Here’s a quickie video of us prepping all the vehicles on Race Day morning. We all headed across town in a caravan around 10:15 to line up for an 11:30 a.m.-ish start.
The neighborhood kids would hang out with us. I took some photos. You can check out the gallery here.
There’s been a lot of discussion (if you consider three of us instant messaging each other as “discussion”) about how much air Scott and Seth caught off the Red Bull jump in the Ensenada wash.
I think Richard thought it was about 12-18 inches. I maintained three feet, based on watching the video something like 50 times. I forget what Skid thought. I got a call from Eric Solorzano today and he maintains we could have jumped another Class 11.
Judge for yourself. I edited the full Ensenada Deportes video down to our jump. (I included a trophy truck for comparison).
I like this photo. It was the last time the car was clean.
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.
And we’re back! About 12 hours from Ensenada to Felton. 1102 is safely ensconced on the trailer in the front yard. We’ll be needing a couple of new fenders, a rebuilt transmission, a short throw reverse lock out shifter and some other bits and bobs, but we should be back in business in short order.
Here’s a gallery of photos from Contingency Row on Thursday and the race on Friday. More to come.
Desert Dingos provide hands-on diabetes lesson to school children
Desert Dingo Racing, the team who have entered the official World Diabetes Day race car in the Baja 1000 off-road race later this month, recently took the car to Holly Oak Elementary School in San Jose, California to give the children a hands-on lesson in desert racing. Students in Ms. Battistella’s fourth grade class got the opportunity to add a little colour to the car, dipping their hands in red, blue or gold paint and pressing them to the car’s fenders.
I accidently left the digital still camera at home, so decided to capture the final night of prep on the car with video. Richard, Dennis and I made a run up to Auburn to retrieve the trailer. Shawn completed the last of the painting and graphics. Bob, Scott and Cary did final buttoning up and then began pulling together all the spare parts and tools we’d be taking down with us. Elektra is headed to Sonoma today to pick up fuel cans we’re borrowing again from World Motorsports. Charlie even dropped by.
The car moves from San Jose to Felton this afternoon and we head out for Mexico at the crack of dawn Thursay.
Shawn and I (again, mostly Shawn) got started putting on sponsor decals and our numbers tonight. We needed to do some touch up on the paint, so we’ll finish it off tomorrow, after Richard and I return from Auburn with the trailer.
Two days to Mexico and counting. Photos of Shawn’s handiwork here.
With three days to go, the car is coming together. Yesterday Shawn focused on painting. Cary and Scott tested the pumper unit and comm links. Scott installed the greasy greasy axles. Cary fabbed a box to hold six quarts of oil. Dennis tied up loose ends. I futzed with the cameras. Wrapped everything up by 10 p.m.
ETA for departure is Wednesday morning, arriving in San Diego in the evening and then on to Rosarita on Thursday.
Here’s a gallery of photos from yesterday’s work.
Ok, it’s only one quote in a tremendously cool article written by Judy Smith, a veteran Baja racer and longtime writer for Hot VWs. A good number of the photos were shot by Trackside Photo, which got the great shot of us catching air at last year’s Baja 1000. They even mentioned our fundraising for World Diabetes Day. Click here or on the image to download a PDF of the article.
VW is a registered trademark of Volkswagenwerk AG. Desert Dingo Racing is in no way connected with or sponsored by Volkswagen.
