2008 Tecate SCORE Baja 1000
Well, we’re all back safe and sound, but Baja got the best of us this round. Friday morning Dale and Brett would be the 25th starters off the line in Class 1 and after 30 miles or so, we were told they were running around 7th position. But then a few more miles down the course, one of the Trophy Trucks that felt the need to make up some time, decided to do it on the steep mountainous downhill, single lane section of the course. Dale thought to best to let this idiot by before he gave him an unwanted push that could send him over a cliff. When he pulled to the inside at the first opportunity, it turned out that his front left tire would get slashed on the jagged rock wall and would soon require a tire change. After the tire change, things were going great until Dale would come up to a Trophy Truck that was stuck in a narrow sandy wash around race mile 192 that would leave him nowhere to go and he too would get stuck in the wash. In an effort to get out, they lost their starter motor and would end up getting a tow off the course. Brett got out to replace the starter motor while Dale called us on the radio to have Grant and I get in the car instead of us waiting to get in at the scheduled race mile 220 location. Getting to them proved to be a bit of a challenge. We had two chase trucks and 10 of us with Jeff Quinn, Todd and Gary on foot combing the desert in the dark trying to find them. Todd would end up finding the car and with his hand held radio, he was able to guild the crew to the car. Chase 1 would get stuck in the sand. With the starter motor replaced, Chase 1 unstuck and the light bar installed, Grant and I were in the car and ready to go. We barely got the car going in the sandy desert terrain but once we did, I wasn’t going to let up. Next problem was the GPS wasn’t powering up, so we were driving around dodging bushes, trees and looking for the course when the motor got hot and went into limp mode. The GPS finally came up and we found the course but the overheating issue had us concerned. We pulled over to confirm the radiator fans were working and found one wasn’t. Grant replaced a bad fan relay as the crew caught up to us, we were off again. Everything was going great, car was working awesome, temps were looking good and we waved to the crew at race mile 220. Like I said, everything was going great when our alternator light started to flicker and flicker and flicker some more until it stayed lit. So the next stop would be the alternator replacement. Back in and once again, everything seemed to be great but did think to myself, what next? Well, that would be the engine heating up again. This stop required the top wing to be removed so we could check the water level in the radiator and it didn’t look good. It was very low so we put the four bottles of drinking water we had into the radiator and even added a half bottle of Grant’s personal “brew” and we were off again. For the next 15 miles, the goal was to get the car to the next pit stop at race mile 280 so we took it easy. Once we got there, it was determined that water was leaking into the cylinders and to continue would ultimately smoke the motor. So we packed up the trucks for the 3 hour drive back to Ensenada with the score, Missing Lenk Motorsports 3 and Baja 3. Sounds to me like Game 7 will determine the champs.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
