Dust to Glory or “Dear Santa, I want a Trophy Truck for Xmas…”

Dana Brown is a documentary filmmaker who has the ability to not get the audience to leave the theatre with the thought of “Gee, that was really interesting..”, but rather “Gawd Damn! That looks like a hell of a lot of fun. I gotta try that!” His combination of brilliant cinematography, unstilted commentary from the sport’s participants and personal enthusiasm for the subject really gets the audience excited. He did it with Step Into Liquid about surfing, he does it again with Dust to Glory about off road racing and the Baja 1,000.

The Baja 1,000 is the longest single leg (meaning the race doesn’t stop overnight) auto race in the world and considered by the majority of racers to be the toughest. Entrants may race in a variety of classes from motocross bikes to dune buggies to the ultimate bad-ass trophy trucks to, no kidding, unmodified classic-era VW bugs. Racers usually trade of the seat three or four times thoughout the race, though one guy/crazy-ass MF in this film became the first motorcyclist to complete the course solo: 20 hours of hard-ass motocross racing with no rest except the few minutes it took at pits stops to fuel up and change tries. (His fatigue gets rather amusing at points.) You can have multi-million dollar teams to guys that have scraped up a couple hundred thousand to probably even less. And the contestants do not have to just contend with each other. The course not only ranges through the harsh desert of the Baja peninsula, but cities, private ranches, highways, you name it. And it’s not closed. Dodging fans, traffic & livestock is all part of the game.

I won’t tell you much more other than the film is really well done. The shots of the race itself are breathtaking and you are introduced to a truly colorful cast of characters, with race entrants from 16 to 62, in the family that inhabits the less publicized world of off road racing. For race fans this is a must see. The film is in theatres now, but if it doesn’t come to your town or you miss the release, definitely see it on DVD.

P.S. Watching this will also give NASCAR fans some understanding of where Robbie Gordon is coming from since in off road racing etiquette, bumping the car or truck you are trying to pass is considered the normal way of communicating your displeasure at your opponent’s pokiness.

“The Baja 1,000 is like an old girlfriend. “I hate you, I never want to see you again.” and a couple weeks later you’re like “I’m sorry. Can I come back?”