Norra Mexican 1000 2013

[KX250R]

After getting gas in San Felipe we headed down to the next stage. This was a 97.56 mile transit. Special Stage three was 38.45 miles and the top three were;

#138 Randy Wilson 37.20 Avg. speed 61.8 MPH
#19 Jerry Herbst 38.07 Avg. speed 60.5 MPH
#95 Grant Reuter 38.57 Avg. speed 59.2 MPH

We had one more transit of 71 miles to get to Bahia De Los Angeles, our first night stop. Rolling into town they had a finish line, waved a checkered flag and stuffed cold beer thru the window nets....what a great feeling. We were directed up a few yards and backed into a spot and shut her down. Little kids swarmed the truck looking for stickers, people were taking photos and chatting with us. It is a great memory. We were pumped and looking forward to the next day...just needed to improve our logistics we figured...we were driving the truck offroad just fine.

Our adventures of the day were not yet over. After enjoying the finish line area fun we headed out to our hotel only to find out that " since we were late, they had sold our rooms"...the good folks at NORRA came out and got things straightened out, but it was a long drawn out process before we all could get some much needed sleep....tomorrow would be a new day!

 

[KX250R]

Day two does not go as planned

morning came and we were ready to rock. Other than fuels issues, huge time penalty hits on the transits and some overheating blasting across the lake bed we were feeling darn good about how things we going. Just a short drive up from the hotel we pulled in the Pemex station about 6:30AM, we had at least 4 hours of sleep under our belts we were ready to roll. Fueled up and the truck would not start, nothing, nada....Wiz and I put our butts against the tailgate and pushed our 7000 pound beast out of the way. Wiz jumped under the truck with a tester, hit the key, power to the starter but nothing...no clicks ...nothing.

Now we had no cell service and the Sat phone for unknown reasons was not reaching the chase truck. We were hanging and burning time to the start of the next stage. After many attempts our starter gave us what we thought was our last start and came to life. Off to the hotel we went. The trailer is a much better spot to work on the truck and if we could not sort it out its better to have it on than have it off so we loaded up.

Once we got it all strapped down we noticed that the two left side wheels were touching, we had broken a spring and with the truck on the trailer it was going no where. Shit!

After 30 attempts we get one more start out of her and off the trailer she goes. We stash the race truck at the hotel and head into town and the really cool local repair shop to fix the trailer, we hope.

We arrive to find race cars and trucks and busted rigs stacked deep waiting to get fixed. As luck would have it, they had the exact spring we needed, got that on, swapped out a bad trailer tire for the spare , patched the flat tire from the chase truck...yea, they had a flat the day before... and 7 hours later after retrieving the race truck got on the road to catch up with the race! Got some folks chasing down a new starter for us, including my office in the states, a buddy in PV that was born in Baja who called La Paz for me. We drove late into the night dodging cows arriving in the wee hours once again.

The next day we blasted to La Paz with the hopes of finding a much needed starter, we hit junk yards, parts stores, and the ford dealership!! nada...

Fixed and ready to roll out to find the race now far south..



Just a mile or so down the road Wiz spots something tasty..



and some Cactus that was damn big...





Finally the G&P Racing team is headed south...looking for parts and the race that has left us far behind.





---------- Post added at 12:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:46 AM ----------

We arrive in La Paz early in the afternoon and hunt and chase and call for parts. Meanwhile Wiz yanks out the starter...we had not gotten that far yet with the busted trailer and the late night dash to try and keep up with the race. What we find is the solder completely melted out of the header side of the solenoid. We think that those headers running across the lakebed flat out and pulling hard in the deeper sand must have just plain been cherry hot. So much so that the solder just melted out....I do believe heat shields are now on the list...Wiz does his thing and brings her back to life.

Working under the truck as we roll it into a covered area of the parking lot to get it out of the sun...no shit.



the fix



the tools



Running again and coming off the trailer!!!!

 

[MTUH3]

I would be so frustrated!

 

[BlueSVT]

Hahahaha, oh boy, another wiz lick picture???



I'm sure you guys had a blast regardless Grant... Looked like a great time!

 

[KX250R]

You know the whole team just kept working toward a solution and to keep us in a position so that if and when we got the truck going again we could get back in it. The only hard parts were when we passed the beginning or end of a Special Stage at the highway and the crews and race rigs were all around and there we were with ours on the trailer.

Got about 50 min of good GOPRO footage from in the truck that I need to download. We are back in it on day four and our fun and adventure is not over yet. Got some great photos of what comes next as well, and as you know, we do make it in the end! More to come!

 

[KX250R]

Here is a teaser of the very beginning of Day 4 Special Stage one.

NORRA Mexican 1000 2013 intruck start of D4SS1 no 95 - YouTube

Have to get on the road and get the truck back to SoCal.

Will post up the end of the race and more vid as I can.

 

[KX250R]

OK, downloaded this vid to utube, its got the first 43 min of the fourth day Special Section 1. We got fast straight aways, jumps, twisty stuff, small villiages, kickers, bigger kickers, kickers that knocked us off the road LOL.

The power steering went out early in this stage so slow turns were a real bearcat. was really having a hard time turning the wheel when I needed it. Also the kicker that sent us into the bush/tree knocked the lower A arm back and the tire was rubbing hard against the firewall on sharp turns, you can hear it...plus it was not tracking quite right. But we pressed on.

Keith "Wiz" did a super job! loved racing with him. We had a blast!!

Lots more photos of the later parts of this section and the finish I want to get up. more to come!!

Vid of D4SS1 Truck no. 95 ETHD class

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzjkyIYyJco&list=PLnz3DOHo38U4jaJTWU0zFGc9Drjjxc4Jt&index=4

 

[IRONMAN]

Video is private. Hurry, need more! lol
Looks great guys glad you all made it back safe.

 

[Hockster]

Ha ha ha A detour to "wiz"? ha ha ha

 

[SPRSNK]

Fix the video!