the zoo road crossing. But the road to Coco's, or from Santo Tomas to the coast and south are trafficked by locals and surfers, not good places to open it up. The highways are full of blind corners and as we all have experienced, it never fails that when you least expect it there is a slow moving truck, bus, or car around that corner, or one coming toward you in your lane.
I think part of the problem is that "we" racers throw caution to the wind because that is what you do to some degree when racing if you are going to win. Also, Baja is like the wild west to some degree, an "anything goes" attitude can emerge quickly, I have been guilty of that.
If a driver is pre-running and crashes and kills himself and passengers that is one thing, but taking out a Mexican local or an innocent bystander like I nearly was, is a different thing all together.
Look at the accident that was reported on here of the Datsun hitting the pre-runner's trailer a few weeks ago. That guy was passing over a hill in a place he had no place passing, from my understanding. He made a poor choice and it could have cost lives instead of a nice car and a damaged trailer. I know I have done that exact same thing in Baja and you can get away with it over and over, but eventually it will bite you in the butt. What if the pre-runners had been a school bus full of kids and some of them died? Granted, the guy in the car wasn't a desert racer, but I am sure that we would all be lumped together in that situation.
The most dangerous part of Baja is driving on the roads and pre-running. My reasoning behind this is our mentality while doing it. When racing, we have a completely different mindset. We are focused and driven. Yes, we take chances, but they are calculated and for the most part the race course is closed to local traffic. We all know that we must cross the finish line to get a cheap trophy and bragging rights. But the chase teams end up in a race on the highway and while pre-running we let our guards down to the dangers and often times go just as fast as we race.
Everyone knows that if a bike and a truck leave Bay of LA at the same time and the bike takes the course to Viscaino and the truck the highway, the bike will always win if he keeps a decent pace. However, many times I know guys that have taken that as a challenge and haul butt to try to beat the bike. For what reason? Only so say he did it. I think most of us have been guilty of doing stupid things like this in Baja. We need to police ourselves and stop this from happening. I don't see how SCORE can regulate pre-running speeds. The cost to put trackers, safety inspect pre-runners, and then enforce a pre-run speed would be astronomical and impractical. So how do we get the unsafe practices stopped? We change the mentality of the racers and crew members. Because if we don't, it will bring an end to our days in Baja. The sport will be relegated to short course races, and who wants that. Not that there is anything wrong with short course racing, but Baja is not even comparable to short course racing.
My .02 on the subject.
- Also, isn't this the same team that has performed other circus acts in the past hanging off their truck ? 
