After a quick shower and the typical morning hunt for caffeine, it was time to get to work. Everyone had their task, John was up early and off loaded the racecar, others were checking tire pressures, and fluid levels, Denny adjusted the rockers one last time. I was messing around with the GPS and could not find the race course on it. I went to look at the GPS in Chuck’s Jeep and it was fine. I pulled the overlays from his GPS and loaded it on the GPS in the racecar and on the spare. Denny took the racecar out for a test around the hotel grounds, while the rest of us had a bite to eat and loaded the support vehicles. Before long Denny was back, Brie and I wired in her in car camera, hoping to get drivers point of view video footage of the race. Then the whole team was off to the starting line.
We found parking near where we had parked the night before and made our way up to the course, we could hear the cars starting every 30 seconds. I was in photographer mode at this point, and spent what seemed like hours taking pictures of the start. While at the start Chris had met up with Jeff’s buddy Strubbe who had waited in San Diego for the Satellite Phones that Jeff left at home and had sent down via Greyhound. These were the same Iridium phones that I use regularly for work, but I was off taking photos. Well somehow one of the phones got locked out (if you enter the wrong pin enough times you need to get the phone reset by the service provider.) Well by the time I met back up with everyone the racecar was running and moving closer to the starting line every 30 seconds. I was told that all of the phones were locked out, so I only played with the one that was designated for the racecar. We ended up putting it in the car as is and hoped to be able to radio them the unblock codes.
At the starting line Sal Fish, founder and CEO of SCORE-International, greets every racer and tells them “I’ll see you in Cabo.” Brie and I broke up photographer duties for the start, she got the shot of Sal with Chris and Pete, and I would be waiting at turn one hoping to catch Chris on two wheels. Moments later, Raffo Racing was thundering past the crowd in downtown Ensenada and on their way to Cabo.
After watching the rest of the class start, we needed to hurry. Brie was going to ride with Greg and Lisa in the Hyundai to the first driver change where Brie and Pete were due to switch out as co-driver. I had all of my stuff in the Hyundai, but was due to ride with Strubbe and Earl to BFG Pit 4. They had parked on the other side of the starting line so I went with them so I could guide them back to the Hyundai, grab my bag and get on the road. When we got to the truck, Earl noticed that his bag was gone, the bed of the pickup was full with coolers, camping chairs, boxes, but Earl’s suitcase was gone. He spent a few fruitless minutes interrogating locals, and getting upset at their “parking attendant.”
Once Strubbe and I convinced him that his bag was gone for good, we were headed to meet up with the Hyundai. We soon found out that there was only one road that had a bridge over the racecourse, and that it was backed up for blocks. After a few attempts to find another way around, we got in line and waited. By the time we got across the course the Hyundai was gone. Luckily Greg and I had talked earlier and I knew that they planned to make a quick stop at Walmart before getting on the road. When we pulled into the parking lot it was not hard to spot the silver Hyundai with HID lights on the roof. Luckily I also had a key (because having both keys to the vehicle together defeats the purpose of having two keys.) Earl went inside to stock up for the week, I met up with team Hyundai and then pulled some Pesos from the ATM.
While Strubbe and I were waiting for Earl, I went in to McDonald’s to get all of us some lunch, hoping to help lighten Earl’s mood. So here I am guerro gringo extraordinaire proud to be ordering my hamburgesa con quesos in my best broken Spanish, and the smart ass at the register asks me in perfect English if I wanted “them for here or to go?”
At this point we had burned enough daylight and had a considerable amount of driving to do before the day was done. We passed through several small towns on our way toward Catavina, but the bulk of our driving was on the rural stretches of highway 1. Not long after dark, we were following another truck through some winding passes, when out of the darkness a bull appeared. It stepped out between us and the truck in front of us but Strubbe swerved, then there was a loud clunk, but we quickly realized that the truck was driving fine and had all of its headlights. As far as we could tell the truck had only lost its side mirror. After a quick debate about going back to check it out we pulled up on a Military checkpoint. Luckily they were not checking southbound vehicles at the time and we drove straight through, even though we envisioned the entire passenger side of the truck being cover in dead cow. Not long after we pulled into El Rosario, checked the side of the truck and removed what was left of the mirror.
After a quick stop for gas we pushed on. Before too long we were on one of the highway portions of the racecourse, even though it was speed limited we were getting passed by motorcycles and quads with very bright lights. This however meant we were approaching BFG Pit 4 our destination for the evening, and judging by the traffic we would be well ahead of the racecar. When we pulled in we were greeted by Tom and Tom, Jeff was at the restaurant having dinner. We hung out, had something to eat and watched the action in the pits for several hours. We watched all of the faster classes make their pit stops, Class 1, Trophy Trucks, etc. Jeff had told us to wake him when the Class 5 cars started coming through. At about 1:30 in the morning the Moss Racing Bronco came through, they were the first Class 3 through Pit 4, and at this point we started bugging the ladies running the radio in the pit for info on Race 306 and when they got to Pit 3. This went on all night.
A few hours later the Dually and the Hyundai showed up, they brought news of an accident early in the race that severely damaged the front-end of the racecar. In the first 205 race miles, they had replaced the right front tire and a broken brake hose (RM 100,) the front driveshaft (RM 160,) and then rebuilt both front hubs, replaced one spindle, and replaced the front driveshaft again (RM 205.) After several hours of work the Blazer was back on course, but it was behind on time. With knowledge that the team was still in the race but a ways out from Pit 4 we all settled in for as much sleep as we could manage.