Desert Dingo Racing

Category: The Team

  • 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.

  • Finally got the photo gallery updated

    Screen capture of the Desert Dingo Racing photo gallery

    This was long overdue but I finally took some time to add all our work day photo galleries online and (I know this is crazy) labeled them with what we were actually doing, so folks can follow our progress and figure out what we were actually working on each day.

    Also added the shots from the 1000 and the San Felipe 250. You can check them all out here.

    The front part of the transmission gets fedexed off to Transworks today.

  • All hands on deck

    All hands on deck

    First the bad news. We have to ship a piece of the transmission to SoCal to be fixed. The good news is it’s a small piece – a bushing and the “hockey stick” part of the shifter. That goes out to Transworks by Fedex on Monday. Hopefully we’ll have it back by Friday.

    Cary and Scott focused on the front bumper. Richard finished up some welding on the rear end and briefed us on a spares list we’ll start working to collect. Bob and Skid looked after the transmission. Crusty worked on everything. Shawn and I discussed a new paint job. We’re joined by Mike Taylor (of DPW fame), who knows his way around a VW and will be working with Seth on Chase Truck duty.

    Gallery of photos from today’s gathering is here.

  • Front start, bay-bee

    Desert Dingo registration for 2008 Baja 1000

    I just faxed off our down payment for the registration fees for this year’s Baja 1000: $200 to SCORE and mailed a check for $500 for pit support to Baja Pits. (I can’t say enough great things about how well Carlos and his folks took care of us last year).

    We get asked a lot how much it costs to do this race. Here’s a breakdown of the major expenses:

    SCORE International registration fee: $2,075.00

    Baja Pits registration: $500.00

    110 Octane race fuel – 150 gallons @ $8.95 a gallon): $1,342.50

    Then you have individual expenses –

    SCORE membership: $75

    Mexico Tourist visa: $40 (If you want to pay a guy to go to the bank and handle the paperwork for you – which you do.)

    International Driving Permit: $15 (You can get this at AAA).

    Then add to that fuel for the RVs, chase and passenger vehicles that go down. That’s several thousand simoleans.

    But other than that, that’s pretty much it. Granted, that’s not counting construction of the car, spare parts and tires. Our sponsors, like Bilstein and Skips Tire’s, have been great and their support has been invaluable.

    We’re getting together next weekend to start final prep on the car. We’ll be looking at the shift linkage bushings, it needs to be painted, we need to get going on skid plates and Richard will be putting together a checklist that we’ll use to prep the car once we’re down in Mexico.

    Last year we went for a “rear start” – meaning you start at the back of the pack of the cars in your class. Since there were only eight of us in 2007, that mean we got an extra 3 minutes of prep time from when the first Class 11 went off the starting line. This year I’ve decided we’re going out first. We’ll just have to be ready to go three minutes earlier.

  • Skid needs a kidney transplant

    Our friend and teammate Mike “Skid” Aquino needs a kidney transplant. He is currently in the hospital due to kidney failure, likely a complication of his diabetes. If you have Type O blood, please consider being a live donor.

    Currently, the wait time for a donor is 3-6 years, depending on blood type. Until a compatible donor is found, Skid will need to undergo dialysis three times a week.

    This from the UCSF website: “Most kidneys for transplant are from people who have died and whose families give permission for organ donation. However, there are not enough of these organs for everyone who needs one. Nationally, more than 70,000 patients are on the kidney transplant waiting list, and more are added each year. Because of the organ shortage, living donor kidney transplants are an important option. They’re possible because we’re born with two kidneys. When surgeons remove one of the donor’s kidneys, the remaining kidney grows slightly to compensate for the loss of the other and the kidney can function normally.”

    Who pays for expenses?
    Expenses, including the required testing to see if you are a good match, will be paid by Skid’s insurance.

    What is it like to donate a kidney?
    Another member of our team donated a kidney to a friend. If you have questions about what the experience is like, we’ll put you in touch with Seth.

    You can also help by putting the word out. We’ll post updates here. Contact us with questions at info@desertdingo.com