Desert Dingo Racing

Category: The Team

  • Desert Dingo Racing finishes third at the Caliente 250

    No photos to go with this yet – the team is expected to arrive back in Ben Lomond around 6:30 p.m.

    Here’s the details as I know them. First, the morning of the race, 1107 wouldn’t run smoothly and kept dying. The team borrowed an entire ignition system from another Class 11 team, installed it…and…nothing. Then a guy from another team came over, said “Hey, sometimes the carburetor float gets stuck”, he taps it with the handle of a screwdriver and we’re off to the races.

    Bob starts off with Creech co-driving. (Actually Richard, the driver of record, started, then hopped out just after the start line and belted Bob in). First half of the course is reported to be pretty tough. The get stuck at Mile 27 and a truck tows them out of the silt. Creech takes over driving and finishes off the first of two laps.

    Cary starts the second lap with Crusty co-driving. Sometime during the second lap Richard got word that one of the Class 11 teams had broken a spindle, so he headed over to their pit, grabbed one, handed it to a race car heading out with instructions to drop it with the car (SNORE rules require only race cars to deliver spare parts). The part was dropped off, installed and the car was back in the race.

    Crusty crossed the finish line and the team was packing up when they got word that Mark Murrell was broken down eight miles out. Because SNORE wasn’t offering retrieval at this race and Murrell didn’t have anyone with a chase truck, the team went out in Creech’s dually and retrieved Murrell and his car. They spent the night in Vegas and headed out this morning.

    The unofficial results have Felipe Neri-Sanchez taking first place, Robert Johnson taking second and us in third. I expect to get more details (and photos) when I meet the team when they pull in tonight. Next up the KC HILITES Midnight Special July 24-26.

  • Countdown to Caliente

    You can’t see the rain in this photo.

    Work on Sunday focused on getting the engine back in and getting the fenders attached. The team will be working throughout the week to button up 1107 and pack before departing for Vegas Wednesday night.

    Photos of Sunday’s work here.

  • Mint 400 – Race Day



    “In some circles, the Mint 400 is a far, far better thing than the Super Bowl, the Kentucky Derby, and the Lower Oakland Roller Derby Finals all rolled into one.”
    ~ H.S.T.

    (Thanks to Indigo for reminding me about this quote).

    What to say about the race? Scott and Carrie started out at a few minutes after 8 a.m. and set a fierce pace. By the end of the first 101 mile circuit, we had two blown shocks, the radio was kaput and the light bar had fallen off. None of it mattered since they’d moved us up from eighth to fourth place.



    Scott gets to work after finishing the first leg.

    Refueled, light bar re-welded, Richard and Creech tore off around 2:20 p.m. The silt was getting worse, particularly a 100-yard uphill that was stopping all manner of cars. The highlight of their leg, according to Richard, was a half hour,pitched battle with the Pump Gas team, racing side by side. Richard eased off to maintain the car.

    Crusty welding the rear skid plate. Notice the tire mark to the left of rear light cluster. Thank you trophy truck No. 91. Expect a bill for a new fender.

    Coming into the pits, the rear skid plate, which had been dragging, fell off. We knew we couldn’t go back out without it (guaranteed to destroy the underside of the engine). Imagine searching a half mile of track, in the dark, with race cars charging past us. Naturally, Carrie found it, hauled it back to the pits and Crusty bolted and welded it back in place. At 8:20 p.m. Bob took the driver’s seat and I belted in as co-driver.

    We crossed the start/finish line, the flagger waived us and we were out on the course. Two miles out, we high-centered in silt the consistency of talcum powder and three feet deep. An hour of jacking, shoveling, sticking volcanic rocks under the rear tires, pulling with a come-along, more shoveling and we were on solid ground.

    I called the team to let them know we were good to go when we got the word that we’d crossed the start line 20 minutes after the deadline for starting the final lap. Mind you, no one had mentioned a deadline at the driver’s meeting and it wasn’t included in any of the documentation, but we were officially done.

    A chase truck for a Class 15 car stopped and gave us a couple of beers while we waited for extraction. An hour later we decided to save ourselves and drive back over the course we’d already covered.

    Had we known about the deadline, we could have worked around it. Two Class 11s had gone out of the race just a couple miles up the road from us and we could have gone farther than them. But that’s racing.

    We’ll do a post-race debrief, map out what needs to be done to the car, and get to work in preparation for the Caliente 250 in May.

    Thanks to Jason and Annie Mace for finding us the perfect pit spot and for handling refuel duties out at Pit C. Thanks to our sponsors for their unwaivering support.  And thanks to the other teams. We’re having a blast doing this.

  • First day in Las Vegas for the Mint 400

    Carrie signs autographs for some of her biggest fans.

    Creech, Richard, Skid and I drove overnight from Felton to Vegas, pulling somewhere around 5 a.m. Got a couple hours of sleep, wrenched on the car for a bit and then piled into Creech’s 4WD truck to pre-run the Mint 400 course.

    We cried surrender after 15 miles of kidney-slapping driving over dirt roads, river beds, silt and other detritus.

    That evening we hauled the car into town and set up show with a good number of other teams on Fremont Street for the fan meet ‘n greet. We got Scott and Carrie suited up signing the last of our hero cards and handing out boxes of crayons given to us by the International Diabetes Federation that have the warning signs of diabetes printed on the back. (We are, as you recall, the official World Diabetes Day race car in the Baja 1000).

    Here’s a gallery of photos from the meet ‘n greet.

  • One week to the Mint 400 and counting

    Richard works on making our steering situation legal for SNORE and the Mint 400

    The sound (and smell) of precision.

    Major work day in preparation for our Wednesday night departure for Las Vegas and the Mint 400.

    Started with a team meeting to iron out last minute details. Scott will drive the first 100 mile leg with co-driver Carrie. Richard will drive the second leg with Creech as co-driver. Bob will drive the third leg and I’ll co-drive. SNORE rules require that the driver of record (Richard) either start or finish the race, so at the last checkpoint prior to the finish line, Bob will hop out, Richard will take over driving and we’ll get the checkered flag.

    All the logistics are in place, except for those things that you decide when you’re on the scene. We’ll do finishing work on the car Monday and maybe Tuesday and we’re on the road to Vegas Wednesday at 7 p.m. Pacific time.

    Some photos from today’s work.