Sunday's Racing

I now understand this addiction. This last day of racing was FRICKIN' AWESOME!!!

The Victoria ran like the champ that she is. This third and last day of racing took us to the east of Chihuahua to Ojinaga; 4 velocity sections out and 4 back toward Chihuahua. This part of the state is high desert, very brittle environment, but with it's own unique beauty.

The car was great (until the last transit, LOL) and the velocity sections were so much fun to drive. Lots of 3s and 4s, some 5s and some long straights to haul ass. Dad did a great job driving and we found a great rhythm all day. There was a really fun, LONG section where we caught up to and passed the car in front of us. What a rush!!!

Then on the last long transit back to Chihuahua we developed a leak in a break line resulting in very little braking power but not enought to deter us from carrying on to the race track. We had to do 8 laps around a new track and we just cruised around, not pushing the car hard because of our brake situation. However, it was still an awesome day of racing!

Last night the awards ceremony was at the beautiful Governor's Palace downtown. Drum roll please...we got 2nd in our class!!! LOL There were only 3 cars in our Original Pan Am Class. The Gregorys and their Studebaker were out the first day with engine problems; we only ran a day and a half; but Brad and Derek in the beautiful yellow Lincoln were consistent and stayed in it, earning the top spot in Original Pan Am.

But now that I've experience this race, I truly believe that anyone whose car is still in one piece, has some hair left, can still see straight and has a smile on their face should all get recognition for surviving this great adventure!

We left Chihuahua early this morning to drive back to the border and were through by noon. Got the cars loaded and we're on our way home. Good thing it was easier to get back into the states than it was to leave! Now about 1000 miles go home :)

Saturday's Racing

Yesterday was a long racing day, lots of ground to cover and lots of speed sections. The mechanical gremlins plagued us again today, sidelining us for and hour and a half in the morning's transit section. Fortunately, if we were going to break down anywhere all day, this was the place to do it. Again a brake related problem, left front caliper this time. But with the help of the very talented Mazda crew and Tom, we were on our way to catch up with the rest of the race.


We were too far behind to do any of the speed sections on the way to Copper Canyon, but it was a great practice time for me to still make the calls for the speed sections as we blew through them. And we caught up! There was just enough time to grab a sandwich, take in the breathtaking views of Copper Canyon (just for a second), take a picture and get right back in the car to join the race on the way back down.


WHAT A THRILL! The speed sections through the beautiful landscape were so much fun. Dad is an excellent driver and we did very respectable after having our issues. The Victoria ran great. The country that was drove through was very agricultural, lots of cattle, farming and apple orchards. Very beautiful.


Today takes us to the east to Ojinaga, ending up on a race track back here in Chihuahua. Should be a fun day!


For those of you DEMANDING pictures...uh hmm Matt...here are a few:


Friday morning at El Centro for the opening of the race



The cars getting ready to leave to head out the first speed section, Pancho Villa statue in the middle

Dad and me at Divisadero, the lookout at Copper Canyon

After all of the speed sections, transiting back to Chihuahua in the afternoon. Beautiful!

We get to race tomorrow!

Copper Canyon, here we come!
Dad, Tom Dragoun and John Gregory found the magic touch to get the brake situation fixed so tomorrow we race!!! Dad is VERY relieved and I'm excited to get on the road. Tomorrow's course is to Copper Canyon, a long day but will be a beautiful drive.
Many cars had problems today, several engines blown up, one car-to-road-sign-encounter, one "fuel issue" aka ran out of gas, a battery connection problem. I don't know many details, some of those racers will be back on the road tomorrow after getting differents parts and fixes. Sadly, our good friends John and Chrislana Gregory from Vancouver blew a rod in their engine of their Studebaker and are loaded and ready to leave in the morning. :( On the positive side, all of the teams have been very supportive to each other. I am again taken back at the comraderie and encouragement between racers, teams and support people.
Ok, got to go study the route book for tomorrow and make sure I take note of those 4 and 5 turns!

the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Starting with the ugly to get it over with:


Going back to Tuesday when I last wrote...Funny how I thought that was bad. Little did I know that our border problem wouldn't be solved until late Wednesday afternoon (if you can call it "resolved"). Tuesday night drug out as follows: 7:00 pm - With no other resolution, the only option to get us across the border was to take the truck/trailer across as an empty and physically drive each car across the border as well. We only had an hour to do this bc the commercial gate (where the truck had to go) closes at 8:00pm. We decided we had to go for it so we busted ass to unload ALL of the cars plus all of the cargo. Then, at 7:40 with one more car to unload, we look over and the gate is closing (picture big steel gate in our new 15' border fence). Marco, the "broker who really isn't a broker after all" sped over in his car to tell them they can't close early and that we're trying to come though but they didn't like him telling them that so they called for reinforcements. Next thing we know a helicopter is flying over head. They didn't open back up. Exhausted and frustrated we called it a night at 10pm to go find food and somewhere to stay, leaving the cars and the trailer in the impound yard with the guard.


First thing Wednesday morning we get back to the cars to drive them each across and then take the truck across and then load all the cars, strap them down, and equipment and be on our way. Got through with re-loading by 11am and finally headed down the highway to Chihuahua City.


70 kilometers down the road we come to another Aduana (customs) stop. They check all of our papers for cars and truck and tell us that we need to turn around to go back to get one more permit for the truck. @#$%!!!


Back to the closest option, below Juarez, go to the Banjercito who gives out the permits. This was supposed to be a quick and easy process, maybe 20 minutes. 4 hours and much swearing later, we finally discover that we are stuck in the cross-fires of a political dispute between Mexico and the US. Something like We (the United States) shut down the border to semis coming in from Mexico. Thanks Obama. In return, Mexico isn't letting semis from the US come into Mexico. And the ladies who were supposed to give us the permit thought Tom's truck looked too much like a semi (even though it's registered in CA as a motor home) so they wouldn't issue the permit.

Disgusted and fed up, we decided that the cars would have to be unloaded and driven to Chi. Tom would have to drive his truck and trailer back to the Santa Teresa side to leave it in the safe yard where we were previously and he would drive the Suzuki Sidekick down to Chi this morning (Friday). The owners of the Lincolns had a taxi drive them the 200 miles up to get their cars, Dad and I drove down the Victoria. Wilhelm and Alex (red Chevelle) happened to see us on the side of the road as they headed south in their rental so they were able to have their permits changed so they could drive the Chevelle down. We packed all of the cars with our luggage, tires, parts and anything else we could and made the trek down to Chi.

It was actually a fun drive. We cruised at about 80 the whole way. Once it got dark I switched with Dad and drove the rest of the way. It only 3 1/2 hours and arrived at the hotel at 8:30 last night, completely worn out but relieved to be here.

Now the bad news:

When Dad and Tom were unloading the Victoria at Juarez, Dad noticed some brake fluid dripping down the inside of the front right tire. Upon taking the wheel off and looking inside the brakes*** they found that one of the O rings in one of the calipers was damaged, thus forcing the leak. Translation: We would soon have no brakes at all if the fluid kept leaking. Solution: Plug that brake so that it is "turned off" and rely on the 3 other brakes to get down to Chi. The car drove fine, just pulled hard to the left whenever we touched the brakes.

That brings us to the bad news: Without that brake working, we can't race.

***bonifide technical terms to follow

Now finally the GOOD NEWS:

It has turned out for the best that we didn't get to race today. We were still able to join in with opening "ceremonies" at the center of town this morning. I had a blast! We still wore our racing gear and pretended like we were really racing today. The only difference was that as all of the cars roared out of the center of town, we started on a hunt to find a new O ring. After going to several different car part shops, we found one that carried what we need, or as close as we can get to it.

The latest is that Dad and Tom are down at the car putting the brake back together. Fingers crossed that this works! If all goes well, Dad and I will be racing tomorrow. If not, we might spend the rest of the trip at the bar.

At the Border

...sitting, waiting, wishing.

After pushing hard to make it to Chihuahua in 2 days, here we are...at the border. We (Tom, Dad and me) are here with our "Customs Broker" who is supposed to be our personal Speedy Gonzales who helps us get across the border with our visas, paper work and stickers for each car. Everything would have been fine and dandy except for a small issue with one of the cars. PLUS they just switched over to a new system but no one knows how it works. Long story short, we've been here for 5 hours now and Speedy Gonzales is anything but speedy.

I always thought that the hardest part about traveling into Mexico was getting back in to the states. Hello, our unending immigration issues??? Kinda like keeping out the riff raff, right? Well, apparently Mexico doesn't really want us crazies either! I understand, and always have, that the border issues are totally real and need to be addressed. But the most frustrating part is that there aren't any set guidelines or procedures for the aduaneros to follow with regards to hauling someone else's car into Mexico, even though the racers have used this same crossing and same people for the last few years.

Doesn't anyone else find it ironic that we can't get in to Mexico???

Anywho...Here is Tom's awesome rig and the other really cool cars that we picked up, one in LA and the other in Phoenix.

On the top - The red is a Chevelle, then our Vicky. On the bottom are two '54 Lincolns.

In the search for alternate transportation, I found 3 bikes for us, maybe they'd be easier to get across the border!

I can be just like Che Guavera:

Mexico is calling...

Time to go back!

It's time for the Chihuahua Express, the road rally race that Dad and Shields raced in last spring and I followed along as a Servicio. Well, I'm going again this year, but this time I'm actually in the race car! I am going to be Dad's Navigator/Co-Pilota. I got the suit, the helmet, the shoes...but I think I've lost my mind. Oh well! I think you have to be half crazy to sign up for these things anyway. It's a requirement.

The Chihuahua Express is a road rally based out of Chihuahua (city). Each day we race (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) we will head a different direction out of town. This race is not like the Baja race-through the sand; we will be on paved, public roads. And not all together at once like the classic movie The Great Race (though it feels we really are in the movie). For the speed sections, a car will be let go every 60 seconds. And most importantly, safety is numero uno. The car has a full roll cage, fire system, we have full fire proof suits and shoes, helmets and neck support.

The nicest part of this race is that we stay in the same hotel the whole time, unlike the La Carrera PanAmericana that Dad races in in the Fall where they are in a different city every night. The race hotel is the Westin. The accommodations are very nice and they have a very nice and hearty breakfast.

That's a very brief synopsis of what's in store. I wrote about the race last year, so you can look back if you need a refresher. We are leaving tomorrow morning to drive to Buttonwillow, outside of Bakersfield, to meet Tom, the hauler. There we will load the car onto his trailer and then head south for the long drive to the border crossing outside El Paso, picking up 2 other cars along the way. We will get to the border Wednesday morning and then reach Chihuahua by Wednesday afternoon.

The '54 Ford Victoria loaded up and rearing to go~My name on the passenger side door~

I'm going to try my hardest to post an update daily so stay tuned. It is sure to be another great adventure!