“Hey buddy, would you mind if I borrowed your race car for the Baja 1000?” Could you imagine someone actually doing that? Well, someone did, and that someone was Corky McMillin in the spring of 1976. Now, most of us would never let anyone BORROW our race cars, but Corky wasn’t your average guy: he was a well-respected businessman in San Diego, and his “Buddy” Leonard Greaser didn’t even give it a second thought.

Corky and Leonard were good friends, and their families spent a lot of time out in the deserts of Southern California and also the dunes at Gordon's Well. When Leonard and Bud Casey built a car to go race the Baja 1000 in 1975 the “Gordon's Well” crew, including the McMillins would go down and help support them. Corky was bitten by the Off-Road racing bug while at the event, but it would take a little longer for sons Mark and Scott to come around.

After getting the Hi-Jumper from Leonard in mid 1976, the McMillins got to work on prepping the old class 9 car for the upcoming Baja 1000. Corky invited his son Mark to drive with him at the Baja 1000, as Scott was busy with his horse stuff. The plan was to let Mark start the race, and then halfway through, Corky would jump in for the finish. Mark would have an eventful day by rolling the Hi-Jumper early in the race, but luckily for him, he did it in front of a group of motorcycle riders, and they helped him right the car back on its wheels. He would continue on, but around race mile 140, the motor started running rough and then finally rolled to a stop. Mark would spend hours trying to get the car running, checking for spark, making sure it was getting fuel to the carb, but could not figure it out. Mark spent the night out in the cold Mexican desert, but was found by his dad the next morning.

Within minutes of Mark explaining what happened, Corky checked the points and noticed they were not opening up enough to make the car run. After a quick adjustment, the car started right up, and Mark drove it to the next pit and put it on the trailer as they were over the time limit. That was the story of the 1976 Baja 1000 for the McMillins, the race they were going to race JUST ONCE so they could say they did it.

Well, Corky had some unfinished business with this Off-Road racing thing, and especially since he didn’t even get to race the car yet. Corky wasn’t a quitter, and his motto was to “Never give up”. He wasn’t going to let Baja get the best of him, so he purchased the “Borrowed” Hi-Jumper from Leonard and the McMillins were now an Off-Road Racing team.

The Hi-Jumper was sold sometime in the early 1980's to make room for more technically advanced race cars. It would be decades before Norm Francis would find the chassis with the original hood (and the big blue "M" barely showing) and purchase it for restoration. Time got away from Norm, and he wasn't able to do the restoration, so he sold it to good friends Rory Ward and Cody Swanty in December of 2022. It would take almost 2 years to complete the job, but the final result was spectacular. Mark McMillin would purchase his very first race car that he raced 50 years ago and it now resides in his personal museum at his house next to his favorite racer, Macadu.