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.

Ok, the photo doesn’t have anything to do with us beyond that we both race VWs, but with this being the off season for off road racing in the U.S., I switched to watching the Dakar Rally in South America. Versus had great daily coverage, courtesy of Toby Moody and his production team, but Eurovision set the standard for all off road coverage with its daily coverage. Dakar organizers also set the standard for social media integration during the race. And VW had its iPhone app. Boston.com reprised their 2009 photo essay with a spectacular series of shots from this year’s event.

Bob reports that the engine will likely be close to finished with the rebuild by the end of the week or first part of next week. We run the engine pretty much non-stop at 6,000 RPM. When we rebuild it, I’m confident it will go to 6,011. The rain has kept us from getting much done, but once we get the transmission issue sorted out and the rear skid plate dialed, we’ll be ready to race.

With Dakar done, I’m following Marathon Rally and looking forward to Rallye Aicha des Gazelles in March. Nine days, no GPS, sat phones or support trucks. And you navigate with compasses and maps printed in the 1950s. I’m thinking, “Ok, where’s the fun part?” All that aside, the one U.S. team is Emily Sturges Miller and Wendy Fisher. Social media by Miss Motor Mouth, aka Michelle Naranjo. This is what it will be like:

How come Eric always get to be 1101? I’m sure it has nothing to do with him having 41 Baja wins, including 9 Baja 1000 first place finishes.

Five registered so far the the Baja 1000. Eric (naturally). Michael Brown is the team from Alaska. Dolores Casarez is a new name. I’m pretty sure Gustavo raced last year. And us.

SCORE has announced that the 2010 Baja 1000 will be a straight shot from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas. That’s more expensive since the teams use a lot more fuel for all the chase and support vehicles, which next year will have to drive all the way back up the Baja Peninsula.

Ok, once we win the 1000, this video convinced me to race Dakar:

Seth “I *am* Logistics” Schrenzel is starting to marshall the troops for the Battle at Primm Feb. 13-15 in Southern Nevada. We shouldn’t, technically, need a chase truck, (three laps on a 10 mile course), but we still need to figure out who’s going and what we’ll do if the car breaks between the Saturday and Sunday events.

So far it’s looking like Richard and Joyce, Skid, Creech (towing 1102), Ice, Bob and me.

Richard reports that we should get the repaired transmission back from Bradford Racing by Thursday. Shawn will paint the replacement fenders next weekend and we should be good to go.

Top photo of another VW racing somewhere in South America.