Two Roads to Baja on SPEED

Following the success of last year’s Two Roads to Baja, SPEED once again will chronicle the paths of two very different race teams as they compete in the Taupo 1000 in New Zealand’s Kaingaroa Forest.

The one-hour special will premiere Jan. 25 at 9 p.m., following a re-air of Two Roads to Baja at 8 p.m. ET.






Piloting Toyota FJ Cruisers, Ryan Millen and Kevin Necessary will put their vehicles and their skills to the test in the longest off-road race in the southern hemisphere. At 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) in total distance, split evenly over two days of racing around a 35-mile course, the race is open to purpose-built buggies and production-based race trucks.

Millen, 23, son of five-time Pikes Peak Hill Climb overall winner Rod Millen and brother of drifting ace Rhys, has run the treacherous Baja 1000 several times and just missed a class win in the MillenWorks-prepared FJ Cruiser Race truck in 2006.

“Based on what my friends down there are telling me, the Taupo 1000 is a lot different from the Baja 1000 or any of the other off-road races we have on this side of the Pacific,” Millen said. “It’s not desert racing in the traditional sense because a lot of it runs through forest, and many sections of the course tend to be quite smooth, so it sounds more like a rally in those respects. But they also say there are some pretty rough sections, too, so it’s hard to say what sorts of modifications to the vehicle we’ll need to make relative to how we run it over here.”

Necessary, 36, had no previous off-road racing experience when he turned his daily driver FJ Cruiser into a race truck for his inaugural run in the Baja 1000.

Said Necessary: “ … this isn’t just all fun and games, by any means. It’s affecting our work, it’s affecting our families, it’s affecting our pocketbooks, and it’s affecting every aspect of our lives. But we’re all stoked, and I don’t think any of us would have things any other way.”