We crossed the border and made our way down the Highway 1 toll road to Rosarito, about half an hour south of Tijuana. Rosarito Beach is seeing its share of growth – with a new Home Depot and big box store complex on the north side of town – but for all intents and purposes, it’s still a small beach town.
We parked the RVs and trailered car in front of a Smart & Final and waited for Eric Solorzano, the nine-time Baja 1000 winner, who would take us to where we’d spend the night. We handed out a good number of hero cards and boxes of crayons to kids coming with their folks to the store.
Eric showed up after sunset and guided us to a yard big enough for all of our vehicles, including everyone coming in over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday. It wasn’t til the next morning that I realized we were sharing it with two horses, three chickens, four dogs and were a block from the beach.
Midday Saturday we towed the car up to Eric’s shop in Tijuana and got to work. One of Eric’s suppliers is fabbing a set of brass braided brake shoes, so the car will stop as quickly as it accelerates. We’re moving the front shock reservoirs into the wheel wells so that they get more air (for cooling). Richard and Crusty tweaked the steering to maximize our left and right turning ability.
On Sunday they’ll add a short throw Empi shift with reverse lockout, complete welding on the left turn stop, install the shock reservoirs, and install a chain on the back of the motor fan shroud. I’ll probably play with the car cameras and load the detailed course data into the GPS unit. Seth, our head logistics and lead chase truck person, arrives today.
Here’s a gallery of photos from Saturday.
