High upon a hilltop in Mexico, surrounded by cactuses and rocks he claims to know by name, Jeff Cummings feels he's home.

There isn't a house for miles, and paved roads are considered a luxury here. It's no man's land where boots kick up the dusty desert bottom and the Sea of Cortes would be a welcome sight.

"I wouldn't have ever believed I would have turned into a desert rat," he said.

Cummings is not on any survival challenge or trying to find a lost Spanish treasure buried beneath the dry earth. He's just finishing up months of work out here and has found a spot that suits him well - out of the spotlight.

As the 2008 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 comes to a conclusion today about 65 miles south of the U.S. border, Cummings is sitting back and enjoying the outcome of the world's toughest race. Because he helped put it together.

For three months this year the Endeavor native has trekked across every ravine and dry lake bed, carving a path from start to finish. To others involved in the race, he's become somewhat of the Moses of the Baja, who can lead anyone across this desert.

With two teams running in this year's race that started Friday, Cummings lives by one simple rule out here: to survive the desert, you must keep moving.

Off to the races

There are no cactuses near Endeavor that would lead one to believe Cummings was born to be a desert rat.

The area that surrounds his family's home are fields filled with typical fall bounty for this area. But to Cummings, those fields were his first testing ground for off-roading.

"I was building my version of dune buggies out of old Volkswagens. We couldn't wait to get the crops picked off the fields to pretend we're big off-road racers," he said.

The fascination with off-road racing started in his early teens, Jeff's mother, Jeanne, said.

"He got to the point he could take a Volkswagen engine apart and put it back together in an afternoon," she said.

After graduating Portage High School in 1972, Cummings took to his first off-road race in Crandon, having worked at a Volkswagen dealership.

"I thought, this is entirely too much fun," he said.

Cummings soon found work with BF Goodrich, which was testing a tire for on-road/off-road use. And what better place to test such a product than a desert race over rocks?

"They were looking for folks with strong backs and weak minds," Cummings joked.

His qualifications for the job, he said, were that he doesn't require a lot of sleep and he has a pretty good compass in his head for a sense of direction.

Cummings has been involved in off-road racing for about 30 years, two of those decades with Baja.

In the early days before GPS, plotting the race involved a simple map and compass. And the map book was literally the Bible.

"It was a real trial-and-error deal," he said. "We would spend four or five weeks trying to connect the dots."

The first time he looked at a GPS unit nine years ago, Cummings thought it would be full of problems because it had wires coming out of it. But the tool reshaped the race and the planning.

"Most motor sports usually have a pit. In desert racing, you're miles from nowhere. While Baja has been a lot more populated since I first went down there, it's still no man's land."

Action

The race car is the safest place to be on race day, Cummings points out in a new DVD called "Chasing Baja," which chronicles his team's 2007 race.

The project was like a reality series delving into lives of everyone who makes up the BF Goodrich team Cummings leads.

For a private person like Cummings, all the camera crews were not a welcome sight.

"It was clearly evil punishment for evil deeds I did early in my life," he said.

With camera cords everywhere and crew members asking for something to eat, Cummings said at one point he asked the crew to drive out into the desert and die. In a nice way, of course.

After a week out in the desert, the camera crews stopped questioning him, finding that it's not wise to annoy the guy with the way out.

The movie captures the grueling trek across 1,296 miles of the desert, much of it at night, with speeds reaching 60 mph or more.

"It takes a tremendous amount of endurance," Cummings said. "You try to look out for your fellow man to a certain degree down there."

Being a Baja organizer and racking up about 10,000 miles on his 1992 black Ford Bronco this year, making sure the course is ready, Cummings has only raced Baja once, being wrangled by three friends to do it.

But he gets just as much pleasure setting up the course and leading his team as he does sitting in a driver's seat.

The film shows the chaos of being part of the chase teams that must find racers out in the desert if they break down. And there's also the chaos that takes place inside a race car that's traveling over rocks and along cliffs.

"It can be like a high-speed video game," Cummings said. "You're seeing things coming at you and your brain says you can't travel over those terrains and rocks at this speed.

"It's like strapping yourself to a paint shaker."

It takes all kinds

About six year ago, a couple of East Coast guys stumbled upon Cummings' camp in the desert, seeking a place to stay for the night.

They had quit their jobs, said goodbye to their families and drove their Ford Bronco across the country to race Baja.

Knowing what it takes to race this event, Cummings and others tried to get these adventure seekers ready for what was about to hit them.

"They became the pet project over the next two days," he said.

A variety of people try the race, which has 31 classes. "If you meet the basic safety requirements. They will wave the green flag in front of you to see if you can beat the desert," Cummings said.

Those challenging the desert range from multimillion dollar teams to those who think they have a tough truck. And it also includes famous stars including Patrick Dempsey from "Grey's Anatomy" and Jesse James - who was also in "Chasing Baja" with his wife Sandra Bullock who was waiting at the finish line. And it also attracts Indy and NASCAR drivers.

The race this season will cover 631 miles over tough terrain that includes dry lake beds that have the consistency of oatmeal.

Of the 370 teams expected for this year's event, only about half will make it to the finish line. A team has only 31 hours to complete the race.

It is not just racers and their teams who will be on the course, but as many as 400,000 people will be watching in various areas. Cummings said the race is a huge event for race fans in Mexico.

"You can be miles from nowhere and there will be 5,000 people out there selling beer, pretzels and tacos," he said.

When creating the course, Cummings, who now makes his home in Las Vegas, said organizers make sure everyone has a chance to finish.

"There's no joy in creating something where no one can get to the finish line, but it is the Baja 1000, the toughest off-road race," he said.

Last year, Cummings' team struck a tree while in second place, but still finished the race. A year before that, two members of his team plunged down a 300-foot embankment, but both were back to race the next season.

As the great desert race draws to a conclusion this morning, Cummings will not wait at the finish line, where he expects his team to cross first. He will be parked upon a hill, just enjoying the moment with only one thought:

"I wonder what the rest of the world is doing today," he said. "Life is good."

Get race results online at www.2008scorebaja1000.com

 "Chasing Baja"

To buy "Chasing Baja," go to www.shop.race-dezert.com