Desert Dingo Racing

Author: Jim

  • Rare Parts Inc. Sponsoring Desert Dingo Racing 2013 Season

    Rare Parts Inc. Sponsoring Desert Dingo Racing 2013 Season

    February 11, 2013, Felton, Calif. – Desert Dingo Racing announced today that Rare Parts Inc., a leading provider and manufacturer of rare and hard to find parts for classic automobiles will sponsor Desert Dingo Racing for its 2013 season.

    Rare Parts Inc. logo“We race a 44-year-old VW Beetle and it’s getting harder to find some parts without having to scour a lot of salvage yards or pay high prices,” said Desert Dingo Racing co-founder Jim Graham. “Rare Parts has a fantastic inventory and the design and manufacturing capabilities to turn out whatever we need.”

    Desert Dingo Racing competes in off road desert racing in California and Nevada and is the official World Diabetes Day race car in the Baja 1000. The team took Second in Class in Class 11 during the Valley Off Road Racing Association (VORRA) 2012 season. For 2013, the team will race the full VORRA series and the Baja 1000. The team raises money to support diabetes awareness and education programs sponsored by the International Diabetes Federation.

    “We started Rare Parts Inc. in 1981 to help auto enthusiasts get the obsolete steering and suspension parts they needed to rebuild their classic cars,” said President Danny Burgess. “We’re a family-owned business that shares the same passion for maintaining classic cars that Desert Dingo shows in racing one. We’re looking forward to extending our support to the off road racing market.”

    About Rare Parts Inc.
    If you are looking for heavy-duty USA-made steering and suspension components, then look no further. Rare Parts has manufactured rare and obsolete suspension parts for 30 years and has a full testing facility for destructive and cycle testing. Our inventory consists of more than two million steering and suspension parts – all guaranteed to meet or exceed OEM quality. For more information call 800-62102005 or visit online at http://www.rareparts.com .

    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 race car and the team raises money for diabetes education and awareness programs sponsored by the International Diabetes Federation. To learn more, visit http://www.desertdingo.com.

  • Once more, into the fray

    Once more, into the fray

    Everyone, and I mean everyone, brought chips and salsa
    That’s a lot of chips and salsa right there.

    I think I'd rather die than eat one of those MREsFirst full team meeting for 2013 (at Chez Crusty with the million dollar view) and we covered a lot of ground. Overall goals – win the 2013 VORRA series, don’t roll the car twice (and then burn out the clutch) and then go win the Baja 1000.

    This is the contents of the first aid kit pictured below —->

    We talked through how we set up our pits at Prairie City and the desert races and will be tweaking the set-up for 2013 that streamlines pit stops and work on the car even more than we did in 2012. “We” included Jen, Romy, Dave, Rosh, Bob, Toby, Crusty, Scott, Khaled, Heston, Tracy and me.

    Starting Tuesday we do a compression and leak down test, pull the engine and check the clutch. Crusty’s working on (redacted), Scott Anderson will be working on (redacted) and a (redacted). Jen will be replacing a comm cable that has a short in it, Toby’s going to clean up the wiring and Khaled and I will be working on the next iteration of our process document (mostly Khaled).

    We talked through some new deert communications strategy, started a shopping list for extra spare parts (Crusty has enough parts he’s working on in his house that could pretty much assemble a second car) and we’re planning another trip down to MetalCraft to spend a day with Scott Sebastian to get a new case to replace the one that sort of broke when it fell off Crusty’s hauler at the USA 500 last year.

    It would have taken three cups of coffee to down one of those MREs
    One incentive for not getting stuck in the desert is you won’t be forced to eat one of those MREs which I recall we stuck in the first aid kit back in 2007.

    Rather than write up the team notes, I decided to reorganize the first aid kit. I’m sure I’m missing something. We all agreed to chip in for race expenses, or, as Bob Russell said “Where else can you drive a race car for $100 a month?”

    Racing is always dangerous, but thankfully, Class 11 racing isn’t this dangerous:

  • The race shop is now open

    The race shop is now open

    Raking
    Everyone rakes their shop before starting working, right? Right?

    Crusty and I turned the first wrenches of 2013 today. Pulled the fenders. Started disassembling the front end. Mapping out what needs to happen before our first short course race in March. (Not much).

    600tarps
    You can tell it’s spring when the tarps are in bloom in the front yard.

    Typical conversation:

    Me: “Where should I put this heavy pipe so it will hit one of us when it falls over?”

    Crusty: “Just lay it on the ground.”

    Me: “Oh.”

    600drake
    Oh sure, Ryan’s smiling now.

    1117 was going to be our first race car, but through a series of circumstances we opted for another car. 1117 finished third in Class 11 at Ridgecrest back in 2006 and was parked on the side of our house pretty much ever since.

    No more. We gifted it to Ryan Drake, who’s going to do with it what we never got a chance to. Make it competitive. He picked it up Friday and is already hard at work on it. You can follow his progress at Team Drake Racing.

    Some shots from today’s work…

  • Eight races in 2013

    Eight races in 2013

    184518_536179759726860_1369726244_n
    Once more, into the fray.

    1107 is under a tarp in the front yard now, but planning for our 2013 race program is well under way. We’ve got eight races on the dock for 2013 including the full VORRA series and our return to the Baja 1000 in November.

    We got second place in season points for 2012 and are gunning for first place in 2013. We’ve also picked up two new sponsors – Lifetime LED Lighting and MAXTRAX. They are tremendously supportive of our race program. And there are more announcements on the way.

    Also working on an interesting media interview and, of course, making progress on the TV show proposal.

    Updates as they occur.

    2013 Race Season

    March 16-17 Short Course Prairie City, CA
    April 20-21 Short Course Prairie City, CA
    May 25-27 Desert Race – Yerington 300 Yerington, NV
    July 13-14 Desert Race – Night Vision 250 Fallon, NV
    Aug. 31 – Sept. 2 Desert Race – USA 500 Reno/Sparks, NV
    October 5-6 Short Course Prairie City, CA
    October 26-27 Short Course Prairie City, CA
    November 14-17 Baja 1000 Ensenada, Mexico
  • Making Class 11 look awesome

    Making Class 11 look awesome

    We’re gonna need an 8-bit theme song.

    Ziv Marom of ZM Interactive brought his remotely piloted video helicopters to Prairie City Halloween weekend for our final race of the season and did the near impossible. He made Class 11 racing look freaking awesome. Check it out:

    Desert Dingo Racing from ZM Interactive on Vimeo.

    The editors at Jalopnik (who did a feature on us a while back), liked what they saw and did a piece on it. As a result, Ziv’s video received more than 6,800 views. And there’s interest from off road racing video producers.