Desert Dingo Racing

Tag: World Diabetes Day

  • Preparing for the Playa

    Scott retrieves a dropped bolt. Or nut. Or wrench.

    Actually Scott is bolting in the co-driver’s race seat. We designed it such that it requires a contortionist to get one of the bolts properly torqued.

    1107 is coming back together now that we’ve had time to go through it from stem to stern. The reinforced bumpers went back on. Shawn even painted them to match the car. Shawn and Bob worked to bleed the brakes. Shawn installed the rear skid plate. Crusty and pretty much everyone worked to re-install the fuel cell.

    Crusty and I fueled the car and I managed to get my first “Sunoco facial”.  Actually, considering how much 110 Octane fuel I spilled on myself because I hadn’t tripped the fuel cell flapper valve, it was more a Sunoco full body wash.

    Skid, Seth, Creech and Crusty will be hauling 1107, sans fenders, out to the Black Rock Desert this week for Fourth of Juplaya for a bit of a shakedown run. Our next race, the KC Hilites Midnight Special, isn’t until August, so we’ve got plenty of time to dial the car in.

    I’ve got a 7 a.m. teleconference with the International Diabetes Federation folks to discuss plans for the World Diabetes Congress in Montreal in October and for World Diabetes Day and the Baja 1000 in November.

    Here’s a gallery of photos from today’s work.

  • International Diabetes Federation announces 2009 World Diabetes Day theme

    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.

  • More prep for the Caliente 250

    Creech dials in our new pit bike.

    A tremendous amount of work accomplished on 1107 this weekend. Crusty continued with his Passion of the Race Car theme and painted the inside of the car and de-rusted the roll cage. He, Scott, Bob and Richard worked on reinforcing the front and rear bumpers. Shawn hammered out a new front driver’s side fender to replace the one I threw off a cliff in a fit at the Mint 400.

    New for the Caliente 250 is that we can use a quick release steering wheel, which makes it quicker to get out of the car. We’ll also have a reinfored bumper to deal with trophy trucks like Bill McBeath’s that trashed us pretty good.

    Some photos from today’s work.

  • First day in Las Vegas for the Mint 400

    Carrie signs autographs for some of her biggest fans.

    Creech, Richard, Skid and I drove overnight from Felton to Vegas, pulling somewhere around 5 a.m. Got a couple hours of sleep, wrenched on the car for a bit and then piled into Creech’s 4WD truck to pre-run the Mint 400 course.

    We cried surrender after 15 miles of kidney-slapping driving over dirt roads, river beds, silt and other detritus.

    That evening we hauled the car into town and set up show with a good number of other teams on Fremont Street for the fan meet ‘n greet. We got Scott and Carrie suited up signing the last of our hero cards and handing out boxes of crayons given to us by the International Diabetes Federation that have the warning signs of diabetes printed on the back. (We are, as you recall, the official World Diabetes Day race car in the Baja 1000).

    Here’s a gallery of photos from the meet ‘n greet.

  • Desert Dingos at Baja 1000 featured on ESPN Magazine online

    Desert Dingo Racing at the start of the 2008 Baja 1000

    To Be Called “Racer”: It’s the highest honor, and the Baja 1000 finds them.
    ESPN Magazine online, November 25, 2008
    In motorsports, there is one word above all others that exemplifies what our twisted metal, burning rubber, death-defying pursuit is all about. The term is never used lightly and bestowed upon only those have earned the right to wear it.

    Racer.