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Friday, May 30, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Big thanks to Gary Faules for posting this vid of Mark and I going through Mexico city! this is by the first turn which means we had slowed down for the corner:) this speed stage had some pretty dramatic crests, we found that if you go about 190 over these crests it is possible to get all four off the ground! not to worry, if you stay in it, the car doesn't mind!!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Chihuahua Express wrap-up: 1st day racing
We got up at six to get ready to race, ate some breakfast, and headed down to the Pancho Villa square in Chihuahua to line the cars up and have the local newspaper take our picture. The picture wound up on the same sports page as my favorite boxer, Alfonso Gomez. I'll post it if anyone has a scanner big enough to copy a whole newspaper page.
Chacho asked us to start first so we were assured some open highway ahead of us. It felt pretty nice having the pole position, but with Doug Mockett and Angelica Fuentes in our rear view mirror, we felt a little pressure not to mess things up in front of the pros. In our first transit of the race, we quickly fell into a comfortable 100mph for most of the way to the first stage. We didn't "need" to drive this fast to arrive in our 59 second window, but when the cops are there waving you on, it's tough not to go for it. Federalis, we hug you.
The first stage was 40 kilometers. So much for shaking the cobwebs off on a short jaunt. (We weren't as scared as this picture makes us look - the sun was bright...)
We started the race pushing about as bad as I can possibly imagine, and were a little worried our "shaking stuff in the engine compartment" mechanical prep. should have been expanded to shaking some of the suspension bits. Once the tires warmed up, however, it didn't seem possible to take a corner too fast. Hint to our future competitors in an STI or EVO: don't bother doing any suspension work or adding a wide-body kit so you can stuff giant rubber under the fenders. Total waste of time. Trust us.
After the organizers repeatedly warned everyone during the driver's meeting to take it easy the first stage and the entire first day since that is when most of the crashes occur, we thought it might be a good idea not to take it easy. They say endurance races can't be won on the first day. While technically true, you can sure lay down a nice lead on people the first day. We had a solid first stage and beat second place by two minutes. Those minutes would come in quite handy the second day when we were assessed a whopping five minute penalty for inadvertently breaking just about every rule you can think of. More on that later....
We wanted to meet Denise at the service (lunch stop) in Madera but could not find her. We learned later she was on one of her many racing adventures that had very little to do with racing, and a lot to do with keeping another car up and running. Carlos and his son Carlos, who were not in the race but drove a nice red M5, showed us the way to a hamburger stand they said was good. After the cashier attempted to fleece us (Cuidado, MF!), we had fantastic hamburgers for lunch.
The rest of the day was smooth and I have a video somewhere around here to prove it. Coming soon...
We returned to the Westin Soberano, took a shower, and attended the first award ceremony where Chacho would present a first in class and first overall medal to what he began referring to as "a certain black Japanese sedan."
Chacho asked us to start first so we were assured some open highway ahead of us. It felt pretty nice having the pole position, but with Doug Mockett and Angelica Fuentes in our rear view mirror, we felt a little pressure not to mess things up in front of the pros. In our first transit of the race, we quickly fell into a comfortable 100mph for most of the way to the first stage. We didn't "need" to drive this fast to arrive in our 59 second window, but when the cops are there waving you on, it's tough not to go for it. Federalis, we hug you.
The first stage was 40 kilometers. So much for shaking the cobwebs off on a short jaunt. (We weren't as scared as this picture makes us look - the sun was bright...)
We started the race pushing about as bad as I can possibly imagine, and were a little worried our "shaking stuff in the engine compartment" mechanical prep. should have been expanded to shaking some of the suspension bits. Once the tires warmed up, however, it didn't seem possible to take a corner too fast. Hint to our future competitors in an STI or EVO: don't bother doing any suspension work or adding a wide-body kit so you can stuff giant rubber under the fenders. Total waste of time. Trust us.
After the organizers repeatedly warned everyone during the driver's meeting to take it easy the first stage and the entire first day since that is when most of the crashes occur, we thought it might be a good idea not to take it easy. They say endurance races can't be won on the first day. While technically true, you can sure lay down a nice lead on people the first day. We had a solid first stage and beat second place by two minutes. Those minutes would come in quite handy the second day when we were assessed a whopping five minute penalty for inadvertently breaking just about every rule you can think of. More on that later....
We wanted to meet Denise at the service (lunch stop) in Madera but could not find her. We learned later she was on one of her many racing adventures that had very little to do with racing, and a lot to do with keeping another car up and running. Carlos and his son Carlos, who were not in the race but drove a nice red M5, showed us the way to a hamburger stand they said was good. After the cashier attempted to fleece us (Cuidado, MF!), we had fantastic hamburgers for lunch.
The rest of the day was smooth and I have a video somewhere around here to prove it. Coming soon...
We returned to the Westin Soberano, took a shower, and attended the first award ceremony where Chacho would present a first in class and first overall medal to what he began referring to as "a certain black Japanese sedan."
Monday, May 12, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Chihuahua Express wrap-up: tech inspection
After penetrating the border and passing the military checkpoints, our only hurdle left to clear before racing was the technical inspection. After an abbreviated sleep following our long drive down, we dragged ourselves out of bed, headed down to breakfast, ate some amazing little balls (insert your own joke here to play along,) said hi to some friends who raced la Carrera, and went outside to unpack the car.
I was going to show a picture of what unpacking the car looks like, but it looks a lot like driving a car out of the rear of a trailer, so... HOLD ON! THE VAN!!!
I thought the van escaped my lens, but I just found this pic. Would you let these two guys into Mexico in that black van with no windows towing a big white trailer? Neither would I. This is a testament to how cool Mexico is.
Ahhh the van.
We drove the car down to the tech area and passed without incident; not surprising since it was the same gentleman who cleared our car at the panamericana. Once you pass tech you can pick up your car number. We had asked for our standard, fabulously successful number 43. The officials informed us the number was taken but we could have our second choice. We picked 34, figuring in a spin at least we'd have good luck going backwards. They gave us 91.
We were pretty much ready to race the next day, other than checking the tire pressures and shaking some stuff in the engine compartment (we're not mechanics, but it makes us feel better to shake some stuff to see that nothing falls off in our hands. "What if something falls off?!" you ask? You obviously haven't seen our bomb-proof Subaru.) The last thing on the prep list was a bit of vanity: replacing a side skirt we left as a souvenir in the last race in Mexico.
We quickly gave up on this plan, opting to take a quick nap before picking up the amazing Denise "DeJeronimo" Jerome. We literally could not have finished the race without her help, more on that later.
The driver's meeting started on time, something we had not experienced before in Mexico. Props to Chacho (soft 'sh' sound) the organizer, for running a tight event. Just as the meeting gets going, some dude who goes by "Shields" walks in with a towel around his waist and a cigar hanging out of his mouth. Kevin and I both thought, "we need to meet this guy." He apparently felt the same, walked up to us and threatened/offered to "pour tequila down our throats" if we lost. No disrespect to Shields, but it would turn out we would have to take a pass on the tequila.
I was going to show a picture of what unpacking the car looks like, but it looks a lot like driving a car out of the rear of a trailer, so... HOLD ON! THE VAN!!!
I thought the van escaped my lens, but I just found this pic. Would you let these two guys into Mexico in that black van with no windows towing a big white trailer? Neither would I. This is a testament to how cool Mexico is.
Ahhh the van.
We drove the car down to the tech area and passed without incident; not surprising since it was the same gentleman who cleared our car at the panamericana. Once you pass tech you can pick up your car number. We had asked for our standard, fabulously successful number 43. The officials informed us the number was taken but we could have our second choice. We picked 34, figuring in a spin at least we'd have good luck going backwards. They gave us 91.
We were pretty much ready to race the next day, other than checking the tire pressures and shaking some stuff in the engine compartment (we're not mechanics, but it makes us feel better to shake some stuff to see that nothing falls off in our hands. "What if something falls off?!" you ask? You obviously haven't seen our bomb-proof Subaru.) The last thing on the prep list was a bit of vanity: replacing a side skirt we left as a souvenir in the last race in Mexico.
We quickly gave up on this plan, opting to take a quick nap before picking up the amazing Denise "DeJeronimo" Jerome. We literally could not have finished the race without her help, more on that later.
The driver's meeting started on time, something we had not experienced before in Mexico. Props to Chacho (soft 'sh' sound) the organizer, for running a tight event. Just as the meeting gets going, some dude who goes by "Shields" walks in with a towel around his waist and a cigar hanging out of his mouth. Kevin and I both thought, "we need to meet this guy." He apparently felt the same, walked up to us and threatened/offered to "pour tequila down our throats" if we lost. No disrespect to Shields, but it would turn out we would have to take a pass on the tequila.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Chihuahua Express wrap-up: getting there
Everything about racing in Mexico just feels right, the way you would want it to feel if you were the person who invented the whole thing in the first place, except the part about getting two cars into Mexico owned by one person, at the same time. The importation process is so lame, it's barely better than leaving the tow vehicle behind and only driving the race car the whole way from your house to the start line and hoping you don't need a spare of anything along the way. Unfortunately, since about 800,000 cars are brought into Mexico illegally each year, the process needs to be a little tough. Or at least that's what they tell us.
The tow/no-tow decision was made for us long ago when Kevin acquired a van that would be the envy of the entire A-Team. Shockingly, we have no picture of the van. Picture big, black, smooth riding, no windows in the back, and nothing behind the front seats except a mattress and a la-z-boy recliner. That's the van. With the right sized fuel cell it would be very easy to speed this thing across the entire width of any country without stopping, but that would be silly.
I flew into L.A. at about 7pm, we hooked the empty trailer to the van, drove the Subaru in, and threw just about everything we could think of into the trailer. Packing, as we have stated elsewhere on this blog, is one of our most hated activities. We hopped on I-10 East at about 11pm and our GPS told us we would be taking a right, three states later. That's a lot of highway after a long day of work, a rushed packing session, and the knowledge that we were most likely going to have trouble at the border.... Thankfully, we spotted an In-N-Out Burger just outside of town that was a harbinger of our success to come. If you work for In-N-Out Burger, please contact us. We have an exciting sponsorship opportunity you want to hear about.
Kevin took the first shift driving, and after a seriously delicious burger (In-N-Out, call us) I crawled into the bed in back. During the 30 seconds I was awake, I promised myself I would do everything in my power to nominate for a Nobel Peace Prize the person who came up with the idea of putting a mattress in the back of a van. Does a blog entry satisfy that promise? Yes.
At a gas station near a place that sounds a lot like 'Pikachu Mountain' we switched drivers, and contemplated how much more the van would be worth if we grill-mounted the $4,000 buffalo head available for sale behind the counter. Agreeing on "probably about $3,500" we put our credit cards away and kept on heading east.
At one of the next gas stops we met a friendly border patrol agent and innocently asked which crossing he recommended considering our van, trailer with race car, and passenger with a goatee that looks a little bit like bin Laden's. He confirmed Santa Teresa was as good as any other, and provided some other information to aid our journey. Knowing the readership of this blog, let's just say the information was helpful, and Mexican-border patrol agents are underpaid.
After one of our more legal border crossings in recent history, Mexico welcomed us with open arms:
We weren't sure what caused the van in the picture to burn, but there was no reason for alarm because previous experience has suggested the STI is fireproof.
The van did a bang up job of getting us to Chihuahua in just under 22 hours driving straight from L.A. Yes, that distance could be traversed in a much shorter time. Unfortunately for our hopes of a quick trip to the hotel, we have a bit of a war on drugs underway. Two Military checkpoints made sure we had no funny business going on in back:
Something about this first checkpoint made me a little nervous. Oh, I remember what it was. It was the dude in the back of the hummer (just under the big ALTO sign on the left) aiming his anti-aircraft gun at the tanker truck. After a couple checkpoints in the mad dust storm, we continued through gorgeous Chihuahua State (pictures in a future post) and checked in to the equally as gorgeous Westin Soberano. If you work for the Westin, or any of the Starwood properties around the world, please contact us. We have an exciting sponsorship opportunity you want to hear about.
All this could have been said with, "We towed the car to Mexico," but for me at least, getting there is about 30% of the fun. Plus, I wanted to use 'harbinger' in a sentence.
The tow/no-tow decision was made for us long ago when Kevin acquired a van that would be the envy of the entire A-Team. Shockingly, we have no picture of the van. Picture big, black, smooth riding, no windows in the back, and nothing behind the front seats except a mattress and a la-z-boy recliner. That's the van. With the right sized fuel cell it would be very easy to speed this thing across the entire width of any country without stopping, but that would be silly.
I flew into L.A. at about 7pm, we hooked the empty trailer to the van, drove the Subaru in, and threw just about everything we could think of into the trailer. Packing, as we have stated elsewhere on this blog, is one of our most hated activities. We hopped on I-10 East at about 11pm and our GPS told us we would be taking a right, three states later. That's a lot of highway after a long day of work, a rushed packing session, and the knowledge that we were most likely going to have trouble at the border.... Thankfully, we spotted an In-N-Out Burger just outside of town that was a harbinger of our success to come. If you work for In-N-Out Burger, please contact us. We have an exciting sponsorship opportunity you want to hear about.
Kevin took the first shift driving, and after a seriously delicious burger (In-N-Out, call us) I crawled into the bed in back. During the 30 seconds I was awake, I promised myself I would do everything in my power to nominate for a Nobel Peace Prize the person who came up with the idea of putting a mattress in the back of a van. Does a blog entry satisfy that promise? Yes.
At a gas station near a place that sounds a lot like 'Pikachu Mountain' we switched drivers, and contemplated how much more the van would be worth if we grill-mounted the $4,000 buffalo head available for sale behind the counter. Agreeing on "probably about $3,500" we put our credit cards away and kept on heading east.
At one of the next gas stops we met a friendly border patrol agent and innocently asked which crossing he recommended considering our van, trailer with race car, and passenger with a goatee that looks a little bit like bin Laden's. He confirmed Santa Teresa was as good as any other, and provided some other information to aid our journey. Knowing the readership of this blog, let's just say the information was helpful, and Mexican-border patrol agents are underpaid.
After one of our more legal border crossings in recent history, Mexico welcomed us with open arms:
We weren't sure what caused the van in the picture to burn, but there was no reason for alarm because previous experience has suggested the STI is fireproof.
The van did a bang up job of getting us to Chihuahua in just under 22 hours driving straight from L.A. Yes, that distance could be traversed in a much shorter time. Unfortunately for our hopes of a quick trip to the hotel, we have a bit of a war on drugs underway. Two Military checkpoints made sure we had no funny business going on in back:
Something about this first checkpoint made me a little nervous. Oh, I remember what it was. It was the dude in the back of the hummer (just under the big ALTO sign on the left) aiming his anti-aircraft gun at the tanker truck. After a couple checkpoints in the mad dust storm, we continued through gorgeous Chihuahua State (pictures in a future post) and checked in to the equally as gorgeous Westin Soberano. If you work for the Westin, or any of the Starwood properties around the world, please contact us. We have an exciting sponsorship opportunity you want to hear about.
All this could have been said with, "We towed the car to Mexico," but for me at least, getting there is about 30% of the fun. Plus, I wanted to use 'harbinger' in a sentence.
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