Desert Dingo Racing

October 30, 2008, San Jose, Calif, – Desert Dingo Racing and GoPro have teamed to capture and broadcast high quality digital in-car video during the 41st Annual Baja 1000 offroad race in Mexico this November.

Desert Dingo Racing competes in Class 11, which is limited to pre-1983 Volkswagen Beetles and allows for only minor modifications to the engine and suspension. The Desert Dingo VW (No. 1102) is the official World Diabetes Day car in the race and the team is hosting a drive-a-thon fundraiser to raise money for diabetes awareness and education programs conducted by the International Diabetes Federation.

“We’ve tested a couple of different camera setups in the car and were never satisfied with the results,” said Desert Dingo team member Jim Graham. “GoPro’s Motorsports HERO unit is extremely durable - which is crucial for desert racing - and the 170-degree field of view will let us capture all the action.”

Read the entire press release here.

SCORE released the initial GPS track for the race. We purchase a more detailed version that loads into the Lowrance GPS unit mounted in front of the co-driver. It’s a bit more detailed and has cool little skull and crossbones icons that warn of things like sheer cliffs, deep water and boulder protruding into the course.

If you want to check it in Google Earth, you can download the KML file here.

Less than three weeks til we depart. We’ll drive to San Diego on Nov. 12, spend the night, then drive to Rosarita Beach the next morning and spend the next week with Eric Solorzano (who starts in front of us) tweaking the car and pre-running sections of the course.

Car still needs to be painted. That will happen next Sunday most likely. And we’re waiting on two digital video cameras that we’ll mount to capture in-car footage, that, if everything goes as planned, we’ll upload to the Internets during the race.

Still only three teams in Class 11 - Eric, us and Alaskan Michael Brown, who I’ve heard is making his first run at the race. I expect a few more will register in the next week or so.

If you’re checking in from seeing the KPIX, howdy. If you can spare a few dollars, we’d love it if you pledged to our drive-a-thon fundraiser. Even a penny or five cents a miles would be fantastic. And 100% of the money goes toward diabetes awareness and education programs managed by the International Diabetes Federation. You can donate by clicking on the “Donate” button on the upper right side of this web page.

You might want to bookmark this page. On the day of the race you’ll be able to track us in real time on Google maps. One of the GPS transponders on the car relays our car number (1102), position and speed and updates every two minutes. We’ll be using this to keep our chase trucks updated on the race car’s location, because it’s almost impossible to communicate via radio unless you’re pretty close to each other.

Any questions or comments? Shoot me a note at jim@desertdingo.com .

I drove up the the Bonny Doon Airport this afternoon to get a look in advance of next Sunday’s photo shoot. In a word, it’s ideal. Ok, that’s two words.

Here’s a 30-second video shot with our new Flip, which we’ll be testing as an in-car camera.

And here’s a Geico commercial from today’s NASCAR race in Mexico City. This kid strangely reminds me of Skid, right down to the toothpick and sunglasses.

And so it ends.

I’d been following Gary’s updates all day and had sent him a note of appreciation for his work. We’re out for this race, but in the words of California’s governator, “We’ll be back.”

You can listen live to the Weatherman, who coordinates search and rescue during the race by clicking here or on the image above.

The team is putting everything in place. If you’re of a mind to track our progress, you have several options:

The race is the San Felipe 250 and Desert Dingo crosses the start line at approximately 10:40 a.m. Pacific Time. The race will take about 10 hours to complete the 250 miles.

Here are some ways to track Desert Dingo’s progress;

Here on the blog, which we’re already updating for the race: http://desertdingoracing.blogspot.com

Via Twitter (for quick updates): http://twitter.com/desertdingo

Live, Web-based race tracking (requires latest version of Flash plug-in): http://irctracking.com/2008/San-Felipe/ , then select “Class 11″ from the menu on the left and check the box next to “1101- Jim Graham”

You can contact the team by emailing co-owner Jim Graham at jim@desertdingo.com.

I ordered a camera mount from Chasecam today. We’ll likely mount it on the roll cage between driver and codriver using Scott’s solid state DV camera. If we can get that to work, I’ll try integrating Skid’s bullet cam somewhere else. If THAT works, we’ll probably pick up a second solid state cam and do a two-camera setup in time for the 1000.

We needed something to hold tools in the race car. Something rugged. Something waterproof. Something cheap.

I picked up one of the larger ammo cans on my way back from a client meeting in Monterey. The next largest size appeared to previously been used to hold a Stinger missile.

A little bit of sanding, a few coats of Rustoleum gloss white and we’ve got ourselves a bulletproof toolbox.

After no word all this time, I called the Satellite phone. Skid answered: Everyone is doing good. They’re waiting for the 3rd handoff. Shawn and Dennis are driving now, Cary and Jim are catching up with Richard’s RV. Charlie and Scott are slated for next leg of driving. EVERYONE is doing GREAT. Keeping ahead of 1148! Jim will call when he reaches RV. I’ll post update then.

A word of caution: the Baja 1000 is a grueling course and accidents do happen. Thankfully, there are no serious accidents ever reported for any Class 11 entry in the race.

Refresh this screen to get updates as they occur: http://tinyurl.com/3xn72m/ Vehicle incidents are reported by number. Class 11 numbers include 1100 (Eric Solarzano), 1101, 1146 (Go Team!), 1147, 1148 and 1149.

The goal of our team is to finish the race, safe and sound. Safety is #1, finishing #2. Winning would be icing on the cake.

Several cars out of the race due to injuries and breakdowns.

Two fatalities: pilot and copilot of a chase helicopter. Our prayers are with their families and team members.