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.

Bob Russell runs through an electrical systems check the night before the Baja 1000.

The folks at Wired.com’s Autopia blog did a great piece on the Rugged Text and Track satellite communications system from EMS SkyConnect and on our illuminated number panels from TrailGlow. You can check it out here…

Here’s the video of what happened when we blew the first transmission 10 miles into the race. But unless you’re Bob or me, 10 minutes is way too long a video to watch. So I’ve included a handy timeline so you can skip to your favorite part(s).

00:01 - Me waving at spectators.

00:15 – Bob turns toward the Silt Hill of Doom.

00:30 - Transmission meets its maker.

00:55 - I start the lengthy process of climbing out of the car.

01:25 – Engine check. It’s still there and not apparently on fire or have a huge hole in it.

01:30 - Spectators start pressing against the car

02:00 - Javier shows up (more on Javier later)

02:21 - The crowd pushes 1104 off the course so we’re not creamed by someone with more horsepower.

02:40 - That kid in the striped shirt hops in the car as Bob gets out.

03:20 – Police officer sporting a dust mask shows up and initiates crowd control.

03:30-04:15 A lot of argy-bargy.

04:20 - I climb back in the car and send the first of three messages: “Stopped – Send Chase Truck” using our EMS SkyConnect Rugged Text and Track sat comm system.

04:30 - I send “Major Damage” message using the RTT.

04:45 – I start typing in and sending “Blown tranny” message.

05:15 - Bob is under the car, checking the waterfall of transmission fluid gushing over the rear skid plate. Some kid climbs on the hood of the car. What I yell at him in English translates pretty clearly into Spanish.

06:00 - I grab our logistics book and restart the GPS unit to get our coordinates.

06:15 – Bob and I confab.

06:45 – Roxanne sends a confirmation on the RTT that she got our messages and the chase trucks are inbound. I respond with “Message Received.”

07:20 - I put my helmet back on and plug in the radio comm so I can put a call in to Weatherman.

07:30 - Cop hands me the TrailGlow lighted number panel that someone ripped off the back of the car.

07:50 - SCORE Ops tells me Weatherman isn’t available. I blame the adrenaline for me not believing them and repeating exactly what I said, but probably louder.

08:30 - Bob is talking with a couple of guys with a truck and a tow chain.

09:00 - Guy starts waving a piece of paper at me, wanting an autograph.

Shortly after the video ends, Bob and the two guys with the pickup and chain show up and tow us over a hill and to a parking lot where Bob goes to work pulling the skid plate.

Now let’s talk about Javier. He saved our bacon. When we got 1104 on level ground, he started working with Bob to get the skid plate off and the passenger front fender off (we’d been clipped by some orange Sportsman Class buggy). When we needed to go into town to find an auto parts store for more transmission fluid, he hopped in the chase truck and got us to the closest place.

He did more for us than any amount of cash, t-shirts, hero cards and stickers we gave him could repay. You want a Baja 1000 experience? Meeting someone like Javier is it.

Thanks to everyone who took part in out Twitter project to promote World Diabetes Day.

In the weeks leading up to the Baja 1000, we asked folks on Twitter to post a message that included @DesertDingo and #WDD09. The former is our Twitter account, the latter is the hashtag to identify messages relating to World Diabetes Day.

We got a great response and using the latest in communications technology, I printed out everyones’ names, slipped them into a plastic sleeve and used blue painter’s masking tape to affix them to the ceiling of 1104.

So, thanks to everyone who participated. You can honestly say you made 183 miles in the 2009 Baja 1000.

Yes, I did tweet off the start line at this year’s Baja 1000.

Here’s the first five minutes of this year’s Baja 1000 as seen from the GoPro Motorsports HERO wideangle camera mounted on the hood of 1104 and pointed toward Bob and me.

You should see the other photos that TPR (aka Trailer Park Romeo, aka Nathan) took of himself with Seth ‘n Kristy’s camera.

For some reason, I could never remember “TPR”, so I spent the week calling Nathan “Total Request Live”, “Standing Room Only” and “Survival Research Labs.” I think Lefty settled on “Trailer Trash Romeo.”

TPR and I bonded when he got hauled to the police station for parking Chase 2 on the wrong side of the street while the team was having dinner one night outside one of the many sidewalk taco places near the Estero Beach RV park, where we stayed. While he was in filling out paperwork, the senior cop and I stood outside checking out his lifted Ford F250 and the new Dodge Avenger police cruisers in the parking lot. I think that may have helped get the fine dropped from $40 to $20. We were back before our carnitas got cold.

Here are Seth ‘n Kristy’s shots from Baja. 1104 may be back in Felton tonight, parked at my place until after Thanksgiving and then heading back over to Richard’s for prep in advance of the SNORE Laughlin Rage at the River race.

Neither Seth nor Scott look like they spent a freezing night in the Mexico desert.

This should be the last set of photos, taken by Kristy, Jeff and Scott from this years race. Check ‘em out.

I think this was about an hour before we headed for the start line. (I’m joking.)

Travis was a picture-taking machine. He even captured the only evidence of vandalism on the car. Here’s a gallery of his photos.

Kristy filmed this video of 1104 taking the second turn at the start of the Baja 1000 2009.