Don Prudhomme had no clue what he was doing the first time he raced Baja.
He didn't know the course. He didn't grasp the conditions. He didn't even have the right setup in the car.
The legendary drag racer was a last-minute fill-in for actor Steve McQueen, who had to bail because of filming obligations. Prudhomme teamed with friend and fellow racer Tony Nancy for the 1,000-mile sprint across the desert and through tiny towns in Mexico. They drove McQueen's car -- a dune buggy Nancy built with a Porsche engine -- and made it about 100 miles before flames started spewing out of the tailpipes.