Desert Dingo Racing

Author: Jim

  • We win at Prairie City

    We win at Prairie City

    Technically, we won Sunday at Prairie City. And, by “win”, I mean we finished second in all three motos, which was enough, points-wise, to give us a first place finish for the day. I don’t even want to talk about Saturday.

    We like to show up early for our motos. Like half an hour early. And then just sit in the grass. It has nothing to do with me reading the schedule wrong.


    The weekend started off early, on Friday morning, with our arch rivals Two Larrys Racing getting two live TV interviews on Good Day Sacramento. I missed the first one, but on the second, Anchor Melissa Cabral had Larry G drive over an indestructible wallet. Then she made everyone dance, which was awesome.

    Ziv Marom of ZM Interactive and his partner Brenda Dos Santos came out to film us Class 11s racing Saturday morning with his Cinestar 12 remotely piloted video helicopter.

    It goes without saying Ziv got first class treatment.

    He’s putting together a video now, but here are three of the teaser photos.

    Why do we always have to be in last place?

    Ok, awesome.

    Prairie City from space.

    Heston Schmucker, who’s building his own Class 11, even though I specifically asked him not to, figured out we were running carburetor jetting for 7,000 feet, instead of the 218 feet above sea level of Prairie City, robbing us of precious horsepower.

    There’s a new new guy on the team and his name is Ralph. Actually, there’s two new new guys but I didn’t get a photo of Rosh. Dude is like a ninja.

    Jen and Carmen during the Powder Puff race with me in the timing tower on the spotter radio yelling “NO SHOWBOATING!”

    Another angle of Jen and Carmen disrespecting my authority.

    Photographic proof our arch rivals Green Booger won the coveted Bug Invasion trophy earlier this year.

    Romy is so fired.

    Thank you to Ziv Marom, Brenda Dos Santos, Krait_99 and Carmen’s son Seamus and his wingman Bodhi for photos used in this post.

  • Field trip to Canepa Design

    Field trip to Canepa Design

    Whew! My Porsche 917K in the Gulf color scheme is still there.

    All work and no play makes Desert Dingo a dull race team. When I heard Canepa Design was doing its last “Cars and Coffee” event of the season, I put the word out. Our tame racing driver Dave (who is nearing completion of his Group T El Camino) and Ryan Crook of CBCFS Racing joined me for the event.

    Surrounded by millions of dollars worth of exotic sports cars, what am I taking photos of? Right, the workshop set up.

    This is ingenius. Put all the small parts in baggies, label them and tape the baggies to the wall. Never lose a part.

    Bolts. Just…bolts.

    This McLaren MP4-12C was my favorite car in the whole world until they showed off the P1 in Paris.

    Photos from today’s field trip…

  • Going high tech for Prairie City

    Going high tech for Prairie City

    Ziv Marom flies his Cinestar 8 multicopter at Burning Man 2012.

    Ziv, CEO and founder of ZM Interactive out of San Francisco will be joining us for the VORRA Prairie City short course double header Halloween weekend Oct. 26-28 and we thing it’s going to result in some awesome video.

    Gizmodo writer Brent Rose did a piece on Ziv and a Burning Man camp that scanned and generated 3D printed models of burners and delivered them via a GPS-enabled multicopter. Nothing ever works exactly as planned but that they were able to pull it off out in the desert is pretty amazing.

    Here’s some fantastic video he captured on the playa this year.

    Watch this in HD if you have the option to. This embedded version doesn’t do it justice.

    I’m already working on a driver’s line up for Prairie City. Jen Frederick and Dave’s girlfriend Carmen will definitely be doing the Power Puff race and Toby – who we found on Craigslist – will get his first stint behind the wheel in the mechanic’s race. Assuming things go as planned, we’ve got second place in season points wrapped up. There, I’ve jinxed it.

    Lastly, the teaser for the 2012 Mint 400 has been released. This is the only race where I actually lost my temper and threw a fender over a cliff.

  • Night Vision 250 Photos

    Night Vision 250 Photos

    Off the line at the Bill Lott Memorial Night Vision 250.

    Dennis and Deb made it back to Ensenada and shipped me their photos from the VORRA Night Vision 250, which we won. Great stuff here.

    Crusty reports 1107 is good to go for the last race of the season – the Prairie City short course double-header Halloween Weekend.

    Made the decision this week after confabbing with the team that we’ll skip the Baja 1000 this year, use the off season to work on a couple of race project and hit the 1000 again in 2013, which I’m hoping it will be a loop course (a lot more affordable to race).

    I think, in advance of Prairie City, I’m going to make everyone watch this NASCAR commercial:

    Ok, here are Dennis’ photos from the race.

  • We win the Night Vision 250

    We win the Night Vision 250

    Dennis and Dave, arms akimbo after delivering a good car at the end of Lap 5, sometime around 1:30 a.m.

    Ok, granted there were only two Class 11s racing, but it was a textbook win. No rollovers (not even twice). No burned clutches. No drama. Just consistent, smart racing.

    Meeks Racing No. 1142 at race start.

    The VORRA Bill Lott Memorial Night Vision 250 started at 6 p.m. Saturday at the pits just south of Fallon Naval Air Station and went through 3 a.m. Sunday. Everyone rolled in Friday night or godawful early Saturday morning. No time for pre-running, so we spent the day setting up camp, keeping people fed (thanks to everyone who pitched in) and prepping 1107 , which, thanks to Crusty, was pretty much good to go.


    Dingo tested. Crusty approved.

    We employed our patented and proven clown car strategy – two drivers, five co-drivers. Romy took the first two 41-mile laps, going out first with Toby (who we found on Craigslist) and then with fellow Ph.D. candidate (and wife) Jen.

    Romy is nervous around girls.

    Dave took over for Lap 3, with co-driver Paul Nauleau of CBCFS Racing. We’d been averaging roughly one hour laps and four minute pit stops (that included co-driver swap out, fueling and changing out flat tires. By the end of Lap Two we’d built up a 48 minute lead over No. 1142 Meeks Racing, who was plagued with power issues.

    It takes a village to fix a Class 11.

    Naturally, something had to go wrong and it did. 20 miles into the lap, the swank LED light bar we’d borrowed from CBCFS failed, landing on the hood of the car, where a quick thinking Paul grabbed it. Paul spent the next 20 miles leaning over the dashboard, holding the light bar with his hands as Dave charged across the desert.

    When they pulled into the pits, the team set to work re-welding and reinforcing the light bar. 42 minutes later we were back on the road, Dave driving with Antoine co-driving. At some point I went to sleep, so I don’t remember much of what happened for the next couple of hours, but Antoine survived and Dennis Hollenbeck got his hour of terror in the co-driver seat. (At some point the co-drivers got together to compare notes on Dave’s driving (“Dave doesn’t like chit chat.” “Remind Dave that he said ‘Whoa, I just scared myself right there’ at RM20.”)

    Co-drivers are larger than they appear.

    Romy and Toby came in to bat clean up on Lap Six and to the best of my knowledge ran an uneventful lap. Back in the pits, I butted heads with Jen, who is an order of magnitude smarter than me, over whether we had a 12 minute lead (me) or a 30 minute lead (Jen). It’s unimportant who was right.

    When Toby radioed in they were three miles out, we all headed down to the start finish line where the VORRA flagger and I agreed that it would be funny to mess with their heads and throw the white flag (one more lap) instead of the checkered.

    Just messing with you.

    Ok, Jen was right on the time. We got a win. Dave, Romy and Crusty accepted our first place plaque. Thanks go out to Meeks Racing for providing us with electricity for welding.

    We had at least three flats, so we’ll be collecting rims and ordering some new tires for the Halloween weekend season finale at Prairie City.

    A good time was had by all. Thanks to Dennis for allowing me to lift his photos. More to come.