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…

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.

Sweet crickets, 1107 is finally home. Now the real work begins.

PLYCAR dropped 1107 off just after 12:30 p.m. today to the welcoming committee of Crusty and me. I drove it back up to Richard and Crusty and Scott are on the case. We’ve got six days to prep the car before departing for Mexico. It’ll be tight, but we should be fine.

KION published a piece on us on their website: “Felton Race Team Competes in the Baja 1000.” You can read it here.

The ad running on Diabetes1.org.

I wanted to take a moment to thank the team at Diabetes1.org for helping us spread the word on our project with 12seconds.tv. They’re running an ad on their home page promoting our project where people can record 12 second long videos describing how diabetes has affected them. We’ll be sporting the Diabetes1 logo on the car at the Baja 1000 and throughout the 2010 race season.

You can read more about the project and upload your own video here.

Thanks to everyone at the Diabetes1.org. We appreciate your support.

Our sponsor, TrailGlow, is featured in the November 2009 issue of Dirt Sports magazine.

When I first saw a truck sporting a set of TrailGlow’s illuminated number panels at the SNORE KC Hilites Midnight Special race, I turned to my wife and said “As God is my witness, I will own a set of those.”

We’re now outfitted with a full set of TrailGlow custom built HID driving lights, multiple sets of illuminated number panels, and pit crew safety vests, courtesy of founder Paul Lukey and his son, Paul III.

As great as it is to have the support of a new sponsor, it’s been even more rewarding to meet Paul and his son, who love off road racing as much as we do. And I absolutely agree with Dirt Sport’s review:

“…the Dirt Sports Crew just discovered one of the neatest and most useful racing innovations to come along in quite some time – illuminated number panesl and decals…. TrailGlow founders Paul Lukey, and son Paul III, have perfected an entirely new way for 0ff-road racers and chase teams to add rugged, vibration-resistant illuminated numbers and custom  sponsor logos to their overall graphics presentation.”

TrailGlow’s panel’s make us easier to see at night, they’re going to speed us through checkpoints during night races, and the cool factor alone makes them worth it. If you’re looking to make your car stand out, I strongly recommend checking them out.

You can check out a full size version of the Dirt Sports product review here.

From the World Diabetes Day website this morning:

Desert Dingo Racing, one of the World Diabetes Day campaign “Champions“, will be displaying the official World Diabetes Day race car – a 1969 Volkswagen Beetle that races the deserts of Mexico’s Baja peninsula during the annual Baja 1000 – at the World Diabetes Congress in Montreal, Canada, Oct. 18-22 2009.

More…

(Find out how you can become a World Diabetes Day champion here)

Ok, so we didn’t make the NBC broadcast of the Baja 1000. To the best of my recollection, there was a brief glimpse of just one Class 11.

For those of you who want to relive the glory, Race-Dezert is replaying the entire recording of the Weatherman channel starting late Friday night, coinciding with exactly what was broadcast a few weeks ago. Weathernan is the air traffic controller of everything going on during the race. We usually switch between him and the Baja Pits frequencies. But if you want the big picture of what’s going on, who’s broken down and who’s out of the race, you listen to Weatherman.

I’ll probably set the alarm to get up at 2:10 a.m. to hear myself radio Weatherman and let him know we are out of the race.

Here’s how Race-Dezert describes it:

This Saturday (12-20-08) we will re-broadcast the last Baja 1000 weatherman audio stream. Lots of you guys were at the race and could not experience it the way those in front of a computer did that day. This is your chance.

We will start replaying it here at the same time of day. For example what happened 10am race day of the Baja 1000 live will be re-played here on RDC on Saturday at 10am. Technically the audio stream will start late Friday night because that’s when we started to record the Weatherman radio channel. However the more relevant content will be Saturday during the day when the SCORE Baja 1000 race unfolds.

The re-broadcast will be in a better experience then what you may have heard on race day. It’s a recording of what Weatherman hears and responds to while during the race. Often you can just hear one part of the conversation due to physical limits of radio waves.

For those that don’t know, Weatherman is Bob Steinberger’s nickname (Owner and founder of PCI). He is the volunteer that handles SCORE’s official 2-way radio communication during the Baja 1000. Radio conversation contains race car status, emergencies, vehicle break downs, Chase and support teams efforts and anything in between.

Since there’s no video of us from the Baja 1000, here’s a couple of great clips. Up top is rally car racer Ken Block doing some practice driving. I think after we win the Baja 1000, we switch to rally driving and Skid can drive the Segway (in the video). And below is, without question, the most awesome road test of any car ever invented, courtesy of Top Gear UK.

The Baja 1000 is on NBC this Sunday at 10 a.m. Pacfic Time. Aura 360 included a clip of Scott “Never Lift” Anderson going sub-orbital off the Red Bull jump in the Ensenada wash. There should be a segment on Eric Solorzano in this year’s show.

Some clips from the show (and the soon to be released documentary) are here.

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.