We’ve been working with the great people at the International Diabetes Federation in Brussels, Belgium since before our first attempt on the Baja 1000 back in 2007. We’re the official World Diabetes Day race car and take every opportunity at races to distribute information (like our hero cards) to race fans. We also do a drive-a-thon fundraiser to support the IDF’s education and awareness programs.
They’ve just announced their new campaign for 2009-2013 and we’re looking forward to helping them spread the word. The key messages are:
Know the diabetes risks and know the warning signs
Know how to respond to diabetes and who to turn to
Know how to manage diabetes and take control
They’ve done some great graphic design work and I’m hoping I can convince them to send us some of the posters to distribute at the Baja 1000 this coming November.
An army marches on tri-tip, salmon bruschetta and wine.
The team gathered at Scott’s place earlier this week (he totally has a custom-built motorcycle displayed in his living room) to celebrate our third place finish in SNORE’s Caliente 250 and to start mapping out logistics for future races and the Baja 1000.
After a phenomenal dinner prepared by Scott & Carrie, we settled in to talk our way through the car from front bumper to exhaust pipe, mapping out what we need to do to improve the car, what spares we need and map out what we’ll be doing between now and the KC Hilites Midnight Race to up our game. A.J. updated everyone on the progress on AWACS and Francis (more on this later).
I haven’t mentioned this to Roxanne yet, but I’ll be entering separately to reprise Mouse’s 2003 solo ride on the course. Creech gives me my first lesson.
Scott qualifying for his pilot’s license at the 2008 Baja 1000.
Just ordered a couple of print copies of these photos from Trackside Photo. Jim Ober and his team are some of the best shooters who cover all the major races.
I’ll be out of town, but the team meets on Sunday to continue prep work on the car for the Mint 400 coming up March 26-29 in Vegas.
Here’s what’s on the to do list, courtesy of Busboy Bob:
Spare for trailer -Skid
Shock sent back to Bilstien – Richard
Tie Rod repair and improvement – Scott
2x new rear tires – Richard
Move transponder bracket – Scott/Richard
Repair front fender mount – Bob & Scott
Oil Change – Bob
Valve Check – Bob
Air Filter Check/clean – Creech
Make all hardware metric – Creech/Scott
Skid plate made into 1 piece/fix – Scott
Move air pump switch – Shawn
Inspect/replace/ grease wheel bearings –
New Zerts – Bob
Lower front seat – Creech/Richard
Cheap shock spares – Bob
Blue/Amber lights – sCary
Spark plug check – Bob
Power wash car –
Paint fenders – Shawn
Clean seats –
Ball joint replacement –
Tool Bag – Bob
With Scott’s additions:
Portable power washer for track
Portable air compressor for track
Fix the brushes on that damnable angle grinder
Gaffer tape for in-car toolbag
Rear-facing camera mount
Appoint camera czar
Source half-axles and bus CV spares.
Wire brush for toolkit
Source spare studded drum
Fab & weld footbrace for navigator
Ok, so we didn’t make the NBC broadcast of the Baja 1000. To the best of my recollection, there was a brief glimpse of just one Class 11.
For those of you who want to relive the glory, Race-Dezert is replaying the entire recording of the Weatherman channel starting late Friday night, coinciding with exactly what was broadcast a few weeks ago. Weathernan is the air traffic controller of everything going on during the race. We usually switch between him and the Baja Pits frequencies. But if you want the big picture of what’s going on, who’s broken down and who’s out of the race, you listen to Weatherman.
I’ll probably set the alarm to get up at 2:10 a.m. to hear myself radio Weatherman and let him know we are out of the race.
Here’s how Race-Dezert describes it:
This Saturday (12-20-08) we will re-broadcast the last Baja 1000 weatherman audio stream. Lots of you guys were at the race and could not experience it the way those in front of a computer did that day. This is your chance.
We will start replaying it here at the same time of day. For example what happened 10am race day of the Baja 1000 live will be re-played here on RDC on Saturday at 10am. Technically the audio stream will start late Friday night because that’s when we started to record the Weatherman radio channel. However the more relevant content will be Saturday during the day when the SCORE Baja 1000 race unfolds.
The re-broadcast will be in a better experience then what you may have heard on race day. It’s a recording of what Weatherman hears and responds to while during the race. Often you can just hear one part of the conversation due to physical limits of radio waves.
For those that don’t know, Weatherman is Bob Steinberger’s nickname (Owner and founder of PCI). He is the volunteer that handles SCORE’s official 2-way radio communication during the Baja 1000. Radio conversation contains race car status, emergencies, vehicle break downs, Chase and support teams efforts and anything in between.
Since there’s no video of us from the Baja 1000, here’s a couple of great clips. Up top is rally car racer Ken Block doing some practice driving. I think after we win the Baja 1000, we switch to rally driving and Skid can drive the Segway (in the video). And below is, without question, the most awesome road test of any car ever invented, courtesy of Top Gear UK.
