Desert Dingo Racing

Category: VORRA

  • We make a cameo appearance in the “35 Years of VORRA” video

    I’m still working on figuring out how to photograph our second place season trophy, because it’s crystal clear and pretty much invisible every time I’ve photographed it.

    Until I sort that out, here’s a video put together by Charlene Bower of Bower Motorsports Media for the VORRA awards ceremony a week ago in Lake Tahoe. Congrats to Two Larrys Racing for taking the win and to Bob Messer for taking the inaugural Bug Invasion trophy.

    If it ever stops raining, we’ll pull the rest of the equipment out of 1107 this weekend. I’ll be issuing a press release on Monday on a new sponsor. But that’s Monday. Sunday is NBC’s coverage of the Baja 1000. The teaser is below.

  • Class 11 racing at its best


    Sure this looks like three numbers superimposed on Google Earth, but from the cockpits, these three 11s are racing flat out side by side across the open desert.

    The Best in the Desert series ran the Henderson 250 today. Three 11s started. Once they got through the canyon, they hit a wide open playa and raced head to head. It’s hard to describe what that’s like unless you’ve done it.

    Team meeting Thursday night. Engine and shocks come out tomorrow. Electrical system will be pulled and bagged. Next the body comes off. Winter will be busy.

    We have a cameo in the Bower Motorsports Media coverage of the next to last VORRA short course race of the season.

  • Who I’m tracking live at the 2010 Baja 1000


    Nine time Baja 1000 winner Eric Solorzano saving our bacon, yet again.

    Roger Norman – TT No. 8
    Very good guy. Community oriented. Does the occasional VORRA race. Has never nerfed us. Also runs TrailGlow (our sponsor) illuminated number panels. First off the line and iron-manning the whole race. Pre-ran something like 5,000 miles.

    Robby Gordon – TT No. 1
    I’m pretty sure it’s in the U.S. Constitution that you have to follow Robby Gordon.

    Josh Hall – TT No. 61
    A new TT by Baja Legend Rod Hall. Should be interesting to see how it does.

    Torchmate Racing – No. 601
    Torchmate created the super heavy trophy we got for winning the inaugural Xtreme Outlaws 250 Reno race that’s sitting on my desk. They race VORRA.

    Emily Sturgess Miller – Stock Full H1 Alpha No. 861
    Racing an H1 Alpha Hummer. Does Gazelles.

    Rod Hall
    He’s doing seat time in the new trophy truck (#61) and and the H1 Alpha (#861). He’s in Wikipedia under “badass.”

    Dennis Webb & Yolo Racing – 5/1600 Baja Bug No. 554
    We’ve hung out at a previous 1000. They’re Canadian. Cool guys.

    Sarabia Aja – Class 5/1600 Baja Bug No. 1645
    Sarabia races with Felipe (see below). He and I yammer like little old ladies via Instant Messenger. He’s co-dogging the first 385 miles or thereabouts. Drivers are Hector Sarabia, Eliseo Garcia and Federico Montes.

    Felipe Neri Sanchez & Turtle Speed Racing – No. 1214
    We’ve raced against Felipe in SNORE. He and his team are great people. They beat us.

    All the Class 11s, natch
    Eric Solorzano, mentor and arch rival – No. 1100
    Scott Wisdom – No. 1103
    Matt Cullen – No. 1102
    Alfonso Lacerra – No. 1101

  • Video from VORRA’s Prairie City IV short course race weekend

    A lot of people have been asking me “Jim, how was last weekend’s racing?” and I told both of them “Stop IMing me long enough and I’ll get a video edited.” And here it is.

    This week we start tear down of 1107. Engine out. Shocks out. We start making dashed lines where we’re going to cut the body away.

    A lot in store.

  • It’s a wrap for the 2010 racing season


    One of these cars is really not like the others.

    Here’s my race recap for our final race of the season, the VORRA Prairie City IV that we did over Halloween weekend.

    It was a dark and stormy night when we pulled into Prairie City.

    Ok, technically, it was neither dark nor stormy, but I’ve always wanted to write that.

    So we pull in Saturday morning and all the great spots are taken and I mumble something under my breath about how racers are worse than Mac fanboys when it comes to being first in line for something.

    We have a (relatively) new motor, boosted to 13-to-1 compression. We have something resembling rally car tires, complete with hot knife custom grooving, and between the 1107, 1112 and 1177 entourages, we have enough food to feed an army.

    The team dinks around with the car all day Saturday and does a first run with the new engine Sunday morning during practice. We give it two thumbs up.

    Moto One (Richard driving, Bob co-driving): Richard launches off the line like a man possessed and immediately rockets from first place to third in the span of about five seconds. Halfway through the first lap Rob “The Politest Man You’ll Ever Meet” Messer gets it a little sideways and rolls. With the Green Booger blocked, Richard signals for a right side pass and leads the rest of the moto, beating 1112 by about a second at the finish line. At some point during the moto the announcer tells the crowd that we’ve rolled so many times that I’ve installed our race camera upside down. Always with the jokes, that guy.

    Moto Two (Bob driving, Crusty co-driving): This time its Messer off the line like a man possessed with Bob in hot pursuit. At some point, a 50-cent part in Messer’s distributor breaks and he’s out of the race. Bob has at least a 10-car-length lead over 1112 when I turn to Wes:

    Me: “Ok, we’ve got a huge lead in this second moto. If we won the first moto and win this one, do we even need to do the third race?”

    Wes: “Your car just rolled.”

    Me: “(Expletive).”

    Wes: “That will teach you to count your points before the checkered flag waves.”

    Green Booger takes the win with ease.

    Moto Three (Crusty driving, Shawn co-driving): This time Messer’s driving like he stole it, leading the entire moto and taking the win. The real battle was for second, which we thought was ours until the last few hundred feet when we ran into one of those big tractor tires.

    Bottom line: I’m pretty sure we got second for the day and second in season points. Now begins a body-off rebuild. Watch for 1107 2.0 in March 2011.

    Thanks again to all the VORRA folks (particularly Heather Jacobini who made it not rain most of the time). Also, thanks go to Bradford Racing for again loaning us a trailer because we’re too broke to get one of our own.

    A gallery of photos from this weekend’s racing.