Desert Dingo Racing

Author: Jim

  • Official World Diabetes Day car

    Official World Diabetes Day car

    airborne800

    DESERT DINGO RACING OFFICIAL WORLD DIABETES DAY CAR  OF 46TH ANNUAL BAJA 1000 IN MEXICO

    Premier off-road desert race coincides with World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14

    October 18, 2013, Felton, Calif. — Desert Dingo Racing returns as the official World Diabetes Day race car at the 46th Annual Baja 1000 off road desert race. World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14 coincides with Baja 1000 Race Week in Ensenada, Mexico where the race starts and finishes.

    “Team co-founder Mike “Skid” Aquino lived with Type 2 diabetes and the disease is reaching epidemic rates in the U.S. and Mexico,” said team co-founder Jim Graham. “It just made sense to use our race program raise awareness of the warning signs of diabetes and raise money for International Diabetes Federation’s (IDF) Life for a Child program.”

    Desert Dingo Racing has a link for race fans to donate to Life for a Child on it’s website. 100% of money donated goes to the IDF program. The team is also strategizing with IDF on other ways to raise awareness during Race Week in Ensenada.

    Baja 1000 Race Week runs from Nov. 14-17. Desert Dingo’s VW Beetle goes off the start line at approximately noon Pacific Time on Friday, Nov. 15 and has about 35 hours to finish the race. The Dingo’s will be race car No. 1107.

    Desert Dingo Racing campaigns a 1969 VW Beetle in off road desert races in the United States and Mexico. The team has been working with IDF since the team’s first run at the Baja 1000 in 2007, has raised money for IDF programs, and had the car on display at the World Diabetes Congress in Montreal in 2009.

    After three attempts at the Baja 1000 – one of the most challenging off road races that attracts teams from around the world – Desert Dingo Racing focused on racing in the U.S., winning the inaugural Xtreme Outlaws 250, a 24 hour endurance race and taking home Desert and Short Course season class champion trophies in the Valley Off Road Racing Association (VORRA) series.

    The team receives support and sponsorship from Bayside Oil II, Bilstein, Dixon & Son Tires, Donaldson Company, Lifetime LED, MasterCraft Safety, MetalCraft, Maxtrax, Rare Parts, Inc., Rugged Radios and Wallentine Motorsports.

    About IDF
    The International Diabetes Federation (IDF) is an umbrella organization of over 200 national diabetes associations in over 160 countries. It represents the interests of the growing number of people with diabetes and those at risk. The Federation has been leading the global diabetes community since 1950. For more information visit www.idf.org.

    About Desert Dingo Racing

    Desert Dingo Racing is a team of high tech professionals based in Santa Cruz and Silicon Valley who campaign a 1969 VW Beetle in off road races in the U.S. and Mexico. They are the official World Diabetes Day off road race car and the team raises money for diabetes education and awareness programs sponsored by International Diabetes Federation. To learn more, visit http://www.desertdingo.com or follow on Twitter @desertdingo .

  • Rugged Radios

    Rugged Radios

    redbutton

    Nick installs the big red button (also known as the push-to-talk button).

    I made a rocket run to our sponsor Rugged Radios in San Luis Obispo Monday for installation of a radio in 1107 Chase.

    ruggedtrucks

    Rugged CEO Greg Cottrell has supported us pretty much since we started racing. His help has been invaluable and it’s bee great watching his business expand. Each time we come by, there are more Rugged branded vehicles.

    garage

    The goal for this install was to have a chase radio I can use at the 1000 with a push-to-talk button on the steering wheel with the option of using the headset normally reserved for the short course spotting radio (which I also picked up from Rugged).

    mic

    Greg recommended we go with a Vertex VX2200 50 Watt VHF car-to-car kit with push-to-talk. Nick, who handled the install, ran the headset wiring to a hanger attached to the B pillar roll cage bar between the driver and co-driver. Perfect place to hang the headset when not in use.

    photoshoot

    Naturally we had to do a photo shoot for the Rugged website and I had to shoot the photo shoot. So meta.

    We’ll be taking 1107 down to Rugged Radios on the way to the Baja 1000 for a comm refresh as well. We’ll also be pulling audio off the radio and intercom and feeding it into our GoPro cameras. Mostly we talk about what’s for lunch.

    parked

    No blog post would be complete without a shot of 1107 Chase parked someplace.

  • We’re registered!

    We’re registered!

    Baja 1000 Class 11

    Didn’t they used to see how many people they could cram into a VW back in the ’60s?

    Crusty’s been working on 1107 pretty much non-stop since it returned to DDRHQ. He was joined this weekend by Nick, Toby and Rosh. We have 34 days til the race.

    veryhot

    The hood acts like a parabolic mirror, heating Nick, who was welding on it, to about 200 degrees.

    Nick, the newest member of the team, focused on welding, mostly to repair tears in the body and fenders, strengthening support for the new fuel cell location and patching the hole in the hood where the fuel cell filler used to be.

    rosh

    White is the new black.

    The interior of the car gets pretty trashed during races. Rosh took the lead on adding another coat of Rustoleum Gloss White. You can always tell a new Class 11 team because their paint job is perfect. That lasts about one minute into a race.

    toby

    Toby updates our wiring harness, which uses conduit from Home Depot.

    With the fuel cell in place, we’ll start adding the fuel pump, oil accumulator and assorted other stuff that requires electricity. It will go a lot faster with an actual diagram of the wiring.

    Another big work day on Saturday and a lot more to report. Waiting to get confirmation from SCORE that we will be 1107 for the Baja 1000.

  • Metalcraft run

    Metalcraft run

    Scott Sebastian of Metalcraft

    Scott Sebastian doing what he does best.

    Crusty and I did a rocket run to Sanger by way of Selma (because I am an idiot) to visit Scott Sebastian of Metalcraft, who does all our transmission work. We took down two race transmissions, two gift transmissions we’d found at various junkyards and one transmission case that I have no idea where it came from.

    Crusty working on the trans

    Crusty is on the case. (That’s a joke).

    I don’t think there’s anyone who knows VW transmissions better than Scott. It requires an understanding of VW history, because SCORE rules allow you to run what was “stock” in Type 1 Bugs. Lucky for us, there were variations in what was stock at various times. And certain year transmissions had better quality gears than others, so we’re constantly on the lookout for specific year transmissions at junk yards, just so we can take him the parts to put in our race transmissions.

    La Mexicana Food Truck - Sanger

    While they worked, I did a lunch run to the La Mexicana food truck. Great burritos.

    Our first race transmission

    The first of two race transmissions completed.

  • Back in the saddle

    Back in the saddle

    Baja 1000 2013 prep

    On the stands at Desert Dingo Racing HQ

    1107 is back from summer vacation in the Sierra Nevadas and we’ve got one month to prep it for departure for Ensenada for the Baja 1000.

    Baja 1000 2013 prep

    New team member Nick Davis provided transport for 1107 – a full day job on Saturday. Romy grabbed the two engines

    Crusty showed up early Sunday and we set to work. He continue fabrication of the new location for the fuel cell. I power washed a dozen fenders, four transmissions and I lost count of the number of rims. And we got caught up on the Belgian Formula 1 race and made it through qualifying for Monza.

    Baja 1000 2013 prep

    The yard’s going to look like this for about a month.

    Thank you Heston and Mariah for stripping the decals and for the body work.

    And here’s a walking tour of the front yard…