Day 6: Guanajuato - San Luis Potosi

Holy smokes. Are we in Zacatecas yet? I´m sorry for no post yesterday because of computer malfunctions but we made it all day to Guanajuato, through the tunnels, off this morning all around the countryside on some great sections that were really fun and we are now in San Luis Potosi. One more day and off to Zacatecas tomorrow. 

I can barely form complete sentences, my thoughts are coming out rated in numbers (right 2, left 3...), my boogers are black  and even though I´ve taken a shower I still smell exhaust. However, the last 6 days have been a blur. We´ve been in 7 different cities, almost to 3000 kilometers and have been in more Pemexes (Mexican gas stations) than most Mexicans will in one year.

The car is still running strong. Here's what happened yesterday:

Made it to Guanuajuato! I{m having a really hard time with this old ghetto computer in our hotel so I´ll recap yesterday here. Leaving Morelia yesterday morning to run Mil Cumbres again we heard an awful clanking in the motor after the first stage. We still had power but a major hunk of metal was rattling - turns out it was the harmonic balancer (I call it the harmonica) that had come loose. It he

lps to keep the motor balanced and is attached the the crank shaft at the front of the engine. Where it was it could have damaged the water pump and or pulleys. So we couldn{t do anything there so we conservatively ran the next three sections before a 200 km transit to servicio. We knew Steve Strupp would be waiting at a toll booth to make sure we went by so we found him and Steve and Greg got to work with a cutting saw and just cut the damn thing off. We don´t need no stinkin´ harmonica! Here we were on the side of the freeway and they were set up with there generator and went to town. The ring is a think 6ïsh inch diameter piece of metal and wtih two cuts they had it off and off we went! Had to haul ass to make it to servicio with no penalties but we made it and ran great the rest of the afternoon. Then...the dreaded tunnels...but we conquered the labrynth! Made it into to the beautiful town of Guanajuato with minimal stress, did not get lost AND...were 2nd in class! Off to San Luis Potosi today. Car running well. We´re taking it easy, just need to make it to Zacatecas. All is well and we´re having a great time!

Today was great too. We had some really fun runs and made up some time on the Dutch Porsche. We were second on the podium tonight but only by a few seconds! We have become friendly with the Dutch guys and they are so proper and opposite of us but really a lot of fun. Gys is an incredible driver and I can´t wait to see their in-car video to see how smoothly he drives. 

Seems everyone is very happy to almost be to Zacatecas. We end the day with the big run on the famous section called La Bufa. We will be taking it easy. Looking forward to seeing that donkey in Zacatecas! 

Thank you to Pepe for this shot from yesterday.