2007 SCORE Baja 1000
Car #124
FRIDAY
November 9, 2007
To
Checker-radio contact with Stuart Chase who was pulling into
SATURDAY
November 10, 2007
Stuart and I ran from Rio Ensenada to Hwy 1 in my Z71 to GPS that stretch. No issues, just taking it slowly. Rain reported in
SUNDAY
November 11, 2007
Preran start to
MONDAY
November 12, 2007
Set #124 up in Contingency line for “Bluwood” show-n-tell.
Preran Start to Hwy 1 again in Tahoe. Changes near granite quarry/rock drill downhill: no issue for racing car. Driver’s Meeting = an hour out of my life that I will never see again. Got to hear Robby Gordon counsel motorcycle riders as how to pull off course: ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. How presumptuous.
TUESDAY
November 13, 2007
Crews headed south to San Telmo light bar change. Checkers w/ fuel and spares in-place; Baja Pits signed as emergency spots. Fiddled around staging, wishing well, and putting juju on The Wilsonian’s #114 car. Watched a “5” car from
The flag dropped and we found that the Rio Ensenada ... awash 24 hours earlier … had been groomed, drained, and pumped: bueno! Tank traps and spectator issues were trivial.
Made Hwy 1 60-mph section clean. Ran down #122 w/ Jerry Penhall at the controls. Decided: WTF … passed him near the Batch plant as he slowed. High Fives all around and ran to Pepsi Stand: “Se Vende Quesso”.
Looked “long” for telltale dust in new Ojos farm bypass single-track … potential for a logjam. Nothing there. On to the traditional Tres Hermanos road. Caught a buggy, which took to longer rougher left-hand “high” line; we took our scouted southern route through the Cottonwoods and never saw him again. Silt bed open, damp, free. Jahahahaaa!
Up the hill to El Alamo mining area where we caught the Hooters reclaimed sand car. Tapped him. Spectators scattered. Geared down, laid back, and smacked him good: he got out of the way in one quick hurry. Higher fives all around.
Ran slot car section to K77 ... a certifiable asshole threw a plastic pop jug half-filled with dirt into me. Tossed it back out. Would sorta been fun to do a 180 and plow their cars.
But onward ever, backwards never. Saw
#114 pulled off on Hwy 1 near VT. Jahahhahaha.
Run up to Mike’s got us 108, tops. Car working terrific on gravel and deep whoops.
Radio-ed Big John Files' ”Mike’s” pit for gas and Stu’s helmet redeaux. In-and-out urge = roosted Gary Bates. “Sigh”.
Clean run, no cars front or rear to El Coyote,
Minor confusion at San Telmo “Baja Pits”: crew left race radio unattended so did not hear my confirmation calls for four dumps, new face shield rags, etc., it all went unheard. Light bar installed quickly and we were let go without fuel. Baja Pits told our guys that this was not a fuelpit. It was not, for baja Pits: we had our own fuel to dump, not baja Pits.
Radio Xmission instantly stopped us and the crew got us filled and gone. A couple minutes lost, at most. Mexicans trying to convince us to go on.
“LESSONS WELL-LEARNED”
· Plan your work, work your plan
· Someone on a race freq radio at all times
· Disregard external influences
Rock wash to
Into deep canyons amid gathering gloom. Spectators everywhere … in for the long haul, they were. Course very tight; up, left, down, right, repeat in reverse order. Saw #85 precariously teetering in downhill side of hillside: looked ready to go over at any burp.
Got even tighter with large cottonwoods; saw lights ahead. #7 Syko Killer stopped in rock wash crossing, very tight. TT #54 rider got out to survey situation while we revved engine. They got around and we went by very quickly; they stopped to re-installed co-dog and we split.
It seemed forever to get to RM305 Checker gas pit … running through riparian vegetation. The area had had plenty of rain and turns were firm berms … but still tight.
Section south of the El Rosario river was exposed rock ledges and slow Sportsman riders. Our Solartech adjustable light bar was tits! “Down” a click or dust, then back up as required. Very tight 180s. 30 mph was a good pace, if that.
Eventually lights came up on us. We thought that it would be #54. (It was so damp that we put up no dust to slow them!) We did not move until I could count the number of lights: #132 Feldcamp on a mission. (After they passed we drove into a dusty stretch: Oh, well, hell.)
There were MANY brightly burning agaves … so “Road Warrior” surrealistic.
Left-right-left – etc. … until we lost the left rear sidewall: “Where the hell are all those Mexicans NOW?!” We got out and affected a fairly speedy tire change. At least the car did NOT fall off the jack. Back in, and to Hell with the D-Cel helmet straps (can’t that be easier/faster?), it’s only ten to Hwy 1 and Jimmy Tucker’s takeover.
Old crew out, new spare on, new crew in, new Tecate in … off they went at a blistering sixty-per.
Road trip to Vizcaino … went quickly while nodding off.
Set up gas pit in fog south of Vizcaino … heard Jim’s call, set out flares on road, generator w/ halogens a-burning. Came in minus one of the spares; straps broke “somewhere”: filled to spill then off they went into Hwy 1 fog and San Ignacio.
We left for the east side and warmer climes … coffee and a sandwich at
#124 third crew reported that engine would not pull over 2-3,000 rpms. They would meet us at K55 south of La Purisima access road.
They had the engine exposed and we began a protracted session of lookie-see, checkie-do … all to no avail. Operators said that it acting like a “limp home” ECU failure: ran up fine then went flat. Everything looked A-OK: WeatherPak connectors, injectors connectors. Looked for damage due to spare loss. Fuel filter clean. The inlet air sensor was sorta cruddy: Stuart had no contact cleaner so he drove up to the access road where he got the total cold shoulder from the Voss crew – they would not even roll down the windows at a safe 0900 hours -- but the Martensen/Losch PT crew dug deep and got him a can. They stopped/slowed where we were[1] flogging down Hwy 1.
Sat phoned Wise men: we had already tried everything except the engine ECU water temp sensor. Contacted the crew in Cd. Constitucion and had them scrape up a new thermistor senor at the local GM dealer and bring it the 80 miles to Loreto. On the clock, of course. We strap-towed the car through the Army stop … we had become family by this time.
They installed the new sensor near Tom Minga’s Baja Pits and that change proved to be ineffectual: same-old same-old symptoms.
For those many hours we had experienced all of the human emotions:
· Anger
· Fear
· Sadness
· Joy
· Disgust
· Curiosity/interest
· Surprise
· Hope
· Acceptance
Except the last one: “We are going to finish!” Eric and Stu ran up the road without helmets and reported a strange acoustic horn-like noise when the engine would fall flat. Horn = noise = leak … WTF!?
I had the engine fired and Dan ran the vergasser as I sprayed the fluid on possible air leakage points. No stumble, no rev-up. I had Dan “eatfastgotacos” George slowly increase the Rs then Kevin Ahern pointed at the coil-wound inlet duct twisting and collapsing … “suction” was closing off the inlet.
Chris said: “There’s jacket in the intake screen! Inside the cockpit.”
That was pulled, the duct duct-taped for rigidity and they left for higher ground.
We sat back and relaxed until they radioed that the CVs were clicking. SHIT! PISS! They were at K38 on an agricultural scale (for cleanliness) … with the hub caps off. I got a tube of grease and grease gun from Minga. We slathered everything and sent them back onto their original exit point: IRC-trackers in the
Finally done we headed for the Pacific: the car was a on a tear and beat us to Insurgents and hwy 22. He drove the dually and flat bed into the Santa Rita area for a gas stops and Stu elected to change the rear brake pads as Chris had radio-ed that the brake pedal was getting longer: “Put the bias up font.”
We got there to discover that the Baja Pits were/was another two miles downcourse …we would have had to drove on the course at 0.01 mph. We set up at the RH sweeper area and got the lights lit and the tools out.
The change was quick and easy. “And don’t EVER come back!”
Down Hwy 1 we flew with Jan Jonatta’s F-whatever in the lead. We got a call that the RH front coil-carrier mount had torn off and the spring was through the hood: the plan was to pull the damper and put the spring in that location. Okee-dokee.
We caught our collective breath and a bizarre interchange occurred: a taciturn woman self-IDed as “BFG Relay” called on the Checker freq that #124 was going to meet us at K38 on Hwy 19. I checked the many maps that I had and called “Bullshit!” If they could drive all that way to K38 on Hwy 19 why not just just go on to Cabo!
We re-contacted and reviewed: the story was now K38 Hwy 1 which made only slightly more sense; if they put the spring on and could drive the 15 miles to Hwy … where we had nothing to help them … why not go to Kraz’ Checker pit at K44 Hwy 19 where there was a welder.
Where we did get car #124 on the horn was, indeed, the plan. The ONLY reasonable plan, actually.
LESSONS WELL-LEARNED:
· ID your sources
· Confirm/substantiate
Off to
We got the welder set up … it was so old that Noah had used it to arc-weld the
Stu spattered/goobered steel stock around the torn material with AC then DC power and olde rod while Eric and Chris grabbed some Zzzs … they had been in and around the car for almost twelve hours. Eric said that he been in and out over twenty times though off of this.
Finally, after my two chili gut-bomb dogs – burp, snort --the car was let loose into the rising sun: BANZAI!
They beat us to the finish line, culminating in a frustrating but successful race but getting the Turnkey-Penhall to the finish in all six 2007 SCORE events. ROGER THAT! 13th and last “1” car.
Adult beverages at The Office, a show, a nap, and do it again! And again!
PRINCIPLES
Race 1
Stuart Chase / Tony T
Race 2
Jimmy Tucker / Kevin
Race 3
Eric Chase / Chris Wilson
Northern Crew
Bryan “BB King“ Brimecombe
Southern Crew
Gary Johnson
Joking Jake
Nicole Johnson
Chase 1
Kevin Ahern
Marion Chase
Stuart Chase
TTRIFM
Chase 2
Jan “Jota-Jota” Janotta
Hayden Kerzner
Dan George
Anna George
Chase 3
Jim Tucker
Kevin
Dyanne Wilson
Linda
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