Desert Dingo Racing

Category: Photos

  • “Because I was Inverted”

    California Sports Spotlight Photo Design captured 1107 rolling during qualification in advance of the VORRA season opener on March 20, 2010. Shawn had his bell rung but is all right. We used pry tools and Seth’s truck’s winch to pull out the dents and had the car ready to race the next morning. We lost the first moto, won the second and blew our transmission during the third. Where else can you say you blew a transmission, lost two races, essentially totaled a race car and can still call it a great weekend?

    We even came home with a donated spare roof, passenger door and pan, courtesy of Jeff “Weasel” Lee and the 1106 Petfinder.com Class 11. And congrats to Gary, Cody, and The Green Booger for taking the win.

    And now, on with the show.

    Wait til you see the in-car video. Also, larger photos here.

  • Nine days to our first race of the season and counting

    This light bar has nothing to do with what I’m about to write, but it took me all winter to paint, clear coat and install the TrailGlow HIDs, so you’re gonna have to check it out.

    We head out on Friday, March 19, for Prairie City for our first race of the 2010 season and between now and then we need to get the skid plate and bumper integrated, our transmission put back together and the engine installed. Piece of cake.

    Creech is trailering 1107 to the race. Seth is cooking for everyone. Robert and Mike have been putting the finishing touches on the newly rebuilt engine. Skid will be there. Crusty and I will be working on integrating the skid plate with the rear bumper this weekend (technically, Crusty will be doing it and I’ll be standing around). Also, I’ve volunteered to do scoring because, as I told the organizers, “it makes it easier for me to black flag any other Stock Bugs that get too far ahead of us.”

    Am I missing anyone?

    While I can’t mention any names, I want to thank the anonymous sponsor who is providing us with equipment we need and who, for reasons I entirely understand, doesn’t want to be mentioned. Thank you.

    So remember how, in the The Sporting Life interview, I said my favorite race vehicle of all time was one of the Kamaz trucks that won Dakar? Here’s a video and photos validating that statement.

    Now if only I can convince our team manager to take a vacation to Russia in the winter.

  • Engine teardown


    Mike in mid-engine teardown.

    Bob brought his ace engine guy Mike over today to help us tear apart the engine and decide how much of a rebuild we needed. Initially we planned to just change the rings, but on closer inspection we decided to do a complete teardown so we can start the season with an absolutely fresh engine.

    Crusty focused on a redesign of our rear bumper, valence and skid plate, so that the whole back end mounts as a unit. Here’s a gallery of shots from today’s work day.

  • Winter teardown commences

    Bob jacks up 1104 in preparation for removing the engine.

    1104 moved from my place over to Desert Dingo Racing HQ (aka “Richard’s place”) to begin winter tear down. Powerwashed, engine pulled, transmission pulled, light bar removed, CV joints pulled. We’ve got three months to prep the car for the first race of the 2010 season. A lot of ideas to improve it. Gallery of today’s photos here.

    Also, this is the greatest off road video I’ve seen in ages. Props to Trophylite.

  • Desert Dingoes makes Wired.com

    Bob Russell runs through an electrical systems check the night before the Baja 1000.

    The folks at Wired.com’s Autopia blog did a great piece on the Rugged Text and Track satellite communications system from EMS SkyConnect and on our illuminated number panels from TrailGlow. You can check it out here…