Desert Dingo Racing

Author: admin

  • Bilstein rocks

    We run Bilstein shocks and they’ve been working great for us.

    We’re going through the car from stem to stern. Looking at the front shocks, we noted the hoses between the shocks and reservoirs were a bit frayed from rubbing against the inside of the fenders. I got in touch with Joel, the Off Road MotorSports Technical Supervisor for Bilstein. I asked whether his team could fab a couple of shorter hoses. He came back with an offer to upgrade us to their newest reservoir design.

    “Let me think about this yes.”

    The team got new bushings in the front beam and got the whole front end buttoned up. Our first logistics meeting is tomorrow. Seth is bbqing tri-tip.

  • Rust and flagging

    Rust gets everywhere.

    Richard, Bob and Crusty were kind enough to unbolt the light bar so I could take it home and start sanding it down. With a couple of months before the KC Hilites Midnight Special, we’re going through the car with fine-tooth comb. I’ll sand off all the rust, Richard will weld another support bar onto it (the entire light bar sort of fell off at the Mint 400 due to vibration) and then we’ll repaint the whole shooting match.

    We got word from SNORE that we’ll be flagging Road Crossing 11 – the last one before the start finish line – at the race. You get to see all the race cars, you get an official t-shirt, and it’s great to help the volunteer organizers of the race.

  • KC Hilites Midnight Special map – should be a walk in the park

    SNORE just released the map for the KC Hilites Midnight Special race coming up in August. It looks relatively flat, with the course skirting any major mountains. I’m sure they’ll make up for it with lots of silt and big rocks.

    Work on the car continues. Richard had pulled the fuel cell. He and Crusty disassembled it to get a look at the foam inside to determine whether it had deteriorated at all. It looked good, but we found a cracked hose that did something. Richard’s taking it to the local hose shop to get a metal braided hose replacement.

    I’m playing with a service called 12seconds.tv, editing down some of our existing video to bite-sized morsels. I’ve started a page here. And here’s my favorite so far:


    Getting air in a ’69 VW at the 2008 Baja 1000 on 12seconds.tv

  • We’re probably going to need this

    Taking a look at the steering box.

    Updated: Photos! We’ve got photos!

    Crusty, Bob, Scott ‘n Carrie set to work on the car on Saturday. We found a problem with a sleeve inside the front beam. A problem in that the sleeve was trashed and we’ll need to figure out what happened and what we can do to reinforce it.

    Crusty has continued on his campaign to rid the car of rust and nearly the entire inside has been chemically stripped and painted. Not quite clean enough to eat off of, but definitely “five second rule” clean.

    Logistics meeting coming up on the 21st and driver practice the following weekend. KC Hilites Midnight Special in early August.

    Photos of Saturday’s work to come.

  • International Diabetes Federation announces 2009 World Diabetes Day theme

    We’ve been working with the great people at the International Diabetes Federation in Brussels, Belgium since before our first attempt on the Baja 1000 back in 2007. We’re the official World Diabetes Day race car and take every opportunity at races to distribute information (like our hero cards) to race fans. We also do a drive-a-thon fundraiser to support the IDF’s education and awareness programs.

    They’ve just announced their new campaign for 2009-2013 and we’re looking forward to helping them spread the word. The key messages are:

    • Know the diabetes risks and know the warning signs
    • Know how to respond to diabetes and who to turn to
    • Know how to manage diabetes and take control

    They’ve done some great graphic design work and I’m hoping I can convince them to send us some of the posters to distribute at the Baja 1000 this coming November.