Desert Dingo Racing

Category: Eric Solorzano

  • Desert Dingo Racing featured in Gearbox Magazine

    Get a haircut, hippie

    Someone needs a haircut.

    Gearbox Magazine editor Brian Driggs got it in his head that it might be interesting to do a piece on Desert Dingo Racing. We bounced emails back and forth and this is the result. I love my Stig shirt.

    Desert Dingo: A True Story of “Dust to Glory”

    For those who haven’t seen it yet, “Dust to Glory” is an epic movie about what it takes to run the Baja 1000 in Mexico. There probably isn’t a gearhead on the planet who hasn’t watched that flick and thought, “OMG. I wanna do that.” Jim Graham is one such gearhead, and OMG. He actually went out and did that.

    Read the rest of the story…

  • What I’m thankful for this Thanksgiving


    A much younger Dingo and Scott Anderson.

    Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 2010.

    Thanks to everyone involved in VORRA, for tolerating us Class 11s, stinking up the joint.

    To everyone involved in VORRA Class 11, for the food, snagging the good camping sites, and for Sharpies.

    To Eric Solorzano, for taking my very first phone call.

    To the International Diabetes Federation, for mistakenly thinking we were some big shot racing team.

    Thanks to Joel Ward, for giving me advice in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Ensenada, which I took to heart.

    To Paul Lukey at TrailGlow, for more than can be written in a single sentence.

    To all of our sponsors, for having faith in us.

    To Jason Mace for his electric kool aid acid test VW.

    To Rob Messer, for being the most courteous driver in Class 11 history.

    Thanks to Fidel, for giving us a forum to BS and exaggerate.

    Thanks to every Class 11 driver, co-driver and team member I’ve had the pleasure of hanging out with over the years.

    Thanks to the team – Desert Dingo happens because of you all.

    And, lastly, thanks to Roxanne. Words cannot express…

  • We’re red-shirting the Baja 1000 this year

    Take a meeting
    Shawn and Scott confab on Bob’s futon/sofa during the team meeting.

    We decided Wednesday night to skip the Baja 1000 this year, focus on beating our arch rivals Two Larry’s and a Megan Racing for the Stock Bug season points championship in VORRA and spend the off season doing a body-off rebuild of 1107.

    The issue was financial. The 1000 is our most expensive race, costing close to $8,000 to run in a good year. Because the course this year is a straight shot from Ensenada to La Paz, our fuel bill – always our biggest line item – automatically doubled.

    So the plan is to race the last two VORRA short course races at Prairie City the weekends of Oct. 9 and Oct. 31 and then cut what’s left of 1107’s body away and begin a ground up rebuild. This gives us the time and access we need to make tweaks you can’t otherwise do with the car body on. We’ll replace 1107’s current body with that of a 1970 Bug body now covered in pine needles in the front yard.

    It’s a bummer knowing we won’t be in Ensenada in November, but we’ll be back at it next year and giving nine-time Baja 1000 winner (and good friend) Eric Solorzano a run for his money.

    The wait is almost over

  • San Felipe 250 underway – Eric has the lead

    You could cut the tension with a knife watching the tracking website update every once in a while.

    The San Felipe 250 is underway and at least four of the six registered Class 11s are on the course. I’m suspecting the other two overslept and are parked out at the beach. Eric Solorzano has the lead, followed closely by our buddy Gustavo Garayzar. Scott says he’s already heard Weatherman call one person a “Richard Cranium”. You can track all the VW on VW action here.

  • Feature on Desert Dingo Racing in The Sporting Life

    Brett Svatek did a piece on the team and I spent most of my time talking about eating.

    INTERVIEW: Jim Graham – Desert Dingo Racing
    The Sporting Life, February 24, 2010
    Jim Graham and his Desert Dingo racing team set out to conquer the Baja 1000 in a car that most people wouldn’t feel safe driving to the 7-11…they are truly living The Sporting Life.