Television producer Bud Brutsman has done some of the most extreme activities in the world. He has studied Brazilian jiu-jitsu for years with Jean Jacques Machado, went on night commando operations with U.S. Special Forces, dove shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, and done mountaineering in the frigid northern wastes of Iceland; but it you ask him what’s the toughest thing he’s ever done, Brutsman will likely tell you it’s competing in the Tecate Score Baja 1000 off-road race from Ensenada to La Paz.

If you follow Brutsman around for a day, you can rest assured he’s doing something that involves a cage. After helping Terry Trebilcock launch King of the Cage, Brutsman has become one of the most influential figures in the motorsports world through his television programs Rides, Overhaulin’, Payback, and Showdown. He has been called the “King of Car TV” by no less than Hot Rod magazine. So leave it to Brutsman to come up with a way to combine cagefighting and off-road racing, his two big passions. He took himself out of the fighting cage, put himself into a roll cage, and entered the world’s toughest test of skill, reflexes, endurance, and just plan guts.

“What draws me to jiu-jitsu and cagefighting is how personal it is,” says Brutsman. “It’s just you against one opponent with no excuses except how you perform. The Baja 1000 is the same thing except your opponent is Mother Nature. In jiu-jitsu and cagefighting if you make a mistake you get choked out; but in the Baja 1000 if you make a mistake you die. It’s the ultimate test. There is just nothing like it.”

Last year Brutsman was the driver of record for the B.F. Goodrich Baja Team, heading a team filled with extreme sports legends including X Games gold medalist Kenny “Cowboy” Bartram, world champion rock crawler Tracy Jordan, and freestyle motocross rider Mike Metzger.

“When my team was announced I was a bit intimidated,” Brutsman admits. “These guys are some of the biggest names in extreme sports. But being a sponsored athlete means nothing in this race. The course is equally brutal to everyone. It’s an equal opportunity destroyer.” But Brutsman had something up his sleeve that his celebrity copilots didn’t. He had been racing in Baja for years, knew the challenges he faced, and was prepared for the worst that could happen. His experience was something his co-pilots would find invaluable later in the race and which just might have saved one of their lives.

Brutsman and Metzger took the first shift, driving 535 miles in just around 17 hours, staying in the race despite suffering two rear axles and a broken shifter. When they traded off to their two teammates, Kenny Bartram and Tracy Jordan, at the halfway point, Brutsman and Metzger were ready for a break. Jumping into their chase truck to parallel the race car as best they could, they drove ahead on the highway to the next checkpoint, met up with the car after another 17 hours and 237 miles, and took off for the next checkpoint 80 miles away. Eight hours later, with no sign of the racers, Brutsman heard a radio report that the car had driven off a 300 foot cliff and that Jordan’s helmet was crushed and he had a severe head injury.

Knowing that no help was going to come for his teammates until morning, Brutsman decided that was too long to wait. Relying on his Special Forces training he decided to mount a rescue effort on his own. Driving back up the highway to the previous course crossing, he commandeered a truck from a reluctant local and drove into the heart of the world’s most hostile territory in the middle of the night. Crawling along at mere miles an hour, flashing a handheld searchlight across the pitch black terrain, Brutsman finally spotted his shellshocked drivers perched atop the cliff they had plunged over, hustled them into the truck, and drove them back to safety. After receiving medical attention at a hospital and getting several days of rest, Jordan was on the road to recovery. He credits Brutsman for getting him the prompt medical attention he needed.

As for Brutsman, the experience has not soured him on the Baja 1000. If anything, it has given him even more incentive to compete. Sponsor B.F. Goodrich has already offered him the spot of lead driver of record this year and Brutsman has accepted. “There is no real reward except for finishing and your biggest victory is your victory over yourself and your own fears,” he says. “With the Baja you’re faced with extreme weather, sleep deprivation, and a constant beating. It’s like being in a car wreck for 20 hours straight. I can’t wait to get back on the course this year!”
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