Category: Baja 1000 2013

That sound you hear is the sound of relief.

It’s not the prettiest race car, but it’s ours. And today it drove down the road under its own power. Much to the annoyance of our neighbors, I’m sure.

Today’s crew included Crusty, Toby, Rosh, Nick, Fiamma, Carmen, Dave, Jake, Roxanne and me. Though I mostly just sat in a lawn chair and surfed the internets.

Romy rebuilt the engine, got it installed last weekend and we fired it up for the first time today. Here’s what that sounds like. I’m the paranoid one asking about the oil.

The team worked their asses off today. Almost all the electrical is done. Fuel cell is in and is not coming out again and the fueling system is dialed. Seats are in. Battery in. GPS in and working. We got the last of the tires from Dixon & Sons, who mounted them on all the right rims. we got the wheels painted. Roxanne made great progress on the logistics guide. I got all the radios tested and sorted all our giveaways.

At one point this conversation took place:

Toby: “What the fuck?!”
Me: “I don’t want to hear that!”
Toby: “I mean ‘Right on! Great success! Yeah!’”

Crusty will spend the next two days installing the air filter and then dialing in a few other things. On Wednesday he shifts to packing up spare parts, tools and all the other stuff we’ll take with us.

Here are approximately one million photos taken this weekend:

Nick Davis works his welding magic on our spare beam.

We had a good chunk of the team at the house this past weekend working on spare part, getting our Lifetime LED Lighting lights installed and approximately one million other things we needed to get done for the race.

This is what it’ll look like when we’re about to pass you.

All this makes sense to Toby.

All hands on deck.

Romy is here today to dial in the engine. All the tired are on the right rims, courtesy of our sponsor Dixon & Son Tires (and they delivered them!).

A big final push this weekend and then we head to Mexico on Nov. 9. Photos from this past weekend.

Oh yes, we’ll be ordering a bunch of these:

This is the part of the race I want to drive.

SCORE has released the preliminary GPS file of the Baja 1000, which means I’ve been flying the course in Google Earth.

If you want to see what the course looks like by “flying” it, here’s what you do:

1. Download the KML version of the GPS track here.
2. Launch Google Earth.
3. Open the KLM file in Google Earth.
4. On the Google Earth sidebar on the left, look for the “Places” section and under it look for “2013 SCORE Baja 1000”. Make sure the box mark next to it is checked.
5. Click the small triangle to the left of “2013 SCORE Baja 1000” so that a menu appears underneath it. It looks like this:
6. 
7. Select the 1 Section A 19D-fil by checking the box next to it.
8. Click this button  which is in the lower right section of the Places section of the menu bar.

That should get you flying.

And here’s SCORE’s briefing on the course:

Stuart, the new guy gets all the crappy jobs.

Today’s crew included Stuart, who will be running a chase truck for us, Toby, who focused on electrical, Crusty and Dave, who welded, and me, who mostly sat in a lawn chair working on the computer.

Tire nachos, courtesy of Roxanne.

The fuel cell container – which has taken a bit longer than we expected – is completed. Still need to run the fill hose and the vent, but I’ve been assured that will go quickly.

Toby takes time out from wiring the driving lights to turn a perfectly good pair of jeans into a sketchy pair of jorts.

Stuart powered through painting all the wheels in blue until he was overcome by fumes. I followed through and shot them with rattle can rustoleum and they’re looking pretty good. Stuart also handled touchups on the interior.

Dave keeps track of what’s left to be done.

I honestly think the car will be ready for the engine (which Toby is working on now), by next weekend. We may actually get some testing in.

Carmen paints a secret message onto 1107’s hood.

Dave and Carmen jointed Crusty and me for the official start of buttoning up of 1107. We’ll have a crowd tomorrow to continue battening things down.

I made a rocket run to Dixon & Son Tires this morning to drop off all our tires. We’ve ordered some new vintage military tires and had a set General Tire tires provided by new sponsor Wallentine Motorsports. Crusty will pick them all up next week.

Dave & Crusty confab on something.

With Carmen focused on paint, Dave and Crusty worked on finishing up welding support for the fuel cell (moved to the back of the car) and fabbing a mount for the new winch that will go in the front.

Brad McCarthy, founder of Maxtrax, who is providing us with a set of sand ladders, sent us a photo of an actual dingo.

More folks arriving tomorrow. We should make a lot of progress toward buttoning up the car.