Seriously, it looks like 1107 birthed a race transmission.
A good amount of work done this weekend. Got the majority of the interior painted. White because its easy to find bolts when you drop them in a white interior. And we do that a lot. Crusty got most of the refreshed steering box installed, except for this one thing.
Bob dropped off our heads with a guy to get them massaged after a year of abuse and will be hunting junkyards for two new beams this coming week.
We also got Bob’s shade structure installed, which will be 1107’s winter home. We also mostly got 1107 into it except Crusty and I are old and for the life of us we couldn’t get wheels pointed in the right direction so we basically wadded the car into place and dragged the shade structure over it.
Desert Dingo Racing co-founder Mike “Skid” Aquino passed away overnight.
Skid was the first person to hear my idea (after Roxanne) about winning the Baja 1000 in an old VW Beetle.
“I’ve got this DVD on racing the Baja 1000,” I told him on the phone. “We can do this.”
“You’re nuts,” he said.
The next night we were on the sofa in his apartment, drinking beers, watching the DVD. When it ended he said “I think we can do this.”
Mike bought the 69 VW Beetle that became 1107. From a guy taking it to a junk yard the next day but wanted it to go to a good home.
“I didn’t have the heart to tell him what we were going to do to it,” he said.
Mike pulled together the original team. Because he lived with Type 2 diabetes, I reached out to the International Diabetes Federation to raise money for their education and awareness programs. We got the reputation as “The Diabetes Guys” because we ran the World Diabetes Day blue circle logo in English and Spanish on the car doors.
He was funny, impatient, snarky, smart and did whatever it took to prepare 1107 to race. When things got tense, he reminded everyone why we were doing this.
Back in 2008, when we had 1107 on display at Fisherman’s Wharf for the American Diabetes Association annual conference, Mike said he wasn’t feeling well, but showed up anyway. Shortly afterward, he suffered kidney failure and went on dialysis. He also got on the list for a kidney replacement, which in the best case takes years.
Earlier this year doctors found a spot on one of his kidneys and it was cancer. They removed it successfully but he had to go cancer-free for a couple of years before he could start again at the back of the line for a new kidney.
A month ago he wasn’t feeling well, went to the emergency room and shortly afterward underwent open heart surgery. I’d left him a message, not having heard from him in a while. This is what I got back.
“Hey Jim. It’s Mike. Three words for you. Open. Heart. Surgery. Give me a call.”
I called back, caught him during physical therapy and said I’d call again. He got out of the hospital on Tuesday and moved in with his dad. His incredibly wonderful girlfriend Wendy said today she’d spoken with him Thursday afternoon, he sounded great and seemed very happy.
He passed away sometime overnight.
The world lost a great human being when Mike passed.
I lost a friend.
It was my 50th birthday yesterday and now that I qualify for the Denny’s discount I plan to eat my weight in Grand Slam breakfasts. Our good friends with Two Larrys Racing sent me these, but I’m pretty sure they’re for dogs.
Dave ‘n Romy powering through the high banked turn at Prairie City.
Gah! Video editing takes forever. But one gets to see great stuff. Here are two shots from the third moto of the second day of racing at Prairie City on Halloween weekend.
