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Life is the pits, but they're not complainingDecember 20, 2004 The excitement of the SCORE Baja 1000 is not limited to the drivers and co-drivers. In this race, which has been won on BFGoodrich® tires for the past 19 years, BFGoodrich Tires pit crew volunteers experience not only the thrill of action but the satisfaction of playing crucial roles in a major event. In a race that covers 1000 miles of some of the toughest terrain in the world, the pit crews spaced along the route are the vital link in the chain. Here's what it's like to be a pit crew volunteer, in the words of two crewmen, Jeff Edwards and Daniel Chapman, both from Moab, Utah. "I love it," says Edwards, who has been a volunteer crewman for the Baja 1000 since 1999. "It's a lot of work, and the payoff is the adrenalin rush when you have a 700 HP truck pulling into your pit. He's done his job and now it's time to do yours." Edwards' job in the BFGoodrich Tires pit is that of fueler. For safety he wears a full fire suit, with boots, gloves and vented helmet. Fueling is done by a two- or three-man crew. When the truck comes in, it's one fueler's job — usually Edwards — to hoist the fuel can up high enough to provide a good gravity flow to the race truck's filler opening. That's not easy. "Ten gallons of gas weighs around 80 pounds," says Edwards. "There's a guy who helps me raise it up to hip level, another guy who helps me hoist it over my head. Another guy takes the fuel cap off the truck." It's more than a matter of the physical strength needed to hoist the fuel can. "You have to make sure you get the right fuel type for the vehicle. The race gas comes in 101, 103 and 110 octane. There's a number on the race vehicle that tells what kind of fuel he's using." "It's hot in the daytime and kind of nice at night. At night it gets chilly between trucks. You can get some rest at night, but there's something going on pretty much from the minute you arrive and set the pit up." "Last year at the 1000," Edwards remembers, "we pitted a truck that had two fuel nozzles. So it took two fueling crews to do the job. We dumped 60 gallons of fuel in 40 seconds. That's what stands out in my mind as the best pit work I can remember. It's a real team effort." Edwards says the pit he works in is crewed by a cast of 18 to 30 people. "It's a big team effort. There are people on the radio. Everyone has his own job. It's all very well-orchestrated and organized from the top down." Edwards says there's a period of calm after the race starts, since his pit is about two hours out from the start. "We see a truck coming about two hours in. The first few are scattered, then you get a pack, sometimes 7 to 10 vehicles at a time." The pit crew is communicating with the driver, giving him water, checking his vehicle, adding fuel, changing tires as needed. "It's very noisy. There's a lot of activity, but no one's yelling. It's very organized. Lots of communicating going on." The pit crew activity is monitored by a crew member standing in front of the race vehicle holding a stop sign. "It's the driver's job to focus on him," Edwards says, "and take off as soon as he moves away with the sign." Daniel Chapman is often the man with the stop sign. Like Edwards, he works at Chip's Grand Tire in Moab, Utah. Also like Edwards, he crews at the Baja 1000 because he loves it. "I like the adrenalin rush when the vehicles come in. My job is just holding the truck there until the guy says it's all clear, and then letting him go." The "guy" is a guy at the back of the truck – "one of the pit bosses or one of the fuel bosses" who is watching what's going on. Chapman sometimes works as a tire changer. "We have our tires lined up in a shallow ditch that we dig to stand them up in, and line them up by numbers, with the vehicle's race number written on a piece of tape on each tire, so we know which tire goes where." Chapman also may work as the guy with the air impact wrench who does the lug nuts, or the person who jacks up the vehicle, or the person who hands the tire to the guy with the wrench. "You've just got to know what to do and what not to do. Pay attention and listen to what you're told." The satisfaction, besides the excitement of the actual pit work, is knowing you've contributed. "Every little bit helps. If we help the guy win his class, that just makes it all the better for us. I mean, that's what we're there for." Edwards and Chapman both volunteer for the BFGoodrich Tires pits in the SCORE Baja 1000, a race that has been won on BFGoodrich tires for the last 19 years. BFGoodrich tires are The World's Toughest Off-Road Tires™. From 1/1/04 through 10/21/04, BFGoodrich tires won 215 of 280 major off-road competitions. 
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