Desert Dingo Racing

Tag: Bonny Doon Airport

  • Photo shoot

    We did the photo shoot today. Like any photo shoot, you need a lot of stuff.

    First, you need a car.

    Second, you need talent. That would be Charlie.

    You need “below the line people” like Skid and Shawn, who showed up fashionably late on Saturday after I already had 2.5 wheels bolted on the car. They did however, cinch 1101 onto Skid’s trailer for the trip to Felton, so that’s cool. Shawn did fix the muffler and Skid did something that made a lot of noise that probably perturbed the neighbors, however.

    Then you need the guy who can pretty much do anything, like “Hey, this tow bar won’t fit. How can we get the car up to the airport?” And he says “My Sawz-All will take care of that.” That would be Richard.

    Then, when you’re on site, there’s everyone who makes it happen. Jeff Luhn, Brooks Institute photographer, Max Davis, who created our brand identity, Roxanne, who handled catering (in the video). Rich and Elvon Hoogner who gave us access to the runway. And Larry, of Larry Electric, who’s the guy you want in your corner who pretty much can do anything when all you need to do is ask. (He’s in the video). Larry provided the boom truck.

    Here’s a video of the morning.

  • A visit to Bonny Doon Village airport

    Bonny Doon Airport runway

    I drove up the the Bonny Doon Airport this afternoon to get a look in advance of next Sunday’s photo shoot. In a word, it’s ideal. Ok, that’s two words.

    Here’s a 30-second video shot with our new Flip, which we’ll be testing as an in-car camera.

    And here’s a Geico commercial from today’s NASCAR race in Mexico City. This kid strangely reminds me of Skid, right down to the toothpick and sunglasses.

  • Prepping for the photo shoot

    Not a lot of excitement today. I met with Shawn at Cary’s. Shawn did all the heavy lifting and changed out wheels on 1101. I dropped them off at Skip’s Tire and Auto Center where they’ll move the good tires onto new rims (including two that Shawn painted red). And we’ll have one new tire put on one of the six or eight new rims we’ve collected since the 250.

    Robert's Class 11 1110 in Watsonville

    Robert in Watsonville, who picked up 1110 from Cameron in SoCal, is headed to Hollister Hills this weekend to take it for a drive. He called and invited us to come down with him. Scott and Carrie will already be down there with their motorcycles, Richard said he’ll drive down with Robert and Skid was looking for an excuse to take his motorhome out on a shakedown cruise.

    All that being said, here’s a couple of funny NASCAR commercials from the Texas Motor Speedway (the only NASCAR track I’ve ever seen, even at a distance) race last weekend:

    and

  • How to simulate being chased by a helicopter

    We’ve scheduled a photo shoot for the car for April 27 at the Bonny Doon Airport. The managers are great folks and, like us, very community oriented. Brooks Institute-trained Santa Cruz photographer Jeff Luhn will do the photography. Larry, of Larry’s Electric, is bringing his boom truck. Why a boom truck, you might ask? Well, we want to simulate a photo of the car being photographed from a helicopter. Something like this, which I got a screen capture from “Dust to Glory”

    To recreate this shot on an airport runway, Jeff says we need 25 pounds of flour. I’m guessing whole wheat.

    (The above shot is of Eric Solorzano’s car, actually being chased by a helicopter).

    We’ll be inviting the airport neighbors to come out and I should have some World Diabetes Day items to give out. If there’s time we hope to give some folks a ride in the car.

    The photo will be used on hero cards that we’ll be printing. They’ll have the photo on the front and the warning signs of diabetes on the back. Our first run will be in English, but in advance of the Baja 1000, we’ll also do a print run in Spanish. We’ll be autographing these and giving them out to fans.

    We’re also working with the International Diabetes Federation on an event in the Bay Area in early June. More on that once we firm up a few details.