And we’re back! About 12 hours from Ensenada to Felton. 1102 is safely ensconced on the trailer in the front yard. We’ll be needing a couple of new fenders, a rebuilt transmission, a short throw reverse lock out shifter and some other bits and bobs, but we should be back in business in short order.
Here’s a gallery of photos from Contingency Row on Thursday and the race on Friday. More to come.
First video is shot from the hood-mounted GoPro Motorsports DV camera. Each car rolls up on a mound of dirt, rolls down to the start line, Sal Fish reaches in and shakes hands with driver and co-driver and then get the 10 second count down. Cars start at 30 second intervals. This shot includes the start, first turn and run along Ensenada’s streets down into the wash and over the Red Bull jump.
I had the cameras set for “high sound level” because it’s freakin’ loud in side the car. I’m guessing they mean “shuttle launch loud” not “race-fueld VW Beetle loud” so you really can’t hear anything.
This second video is of Scott (driving) and Seth (co-driving) rolling up to the start line and into the wash. The wide-angle GoPro camera sees 170 degrees. YouTube doesn’t do them justice. The video is TV-quality.
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We did our team briefing this morning with Seth, our logistics guy taking the lead. He mapped out fuel stops, who’s riding with whom, and a bajillion other details that only a guy like he could conceive, remember and then articulate to the rest of us sitting in plastic chairs in the barnyard.
Genas fabbed a new light bar for us and welded the mounts in place last night. Mike Taylor painted it this morning and a whole bunch of folks pitched in to install and rewire the lights after we got to our base of operations in Ensenada this afternoon.
We breezed through team registration this evening but encountered a hiccup with fuel distribution afterward. Terri with Sunoco has been great, and we’re meeting with Carlos of Baja Pits to iron out the rest of the details tomorrow morning. Richard and Cary get in line for roll cage inspection at oh dark early tomorrow, even though it only opens at 10 a.m.
Tomorrow we have our booth on Contingency Row with Norma Angelica Ramirez of the Asociacion Mexicana de Diabetes en Baja California, AC. We’ll be handing out the crayons and hero cards with the warning signs of diabetes printed on the back and literature provided by Norma.
Here’s a gallery of photos from last night’s work and this morning’s preparations. And, lastly, here’s a quick video of everyone hangout out at / working at Eric’s Tijuana workshop.
PS: Note to families and friends: Feel free to contact me, Roxanne Graham, at info@desertdingo.com, with your messages for the team or for anything when the race starts. I’ll post updates to the blog as I receive them once the Desert Dingos are on the road.
Time to set your clock, friends and fans. The race starts Friday, November 21 @ 5 AM. Class 11 shoots out the gate around noon. Teams will have 31 hours from their designated start time to complete the course.
Folks at home have a couple of options to track the race. Hardcore supporters can listen to the online audio stream of Rob “The Weatherman” Steinberger, a man who’s practically as legendary as the race. The Weatherman volunteers each year, setting up a radio outpost on top of a windy mountaintop slightly southwest of Mikes Sky ranch at about 9500 feet elevation. He’s like the air traffic controller, reporting injuries, repair needs, checkpoint information, and so on. Bookmark his channel (http://www.race-dezert.com/radio/) but be aware that this is not entertainment. Accidents do happen, and an important part of the Weatherman’s job is to report them and help coodinate emergency services.
IRC is supposed to have all entries tracking on GPS at http://www.racetheworld.net.
Score will provide GPS tracking of five classes (SCORE Trophy Trucks, Class 1, Class 5-1600, Stock Mini and Class 8 ) live at http://www.2008scorebaja1000.com/. Unfortunately no Class 11 coverage.
I think I mentioned we’re about a block from the beach. From the RVs front seats we can watch cargo ships cruise along the coast. The photo gallery includes some shots of what we see on our commute between Rosarito Beach and Tijuana.
Seth and Mike Taylor have arrived. Seth immediately headed back up to San Diego to pick up more members of the team and do whatever it is that logistics people do at Kinkos.
Also included are some shots of today’s work, which focused on getting the new race brake shoes installed and tuning the engine. Here’s a video of that, including the test drive, which set off car alarms for blocks: