Desert Dingo Racing

Category: VORRA

  • Nine days to our first race of the season and counting

    This light bar has nothing to do with what I’m about to write, but it took me all winter to paint, clear coat and install the TrailGlow HIDs, so you’re gonna have to check it out.

    We head out on Friday, March 19, for Prairie City for our first race of the 2010 season and between now and then we need to get the skid plate and bumper integrated, our transmission put back together and the engine installed. Piece of cake.

    Creech is trailering 1107 to the race. Seth is cooking for everyone. Robert and Mike have been putting the finishing touches on the newly rebuilt engine. Skid will be there. Crusty and I will be working on integrating the skid plate with the rear bumper this weekend (technically, Crusty will be doing it and I’ll be standing around). Also, I’ve volunteered to do scoring because, as I told the organizers, “it makes it easier for me to black flag any other Stock Bugs that get too far ahead of us.”

    Am I missing anyone?

    While I can’t mention any names, I want to thank the anonymous sponsor who is providing us with equipment we need and who, for reasons I entirely understand, doesn’t want to be mentioned. Thank you.

    So remember how, in the The Sporting Life interview, I said my favorite race vehicle of all time was one of the Kamaz trucks that won Dakar? Here’s a video and photos validating that statement.

    Now if only I can convince our team manager to take a vacation to Russia in the winter.

  • The magic’s gone

    I’m sure this will make sense as it relates to 1107 at some point.

    Crusty came by the office and dropped off “Prepare to Win” (new copies go for $600) and “Tune to Win” ($14.95 new), by Carroll Smith, both published in the late 70s.

    Mind you, I maintain that the internal combustion engine works “by magic” and expecting me to understand these is about the same as giving a chimpanzee a copy of “Godel, Escher and Bach” and expecting it to expound intelligently on self-referencing objects.

    So here’s what Smith says on the first page of “Prepare to Win”.

    “THERE IS NO MAGIC! The one basic truth of successful race car preparation bears repeating. THERE IS NO MAGIC. There is only logic, common sense, forethought, vast amounts of hard work and a fanatic dedication to the task at hand.”

    Great.

    Another work day this Sunday. Three weeks til our first race of the season.

  • Scenes from Battle at Primm

    Shot of Jason Mace (1169) doing visualization exercises in advance of his very first race at Battle at Primm.

    The cool thing about running the blog is that you can pick on other racers and, unless they know how to configure WordPress, they’re pretty much powerless to fight back.

    We’ve switched from SNORE to VORRA (our first race is in three weeks), but SNORE went first with the Battle of Primm out at fabulous Primm, Nevada. You can see Jason and all the other SoCal Class 11s in this video from OMA productions.

    (thanks to Pepper Cote of Tut Tech Racing for passing along the photo of Jason)

  • Prepping for Prairie City

    Ricardo demonstrates his superior penmanship.

    We’ve got three weeks til our season opener race at Prairie City and it finally stopped raining long enough for us to get some work done on 1107. Bob grabbed the engine and promised to bring it back next week ready to run. Crusty is working his way through the engine compartment, using an oxyacetylene torch to reinforce seams and welds. Bradford is working on our transmissions. We may have 1107 ready to race as early as next weekend.

    While it has nothing to do with off road racing, congrats to Canada for winning Olympics mens hockey.

    A gallery of photos from today’s work.

  • Feature on Desert Dingo Racing in The Sporting Life

    Brett Svatek did a piece on the team and I spent most of my time talking about eating.

    INTERVIEW: Jim Graham – Desert Dingo Racing
    The Sporting Life, February 24, 2010
    Jim Graham and his Desert Dingo racing team set out to conquer the Baja 1000 in a car that most people wouldn’t feel safe driving to the 7-11…they are truly living The Sporting Life.