GillBilly Report: Todos Santos Islands Surfing - December 27, 2009

After that first trout I was alone in there. But I didn't
know it until later.
Richard Brautigan

GillBilly YouTube Video: Merry Christmas!

The true fisherman approaches the first day of fishing season with
all the sense of wonder and awe of a child approaching Christmas.
Robert Traver

GillBilly YouTube Video: SCORE 2009 Baja 1000 Robby Gordon

Fifth in class and fifth overall four-wheel vehicle. Gordon clinched the Trophy-Truck season points championship.

Post Race Quote;
About mile 490, I got by Rick (D. Johnson) and then we lost the brakes. We worked on it for a while. We lost the battle and won the war. It was a long day. It's a very, very technical racecourse that Sal (Fish) built for us and it was very tough. I think I'd take a Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 win over a championship, to be honest with you. This race is tough. The car basically ran pretty good all day. We know where we got beat. We were running third on the road for a while and then I had a flat tire. When we changed it, we had to put one on the rack and when we were putting one on the rack, Andy (McMillin) went by. We knew we had to get back in front of Andy. He was only about two minutes in front of us and then I had another flat and then I got stuck behind (Nick) Vanderwey. I'm not going to say he held us up but Andy was able to get a clear run in there and he put 10 minutes on us pretty quickly. The rest of the time, we kind of just hung about 10-15 minutes back, depending on what traffic I had. The only way we were going to win (the race) was if everybody else broke. There was no reason for us to run any harder than what we ran at that point. We lost a good half an hour or 45 minutes fixing a right-rear caliper that was leaking. This is by far the toughest racing in the world it's truly the last endurance racing there is. (Would you try to race for the SCORE Trophy-Truck championship again?) We have a conflict at Laughlin with Dakar, so I won't be at Laughlin next year. As many points was we won the championship by this year, I could probably miss Laughlin and still win it but I think well probably focus on the Tecate SCORE Baja 500 and Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 next year.

Fishing was good, it was the catching that was bad.

GillBilly YouTube Video: SCORE 2009 Baja 1000 Team Vildosola Pre-race

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.
Henry David Thoreau

GillBilly YouTube Video: SCORE 2009 Baja 1000 Start Photo Shoot

Calling fishing a hobby is like calling brain surgery a job.
P Schullery

GillBilly YouTube Video: SCORE 2009 Baja 1000 Andy McMillin Warm-up

2009 Baja 1000 Winner! First in class and first overall four-wheel vehicle. Andy started and drove to race mile 206. His father, Scott, drove to RM 500 and Andy drove the final leg.

Andy McMillin shared the driving duties with his father Scott, which resulted in a magnificent Baja victory for the father-son duo. This was Scott's first Baja 1000 overall victory and third class win in SCORE Trophy Truck.

"The plan was to kind of take it easy and let the race come to us," Andy said at a press conference after the race. "We knew Sal laid out a really rough, tough course this year. And we knew it was going to take one truck that didn't have any problems to get the win. So that was our plan all day was just to stay smooth, and not have any down time and no flat tires."

Post Race Quotes;
Andy said: I started the race and I think we started 17th on the road. The plan was just to kind of take it easy and kind of let the race come to us. Sal (Fish) laid out a really rough, tough course this year. We knew that it was going to take one trip that didn't have any problems to get the win. That was our plan all day stay smooth and not have any downtime, no flat tires. I gave my dad the truck at mile 206 and I think we were seventh on the road and pretty close on the overall lead. My dad drove the San Felipe loop and the Mikes loop. By the time he got to San Felipe, he was the first truck on the road. My dad handed me a helluva lead, so it was pretty easy. It was kind of just stay on the racecourse and you wont get in trouble, so that was our plan and we followed it and let the race come to us, really.

Scott said: The Tecate SCORE Baja 1000, you just don't come down here and decide to race this a month in advance; this takes a whole year of planning. We have a dedicated team back at our shop, about five core guys who work full time on this. Plus, there are another 20 volunteers who are with us at all the races, all the pre-running, all the planning. We just couldn't have done it without all of them. They are as much a part of this win as those of us riding in the truck. It just gives you that confidence when you're out in front and you don't want to have any mistakes they help us do that. Its really great that they posted (the virtual checkpoints) in advance so when we were pre-running and practicing, we knew exactly where to be and what we were supposed to do. They are all the same lines weve all been racing all these years. Always all the 30 years that I've been racing the fastest way is the racecourse. I can't tell you how many times I just take the racecourse and stay on it and stay focused and you go y all the guys that are trying to find the smooth route. Before this race, we decided that were going to race all the SCORE races next year.

All you need to be a fisherman is patience and a worm.
Herb Shriner

GillBilly YouTube Video: SCORE 2009 Baja 1000 Race Start Part Three

"Poets talk about "spots of time", but it is really the fishermen who experience eternity compressed into a moment. No one can tell what a spot of time is until suddenly the whole world is a fish and the fish is gone. I shall remember that son of a bitch forever."
Norman Maclean

GillBilly YouTube Video: SCORE 2009 Baja 1000 Race Start Part Two

Final Words
An old man in his final breaths called in his family and said "I must apologize to you all. I suppose I haven't been the perfect father and husband. I shamefully admit that I spent as much of my life as I could in the woods and on the streams. I was rarely at home during the fishing seasons and I'll admit that I spent too much time at the fly shop, and too much money on rods and lines and reels." He paused here to rest for a minute, then continued. "I've been a terrible father and I hope you all forgive me." Then he paused again and looked around. Then he closed his eyes and smiled and said in a half whisper to himself, "and on the other hand....I have caught a helluva lot of trout."
Anonymous