Someone is eating their Wheaties

A few mechanical issues on Day 2:

• Power steering and lack thereof.
• Exhaust leak.

The car threw the power steering belt...again...flashback to the 2008 Chihuahua Express and me running around villages on the way to Copper Canyon trying to buy various sizes of belts. Re-visit this chaos in this post. What is happening - and forgive me for my lack of sounding like a car professional - is that the pulleys that the power steering belt connects too have become slightly un-aligned. What this means:

large, heavy American-made 1954 car

+

no power steering

=

Dad has to eat LOTS of Wheaties.

Good thing Dad is a big guy because I'm sure he had to man-handle the Victoria. They finished the day and with no penalties, amazingly, but struggled. The story that I didn't tell in that '08 ChiX post is that after lunch at the Copper Canyon, going back down hill, Shields and Dad came upon a fast downhill run into a 5-right (5 is the rating for the tightest, sharpest turn). Bad news. Even with hard breaking and slowing the pace, the front left corner of the car had a personal encounter with the wall of stone.

Anyway - back to Day 2 reporting. They had to pull back on their pace. The good news - they still had a podium finish, coming in 3rd behind John in the white Corvette - who is apparently blazing a smokin' hot trail - and the Gregorys.

Dad and Shields said that once in Puebla, they had a really nice evening. The reception by the people of Puebla were very nice and courteous. They were parked in the plaza right next to a cafe and they got a table near the car and enjoyed some food and beverages (my guess: Dad had a pot of coffee and Shields had some beers).

Tom and the team worked on the car last night and hopefully fixed the belt issue but did not have time to get to the exhaust leak which is fine - would rather have steering. Hopefully those damn belts stay on!

Here is a photo that Gary Faules shared. Not sure who to give photo credit to but great job, man! This must have been in Tuxtla in the staging area. That's my best guess.

The route for today, Day 3, finishing on the track in Queretaro. Back on the track can be very entertaining, especially because driving into the sun at that time of the afternoon. Fingers crossed that all racers keep their cool.

In other news: I thought I was missing out on the "Carrera Diet" this year. Ha! Turns out you can lose your appetite no matter where you are, as long as the race is going on. Lucky me :)

Really worth watching:

Mats Hammarlund Racing is doing an excellent job putting together videos to report each day. Gary had been posting they on his blog so you can find others there. This video shows what is is like to go really fast. (Dad and Shields' feet do not peddle this fast. Close, though)