I’m just going to say right off the bat the trip to Mexico is not the most exciting. I departed Felton at 4 a.m. and met Cyrus and adam at 6 a.m. at the Pea Soup Anderson parking lot in Santa Nella (or Gustine if you’re Google Maps).
We took a break at the rest area on Tejon Pass for Cyrus to decal up Chase 2.
From there it was pretty much a straight shot to San Diego where Cyrus picked up Carl at the airport and then scouted junkyards for spare pats for the newly christened Chase 2, a Jeep Cherokee. I, on the other hand, chillaxed with fellow birthday boy Josh Martelli, who, in addition to being a good friend, also supports Desert Dingo Racing.
Monday morning Cyrus and crew bought more stuff and I met the owner of Apollo Satellite Communications to pick up four Iridium Go! satellite uplinks that we use to coordinate chase vehicles during the race and to order race fuel like I seem to forget to do every year. Christy with Amber Race Services has the patience of a saint.
I was hauling so much crap in the Westie the Mexican border guards ran the car through the x-ray machine and then it was a rocket run in the rain to Ensenada, where we set up shop at Dennis and Deb Hollenbeck’s Las Tres Palmas just south of town. Dennis’ H12:One Class 11 has 5 to 1 odds for winning and we’re next at 8 to 1. We’re still waiting for nine time winner Eric Solorzano to pay his entry fee (which he’ll likely do race morning) to see what odds he gets. Still trying to figure out where we can bet on ourselves.
Cyrus’s Jeep Cherokee is powered by that green stuff from “Repo Man.”
I spent the evening vegging and tossing a plastic Coke bottle to our new mascot, Leica, the yard dog.. Cyrus, Adam and Carl added a light bar from our sponsor Lifetime LED and a GPS unit and drilled all manner of hols in the Cherokee.
Dennis and Deb surprised me with a birthday cake last night. It was great cake. I did, however, graciously decline Dennis’ offer of “Mordida”, which is, technically, the offer of the first bite, but usually ends up with someone face down in the cake.
Thank you everyone.
