Desert Dingo Racing

Tag: Caliente 250

  • Deconstructing 1107

    Crusty and Robert take a meeting.

    Our next race – the KC Hilites Midnight Special – isn’t until early August, so we’re taking the time to take the car apart and go through it with a fine tooth comb…something we’ll do to varying degrees after every race.

    Crusty worked the past couple of days removing the seats and fenders and today he and Bob pulled the engine, drained the fuel cell and began inspecting things like wheel bearings and brake shoe wear. We made the decision to move the front shock reservoirs back into the space that usually holds the spare tire. We’d moved then under the fender wells to increase the airflow, but found that they were too difficult to work around and the hostes from the shocks to the reservoirs were fraying.

    Shawn put in a good amount of time today primering things like bumpers and fenders (rust is a big issue for bare metal parts). Seth is writing up his notes from Wednesday’s team meeting and we’ll shortly have our marching orders.

    Some photos from today’s work here    .

  • Food, folks and logistics

    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).

    A photo gallery of us eating is here.

    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.

  • Photos from the Caliente 250

    1107 blows past a Class 9 at the Caliente 250. (Ok, it could happen).

    Bob was kind enough to shoot some photos at the Caliente 250, where, as previously mentioned, we finished third. Next up, in August, is the KC Hilites Midnight Special at Ridgecrest, California, on August 8. This race is unique in that it’s run entirely at night. Should be interesting.

    Bob’s photo gallery is here    .

  • Waiting on a bowden tube

    This should be a walk in the park. A rocky, silt-filled, multi-water-crossing walk in the park.

    “Busboy” Bob Russell reported in just now with an update on car preparation. First thing they had to do was purchase a disposable phone (just like the terrorists use!) because Caliente doesn’t have cell service for AT&T.

    With that out of the way, they mounted the new BF Goodrich 7.00×15 tires, which give us an additional 1.5-2 inches of clearance in the back. We’re now approaching Monster Truck levels of ground clearance. Thanks to everyone at Skip’s Tires, one of our sponsors, for mounting those for us.

    A serious issue for us is that technical courses like Caliente have a tendency to chew up tires, primarily by sharp rocks cutting into the sidewalls. These new tires have six-ply sidewalls and Bob reports it will require an act of God to puncture one of them.

    They’re holding off on installing the skid plates until receiving a new bowden tube from a VW shop in Vegas. Once that’s done, they’ll install everything and run the car through contingency this evening.

    #1111 (Felipe Neri-Sanchez) and #1101 (Robert Johnson) are also on site in Caliente.

    You can check out a larger version of the Caliente 250 map here.

  • Pre-running is essential

    Creech practices his pre-running at the outlet mall in Primm, Nevada.

    Richard’s out of cell phone range, so an update on how today’s car prep and pre-running will have to wait.