During the most recent season of Top Gear, presenters Chris Harris and Freddie Flintoff competed in the Baja 1000. For those that missed the full episode, part of it has been shared online through the Top Gear channel on YouTube.
The Baja 1000 is one of the most prestigious off-road races anywhere in the world and also one of the most difficult. It is held every year on the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico and attracts competitors from all around the world.
Harris and Flintoff were tasked with completing the epic off-road race in a special buggy but as is so often the case with Top Gear, things didn’t go to plan.
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The first stint of the race saw Harris jump behind the wheel with a co-driver and a plan to stop at the 70 mile (112 km) mark where Flintoff would jump into the driver’s seat. Things got off to a bad start as just 29 miles (46 km) into the race, the gearbox’s belt drive snapped. Ordinarily, this would be a quick fix but in the process of the belt drive snapping, it took with it a bunch of important wires needed to run the off-road buggy. It took roughly 90 minutes to be fixed, putting the team well behind schedule.
While the video below doesn’t show the full segment, Harris later encountered a power steering failure that forced the show’s producers to call it quits, meaning Flintoff never had a chance to drive.