The shocks aren’t on. Nor are the fenders. But check out the clearance we have now, courtesy of Eric, Sam and Crusty.

Crusty and Sam work on hammering out the front end of 1101.

Eric Solorzano and his longtime friend and co-driver “Yosemite” Sam drove up to San Jose this past week to work their magic on 1101. By the time they buttoned it up on Saturday afternoon, we had a good 3-4 additional inches of clearance on the front, 4-5 inches in the rear and the Solorzano-built engine sounds like a beast.

Crusty and Sam also hammered out the front end that got smushed at the San Felipe 250 and they extended the roll cage to give more structural support at the front of the car.

Check out a handful of photos from Friday here.

We still have some more work to do. Eric has taken our shocks back down to Bilstein for re-valving and repair. We also need to pull the transmission and send it down to Transworks for some tweaking.

Here’s 1101 parked next to Eric’s car at the 250. Definitely shows the need for some expertise to get us a bit more ground clearance.

The International Diabetes Federation folks have included a shot of 1101 in their new 30-page booklet promoting the World Diabetes Day 2008 campaign. The booklet is available to download as a pdf file in English, French, and Spanish. Click on the image above to download the version of your choice.

Seth hauled 1101 about 300 miles out to the Black Rock Desert because he needed transportation between camps as part of Fourth of JuPlaya, an annual gathering of folks on the 400 square mile lake bed that, in late August, is home to Burning Man.

I’m looking forward to his report on how it handled, but, in the interim, here’s a shot of the car skulking around at night.

Updated: Robert is fine. He called this morning. His house is surrounded by strawberry fields. He helped a neighbor evacuate and the two of them had fire on both sides when they were leaving the house.

Richard and I took 1101 to Watsonville yesterday to take part in a diabetes health fair put on by the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust at the farmer’s market in downtown Watsonville. We talked with a lot of great people, gave away loads of crayons and hero cards (and donated the rest to the Diabetes Health Center) and ate some great food.

On the way over, I skirted the edge of the Trabing Fire, set intentionally or unintentionally by some motorist on Highway 1. The fire blew smoke over Watsonville and dropped ash in the plaza. I’ll be calling Robert with 1110, who I spoke with briefly and who said the fire was near his place. We’re hoping for the best.

Here’s a shot of one of the many kids who spent time in the car.

Ruth with CPMG sent me a link to her Flickr photo set shot as we were setting everything up for the June 8 public event with the International Diabetes Federation at The Cannery on San Francisco’s Fisherman’s Wharf.

You can check out the shots here. Lane and Mitch, who were shooting for the IDF, should have some shots online shortly.

More news to come…

I picked up the hero cards that Roxanne designed from Business With Pleasure today and the response has been great. Pretty much the first thing everyone says is “Coooooooool.” Then I get to say “As a matter of fact, I am a race car driver.”

We’ve got 5,000 and will be autographing them this Sunday at the International Diabetes Federation public event at The Cannery on Fisherman’s Wharf from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. If you’re in the area, come on by.

Check out the PDF version of the back of the card.

I’m sure it’ll be ready by next Sunday*

INTERNATIONAL DIABETES FEDERATION and DESERT DINGO RACING HOST DIABETES AWARENESS EVENT ON FISHERMAN’S WHARF

June 8 event will promote the theme of this year’s World Diabetes Day campaign and showcase Desert Dingo Racing’s ‘World Diabetes Day” Baja 1000 race VW

SAN FRANCISCO, June 1, 2008 – The International Diabetes Federation (IDF), its World Diabetes Day official partners and Desert Dingo Racing will co-sponsor a public event at The Cannery on Fisherman’s Wharf on Sunday, June 8 to promote diabetes awareness and education.

The Federation will be distributing World Diabetes Day (WDD) material to draw attention to diabetes in children and inform people of the warning signs of diabetes. Desert Dingo Racing will have its 1969 VW Beetle (the World Diabetes Day car), which raced the 2007 Baja 1000, and team drivers will be on hand to sign hero cards, which also have the warning signs of diabetes printed on them.

Read the entire press release here.

* Relax. This is 1117, which I’m painting at my leisure. 1101 is dialed.

P.S. This is what it looks like when you steal a race motorcycle at yesterday’s Baja 500, throw it in the back of your pickup and tear off into the night, but forget to turn off the GPS transponder.

What can I say? Jeff Luhn rocked it. If you saw the video, you can appreciate the time he put in to get this shot. We’ll be printing 5,000 copies on hero cards that will have the warning signs of diabetes on the back.

And check out these bad asses.

Thank you very much Jeff.

P.S. Click on either image for larger versions.

We did the photo shoot today. Like any photo shoot, you need a lot of stuff.

First, you need a car.

Second, you need talent. That would be Charlie.

You need “below the line people” like Skid and Shawn, who showed up fashionably late on Saturday after I already had 2.5 wheels bolted on the car. They did however, cinch 1101 onto Skid’s trailer for the trip to Felton, so that’s cool. Shawn did fix the muffler and Skid did something that made a lot of noise that probably perturbed the neighbors, however.

Then you need the guy who can pretty much do anything, like “Hey, this tow bar won’t fit. How can we get the car up to the airport?” And he says “My Sawz-All will take care of that.” That would be Richard.

Then, when you’re on site, there’s everyone who makes it happen. Jeff Luhn, Brooks Institute photographer, Max Davis, who created our brand identity, Roxanne, who handled catering (in the video). Rich and Elvon Hoogner who gave us access to the runway. And Larry, of Larry Electric, who’s the guy you want in your corner who pretty much can do anything when all you need to do is ask. (He’s in the video). Larry provided the boom truck.

Here’s a video of the morning.