There’s a new roof in 1107’s future.
Because we can’t have nice things, we’re going to eventually have to replace 1107’s roof, most likely after the April short course race at Prairie City. We’re meeting Saturday to pull the fenders, engine and transmission and assess the damage. Bob reports he picked up a transmission and four fenders for $100 so we should have plenty to work with.
Also got a couple of cool things to announce in the next week for so for you iPhone and Android owners.
Without clear directions, what do you expect to happen?
Emily Miller and Wendy Fisher (109) are representing the U.S. at the Rally Eaicha des Gazelles (“Gazelles” for short) in Morocco, which you can track in real time here. All-female teams (except for those two guys who crashed it), and they navigate with compasses and 50 year old maps. As if that isn’t hard enough, here were the instructions the teams got this morning:
“We wanted to test something: we are going to give you your roadbooks, but they are… blank! But your route is already marked on your map for the day; the checkpoints are already plotted. The relief is shown as usual; the scale is the same as usual (1:100 000). The difference is that today’s map has no grid lines. We have erased all geographic coordinates and the latitude and longitude scales! You will have only heading and distance to work with. To do that, you only need to know your North, which is given by the line on the left of the map, framing the map legend (which is not in its usual place).”
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!11!! No. Seriously.
For crying out loud, we race a 41-year-old VW Beetle off road in Mexico and the car carries three GPS units, a satellite phone, an SMS-type satellite communications uplink and my iPhone. I’d wire it for cable if the rules let me.
Emily, Wendy and all the racers have my greatest respect. Here’s their blog and Twitter feed.
T-minus 8 hours and counting til we leave for Prairie City. I expect word any minute that the engine is in and tested. Annnnnnny minute.
Ok, now it’s a good engine.
Crusty reports that he, Skid and Bob are making excellent progress on buttoning up 1107 for this weekend’s season opener at Prairie City, just outside Sacramento. Crusty is welding stuff and Bob is putting in the axles. After that, the re-re-built engine goes in, they test it and do final prep. We head out tomorrow after work. I’ll be blogging and live-tweeting the whole weekend.
Here’s the schedule, courtesy of VORRA:
Short Course Event Schedule
March 20 & 21
SATURDAY
8 a.m.-noon
Tech Inspection & Registration
2:30 p.m.
Car & Truck Practice (We’ll be on the track)
5 p.m.
Car & Truck Qualifying (We’ll be on the track)
SUNDAY
8:15 a.m.
Mandatory Drivers Meeting
9-9:30 a.m.
Practice (We’ll be on the track)
9:45 a.m.
First Moto (We’ll be on the track)
11:30 a.m.
Second Moto (We’ll be on the track)
1:15 p.m.
Lunch (!)
1:45 p.m.
Third Moto (We’ll be on the track)
4:30 p.m.
Awards Presentation
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.