South to Old Mexico

We’re doing it again! Back to Mexico for the historic and exciting La Carrera Panamericana. I am meeting Dad at LAX in the morning to make our way down to Huatulco, where the 7-day race will start. This is the same place that the race started in 2009 when I was dad’s co-piloto. Even though we had some major bumps in the road (pun intended), we kept the car running and still finished 2^nd in our class (Original Pan Am) by only 23 seconds.

What the heck this event? It is a legendary 7 day road race across Mexico. Read history about the race {aqui}. Racers and cars come from across the globe to compete in this adventure. Teams include Mexicans, Americans, Canadians, Spanish, Finish, Germans and other various Europeans. The racers are as colorful as their hot rods.

The route

This will be my 2^nd time in the La Carrera and Dad’s 5^th. The years that I haven’t gone, Dad’s buddy Shields Richardson went to navigate. The pair of them made a very competitive pair, coming in first or second in class every year. Read HERE for the intro to the race in 2009.

The car is on its way through Mexico with Tom and 7’s Only Racing. Tom is taking 8 cars down and we will meet him in Huatulco.

I am not taking a computer but will be sending updates as I can to my roommate, Rachel, who will post to the blog with a few camera phone pictures and then I will post my photos from my real camera when I get back to the states.

Keep up with other teams will be posting updates:

Our friends Hayden Gruendyke and Charlie Samples: http://usa476.com/ You will fall in love with their Caddy and with Charlie’s photos.

Kristin Stewart: http://funksterwtf.blogspot.com/

Gary Faules: http://lacarrera2007.blogspot.com/

I will let you know other sites as I hear about them.

The official La Carrera site: I don’t think they post updates and even if they did, they would be in español.

This year we are VERY excited to have Tequila Fortaleza join us as a sponsor. We are looking forward to their delicious tequila and sharing with others!

How does one prepare for something like this? Not quickly or on a whim. A sound warrior-of-a-car is key and Dad has astutely tuned our ’54 Ford Victoria. A sound car is the most important part to finishing this race. Oh yeah – “finishing” is the goal. Sounds like cake but any veteran of the La Carrera will testify otherwise. Certainly if you’ve followed us on these adventures you’ve seen some of the trials and tribulations. Anything can happen and it takes a driver (piloto) and navigator (co-piloto) who can roll with the punches and adapt in a hurry. To cross the finish line, in the car, driving on its own, in one piece – is quite an accomplishment. Our goal this year sounds simple: take it easy and make it to the party every night!

And it begins. No sleep ‘til Zacatecas!