I’m sure this will make sense as it relates to 1107 at some point.

Crusty came by the office and dropped off “Prepare to Win” (new copies go for $600) and “Tune to Win” ($14.95 new), by Carroll Smith, both published in the late 70s.

Mind you, I maintain that the internal combustion engine works “by magic” and expecting me to understand these is about the same as giving a chimpanzee a copy of “Godel, Escher and Bach” and expecting it to expound intelligently on self-referencing objects.

So here’s what Smith says on the first page of “Prepare to Win”.

“THERE IS NO MAGIC! The one basic truth of successful race car preparation bears repeating. THERE IS NO MAGIC. There is only logic, common sense, forethought, vast amounts of hard work and a fanatic dedication to the task at hand.”

Great.

Another work day this Sunday. Three weeks til our first race of the season.

VORRA
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Shot of Jason Mace (1169) doing visualization exercises in advance of his very first race at Battle at Primm.

The cool thing about running the blog is that you can pick on other racers and, unless they know how to configure WordPress, they’re pretty much powerless to fight back.

We’ve switched from SNORE to VORRA (our first race is in three weeks), but SNORE went first with the Battle of Primm out at fabulous Primm, Nevada. You can see Jason and all the other SoCal Class 11s in this video from OMA productions.

(thanks to Pepper Cote of Tut Tech Racing for passing along the photo of Jason)

Battle at Primm , Class 11 , SNORE , VORRA
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Ricardo demonstrates his superior penmanship.

We’ve got three weeks til our season opener race at Prairie City and it finally stopped raining long enough for us to get some work done on 1107. Bob grabbed the engine and promised to bring it back next week ready to run. Crusty is working his way through the engine compartment, using an oxyacetylene torch to reinforce seams and welds. Bradford is working on our transmissions. We may have 1107 ready to race as early as next weekend.

While it has nothing to do with off road racing, congrats to Canada for winning Olympics mens hockey.

A gallery of photos from today’s work.

Prairie City , VORRA
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Brett Svatek did a piece on the team and I spent most of my time talking about eating.

INTERVIEW: Jim Graham – Desert Dingo Racing
The Sporting Life, February 24, 2010
Jim Graham and his Desert Dingo racing team set out to conquer the Baja 1000 in a car that most people wouldn’t feel safe driving to the 7-11…they are truly living The Sporting Life.

2008 Baja 1000 , 2009 Baja 1000 , Baja 1000 , Class 11 , Diabetes , Eric Solorzano , IDF , Media Coverage , Prairie City , SNORE , Sponsors , Technology , The Car , The Team , VORRA , World Diabetes Day , WorldDiabetesCongress
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At night, in Baja, sometimes the conversation turns to muskrats.

It’s tough to describe what it’s like to be strapped into an off road race prepped ‘69 VW Beetle at night for hours on end in the Baja 1000 when there’s nothing around you and all you can see is what the driving lights show you and what the GPS tells you is coming. In “Dust to Glory“, nine time Baja 1000 winner Eric Solorzano said he saw a UFO. In 2007, I saw animals running across the course. But nothing beats this conversation between the Ford F-150 Raptor driver and co-driver running a night section of the 2008 Baja 1000 from the documentary “Born in Baja.”

Driver: “That was a bobcat trail. Bobcats would run up and down there. Chasing the gazelle. And the muskrat. Can…can they chase a muskrat? Does that even work?”

Co-driver: “Yeah.”

Driver: “They can?”

Co-driver: “I dunno.”

Driver: “That’d be like breakfast, or just a snack or what?”

Co-driver: “For a bobcat?”

Driver: “Yeah.”

Co-driver: “It’d be…breakfast.”

Driver: “Bobcat eating a muskrat. That sounds like an old rock song. Something Bob Dylan would sing. That voice…”He was a bobbbbbbcat. Chasin’ a muskrat.”

Transmissions have been dropped off at Bradford’s. Between those and finishing the engine, we’re ready to race.

Here’s the best video of an amateur driver and co-driver racing Nurburgring ever laid to digital video:

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There’s gotta be enough good parts between the two of these for one good tranny.

The weather’s been so bad we haven’t had much chance to work on 1107, but we’ve got our fingers crossed for this weekend. Both transmissions are on the pallet and ready for shipping to Bradford Performance for a rebuild. Engine is also waiting for final assembly but otherwise is fresh.

The Valley Off Road Racing Association announced the return of Class 11s for the 2010 race season, beginning with a short course race at Prairie City on March 20-21.

VORRA OPENS 2010 RACE SEASON WITH NEW CLASS FOR STOCK VWs
Class 11 Stock Bugs offers an affordable entree to off road racing
January 31, 2010,  Reno, Nevada — The Valley Off Road Racing Association (VORRA) announced today that it is adding a new class for Stock Volkswagen Beetles for the 2010 race season.

Prairie City , VORRA
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The VW Touaregs take first, second and third in the 2010 Dakar Rally.

Ok, the photo doesn’t have anything to do with us beyond that we both race VWs, but with this being the off season for off road racing in the U.S., I switched to watching the Dakar Rally in South America. Versus had great daily coverage, courtesy of Toby Moody and his production team, but Eurovision set the standard for all off road coverage with its daily coverage. Dakar organizers also set the standard for social media integration during the race. And VW had its iPhone app. Boston.com reprised their 2009 photo essay with a spectacular series of shots from this year’s event.

Bob reports that the engine will likely be close to finished with the rebuild by the end of the week or first part of next week. We run the engine pretty much non-stop at 6,000 RPM. When we rebuild it, I’m confident it will go to 6,011. The rain has kept us from getting much done, but once we get the transmission issue sorted out and the rear skid plate dialed, we’ll be ready to race.

With Dakar done, I’m following Marathon Rally and looking forward to Rallye Aicha des Gazelles in March. Nine days, no GPS, sat phones or support trucks. And you navigate with compasses and maps printed in the 1950s. I’m thinking, “Ok, where’s the fun part?” All that aside, the one U.S. team is Emily Sturges Miller and Wendy Fisher. Social media by Miss Motor Mouth, aka Michelle Naranjo. This is what it will be like:

The Car , Uncategorized
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Mike in mid-engine teardown.

Bob brought his ace engine guy Mike over today to help us tear apart the engine and decide how much of a rebuild we needed. Initially we planned to just change the rings, but on closer inspection we decided to do a complete teardown so we can start the season with an absolutely fresh engine.

Crusty focused on a redesign of our rear bumper, valence and skid plate, so that the whole back end mounts as a unit. Here’s a gallery of shots from today’s work day.

Photos , Prairie City , The Car , The Team , Workday
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The team has decided to switch to the Valley Off Road Racing Association (VORRA) series for the 2010 race season and we’ll have our first race in April on the short course at the Prairie City SVRA just outside Rancho Cordova and just off Highway 50.

We loved racing the SNORE series (and finished third in class in the 2009 series), but the 1,000 mile round-trip drives to Vegas were taking their toll on the wallet. We’ll still be doing desert races in Yerrington, Fallon and Hawthorne, Nevada, but they’re quite a bit closer. VORRA Director Wes Harbor has been tremendously helpful in pulling this together and we expect to be joined by a handful of other Northern California Class 11 teams.

So here’s our full 2010 race schedule:

March 20-21 — Short Course — Prairie City, CA
April 24-25 — Short Course — Prairie City, CA
May 28-31 — Desert Race – 300 Miles — Yerington, NV
July 16-18 — Desert Night Race – 250 Miles — Fallon, NV
September 4-6 — Desert Race – 225 Miles — Hawthorne, NV
October 9-10 — Short Course — Prairie City, CA
October 30-31 — Short Course – Halloween BBQ — Prairie City, CA
November 17-21 — Baja 1000 — Ensenada, Mexico

We did a leak down test last week and the prognosis is “engine rebuild”, so we’ll be taking it apart this Sunday and making a run to Bugformance for the parts we need. Here’s a look at the Prairie City course:

Prairie City , VORRA
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That’s us, the white one, behind red Bug, and the blue one.

We’re in fifth place off the line because we’re “drafting.”

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