Desert Dingo Racing

Category: The Car

  • We apparently raced the San Felipe 250 after all

    Apparently a shot of us tearing it up at last weekend’s San Felipe 250.

    Bob worked overnight and through this morning, reporting at 1 p.m. today that he had disassembled, replaced a seized main engine bearing, reassembled and tested the engine. We will be ready to race come Saturday and Sunday.

    El Jeffo, who handle chase duties for us in his tres cool International Harvester whenever we pass through San Felipe (and who is kind enough to let us crash at his place whenever we’re in the area) shot these photos of 1102 during the San Felipe 250 this past weekend.

    This is us apparently leaping a spectator’s truck. Note the vandalism to the passenger side door. What is it with today’s youth?

    And this is us apparently going up a pretty steep hill.

  • Some days are better than others

    Scott, momentarily not under the car fixing something, fixes something inside the car.

    One week til the the first short course race of the VORRA season and we were all set to button up 1107. Realized that the pulley is tight. Engine was back on the truck. Bob and Mike will be going through it tomorrow. As a backup, we’ll pull 1117’s engine, but we will be racing.

    Some photos from today’s work day.

    It’ll be good as new in a week.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Engine rebuild begins


    The VW Touaregs take first, second and third in the 2010 Dakar Rally.

    Ok, the photo doesn’t have anything to do with us beyond that we both race VWs, but with this being the off season for off road racing in the U.S., I switched to watching the Dakar Rally in South America. Versus had great daily coverage, courtesy of Toby Moody and his production team, but Eurovision set the standard for all off road coverage with its daily coverage. Dakar organizers also set the standard for social media integration during the race. And VW had its iPhone app. Boston.com reprised their 2009 photo essay with a spectacular series of shots from this year’s event.

    Bob reports that the engine will likely be close to finished with the rebuild by the end of the week or first part of next week. We run the engine pretty much non-stop at 6,000 RPM. When we rebuild it, I’m confident it will go to 6,011. The rain has kept us from getting much done, but once we get the transmission issue sorted out and the rear skid plate dialed, we’ll be ready to race.

    With Dakar done, I’m following Marathon Rally and looking forward to Rallye Aicha des Gazelles in March. Nine days, no GPS, sat phones or support trucks. And you navigate with compasses and maps printed in the 1950s. I’m thinking, “Ok, where’s the fun part?” All that aside, the one U.S. team is Emily Sturges Miller and Wendy Fisher. Social media by Miss Motor Mouth, aka Michelle Naranjo. This is what it will be like: