UNSTUCK
But stuck more often.
My bucket list is now one item shorter. My BIL is a sponsor and good friend of a class 18 car owner. When I met him and he found out I was a decent wrench he asked if I would be willing to help pit for the team. Who says no to that?
We headed down to San Felipe on Thursday morning. The race car was ready and they were pre running in other RZRs so they didn’t need us sooner. From Phoenix it was about a six hour drive and it went quick. Getting through the boarder was easy as well as the drive south. I will admit I was nervous, not knowing what to expect.
We hung out all day Friday and got the car through tech and the parade (the tech line). We discovered the radiator fans were not coming on so we had issues to work out. The drivers were out prerunning again while we took care of everything else. We took the car back to camp and played with the fans, which were now working. I’m guessing the car was not hot enough to command the fans to turn on. They were fine throughout the race.
Race day came (yesterday) and was pretty much chaos for us. Originally John and I were going to pit by ourselves at RM 165. Race organizers cut out a very scetchy section of course and replaced it with a go around. This ended up adding about 30 miles early in the course. This messed up our fueling strategy and made our pit at 165 not needed. Instead the team split up in two groups. John and I went with the north team where we gave a bit of fuel at rm40 and then again at rm125.
We got to rm40 just before the trophy trucks arrived. I have never seen them running in person. I will tell you they are far more impressive in person than video. Where we parked we could see the trucks coming only a couple hundred yards away from us. As they passed some were still on it hard and other were already slowing down for the speed zone not far beyond where we parked. I randomly videoed some trucks as I saw them come and pass us. I missed the best one: two trucks coming up. The one in the back was pushing the one in front, causing that truck to get loose in the one lane graded course section. The front truck swerved to the left just a bit which gave the second truck an opportunity. He jumped the dirt berm on the right side, right in front of us, made a lightening fast pass and got back on course. It sent our team and the spectators next to us scrambling and even diving out of the way. At the time I had been standing back by the chase truck way out of the way, but got a perfect view of the incredible pass. 30 seconds earlier I was standing on the berm right where the truck jumped it. The same spot I was standing in as I watched all the other trucks pass. I learned a valuable lesson there: in Baja, pedestrians do not have the right away. I gave the racers much more respect after that.
Our pit went fine. We gave them about 7 gallons. They had been screaming on the radio that the suspension was too soft. The team sponsored suspension builder happened to be with us for the pit so he gave them a quick adjustment. With that they were on their way. We packed up and hit the road, headed for rm125. The radio was cutting in and out as we got and lost reception. Every time we did we could hear the drivers screaming about the suspension not working. It was getting a little awkward with the shock builder in the truck with us.
We got to rm125 and found a spot to set up. The fastest trucks had already gone by. Now there was a good mix of the fastest class 10’s and the slower trophy’s. Then slowly the class 29’s and 18’s showed up. We had been on the radio this whole time trying to reach our drivers with no luck. The pit crew was all standing around the chase truck but I had just been standing next to the course while watching a few cars go by and to all our surprise our car comes around the corner. I yell to the crew to tell them they are right here. I wave my hands like crazy so the drivers will notice me and stop. Otherwise they would have raced right by us. We got lucky. Their radio was down. Or maybe ours was.
Once again they were screaming about the suspension and the tuner went to work to make changes. Me and the cars owner were fueling. We had 3 jugs to pour this time. The cars owner would lift them and it was my job to guide the red head into the fill neck. The first jug slipped out of Bret’s hands causing the jug’s hose to bend on the cars hood and pop off, dumping 8 gallons of gas almost instantly all over the front of the car, and me. I was soaked from head to toe, and very grateful our filler was in the front of the car away from the engines heat. Fortunately the car was using less fuel than we planned and the loss of that fuel was manageable. All in all we were still able to give all the fuel needed and tune the shocks again and get them back on the course in less than a minute.
Again we packed up and headed to rm210 to meet the rest of our crew. A short time later, after getting back into cell service we got word they broke a rear axle at rm150 and were calling it quits. We were confused and disappointed. We were not far away and had spare axles in the truck. We were just told to get the trailer and meet them just off the highway at rm30. As I understand it, we’re running in fourth place at the time in our class. We started 10th in the pack.
We hooked the trailer up and then John and I stayed behind. I got cleaned up and some new clothes on. At that point we just decided to call it quits and head home. As we felt a bit like outsiders we didn’t really want to be around the fight that would happen that night when they all got back. We quickly loaded our stuff in my truck and hit the road before they got back. While heading through town to the highway we passed the race car actually driving down the street, with what looked like a broken axle hanging down. We didn’t see the chase truck but we sent a message to Bret letting him know we saw the car.
And that was it. We spent an hour in line at the boarder and then just a quick run home. It was a rush of a trip. I learned a ton and got to experience a great race and interact with some really amazing locals. It’s very humbling to be the one who doesn’t speak the local language.
I can see us being on this team. I’m not sure I really want to though. Team members are spread out between California and Arizona. That’s a challenge. There is no practice and they just wing it. For me there is too much danger in that. We’ll see what happens.
For now, these pictures don’t do it justice.
This is the race car. I saw it for the first time here.
Lining up for tech. It was quite the party.
First time I’ve seen the sun rise over water.
The bikes started at sunrise to give them a good head start before the larger cars followed them.
Our drivers in and ready to race.
Random truck passing us at rm40. This is where I stood while taking most of my pictures and videos before the pass happened.
In this picture you can see the tracks of the truck that made the pass between the two bushes. I was standing by the bush on the right most of the time. Glad I wasn’t there during the pass.
Random truck at rm125.
We headed down to San Felipe on Thursday morning. The race car was ready and they were pre running in other RZRs so they didn’t need us sooner. From Phoenix it was about a six hour drive and it went quick. Getting through the boarder was easy as well as the drive south. I will admit I was nervous, not knowing what to expect.
We hung out all day Friday and got the car through tech and the parade (the tech line). We discovered the radiator fans were not coming on so we had issues to work out. The drivers were out prerunning again while we took care of everything else. We took the car back to camp and played with the fans, which were now working. I’m guessing the car was not hot enough to command the fans to turn on. They were fine throughout the race.
Race day came (yesterday) and was pretty much chaos for us. Originally John and I were going to pit by ourselves at RM 165. Race organizers cut out a very scetchy section of course and replaced it with a go around. This ended up adding about 30 miles early in the course. This messed up our fueling strategy and made our pit at 165 not needed. Instead the team split up in two groups. John and I went with the north team where we gave a bit of fuel at rm40 and then again at rm125.
We got to rm40 just before the trophy trucks arrived. I have never seen them running in person. I will tell you they are far more impressive in person than video. Where we parked we could see the trucks coming only a couple hundred yards away from us. As they passed some were still on it hard and other were already slowing down for the speed zone not far beyond where we parked. I randomly videoed some trucks as I saw them come and pass us. I missed the best one: two trucks coming up. The one in the back was pushing the one in front, causing that truck to get loose in the one lane graded course section. The front truck swerved to the left just a bit which gave the second truck an opportunity. He jumped the dirt berm on the right side, right in front of us, made a lightening fast pass and got back on course. It sent our team and the spectators next to us scrambling and even diving out of the way. At the time I had been standing back by the chase truck way out of the way, but got a perfect view of the incredible pass. 30 seconds earlier I was standing on the berm right where the truck jumped it. The same spot I was standing in as I watched all the other trucks pass. I learned a valuable lesson there: in Baja, pedestrians do not have the right away. I gave the racers much more respect after that.
Our pit went fine. We gave them about 7 gallons. They had been screaming on the radio that the suspension was too soft. The team sponsored suspension builder happened to be with us for the pit so he gave them a quick adjustment. With that they were on their way. We packed up and hit the road, headed for rm125. The radio was cutting in and out as we got and lost reception. Every time we did we could hear the drivers screaming about the suspension not working. It was getting a little awkward with the shock builder in the truck with us.
We got to rm125 and found a spot to set up. The fastest trucks had already gone by. Now there was a good mix of the fastest class 10’s and the slower trophy’s. Then slowly the class 29’s and 18’s showed up. We had been on the radio this whole time trying to reach our drivers with no luck. The pit crew was all standing around the chase truck but I had just been standing next to the course while watching a few cars go by and to all our surprise our car comes around the corner. I yell to the crew to tell them they are right here. I wave my hands like crazy so the drivers will notice me and stop. Otherwise they would have raced right by us. We got lucky. Their radio was down. Or maybe ours was.
Once again they were screaming about the suspension and the tuner went to work to make changes. Me and the cars owner were fueling. We had 3 jugs to pour this time. The cars owner would lift them and it was my job to guide the red head into the fill neck. The first jug slipped out of Bret’s hands causing the jug’s hose to bend on the cars hood and pop off, dumping 8 gallons of gas almost instantly all over the front of the car, and me. I was soaked from head to toe, and very grateful our filler was in the front of the car away from the engines heat. Fortunately the car was using less fuel than we planned and the loss of that fuel was manageable. All in all we were still able to give all the fuel needed and tune the shocks again and get them back on the course in less than a minute.
Again we packed up and headed to rm210 to meet the rest of our crew. A short time later, after getting back into cell service we got word they broke a rear axle at rm150 and were calling it quits. We were confused and disappointed. We were not far away and had spare axles in the truck. We were just told to get the trailer and meet them just off the highway at rm30. As I understand it, we’re running in fourth place at the time in our class. We started 10th in the pack.
We hooked the trailer up and then John and I stayed behind. I got cleaned up and some new clothes on. At that point we just decided to call it quits and head home. As we felt a bit like outsiders we didn’t really want to be around the fight that would happen that night when they all got back. We quickly loaded our stuff in my truck and hit the road before they got back. While heading through town to the highway we passed the race car actually driving down the street, with what looked like a broken axle hanging down. We didn’t see the chase truck but we sent a message to Bret letting him know we saw the car.
And that was it. We spent an hour in line at the boarder and then just a quick run home. It was a rush of a trip. I learned a ton and got to experience a great race and interact with some really amazing locals. It’s very humbling to be the one who doesn’t speak the local language.
I can see us being on this team. I’m not sure I really want to though. Team members are spread out between California and Arizona. That’s a challenge. There is no practice and they just wing it. For me there is too much danger in that. We’ll see what happens.
For now, these pictures don’t do it justice.
This is the race car. I saw it for the first time here.
Lining up for tech. It was quite the party.
First time I’ve seen the sun rise over water.
The bikes started at sunrise to give them a good head start before the larger cars followed them.
Our drivers in and ready to race.
Random truck passing us at rm40. This is where I stood while taking most of my pictures and videos before the pass happened.
In this picture you can see the tracks of the truck that made the pass between the two bushes. I was standing by the bush on the right most of the time. Glad I wasn’t there during the pass.
Random truck at rm125.
