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.

Mike in mid-engine teardown.

Bob brought his ace engine guy Mike over today to help us tear apart the engine and decide how much of a rebuild we needed. Initially we planned to just change the rings, but on closer inspection we decided to do a complete teardown so we can start the season with an absolutely fresh engine.

Crusty focused on a redesign of our rear bumper, valence and skid plate, so that the whole back end mounts as a unit. Here’s a gallery of shots from today’s work day.

Our personal version of Dust to Glory.

And we complete our first full season of racing with a podium finish in third place behind two amazing teams – Felipe Neri-Sanchez and Robert Johnson.

Six SNORE races and the Baja 1000. Third in class at SNORE and 32nd out of 535 entries. Not too shabby for our first full season of racing. Richard Palasik, our driver of record for the SNORE series, will pick up our trophy at the awards ceremony at the Golden Nugget in Vegas on January 9.

We have a lot planned for 2010. Stay tuned. And thank you for all your support.

Bob jacks up 1104 in preparation for removing the engine.

1104 moved from my place over to Desert Dingo Racing HQ (aka “Richard’s place”) to begin winter tear down. Powerwashed, engine pulled, transmission pulled, light bar removed, CV joints pulled. We’ve got three months to prep the car for the first race of the 2010 season. A lot of ideas to improve it. Gallery of today’s photos here.

Also, this is the greatest off road video I’ve seen in ages. Props to Trophylite.

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.

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.

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.

Crusty and Richard under the car, finishing engine installation.

A full day of running around for parts, working on the car and getting our secret weapon configured. We’re close to getting the car buttoned up. Contingency and Tech are tomorrow. Still need to get the IRC unit. Finish configuring the secret weapon, secure fuel, get registered. Typical day.

Almost time to hit the jacuzzi.

Some shots from today’s work (I just heard them fire up the engine.)

Skid works on something on the car.

A quick update. Driving down we blew an engine in Crusty’s pickup. Lefty and TPR rode in like the calvary the following morning with coffee, hooked up 1104 and the trailer and got us down to Orange County. After a quick reconnoiter, we headed down to the Wal-Mart in Chula Vista, were eventually joined by Chase 2 towing 1104. From there we caravanned down to Ensenada and the Estero Beach RV park where we are now.

Some shots of Monday and Tuesday’s adventure.