Desert Dingo Racing

Author: admin

  • Men at work

    Shawn and Bob work on the co-driver side front drum brake.

    In advance of our first logistics meeting for the Baja 1000 on June 21 at Seth’s place, the team put in time doing advance prep on the car. Crusty continued stripping out the car, eliminating rust and painting any bare metal. Shawn and Bob worked on the brakes, replacing some bits that kept the passenger side wheel from rolling relatively freely. Richard pulled the fuel cell, power washed it in preparation for pulling the bladder and sponge, which apparently needs replacing every couple of years.

    We may have some interesting developments in the communications department. Photos from last weekend’s work are here.

  • Baja 500 in progress

    Hear Weatherman get really cranky with people, live on the radio.

    We’re saving up our pennies for the Baja 1000, but this is the weekend for the Baja 500. Nearly as fun as being in the car sucking in lungfuls of silt is listening to Weatherman get increasingly cranky with people who walk over his broadcasts, who are universally referred to as “Richard Craniums.” He’s also threatened to lock some kid in a closet full of spiders for playing with a radio and broadcasting over him. Then there was this:

    “Weatherman, radio check.”

    “You’re a 10.”

    “Is 10 good or bad? Is the scale from 1 to 10 or 10 to 1?”

    “10 is good. It goes from 1 to 10.”

    “Ok, thanks Weatherman. Out.”

    Thanks to the Race Dezert folks for rebroadcasting this.

  • Idle hands are the devil’s plaything

    Little red remote control car with a camera on it.

    The KC Hilites Midnight Special isn’t until early August, so we’ve got time to kill. A perfect excuse to test the microphone settings on the GoPro Motorsports Wide Angle cameras we run on the car. The low setting on the cameras muffled the engine. We’ll run them on high for the next race.

  • This is not a picture of Francis the Mechanical Mule

    “A.J., when you visit Francis this weekend, get a photo,” I told him.

    “Ok,” A.J. said.

    This, obviously, isn’t a photo of Francis. It is, however, a photo of the aluminum ramps A.J. scored off Craigslist to get Francis (and our pre-running motorcycles and maybe my ATV) on and off of AWACS, which will be our mobile command center for all future races. The man knows his Craigslist and I defer to his mad skillz.

    The ramps, AWACS, the motorcycles and maybe Francis and my ATV will make their debut at the KC Hilites Midnight Special race in early August.

  • Deconstructing 1107

    Crusty and Robert take a meeting.

    Our next race – the KC Hilites Midnight Special – isn’t until early August, so we’re taking the time to take the car apart and go through it with a fine tooth comb…something we’ll do to varying degrees after every race.

    Crusty worked the past couple of days removing the seats and fenders and today he and Bob pulled the engine, drained the fuel cell and began inspecting things like wheel bearings and brake shoe wear. We made the decision to move the front shock reservoirs back into the space that usually holds the spare tire. We’d moved then under the fender wells to increase the airflow, but found that they were too difficult to work around and the hostes from the shocks to the reservoirs were fraying.

    Shawn put in a good amount of time today primering things like bumpers and fenders (rust is a big issue for bare metal parts). Seth is writing up his notes from Wednesday’s team meeting and we’ll shortly have our marching orders.

    Some photos from today’s work here
    .