ExPo Member Entry - 2012 NORRA 1000 Rally

[notagain]

It took me a bit of time to post on this thread. Like Terry said, the experience is very hard to describe. Some day it will make a great story. Simply put, it's a story about 8 guys, most not knowing each other, linked by a passion for early broncos and adventure. Happily, driving and trailering over 100 years of old iron down to the Baja to race. For me, it's all about that one thing;
i
http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&...GsbiX_5Zbm5wPw

For four days anyway, the "secret" was real easy......staying...in the moment....in the Baja.

Here's part of the reason the trail led to the Baja.

1973 unrestored original Bill Stroppe Baja Bronco

Gary

[66Bronco]

Very nice Baja Bronco Gary!


-Terry

[enesset]

Gary you didn't mention during our week you were a poet. A hell of a nice guy and an enviable rig (great photo).

[1leglance]

Great to have all you guys in this thread...
I am sorry I have not gotten more pics & videos up yet...passed 6 kidney stone fragments in the last 24hrs so a bit distracted. Also working quite a bit at the hosptial to make up for time off.

Should be more stuff up in the next few days.

I am already working on the plan for next year so that even if I am not there you guys have much of the details sorted out.

[1leglance]

Well I am finally at the point of going through the Mex 1000 photos and figured I should get a bit of day by day story written up..of course I hope to hear from the other folks who were there to correct the points my memory fails me.

It started bright at early on Sat am we a meet up at Todd's house, way too early for me as I am a night person by nature but still the excitement was in the air.
We got the Bronco loaded and on the road we went with my trusty ol' Burb following behind.


Of course as my mind as been on thing like our pending Australia trip I didn't have all my wits about me and just after we blasted through Gila Bend (almost 2hrs outside of hometown Phoenix) I realized I had forgotten my passport.....duh!
Lucky for me my son rides a quick street moto and was able to grab my passport and meet me half way to home. However even more lucky was the belt squeal I heard. It turned out to be a broken alt mount bolt that could have led to really bad things in Mexico.


A little time spent at the Napa autoparts in Gila Bend and I was back in action trying to catch the rest of the crew. They made it across the border before me but thank to some great radio work by fellow support crewmember Sam I was guided into the hotel parking area and immediately I was awash in really cool vintage Baja race rigs.
Sights like this 59 Edsel let you know the rest of the week will be a really good time.



One mean Banshee that was amazing to watch fly through the desert and looked good sitting still.



But soon enough we had to get serious with a Team meeting where we figured out who would be in the Bronco for which sections and what we support folks were supposed to do. I also got pegged to be GPS, Radio, Media guy so it seemed all things electronic feel my way.



You just know when a parking lot looks like this there is bound to be some good times.


Soon enough it was off to bed for us and I gotta say a huge thanks to Gary my roommate for most of the nights. He put up with my late night media backups and battery charging without a complaint.

[1leglance]

Day 2...the race begins

The morning came way way too early for me but alas the excitement got me going. The rigs were packed and the Toyota and Superduty hauling the trailer headed out to get ahead of the racers. I stayed to capture the start and make sure we got started
Here is our pair for Race Day 1, Todd & Nick. They would have the most drama but kept it cool and did a great job.


The vehicles all lined up by the Bull Ring in Mexicali for a ceremonial start that I would tell anyone is worth going to see. Matter of fact this event is great for specators as you can get ahead of the racers at many places each day and park very near the racecourse.
This 71 Burb by BFI racing put some evil thoughts in my head and they were super cool people to get to know throughout the event.


This 40 series Cruiser with Sean & Rhonda on board was a hoot to watch each day and they really had the right attitude about the Mexican 1000...all fun all the time.


Even being as I am a Chevy guy you gotta love the Bronco lineup that was there. A nice variety of race rigs in varying states of mods from fairly stock to all out crazy.


And before long we got the thumbs up and Team Baja Bronco was on the throttle.


After that is was into the old Burb for Gary & me and off to San Felipe we went. This was to be where we would see the race truck go by, get some lunch and catch them again later in the day. At least that was the plan.
While pulling into a Pemex in San Felipe I hear Todd's voice over the radio. That freaked me out as he should have been driving and not talking. It seemed there had been a bit of an issue involving laying the Bronco on it's side which caused a fuel pump problem. Lucky for us the "Checkers" group of guys were on the same radio freq and knew right where Todd was at and proceeded to run their Ford Raptors hard to get there. We did a bit of dashing around to meet up with the SuperDuty that had the spare fuel pump and then Gary & I got to drive backwards on the racecourse. That was a bit more fun than I had planned on!
After a while the race rig was repaired and under way. I hope Todd will chime in with more of this story and I have some great video to post also.


Being the tech guy who had never really used a GoPro (thanks UPR for the loaner) meant we got some interesting footage! And I got more shots like this than I wanted...but don't worry I am working hard to edit it up and post it as part of this report.


The rest of the day was much less eventful and saw us fly down the very nice new highway that almost reaches Gonzaga Bay, past Coco's Corner and back to Mex 1 were we just caught the Bronco doing it first Co-driver change before heading into Bahia de Los Angles.


Now I have this hard and fast rule about never driving at night in Mexico. There are cows, old rigs, and all kinds of other very interesting things on the roads and with the way Mexican highways pretty much don't have shoulders it can be way dangerous. But of course rules are meant to be broken and this trip saw way too much night driving for my nerves.
We did catch up to the rest of the team in Bahia de LA and had some killer tacos before hitting the sack at Las Ventas for the night.

Even with all the drama of the crash, fuel pump issues, lack of logistics, trouble finding our hotel and everything is I have to say everyone was having fun and I just knew this was the right crew for our Baja adventure.

[Car28]

Great thread

Lance,

Good to meet you, Adrew, Eric and the rest of your team. The Mexican 1000 was a blast. We crossed the finish line but technically DNFed. Hung out in San Jose del Cabo for a day and turned around and drove the land cruiser back home.

IMG_6687.jpg

what a fun trip.

I'm slowly updating our adventures. Check them out at
http://seanduffydeepcuts.blogspot.com/

[toddz69]

Day 1 Highlights:

I was anxious the night before so I didn't sleep very well so I got out of bed early and got ready to go. I discovered a water leak on the Bronco while waiting in line to take off. Thankfully it was only a loose hose clamp and was easily fixed. The start at Laguna Salada went well and I seemed to quickly find my groove in terms of driving speed and style. Like others, we had a few missed turns/detours on the lakebed as Nick thought we should follow course markers until I told him they weren't for our race. The Lowrance XOG GPS turned out to be pretty small for nav at speed but we eventually got used to it. We felt like real race drivers here as we could move along at a pretty good clip on the relatively smooth route. Before we knew it, it was over and I was looking for our friend Chris Wilson for a splash of fuel.

At the start of the second special stage, we were right behind Boyd Jaynes in another Bronco and decided that we'd use him as a pacer for this stage. That plan quickly crumbled when I took a wrong turn and we ended up paralleling the course for several miles up in the hills before rejoining it again on the lakebed. Then we had the silt. I picked the wrong line at one point and we had to lock the hubs and engage 4WD briefly for the only time along the entire route. Thankfully we quickly recovered and were on our way.

Before we knew it, we were on familiar ground at Morelia Junction and on a road like that, your inner Parnelli takes over. I've had this happen before - you think you've really hit your stride and then something happens that shocks you back to reality and you realize you really, truly are not Mr. Jones. In this case, the reminder was just a bit more strident than it's ever been in the past. We weren't much more than a mile west of the turnoff to the Dump Road and the slow whoops when we crested a small rise and the rear end got a little loose on me. We did the normal sliding around a bit which I tried to correct by slowing and countersteering. Compared to my other Bronco, the steering wheel is huge and the steering box ratio is slow and I just couldn't keep up. Thankfully I got it slowed down enough that the final slide sideways in the roadway happened at a fairly slow speed but we had did enough velocity that the truck flopped onto its side.

I've never been in a vehicle that rolled before. A lot of emotions go through your head when it happens but the one I expected, fear, in this case was not one of them. Frustration with yourself, thoughts about the race ending early because of your actions, and other teammates being mad at you were what went through my head in that split second. Nick turned off the fuel pump and told me to get out and then he quickly followed suit. Thankfully, Nick was as cool as a cucumber and quickly added a little humor by noting he didn't see any leaks on the undercarriage. Out came the tow strap. Bob Land was the next competitor behind us and he quickly agreed to flop us over. Whew! The body damage didn't look so bad. We tried to start the truck but quickly realized the fuel pump wasn't working so it didn't run for more than a second or two.

I got on the radio for help and the world responded. Lance got our spare fuel pump to our Cheeze (off-road racing fraternity of sorts) friends and soon the Cheeze Raptor Patrol sprang into action (my co-driver was shaking his head with all the chatter). Others came up course with a jack and a strap to yank us down to the pit. Our friend Steve helped me pick the rocks lodged between the bead and the rim, which allowed us to air up the tire. Others helped with the fuel pump issue but after the installation of the replacement pump we discovered it didn't work either! Back to wiring. A frustratingly long time was spent troubleshooting and we finally determined that we had a grounding problem. A redundant ground wire made from Lance's supplies got the pump whirring again. Some food and water and we were on our way again, but not before I goosed it out of the pit and the slow steering once again put me off course into a little gulley right in front of everyone. As mentioned previously, I'm not Parnelli.

Other than a dead battery problem at Chapala, the rest of the day went much better!

Todd Z.

[1leglance]

Howdy Sean - Car28, great to have you here on Expo and nice blog by the way.....looking forward to keeping up with it and I hope to meet up with you & Rhonda sometime soon...make sure she joins in as a female racers perspective is always welcome.

Todd...very cool to get the drivers thoughts like this..I hope to get more of the day to day up and please keep adding your thoughts. Now we just need to get the other guys to add their daily ramblings also

[1leglance]

Hey Todd check out this pic from Sean's blog....it looks like your Bronco from Nov 1972
http://seanduffydeepcuts.blogspot.co...Mexican%201000

( I can't cut & paste the pic from work but I will try at home)