Desert Dingo Racing

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  • Team meeting and BBQ


    Richard ripping it up and Bob holding on for dear life during a practice run at last weekend’s VORRA races.

    I swear this is my last video from the VORRA series this weekend, unless someone wants bloopers and out takes.

    Team meeting tonight at Dingo sommelier “Busboy” Bob’s backyard, complete with BBQ. General consensus, last weekend’s racing went as well as could be expected. We need to get there earlier and practice more. The term “hole shot” was bantied about. Longer term we need a second transmission, to completely rewire the car and label everything this time and sometime before the June race in Reno we need to replace the roof and repaint the car.

    As of right this moment, we’ve had 806 downloads of our iPhone and Android apps (which you can download by clicking on the appropriate icon on the right). Recent coverage in DesertNewz and Diabetes Health magazine, and we were apparently included in last week’s episode of Baja Unlimited on the Outdoor Channel. A very unique media story in the works.

    Much more to come this weekend.

  • Photo recap – VORRA season opener

    Lefty and Bob, fresh off the first moto.

    Wrapping up coverage of the VORRA season opener with this gallery of photos.

  • Night racing is a whole ‘nother animal

    At night, in Baja, sometimes the conversation turns to muskrats.

    It’s tough to describe what it’s like to be strapped into an off road race prepped ’69 VW Beetle at night for hours on end in the Baja 1000 when there’s nothing around you and all you can see is what the driving lights show you and what the GPS tells you is coming. In “Dust to Glory“, nine time Baja 1000 winner Eric Solorzano said he saw a UFO. In 2007, I saw animals running across the course. But nothing beats this conversation between the Ford F-150 Raptor driver and co-driver running a night section of the 2008 Baja 1000 from the documentary “Born in Baja.”

    Driver: “That was a bobcat trail. Bobcats would run up and down there. Chasing the gazelle. And the muskrat. Can…can they chase a muskrat? Does that even work?”

    Co-driver: “Yeah.”

    Driver: “They can?”

    Co-driver: “I dunno.”

    Driver: “That’d be like breakfast, or just a snack or what?”

    Co-driver: “For a bobcat?”

    Driver: “Yeah.”

    Co-driver: “It’d be…breakfast.”

    Driver: “Bobcat eating a muskrat. That sounds like an old rock song. Something Bob Dylan would sing. That voice…”He was a bobbbbbbcat. Chasin’ a muskrat.”

    Transmissions have been dropped off at Bradford’s. Between those and finishing the engine, we’re ready to race.

    Here’s the best video of an amateur driver and co-driver racing Nurburgring ever laid to digital video:

  • 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:

  • And we make the DirtSports 2010 calendar


    That’s us, the white one, behind red Bug, and the blue one.

    We’re in fifth place off the line because we’re “drafting.”