Desert Dingo Racing

Category: Media Coverage

  • Desert Dingo Racing teams with GoPro to capture, upload video during Baja 1000

    GoPro Motorsports digital video camera

    October 30, 2008, San Jose, Calif, — Desert Dingo Racing and GoPro have teamed to capture and broadcast high quality digital in-car video during the 41st Annual Baja 1000 offroad race in Mexico this November.

    Desert Dingo Racing competes in Class 11, which is limited to pre-1983 Volkswagen Beetles and allows for only minor modifications to the engine and suspension. The Desert Dingo VW (No. 1102) is the official World Diabetes Day car in the race and the team is hosting a drive-a-thon fundraiser to raise money for diabetes awareness and education programs conducted by the International Diabetes Federation.

    “We’ve tested a couple of different camera setups in the car and were never satisfied with the results,” said Desert Dingo team member Jim Graham. “GoPro’s Motorsports HERO unit is extremely durable – which is crucial for desert racing – and the 170-degree field of view will let us capture all the action.”

    Read the entire press release here.

  • First GPS track released

    GPS waypoints for 2008 Baja 1000 course

    SCORE released the initial GPS track for the race. We purchase a more detailed version that loads into the Lowrance GPS unit mounted in front of the co-driver. It’s a bit more detailed and has cool little skull and crossbones icons that warn of things like sheer cliffs, deep water and boulder protruding into the course.

    If you want to check it in Google Earth, you can download the KML file here.

    Less than three weeks til we depart. We’ll drive to San Diego on Nov. 12, spend the night, then drive to Rosarita Beach the next morning and spend the next week with Eric Solorzano (who starts in front of us) tweaking the car and pre-running sections of the course.

    Car still needs to be painted. That will happen next Sunday most likely. And we’re waiting on two digital video cameras that we’ll mount to capture in-car footage, that, if everything goes as planned, we’ll upload to the Internets during the race.

    Still only three teams in Class 11 – Eric, us and Alaskan Michael Brown, who I’ve heard is making his first run at the race. I expect a few more will register in the next week or so.

    If you’re checking in from seeing the KPIX, howdy. If you can spare a few dollars, we’d love it if you pledged to our drive-a-thon fundraiser. Even a penny or five cents a miles would be fantastic. And 100% of the money goes toward diabetes awareness and education programs managed by the International Diabetes Federation. You can donate by clicking on the “Donate” button on the upper right side of this web page.

    You might want to bookmark this page. On the day of the race you’ll be able to track us in real time on Google maps. One of the GPS transponders on the car relays our car number (1102), position and speed and updates every two minutes. We’ll be using this to keep our chase trucks updated on the race car’s location, because it’s almost impossible to communicate via radio unless you’re pretty close to each other.

    Any questions or comments? Shoot me a note at jim@desertdingo.com .

  • KPIX interviews the team

    The team with Kim and Greg.

    KPIX sports reporter Kim Coyle and cameraman Greg (who swims from Alcatraz for fun) came by last night to do an advance piece on our planning for this year’s Baja 1000.

    KPIX followed our exploits last year and you can check out the pieces here, here, and here.

    I’m going to be uploading in-car video to them during the race. Looks like I’m going to have to rent that satellite uplink after all.

    The first piece should air after this Sunday’s 49er’s game. Photos from the video shoot are here.

  • Ramping up for the 1000

    Spanish language version of our hero card

    The 1000 is staring at us and we’re ramping up. We’ll be working Saturday and Sunday on the car, taking care of details here so we can focus on pre-running and final tweaking in Mexico.

    I’ll have more info on this in a future post, but we’re working with the Federacion Mexicana de Diabetes to have a booth on Contingency Row on Thursday and Friday of Race Week distributing information on diabetes. One of the things we’re working on now, thanks to support from the International Diabetes Federation, is distributing hero cards in Spanish, that have the warning signs of diabetes printed on the back.

    Alex Nicholson, PR professional extraordinaire, has been working behind the scenes to help us. So has her mother, Carmen, who was kind enough to translate our hero cars into Spanish. We’ll be distributing Spanish and English versions of the cards down in Ensenada. Thank you, Carmen.

    Here’s the Spanish version of the text on the back of our hero cards, courtesy of Carmen:

    Desert Dingo Racing :: Día Mundial de la Diabetes
    www.desertdingo.com – www.worlddiabetesday.org

    El equipo: Desert Dingo Racing es un equipo conformado por profesionales del ámbito de la alta tecnología, radicados en Silicon Valley, California, que respaldan la participación de un VW Escarabajo Clase 11 en carreras por el desierto en México y en EE UU y que anualmente culminan con la carrera Baja 1000.

    El automóvil:     La clase 11 está limitada a automóviles VW Escarabajo fabricados antes de 1983. Esta clase permite ciertas modificaciones menores del motor así como de la transmisión y de la suspensión. La velocidad promedio típica de la carrera es de aproximadamente 25 mph.

    La carrera    : Baja 1000 es la carrera todo terreno, sin paradas, más larga en el mundo, que incluye a cuadrillas de más de doce países y en exceso de 300.000 espectadores. Coincide con el Día Mundial de la Diabetes, el 14 de noviembre de 2008.

    La meta: Nuestro compromiso con el servicio comunitario va de la mano con nuestro deseo de ganar la carrera Baja 1000. Nos asociamos con la Federación Internacional de la Diabetes (FID) para recaudar fondos y crear conciencia sobre la epidemia creciente de diabetes, que afecta particularmente a la población infantil. El lema de la campaña del Día Mundial de la Diabetes 2008 es “Ningún niño debería morir de diabetes”. Si desea hacer una donación para nuestra carrera de recaudación de fondos, sírvase visitar el sitio web de Desert Dingo. El 100% del dinero recaudado irá directamente a la FID y será utilizado en sus programas de educación y de concientización.

    Las Señales de Alarma de la Diabetes son: Micción frecuente. Sed excesiva. Aumento del apetito. Pérdida de peso. Cansancio. Pérdida del interés o de la concentración. Visión borrosa. Vómitos y dolores estomacales (confundidos frecuentemente con los síntomas gripales). Si usted o algún conocido padece de estos síntomas, sírvase consultar un doctor. Para mayor información sobre la diabetes, visite: www.worlddiabetesday.org.

    You can download a PDF version of our Spanish hero card here.

  • International Diabetes Federation cites Desert Dingo Racing in new press release On World Diabetes Day

    51 days until World Diabetes Day

    Bringing Diabetes to Light: International Diabetes Federation Encouraging Citizens to Raise Awareness and Protect Future Generations

    BRUSSELS, Belgium, September 24, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Theme for 2008 World Diabetes Day – November 14 – is “Diabetes in Children and Adolescents”

    The International Diabetes Federation announced today that it is calling on groups and individuals worldwide to get involved in activities to raise awareness of diabetes in the 50 days leading up to World Diabetes Day on November 14. The theme for this year’s campaign is “Diabetes in Children and Adolescents.”

    Read the entire press release here.