Category: Baja 1000 2013

Toby wins for best hair.

One of the most challenging parts of doing the Baja 1000 is race strategy and particularly fueling strategy. You’re dealing with remote locations, variable terrain and driving non-stop for 36 hours with four teams of drivers and co-drivers. It makes playing 3D chess feel like Tic-Tac-Toe.

Fortunately for me, we hooked up with Carlos Bravo, who I connected with after taking a photo of his son with our car back in 2007. His race car is in the shop, he knows the roads and I offered him a co-driver slot when he offered up his chase truck.

We run a different strategy that a lot of other teams. We do fueling from our chase trucks, each of which carries a 55 gallon drum of 110 octane race gas, plus spare tires, plus spare parts and tools. 1107 has a 12 gallon fuel cell and averages 6-9 mpg depending on the terrain. A little less when we’re plowing through silt. A little more when we’re driving on asphalt.

Our goal was refueling every 80 miles or so, depending on where we could get to the car. And driver/codriver swaps every 200 miles or so. With that in mind, here’s what Carlos and I (mostly Carlos) put together.

Overview

CHASE ONE (Stuart and Fiamma) will handle most of the northern section of the course. CHASE TWO (Carlos, Mario, Paul) and CHASE THREE (CHUCK / GIL / JENN / TOBY / ROSH) will handle the southern sections).

CHASE ONE – TOYOTA – Stuart – Fiamma

CHASE TWO – FORD F150- Carlos – Mario – Paul

CHASE THREE – SUBURBAN – Chuck – Gil – Romy – Jenn – Toby – Rosh

 

DRIVER LINEUP

CRUSTY / ROMY

PAUL / CARLOS

ROMY / JENN

TOBY / ROSH

TOBY / CHUCK

TOBY / GIL

JIM / GIL

 

RACE START – CRUSTY / ROMY

CHASE ONE TO RM150 – Saldana

CHASE TWO TO RM80 – Ojos Negros

CHASE THREE TO RM80 – Ojos Negros

 

RM80 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE THREE

CHASE TWO TO RM200 – 3 POLES

CHASE THREE TO COCOS CORNER

 

RM150 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE ONE – SALDANA

CHASE ONE TO RM250

 

RM200 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE TWO – 3 POLES

DRIVER SWAP – PAUL / CARLOS

CHASE TWO TO RM 285

 

RM 250 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE ONE- PERCEBU

CHASE ONE TO RM760 SAN MATIAS

 

RM285 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE TWO – PUERTOCITOS

CHASE TWO TO RM 385

 

RM 350 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE THREE – COCOS CORNER

CHASE THREE TO KM233 FOR DRIVER SWAP

 

RM385 – CHASE TWO WAITS FOR 1107 AND FOLLOWS TO KM233

 

KM233 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE THREE – DRIVER SWAP ROMY/JENN

1107, CHASE 2, CHASE THREE TO RM520

 

RM520 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE 3

CHASE TWO TO RM570

CHASE THREE TO RM660

 

RM570 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE TWO

CHASE TWO TO RM690

 

RM660 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE THREE – DRIVER SWAP TOBY / ROSH

CHASE THREE TO RM 690

 

RM690 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE TWO

CHASE TWO RM800

CHASE THREE TO RM770

 

RM760 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE ONE 

CHASE ONE FOLLOWS 1107 TO RM770, PROCEEDS TO RM800

 

RM770 – CODRIVER CHUCK GETS IN, CODRIVER ROSH GETS OUT

 

RM800 – FULL FUEL FROM CHASE ONE

CODRIVER GIL GETS IN, CODRIVER CHUCK GETS OUT

1107 TO FINISH LINE

CHASE THREE TO START/FINISH

CHASE ONE, CHASE TWO TO FINISH LINE

1107 STOPS ONE BLOCK FROM FINISH, JIM GETS IN AS DRIVER

Sunrise at the compound.

Most days start a little after sunrise. There’s an industrial kitchen that can feed up to 40. I use it to boil water for my french press coffee.

Once everyone’s caffeinated, they all start to work on the car. In this case it was Wednesday. We needed to get the shocks charged with nitrogen and we needed to tweak the car a lot more and take into town to get the shocks charged with nitrogen.

Paul, our tame Canadian championship-winning race car driver brought U.S., Mexican and Canadian flags like they use in rally racings. You can’t imagine how long we debated how the flags should be placed. Ok, it was like 20 minutes.

It apparently takes a village to charge your shocks with nitrogen. 

Said shocks charged, we decamped to Juan’s restaurant El Comal le dijo a la Olla (which is part of his home) for paella. It was fantastic and I’ll be doing a Yelp review.

 

We came home and Dennis & Deb had cake for Jenn Frederick and me.

I think we got us a new co-driver.

We didn’t get much time to wrench on 1107 today (though the team is installing a new master brake cylinder and brake lines as I write this), but we were kept pretty busy.

We started the day getting in line (FIRST!) for a 10 a.m. roll cage inspection by SCORE officials. When they hadn’t shown by 11 a.m. we bailed (they showed up 15 minutes later, natch.)

From there we joined up with Dennis Hollenbeck and 1121 and headed to Casa Esperanza, a shelter for women and children escaping abusive relationships. Dennis and Deb, our hosts for the Baja 1000, work with the organization and host groups that come to Baja to build new homes for them.

One of the shelter dogs wants to know what I’m doing.

We brought six years worth of contingency decals that will never go on the car. We brought loads of World Diabetes Day cartons of crayons, and we brought tempera paint.

Chuck Gianni buckles in a couple of our trainee drivers.

Once all the kids got out of class, they piled into 1107 and 1121. They always seem to find the horns pretty quickly.

While we were goofing off outside, Deb Hollenbeck and friends were preparing lunch. Which was fantastic.

I killed some time signing autographs, probably leaving kids with the mistaken impression I actually have driven the car. Ever.

After lunch, we got to work. Toby painted hands, the rest of the team escorted kids to 1107 and 1121, and we started to painting.

We painted this.

The kids even gave us a blessing at the end. I don’t think there was a dry eye in the Suburban on the drive back.

The finished car.

We drove back to Las Dunas Hotel, found the team doing cage tests, paid 250 samoleans and got our cage tested and approved.

Wednesday we pick up fuel, register, wrench more on the car and possibly attend a party.

Note from Mrs. 1107: The hand printing is inspired by this video by the Diabetes Hands Foundation. Many PWD prick their fingers 4 or more times a day.

The hand prints are in observance of World Diabetes Day, Thursday November 14.  And the car’s wheels have the blue circle, which is the universal symbol for diabetes. .

We’re ensconced.

So far everything’s going as planned. Chuck, Gil and Crusty headed out Friday morning with 1107 for our sponsor Rugged Radios who did a complete new install of their latest radio and intercom systems. They continued down to Chula Vista.

I left at the crack of dawn Saturday for a stop in Sanger to pick up our second race transmission from Scott Sebastian at Metal Craft.

It’s too pretty to race. Srsly.

Transmission in hand, I headed down to San Diego to pick up our tame Canadian national two-wheel-drive rally champion driver Paul Hartl at San Diego International. We headed down to Walmart, got kicked out by a rent-a-cop and spent the night in the Westie in a hotel parking lot behind 1107.

Sunday morning we saddled up and drove to Ensenada and arrived at Dennis & Deb’s place where we’ll be living for the next week in the dorms. We spent the rest of Sunday setting up 1107, doing some shopping and talking with CBCFS Racing, who pulled in after dark.

Today is more tweaking on the car and Rosh is in charge of getting decals on. Might even have time for a test drive. Tuesday we have the cage inspected and take the car to the women’s shelter for the kids to do some hand painting.

Some shots from the trip down.

Roxanne, aka Mrs. Graham, here.  I’m manning the fort at Desert Dingo Headquarters in NoCal. During the race, Carmen and I will be the Communication Control Tower, tracking the team’s (as well as the other Class11s’) progress on the course. When I can, I’ll update the blog and our Facebook page. Mostly I’ll post to Twitter. You’re subscribed, right?

So here’s the latest news: As planned, Jim picked up Paul Hartl from the San Diego airport and met up with Chuck, Gil and Crusty at the Walmart parking lot on Saturday night. This morning, they drove to Las Tres Palmas, home of Dennis and Deb Hollenbeck, in Ensenada, where the team will stay before and after the race.

Schedule for the week

Sunday-Tuesday

• Final checklist.
• Enjoy authentic Mexican food — like the fine vittles at El Comal le dijo a la Olla run by friend Sarabia Aja.
• The rest of the team arrives.

Wednesday November 13

• Racer Registration
• Visit Mi Casa Esperanza Maneadero , a shelter for abused woman and their children, where the families will paint the car with their hand prints. Those of you touched by diabetes know the significance of the hand; more information here.

Thursday November 14

• World Diabetes Day
• 10am: Tech Inspection and Contingency, where the team will be handing out Hero Cards and boxes of crayons with info about WDD and the warning signs of diabetes
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• 7pm: Mandatory SCORE Driver’s meeting
• 11pm:  The official Race Start – Pro Motorcycles, Pro ATVs, Sportsman Motorcycles, Sportsman ATVs.

Friday November 15

• Noonish: Class 11s off the line. They have 36 hours to complete the course.

Sunday November 17

• Race finish and Awards Ceremony

Follow the race

Listen: This year, you can listen to the  Weatherman’s Broadcast on the SCORE website. This is good news. Weatherman’s LIVE Feed begins Thursday at 11:00pm. If you’re not familiar, Weatherman is the race radio feed that provides relay and assistance to racers. It’s a key communication tool for those of us managing team communications from home — keeps us informed about booby traps, accidents, pile-ups and DNFs.

Watch: Scroll down on this page to watch live race coverage. Tracking will update every 2.5 minutes. If their site limps under the load, you can view the same map on Trackleaders.com. Their smart phone app should be available soon.

Carmen and I will also communicate with 1107 and the chase vehicles via Sat phone. We’ll Twitter/Facebook updates as often as we can for family and friends.

If you need to get in touch with me, please email Roxanne at diabetes (at) desertdingo.com.