Who Knew? The Meyers Manx and Baja Boot.

Geesh .... another event way back in 1967, and another learning experience for myself. My dad was just beginning to shoot the dirt track races in Southern California and my Uncle Bill tells me it was a miserable event ..... raining ... mud ..... they camped out for the weekend. Advertised as some "Jeep Races" .... at Elsinore Raceway, I have no idea why my dad and uncle showed up for this event ... if only because of the excitement of the time. It turns out that this weekend was only a couple weeks detached from the first ever Baja 1000 in 1967. Actually 18 days after the first ever Baja 1000 .... which was called the Mexican 1000 back then.

Anyway .... my dad of course loved shooting pictures, and would usually at least develop the negatives of what he shot. He didn't always 'proof' or print everything he shot, so much of his stuff never got seen in public. Such is the case with a few pictures from this 'Jeep' race in 1967 held at Elsinore Raceway. I came across a few negatives that were never proofed and one in particular got my attention. A great shot of "The Meyers Manx" #10 (pictured above) ..... the Winner of the inaugural Baja 1000. Pretty famous off road vehicle as it turns out all these years later. But whew knew? :) Not I until I started researching this stuff online once again trying to indentify things.

He also got a couple really good pictures of "The Baja Boot" another very famous off road vehicle in it's own right .....



Fun discovering this stuff and learning about it ... I also came across a cool video I posted online of the inaugural Baja 1000 (Mexican 1000) for those interested in checking it out here in 2 parts .... (both cars above are shown in video) 68 total entrants to the very first Baja 1000, my how times have changed and just flown by.