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Update: 11-27-25 New Video.
Baja 1000 The Little Bronco Underdog Story You Won’t Believe Video
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...-you-won’t-believe-video.125331/#post-2687398
Junkyard Bronco wins* iconic race in torrential rain, hypothermic conditions
Blackhawk helicopter pilot calls Baja 1000 'worst case scenario'
https://phoebewallhoward.substack.com/p/junkyard-bronco-wins-iconic-race
RJ Zanon of Long Beach, Calif., found a totaled 2023 Black Diamond Ford Bronco on Facebook marketplace being sold by a salvage lot for parts in June — and realized he could fulfill a dream he’d had since age 10.
At 35, he would race an off-road endurance competition on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico that attracts hundreds of competitors from all over the world who race more than 850 miles across the desert on sand, dirt, silt, rocks, cobblestones and highway. As many as half the racers drop out of the SCORE Baja 1000 with broken cars or broken spirits.
Zanon, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot for the California National Guard — fought hypothermia while soaked by torrential rain, caked with mud, unable to see without a windshield, driving on a flat tire with no working electronics for the final three miles.
“We ended up hitting something and got a flat (tire). There was no time to change it. I had dirt in my eyes. It hurt to open them. It was the end of the race and conditions were the most extreme,” he said.
Unexpected flooding shorted the racecourse and change the route, too.
Zanon ended up taking home a First Place Trophy for winning his Class 3, starting the morning of Friday, Nov. 14, and finishing late Saturday, Nov. 15.
“If you ended up making a movie about this, they’d say, ‘That’s cheesy. It wouldn’t happen,’” he said. “It was the worst-case scenario for the last hour.”
RJ Zanon bought a 2023 Ford Bronco from a junkyard. (Photo: RJ Zanon)
But after awarding him a trophy, race organizers reversed their decision and gave Zanon a DNF: Did Not Finish, saying he exceeded the 36-hour deadline by eight minutes.
Initially, race organizers compensated him for time lost while blocked by a gate mistakenly closed, preventing Zanon and other racers from crossing the official finish line.
Shifting Gears reached out to race organizers for comment and explanation but haven’t heard back. Zanon told me on Saturday, Nov. 22, that he contested the decision but has been told the DNF is final.
His trophy sits in his kitchen with a yellow Post-It note that says “8 minutes from” stuck next to the “1st” place etching.
The SCORE Baja 1000 race on Nov. 14, 2025 ended for RJ Zanon with a 1st Place trophy, which sits in his kitchen now. (Photo: RJ Zanon)
But no one can take away the unforgettable experience.
His team members described the experience as “carnage” and “chaos.”
Rollovers, rocks and sand
Ken Brown, 55, an IT analyst from Albuquerque, New Mexico, brought 17 years of desert racing experience to the team as a lead navigator — the person who sits beside the driver and talks them through every detail on the course ahead.
“My focus, and our initial focus, is not trying to win but just trying to finish,” Brown told Shifting Gears. “People who make desert racing courses have to be the most sadistic people in the world. They just want to see the most carnage with the most difficult things they can throw at you.”
Ken Brown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and RJ Zanon of Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 at the end of the SCORE Baja 1000 in Mexico. (Photo: Rad Media Co)
Whether it’s extreme rock crawling or insanely steep silty hills, there’s a reason why half the competitors drop out in any given year. It wasn’t uncommon for Zanon to pass racers in vehicles that actually rolled over.
“As you drive, you’re like, ‘Please make it through,’” said Brown, the only member of the race team who had any race experience at all. “The worst thing a navigator can do is stop talking. I’m walking RJ through site lines, paths to take, where you should be pushing the car through. You’re not just driving the car straight, you’re analyzing terrain and avoiding big rocks. In a vehicle like a Bronco, you never want to take big rocks dead center … You’re strategic in the way you run over things.”
‘He might be … going into a trance’
Flat tires take 5 minute to change on the racecourse, Brown said. Zanon changed two himself. And while that may provide a moment for relief, racers and navigators generally wear something to keep from stopping. Brown wears a catheter with a tube.
“When you stop, so many things can go wrong,” he said. “You can get hit by a car that veers off course slightly. You can get stuck at the stop or stick in the sand. You want to avoid stopping for any reason.”
RJ Zanon changes his second flat during during the SCORE Baja 1000 race on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo: Austin Gillis)
The Baja 1000 is not about how fast you can go but how long you can keep your car going fast, combined with luck and preparation, Brown said. “I wanted RJ to break the race into milestones — 50 miles, 100 miles, passing the first car, a quarter of the course finished. We celebrate each one, that the car is still working. His eyes can’t go further than 100 feet. You can’t think of anything except the next obstacle. I look at the map and tell him it’s a tighter turn, give me two more miles per hour or slow it down … I monitor the driver, the path, anything that differs from GPS. If I stop talking or he stops talking, there’s a problem. He might be going to sleep or going into a trance.”
Drivers sometimes miss checkpoints and get penalties because the course can be so confusing. They’re issued penalties when that happens. Masks get dusty for the driver and navigator, who needs to hold the wheel while the navigator quickly cleans his equipment.
“You’re hoping just to make gas stops and keep moving,” Brown said. “You’re praying you don’t have flats or technical problems so that you have to get out of car. You don’t want to cramp up.”
Sore, bruised and happy
Racing Baja requires guts and stamina.
“I played football, basketball, track and boxing. I think that race was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, how physically demanding it is in the car,” Brown said. “You’re bouncing around in the car but your body is trying to prevent you from bouncing or leaning certain ways. When you get out, you are just beat down for next 3-4 days. You’re sore, bruised.”
But the rush and thrill of success can’t be compared to anything, he said. “You’re scared. You’re excited. You’re angry at times when things aren’t going 100% your way. It’s so much emotion,” he said. “The Bronco is a beautiful vehicle for off-roading enthusiasts. It provided to be very worthy in this particular race, managing to get to the end in one piece.”
‘I still get goosebumps’
Zanon drove the whole race himself, all 854 miles. He had two navigators and nearly two dozen pit crew who carried spare parts and tools and met at different checkpoints to fuel up the vehicle or make any needed fixes. Every team member volunteered, knowing Zanon through Bronco Nation Facebook groups. They came from states including New Mexico, Texas, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
Derick Chatterton, 31, of Pocatello, Idaho, led one of the pit teams. “We’re just a bunch of misfits that RJ thought were good enough to get him across the finish line,” he said. “Thinking about the moment RJ left the starting line, I still get goosebumps.”
Off-roading has created lifelong friendships that model adventure for his four boys, said Chatterton, owner of Blanco Bronco Adventures. “I just wanted to thank RJ for this opportunity. Every single person there was important.”
Feeling delirious
Sarah Girgis, 28, of Corona, Calif., co-owns Rad Media Co and captured video and photography for the team. “It was the longest track we’ve ever had to pace and document, and the course never backtracked.”
She and her husband filmed for 44 hours without a break —before, during and after the race. They also live-streamed the event. “We tried doing 10-minute naps when we started feeling delirious. We wanted to support RJ and we were afraid to miss anything.”
Sarah Girgis of Corona, Calif., shot still photos and video of the race as part of RJ Zanon's team. This team shot of Bronco owners supporting RJ Zanon in the Baja 1000 taken on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025 by Sarah Girgis at Rad Media Co.
Matt Girgis, 27, said the Baja 1000 is unlike anything imaginable. Not only do the racers go off-roading, but there’s a strip where they have to go from dirt to driving on highway no faster than 60 miles per hour.
“We all caravanned to keep RJ awake, honking at him,” Matt Girgis said.
Sarah Girgis added, “His whole dash and electrical systems were broken. He had no idea how much fuel he had. The speedometer was out. Someone had to go in front of RJ and put it in cruise control to avoid speed limit penalties. All our Broncos were then in the rear supporting him.”
‘More terrifying than anything I’ve done’
Austin Gillis worked as pit crew, then took over as navigator around mile 500 for the final 16 hours.
“Honestly, it helped a lot having my job experience. I felt like I wasn’t out of place,” said Gillis, 30, an F-16 fighter pilot for the U.S. Air Force based in Alamogordo, New Mexico. “Ken and I had gone over the screens on the iPad and the Garmin GPS. We had Starlink. I was surprised by how much the terrain varied, things that we would have to go to different states through a lifetime of off-roading happened in just a couple hundred miles.”
The last 100 miles was rain and huge mud pits created uncomfortable conditions that diminished vehicle traction. At one point, they tried to drive around a flipped vehicle and started falling into the same ditch. Quick response time by RJ saved the day.
“The last 50 miles was more terrifying than anything I’ve ever done in my career,” Gillis said. “The headlights were covered in mud, so it was hard to see. Rain and standing water made it difficult to see. Every puddle splashed water into our face. We were doing steep uphills and downhills and it was slippery. We were going through fog and ditches. We went sideways off the mountain a multiple times intentionally so we could stay upright … Toward the end, terrain and skill level didn’t matter It was all based how much the car could handle and how quick RJ could react. After more than 32 hours of not sleeping and that car doing 800 miles straight, RJ was able to react and handle the terrain without problems.”
Driver RJ Zanon with navigators Austin Gillis (left) and Ken Brown (right) on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 after the SCORE Baja 1000 in Mexico. (Photo: Gonzo TV)
The race trail had 500 different ways to go, and if a driver took a wrong turn, they missed checkpoints. But they couldn’t turn around because that’s lost time, too. Trying to turn in mud pits was just a nightmare for competitors.
“The only other time I felt like I did in this race? When I flew from Texas to Spain in the jet for 10 hours. In the middle of the ocean, you get this feeling of terror but also confidence that if you mess up, you really have nowhere to go. You’re kind of stuck where you are,” Gillis said. “I felt like we were in the middle of nowhere but I also had confidence in RJ as a driver and us together, so I knew it was going to be fine. How insane is it that he did this — build a Bronco, build a team and race 36 hours?”
‘Gave it everything’
This crazy adventure unfolded because Zanon spent much of his childhood visiting an aunt in Mexico and saw Baja race vehicles on trailers. “I remember thinking, ‘That’s the coolest.’”
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wrPq!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b784c5c1-b677-4886-a644-fe0ce431289d_773x629.jpeg
After viewing the 2005 documentary film “Dust to Glory,” Zanon was inspired to take action and pursue his bucket list wish. He paid $14,000 for the Bronco and then spent money getting it ready.
“This was my first race ever. I’d never raced anything other than video games. I’m essentially a nobody who decided, hey, I’ve had this dream a long time and I gave it everything I’ve got,” Zanon said. “Driving the entire course myself was such a great experience that I never want to experience again.”
Baja 1000 The Little Bronco Underdog Story You Won’t Believe Video
https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/thre...-you-won’t-believe-video.125331/#post-2687398
Junkyard Bronco wins* iconic race in torrential rain, hypothermic conditions
Blackhawk helicopter pilot calls Baja 1000 'worst case scenario'
https://phoebewallhoward.substack.com/p/junkyard-bronco-wins-iconic-race
RJ Zanon of Long Beach, Calif., found a totaled 2023 Black Diamond Ford Bronco on Facebook marketplace being sold by a salvage lot for parts in June — and realized he could fulfill a dream he’d had since age 10.
At 35, he would race an off-road endurance competition on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico that attracts hundreds of competitors from all over the world who race more than 850 miles across the desert on sand, dirt, silt, rocks, cobblestones and highway. As many as half the racers drop out of the SCORE Baja 1000 with broken cars or broken spirits.
Zanon, a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter pilot for the California National Guard — fought hypothermia while soaked by torrential rain, caked with mud, unable to see without a windshield, driving on a flat tire with no working electronics for the final three miles.
“We ended up hitting something and got a flat (tire). There was no time to change it. I had dirt in my eyes. It hurt to open them. It was the end of the race and conditions were the most extreme,” he said.
Unexpected flooding shorted the racecourse and change the route, too.
Zanon ended up taking home a First Place Trophy for winning his Class 3, starting the morning of Friday, Nov. 14, and finishing late Saturday, Nov. 15.
“If you ended up making a movie about this, they’d say, ‘That’s cheesy. It wouldn’t happen,’” he said. “It was the worst-case scenario for the last hour.”
RJ Zanon bought a 2023 Ford Bronco from a junkyard. (Photo: RJ Zanon)
But after awarding him a trophy, race organizers reversed their decision and gave Zanon a DNF: Did Not Finish, saying he exceeded the 36-hour deadline by eight minutes.
Initially, race organizers compensated him for time lost while blocked by a gate mistakenly closed, preventing Zanon and other racers from crossing the official finish line.
Shifting Gears reached out to race organizers for comment and explanation but haven’t heard back. Zanon told me on Saturday, Nov. 22, that he contested the decision but has been told the DNF is final.
His trophy sits in his kitchen with a yellow Post-It note that says “8 minutes from” stuck next to the “1st” place etching.
The SCORE Baja 1000 race on Nov. 14, 2025 ended for RJ Zanon with a 1st Place trophy, which sits in his kitchen now. (Photo: RJ Zanon)
But no one can take away the unforgettable experience.
His team members described the experience as “carnage” and “chaos.”
Rollovers, rocks and sand
Ken Brown, 55, an IT analyst from Albuquerque, New Mexico, brought 17 years of desert racing experience to the team as a lead navigator — the person who sits beside the driver and talks them through every detail on the course ahead.
“My focus, and our initial focus, is not trying to win but just trying to finish,” Brown told Shifting Gears. “People who make desert racing courses have to be the most sadistic people in the world. They just want to see the most carnage with the most difficult things they can throw at you.”
Ken Brown of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and RJ Zanon of Long Beach, Calif., on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 at the end of the SCORE Baja 1000 in Mexico. (Photo: Rad Media Co)
Whether it’s extreme rock crawling or insanely steep silty hills, there’s a reason why half the competitors drop out in any given year. It wasn’t uncommon for Zanon to pass racers in vehicles that actually rolled over.
“As you drive, you’re like, ‘Please make it through,’” said Brown, the only member of the race team who had any race experience at all. “The worst thing a navigator can do is stop talking. I’m walking RJ through site lines, paths to take, where you should be pushing the car through. You’re not just driving the car straight, you’re analyzing terrain and avoiding big rocks. In a vehicle like a Bronco, you never want to take big rocks dead center … You’re strategic in the way you run over things.”
‘He might be … going into a trance’
Flat tires take 5 minute to change on the racecourse, Brown said. Zanon changed two himself. And while that may provide a moment for relief, racers and navigators generally wear something to keep from stopping. Brown wears a catheter with a tube.
“When you stop, so many things can go wrong,” he said. “You can get hit by a car that veers off course slightly. You can get stuck at the stop or stick in the sand. You want to avoid stopping for any reason.”
RJ Zanon changes his second flat during during the SCORE Baja 1000 race on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025. (Photo: Austin Gillis)
The Baja 1000 is not about how fast you can go but how long you can keep your car going fast, combined with luck and preparation, Brown said. “I wanted RJ to break the race into milestones — 50 miles, 100 miles, passing the first car, a quarter of the course finished. We celebrate each one, that the car is still working. His eyes can’t go further than 100 feet. You can’t think of anything except the next obstacle. I look at the map and tell him it’s a tighter turn, give me two more miles per hour or slow it down … I monitor the driver, the path, anything that differs from GPS. If I stop talking or he stops talking, there’s a problem. He might be going to sleep or going into a trance.”
Drivers sometimes miss checkpoints and get penalties because the course can be so confusing. They’re issued penalties when that happens. Masks get dusty for the driver and navigator, who needs to hold the wheel while the navigator quickly cleans his equipment.
“You’re hoping just to make gas stops and keep moving,” Brown said. “You’re praying you don’t have flats or technical problems so that you have to get out of car. You don’t want to cramp up.”
Sore, bruised and happy
Racing Baja requires guts and stamina.
“I played football, basketball, track and boxing. I think that race was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done, how physically demanding it is in the car,” Brown said. “You’re bouncing around in the car but your body is trying to prevent you from bouncing or leaning certain ways. When you get out, you are just beat down for next 3-4 days. You’re sore, bruised.”
But the rush and thrill of success can’t be compared to anything, he said. “You’re scared. You’re excited. You’re angry at times when things aren’t going 100% your way. It’s so much emotion,” he said. “The Bronco is a beautiful vehicle for off-roading enthusiasts. It provided to be very worthy in this particular race, managing to get to the end in one piece.”
‘I still get goosebumps’
Zanon drove the whole race himself, all 854 miles. He had two navigators and nearly two dozen pit crew who carried spare parts and tools and met at different checkpoints to fuel up the vehicle or make any needed fixes. Every team member volunteered, knowing Zanon through Bronco Nation Facebook groups. They came from states including New Mexico, Texas, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
Derick Chatterton, 31, of Pocatello, Idaho, led one of the pit teams. “We’re just a bunch of misfits that RJ thought were good enough to get him across the finish line,” he said. “Thinking about the moment RJ left the starting line, I still get goosebumps.”
Off-roading has created lifelong friendships that model adventure for his four boys, said Chatterton, owner of Blanco Bronco Adventures. “I just wanted to thank RJ for this opportunity. Every single person there was important.”
Feeling delirious
Sarah Girgis, 28, of Corona, Calif., co-owns Rad Media Co and captured video and photography for the team. “It was the longest track we’ve ever had to pace and document, and the course never backtracked.”
She and her husband filmed for 44 hours without a break —before, during and after the race. They also live-streamed the event. “We tried doing 10-minute naps when we started feeling delirious. We wanted to support RJ and we were afraid to miss anything.”
Sarah Girgis of Corona, Calif., shot still photos and video of the race as part of RJ Zanon's team. This team shot of Bronco owners supporting RJ Zanon in the Baja 1000 taken on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2025 by Sarah Girgis at Rad Media Co.
Matt Girgis, 27, said the Baja 1000 is unlike anything imaginable. Not only do the racers go off-roading, but there’s a strip where they have to go from dirt to driving on highway no faster than 60 miles per hour.
“We all caravanned to keep RJ awake, honking at him,” Matt Girgis said.
Sarah Girgis added, “His whole dash and electrical systems were broken. He had no idea how much fuel he had. The speedometer was out. Someone had to go in front of RJ and put it in cruise control to avoid speed limit penalties. All our Broncos were then in the rear supporting him.”
‘More terrifying than anything I’ve done’
Austin Gillis worked as pit crew, then took over as navigator around mile 500 for the final 16 hours.
“Honestly, it helped a lot having my job experience. I felt like I wasn’t out of place,” said Gillis, 30, an F-16 fighter pilot for the U.S. Air Force based in Alamogordo, New Mexico. “Ken and I had gone over the screens on the iPad and the Garmin GPS. We had Starlink. I was surprised by how much the terrain varied, things that we would have to go to different states through a lifetime of off-roading happened in just a couple hundred miles.”
The last 100 miles was rain and huge mud pits created uncomfortable conditions that diminished vehicle traction. At one point, they tried to drive around a flipped vehicle and started falling into the same ditch. Quick response time by RJ saved the day.
“The last 50 miles was more terrifying than anything I’ve ever done in my career,” Gillis said. “The headlights were covered in mud, so it was hard to see. Rain and standing water made it difficult to see. Every puddle splashed water into our face. We were doing steep uphills and downhills and it was slippery. We were going through fog and ditches. We went sideways off the mountain a multiple times intentionally so we could stay upright … Toward the end, terrain and skill level didn’t matter It was all based how much the car could handle and how quick RJ could react. After more than 32 hours of not sleeping and that car doing 800 miles straight, RJ was able to react and handle the terrain without problems.”
Driver RJ Zanon with navigators Austin Gillis (left) and Ken Brown (right) on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 after the SCORE Baja 1000 in Mexico. (Photo: Gonzo TV)
The race trail had 500 different ways to go, and if a driver took a wrong turn, they missed checkpoints. But they couldn’t turn around because that’s lost time, too. Trying to turn in mud pits was just a nightmare for competitors.
“The only other time I felt like I did in this race? When I flew from Texas to Spain in the jet for 10 hours. In the middle of the ocean, you get this feeling of terror but also confidence that if you mess up, you really have nowhere to go. You’re kind of stuck where you are,” Gillis said. “I felt like we were in the middle of nowhere but I also had confidence in RJ as a driver and us together, so I knew it was going to be fine. How insane is it that he did this — build a Bronco, build a team and race 36 hours?”
‘Gave it everything’
This crazy adventure unfolded because Zanon spent much of his childhood visiting an aunt in Mexico and saw Baja race vehicles on trailers. “I remember thinking, ‘That’s the coolest.’”
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wrPq!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/b784c5c1-b677-4886-a644-fe0ce431289d_773x629.jpeg
After viewing the 2005 documentary film “Dust to Glory,” Zanon was inspired to take action and pursue his bucket list wish. He paid $14,000 for the Bronco and then spent money getting it ready.
“This was my first race ever. I’d never raced anything other than video games. I’m essentially a nobody who decided, hey, I’ve had this dream a long time and I gave it everything I’ve got,” Zanon said. “Driving the entire course myself was such a great experience that I never want to experience again.”
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