There seems to be a misconception floating around that Baja North is a shop that just popped up and jumped on the Desert and Prerunner truck bandwagon. In reality we have more combined experience than any other shop in Canada ! We have decided to put a brief resume together with just a few of our accomplishments. When you are shopping for parts for your next project, take a minute to ask the shop you’re buying from for a little background on their experience. You will soon find out why our motto is Often Imitated Never Duplicated
The staff at Baja North has over 45 years experience racing, building and prepping Off Road trucks. We have competed in almost every major Desert Racing Sanctioning Body including SCORE, BITD, SNORE, MDR, Pro Can Am, PAC and VORRA.
KORRBC Championships
In just the KORRBC series alone, drivers sponsored by Baja North have combined for the following:
11 - KORRBC 1st place overall point’s championships,
4 - KORRBC 2nd place overall points championships
5 - KORRBC 3rd place overall points championships
Rich Bachands Baja North built KORRBC Pro truck accounted for 4 wins out of 8 races in the 08-09 seasons and finished on the podium 7 out of 8 races. This was accomplished while also doing double duty competing in Desert Races in Barstow , California and Goldendale , Washington .
In the October 07 KORRBC race Dale Nyeste attempted to compete in all three truck race's in a single day. This was the first and only time this has been attempted! His results speak for themselves.
- Pro Truck Class 2nd overall and 1st in Main event (driving Rich Bachand's Pro - - Truck before that day Dale had never driven this truck)
- Sportsman Truck Class 1st overall driving the Baja North Mini Truck
- Mini Truck Class (now known as Limited Lite) 3rd overall in the same Baja North Mini Truck that ran in Sportsman Class.
The 2009 KORRBC Championship Pro Truck chassis was designed and built by Dale Nyeste.
Other Baja North Custom Vehicles
In addition to building winning race trucks, designed and built over 100 4wd Vans. We have even been flown to Hawaii to build a 4wd van for a customer! There is Baja North built vehicles in the USA , Japan and Saudi Arabia , as well as across Canada . In fact, we have built and designed a number of vehicles for the Canadian Armed Froces!
Craig Humphries Racing Career
Craig Humphries competed full time for 5 consecutive years in the Pro Can AM (PAC) Desert Racing Series that ran races in Oregon , Washington and BC. That Team collected a 2nd and 3rd Place in the overall point championships while Craig was head fabricator on the 1990 Ford F150 that was being built to replace the older Bronco and Jeep race vehicles.
In 1990, after a couple of shakedown races, the F150 competed in the Baja 1000. They finished 4th in Class and 64th overall with Craig driving the 240 mile night portion of the race and Co- driving an additional 100 miles.
The same truck went on to finished 3rd in Class the following year at the Baja 1000 and gained the reputation as one of the most bullet proof trucks on the circuit. After a rollover the truck was rebuilt by Dale Nyeste to launch his Off Road driving career.
Dale’s first race was co-driving for Craig at the age of 13 in Craig’s 401 powered Class 3 Jeep. This would also be when Craig decided he was better at working on trucks than driving after they survived a horrific 1st lap crash that saw them tumble thru the air end for end over 8 times. People who witnessed the crash say they lost track so the real number remains a bit of a mystery.
After rebuilding the Jeep Craig finished out his driving days competing in the Kamloops Bronco Buster series finishing first or second in every race they ran that year. Craig was also under contract with BF Goodrich for 4 years competing for them in the Desert and local Short Coarse events as well as acting as an Off Road Driving instructor for their Team TA program.
Dale Nyeste’s Racing Career
Dale Nyeste has over 14 Pro Arena Truck Victories and 1 KORRBC Pro Truck Championship. He has competed in a variety of top Desert Racing Sanctioning bodies, such as BITD, SNORE, MDR, VORRA and CODRA. These races include the Mint 400, Vegas to Reno , Nevada 2000, Parker 425, Stoddard 250, Terrible Town 250, Silver State 300, Tonopah 300, Millican Valley400 and the Rod Hall 400.
He placed 2nd overall points championship in the Bronco Buster/WORRA Sportsman truck class, as well as 3rd place in overall series points. Dale has also competed for 8 years at the Knox Mountain Hill climb, joined the infamous 100mph club and came within 10 seconds of beating the magic 2 minute mark. He also won the Vernon Speedway King of the Mountain competition and finished 3rd overall in the Okanogan Autocross Series.
What does the future hold?
In 2010, Baja North will be stepping back from KORRBC. We think it is time to give some other teams a chance to catch up. One part of our new program will consist of Rich Walker's Team Crawlin BC Rockcrawler that will compete in the Calroc series.
The section of our 2010 race program that we are most excited about is the following. Going full circle, Craig’s son Carson will be co-driving with Dale Nyeste in Dales Ford F-150. They will compete in a limited schedule in 2010 developing parts built and sold by Baja North. This truck will remain street legal and will race in full street trim with all windows and stereo blasting. We feel developing North American products on this type of vehicle is much more beneficial to the consumer than having a vehicle that can only be trailered to an event and probably isn’t safe to drive anywhere but a race track. We want our customers to know they can buy products for their trucks that have been tested on real trucks in real world situations and I believe our new direction will prove this.
Baja North would like to thank all of our previous customers for your support over the years. To our new and potential customers, we are proud to welcome you to the Baja North family.
