Ben Hundter finished the 2024 Baja 1000 after sharing the ride on the number 279X Sportsman Moto class Sherco with his brother David. He rolled into the finish line with a time of 31 hours and 30 minutes, good enough for second in class. That’s pretty impressive considering Hundter was hauling a bunch of extra weight and a virtual passenger. With a huge Jackery battery duct taped to his rear fender, a SpaceX Starlink Mini duct taped to his helmet, and his mother on Facetime duct taped across his chest, Ben’s mother was able to keep tabs on his progress in one of the world’s biggest and most difficult off-road races.
“So a few years ago my dad had a pretty famous interview and he called me and my brother stupid. I wanted to race the Baja so bad, but my mom wouldn’t let me because I have type 1 diabetes. She said the only way I could race it is if I was live streaming to her the whole time, so I have her on my chest right now.”
“Yeah, so basically me, Elon Musk, Baja Ready, we all came up with a design to mount this onto my head. Yeah, it’s kind of heavy, but we made it through.”
It’s pretty obvious that the team was joking around a bit when they said Elon helped them develop the “Starlink moto prototype,” using their time on the SCORE finish line broadcast to plead for a bit of attention from the world’s biggest Twitter troll. Ben’s father was at the finish line with him, and had this to say:
“I want to Elon Musk to shout this out. Let’s bring a little attention from Elon to SCORE and to his technology keeping kids safe. I mean, I hate to brag, but Elon and I kind of came together with our technologies. We provided the duct tape, he provided the Starlink. You know, bringing those collaborations together here at SCORE, that’s a big deal. So, Elon Musk, if you’re out in the world we would love a ‘congratulations’ for Team Sherco. Woo hoo, thank you Elon for making this happen! Now”
It’s fun to see a bit of technology and ingenuity used to keep families connected during the long and arduous off-road race. Pretty much every team running Baja these days relies on Starlink tech to keep connected and allow for live streaming coverage.
Unfortunately for the brothers and their satellite connectivity, they ran afoul of a road closure and ran an “illegal line” through the peninsula that awarded them a brutal 17-hour penalty, effectively resulting in their disqualification.