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.

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)

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.

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.

1104 takes turn two at the start of the Baja 1000 2009.

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

Richard chats with Gustavo Garayzar of 1149.

The extraction team and Scott and Seth just arrived here at Jeff and Robin’s place after spending a good chunk of the morning in a technical section in a ravine where our second (and last) tranny blew. The plan is to spend a couple of hours here, then pack up and head back to Estero Beach.

Here are my photos of our Friday morning prep and some work on the car when the first tranny blew.

We’d like to take a moment to share some exciting news and introduce you to two of our sponsors.

Desert Dingo Racing is competing this year using an SMS-based satellite communication and tracking system from EMS SkyConnect. “One of the greatest challenges that any Baja team is faces maintaining communication between the race car, chase teams and support vehicles, said team co-founder Jim Graham. “We’re the first team to use EMS SkyConnect’s TNT (Text and Tracking) system that will allow us to stay in constant communication and know where everyone is at any point during the race.” More info about our partnership with EMS SkyConnect here.

Desert Dingo will also be one of only two teams running electroluminescent number panels developed by TrailGlow Lighting . The panels look like typical number panels during the day, but light up as bright as neon at night, operating off of the race car’s 12-volt electrical system.

“TrailGlow’s INERGY number panels make it easier for other vehicles to see us and for people staffing checkpoints to record our number,” Graham said. The team will also be using an INERGY pit sign and safesty vests during the race which will make it easy for the race car to find the pits at night and keep team workers highly visible at night. More info about our partnership with Trailglow here.

Here I was all set to get some great video of 1107 rounding the corner at Checkpoint One of the SNORE 250 in Primm, and this 16 car comes in and ruins everything!

Photos tomorrow. We’re all bushed.

Ok, technically none of us are Canadian and, technically, we’re only two-wheel drive, but Trevor and his team were kind enough to name us August Rig of the Month on Gear Centre Group’s 4×4 Club website.

We will, however, be heading up to Montreal in October to put the car on display for the World Diabetes Congress where I’ve set a personal goal of eating my weight in poutine.

We’ll be working on Creech’s toy hauler this weekend. Bilstein is wrapping up work on our prototype “Ensenada” race package shocks, which will arrive Tuesday. And somewhere out on the East Coast, an R&D lab is putting the finishing touches on our secret weapon for the Baja 1000.

The KC Hilites Midnight Special race is coming up August 8.

Crusty and Robert take a meeting.

Our next race – the KC Hilites Midnight Special – isn’t until early August, so we’re taking the time to take the car apart and go through it with a fine tooth comb…something we’ll do to varying degrees after every race.

Crusty worked the past couple of days removing the seats and fenders and today he and Bob pulled the engine, drained the fuel cell and began inspecting things like wheel bearings and brake shoe wear. We made the decision to move the front shock reservoirs back into the space that usually holds the spare tire. We’d moved then under the fender wells to increase the airflow, but found that they were too difficult to work around and the hostes from the shocks to the reservoirs were fraying.

Shawn put in a good amount of time today primering things like bumpers and fenders (rust is a big issue for bare metal parts). Seth is writing up his notes from Wednesday’s team meeting and we’ll shortly have our marching orders.

Some photos from today’s work here.