Desert Dingo Racing

Category: The Car

  • Short course racing in a Class 11

    This is basically what it’s all about.

  • We’re looking for a few good members


    Hey, that’s us on the 2011 VORRA calendar/poster!

    We’ve had a couple of folks retire from the team, so I posted the following ad to Craigslist and The Samba…

    Baja 1000 race team recruiting, parts also – $1 (scotts valley)

    Desert Dingo Racing, a Class 11 VW team that races the Baja 1000 and off road desert races in California and Nevada, is looking for a couple of new team members.

    We campaign a Class 11 Stock Bug in the Valley Off Road Racing Association and the Baja 1000. We finished third in class in SNORE in 2009 and second in class in VORRA in 2010. We’ve done the Baja 1000 three times (yet to finish).

    Class 11s are the slowest of the slow, and yet we’re a fan favorite. If you’re unfamiliar with Stock Bug racing, check out this clip from “Dust to Glory.” Now check out our media coverage. We also raise money for diabetes awareness and education programs in partnership with the International Diabetes Federation.

    Reasons for joining the team:

    • You get to say “Baja 1000? Yeah, I race that.”
    • You have more money than sense.
    • You like signing autographs and look good in a race suit.
    • You want to justify that lifted Tacoma as your daily driver.

    Reasons for clicking on the next ad:

    • You have an aversion to grease, bitter cold, sleeping in the dirt, using a catheter or suffer from avian bone syndrome.
    • The idea of spending weeks prepping a 40 year old Volkswagen for a few hours of awesomeness doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.
    • You have difficulty hedging about “where all that money went.”

    Check us out online at http://www.desertdingo.com

    Jim

    P.S. Honor and recognition in case of success.

    P.P.S. To qualify as a classified, I’m willing to sell our leftover Volkswagen parts, of which we have many.

  • Power slide

    Dingo team member Paul Hartl looking awesome shortly before stuffing it into a snowbank.

    Paul is lamenting that there’s the equivalent of a heat wave in Eastern Canada turning his ice racing season to mush. Out here in California, it’s been raining for a week, putting us behind schedule.

    Pray for sun. At least for California. Snow for Paul.

  • 1107 2.0 gets a coat of paint

    Shawn works his Harbor Freight magic.

    Because time isn’t on our side, we’re working on the new body in one location and the pan and roll cage in another. Earlier today Shawn and his much cooler friend Essan Gallo came over to primer 1107 2.0 and lay down the first quart of Rustoleum gloss enamel white to see how it would take.

    We put up Scott’s easy up because the trees around my house drop pine needles by the bushel. We opted for a brown Rustoleum primer because, if the car gets scratched (and it will), it will be easier to spot where we need to do touch ups. This is standard practice in the U.S. Navy, which lays down three or four different colors of paint on ships to ID when they hit something.

    Four days of rain in the forecast. We’ll be moving the pan and roll cage to a new workspace soon. More news coming this week.

    Photos from today’s work day here    . Video to come.

    A street legal VW Dakar Touareg 3

    VW is floating the idea of a street-legal Dakar Touareg 3. If they do it, I’ll knock over a bank to lay down a deposit.

  • Stripped


    Sure we’ll be ready for Prairie City.

    The body finally came off today. Not without drama. But it’s off. And this is what a Class 11 looks like stripped bare. Photos here.