Desert Dingo Racing

Author: admin

  • Food, folks and logistics

    An army marches on tri-tip, salmon bruschetta and wine.

    The team gathered at Scott’s place earlier this week (he totally has a custom-built motorcycle displayed in his living room) to celebrate our third place finish in SNORE’s Caliente 250 and to start mapping out logistics for future races and the Baja 1000.

    After a phenomenal dinner prepared by Scott & Carrie, we settled in to talk our way through the car from front bumper to exhaust pipe, mapping out what we need to do to improve the car, what spares we need and map out what we’ll be doing between now and the KC Hilites Midnight Race to up our game. A.J. updated everyone on the progress on AWACS and Francis (more on this later).

    A photo gallery of us eating is here.

    I haven’t mentioned this to Roxanne yet, but I’ll be entering separately to reprise Mouse’s 2003 solo ride on the course. Creech gives me my first lesson.

  • Everyone loves a parade

    We are having no luck in the fender department.

    Crusty and Charlie took 1107 to the lumberyard parking lot Saturday morning, joining the Lompico Ghost Mountain Riders, military vehicles, fire trucks, bands and horses for the annual Felton Remembers parade.

    The staging area is something out of a Fellini movie. Not sure whether the Big Foot guy was there, or the 4H kids who shaved their sheep to look like giant poodles and dyed them pink and blue, but there’s always a tow truck with a totaled car on the back and a “DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE” banner. And the last entry is always the local Honey Pot truck.

    Can anyone tell me whether that’s a real falcon on that guy’s head? Parade photos are here. (Thank you Monica).

    We have some time til the next race, the KC Hilites Midnight Special race.

  • Photos from the Caliente 250

    1107 blows past a Class 9 at the Caliente 250. (Ok, it could happen).

    Bob was kind enough to shoot some photos at the Caliente 250, where, as previously mentioned, we finished third. Next up, in August, is the KC Hilites Midnight Special at Ridgecrest, California, on August 8. This race is unique in that it’s run entirely at night. Should be interesting.

    Bob’s photo gallery is here    .

  • Meet Francis, the newest member of the Desert Dingo team

    Something came over A.J. tonight and he decided that he really really really needed an M274 mechanical mule, aka “Carrier, Light Weapons, Infantry, 1/2 ton, 4×4”.

    After lengthy consideration, we decided to name it “Francis.”

    This from Wikipedia:

    The M274 Mule was introduced in 1956 to supplement both the 1/4 ton trucks (“Jeeps”) and 3/4 ton trucks (Weapons Carrier Series and M37 series) in airborne and infantry battalions. 11,240 Mules were produced between their introduction and 1970 when production ceased. They were used throughout the Vietnam Conflict and other U.S. military operations until the 1980s as platforms for various weapons and for carrying men, supplies, and weaponry/ammunition. They offered absolutely no protection to the driver yet that was relatively unimportant as they were mainly used as cargo carriers and medium-range infantry support vehicles rather than close-combat anti-infantry vehicles. They were phased out from military usage in the 1980s with the introduction of the HMMWV series vehicles. The HMMWV was however unable to fulfill the role of the Mule so the M-Gator, a military variant of the popular John Deere Gator vehicle, was introduced.

    Francis will live in A.J.’s renovated 28′ U-Haul, which we’ve named AWACS because it will have a satellite dish. Francis will go for food, haul spare parts and retrieve 1107 if it breaks down in a particularly technical section of the course.

    Here’s a video of someone putting a mule through its paces:

  • Desert Dingo Racing finishes third at the Caliente 250

    No photos to go with this yet – the team is expected to arrive back in Ben Lomond around 6:30 p.m.

    Here’s the details as I know them. First, the morning of the race, 1107 wouldn’t run smoothly and kept dying. The team borrowed an entire ignition system from another Class 11 team, installed it…and…nothing. Then a guy from another team came over, said “Hey, sometimes the carburetor float gets stuck”, he taps it with the handle of a screwdriver and we’re off to the races.

    Bob starts off with Creech co-driving. (Actually Richard, the driver of record, started, then hopped out just after the start line and belted Bob in). First half of the course is reported to be pretty tough. The get stuck at Mile 27 and a truck tows them out of the silt. Creech takes over driving and finishes off the first of two laps.

    Cary starts the second lap with Crusty co-driving. Sometime during the second lap Richard got word that one of the Class 11 teams had broken a spindle, so he headed over to their pit, grabbed one, handed it to a race car heading out with instructions to drop it with the car (SNORE rules require only race cars to deliver spare parts). The part was dropped off, installed and the car was back in the race.

    Crusty crossed the finish line and the team was packing up when they got word that Mark Murrell was broken down eight miles out. Because SNORE wasn’t offering retrieval at this race and Murrell didn’t have anyone with a chase truck, the team went out in Creech’s dually and retrieved Murrell and his car. They spent the night in Vegas and headed out this morning.

    The unofficial results have Felipe Neri-Sanchez taking first place, Robert Johnson taking second and us in third. I expect to get more details (and photos) when I meet the team when they pull in tonight. Next up the KC HILITES Midnight Special July 24-26.