Photo by Jim Ober
[Eds. note: Chris Livingston is a member of Long Beach Racers and offered to the Post this exclusive news report]
Long Beach Racers, after a fantastic season of racing in the SCORE International Off Road Racing series, take the Stock Mini class Championship with their 2012 Toyota TX Baja Series Tacoma.
Starting the season off strong, Long Beach Racers—a group of local enthusiasts who specialize in racing Toyota Trucks in Baja—placed first in both days of the Laughlin Desert Challenge with celebrity driver Andy Bell. With this great momentum, the team prepped the truck and headed down to San Felipe for the first of three races south of the border.
San Felipe proved to be a challenge. The team got off to a great start, but was stopped by some wiring issues early in the race. After a field diagnosis and repair the truck was back on its way. LBR made great time until an aftermarket U-bolt on the rear axle failed, ending their day just short of the finish line. Learning from this, the team headed back to Long Beach with the intention of going through the entire vehicle and getting it ready for the Baja 500.
Ready for greatness, the team started the Baja 500 with checkered flags in their eyes. Knowing that it was a long race and one of attrition, the drivers planned to take it easy to maintain a finishing pace and save the truck. Sometimes things don’t go as planned, and Andy Bell set a blistering pace, passing all of the Stock Full trucks before the first pit. In the end, the little Tacoma that could took first in class in the 500 as well as beating all other stock class vehicles in the race. Crossing that finish line was a true high point in the season for LBR as they looked forward to the big daddy of them all, the Baja 1000.
The 2012 Baja 1000 was truly a tough course. As it is every two years, the race headed east to San Felipe before making a southerly turn for the peninsula run to La Paz and all of the 1000+ miles in between. The truck had a few minor problems early on and required repairs before making it to the east coast of the peninsula. As the team made the turn into San Felipe the truck had what seemed to be a race ending failure of the front shock mount/engine cage. The hard working support crew worked tirelessly through the night and got the truck fixed with the help of BFG Pits. The truck was back on its way south and making good time and gaining on the race leader when the shock mount failure came back to haunt them 300 miles later. This time both sides broke and ended the race for LBR around race mile 531.
Earning three wins in five races as well as starting points for San Felipe and the Baja 1000 enabled Andy Bell to vie for rookie of the year status, and Long Beach Racers to claim their second class championship.
Long Beach Racers would like to thank all of the sponsors that made this season possible. Toyota, TRD wheels, MBRP Exhaust, Skullcandy, BF Goodrich Tires, Bilstein Shocks, Hella lights, Mastercraft Safety, CMI skidplates, PCI Race Radios, Nitro Gear, Auburn Differentials, and ProComp.
The team will be back with a vengeance—and possibly a new race vehicle!