November 18, 2007

Wow so much to write...alot happened within the week that I found out about the Baja, got a seat on the team and placed fourth in the toughest offroad race in the world.

Ok, so some updates on events. After our end of the race on Wed afternoon. (other races come in for the next 2 days) we basically went to our hotel suites, chatted for a few minutes and everyone passed out. No yacht party for us.

Personally I caught 2 short naps in the truck while chasing the driver and co-pilots (one for nav and one for instrumentation) all had much longer naps, and the 3 other chase guys only caught very short driving naps as well. Fast eddie caught his nap without even leaving the drivers seat ;-). As our truck finished in 28 hours 58 minutes plus about 3 hours before the start for prep, it was very, very, long day of racing.

On Thursday we all got a slow start, some guys just disappeared to be alone for abit, some rented scooters and scouted out the area and I had a nice swim in the hotel pool, several cups of coffee and then brunch beers with Fast Eddie.

In the afternoon I just sorta hung out close to the hotel, the trucks and the local cantina. Then I got to run errands with Pistol Pete. Now getting to run errands doesn´t usually sounds like alot of fun, but, when you do it with one of the top 5 offroad drivers on the planet and you do it in a former trophy truck with license plates on it, there has to be some entertainment value no?

It turns out that during the race the truck went through 2 rear tires in a short period of time. Going through tires is standard business, the truck has 2 spares mounted on it and really good jack. Going through tires in a hurry pretty much leaves you with flat spares though. During the race Pete was able to borrow 2 tires from the guy who was ahead of him, Gus Viladasola. Gus had pitted abit earlier at a certain location (there are about 12 pits stops along the way, most are just for fuel which is done by a service called ¨Baja Pits¨, the hard repair based pits we handled) and would not be able use the tires even if he needed them, so his team loaned them to Pete, the guy who would take Gus´s position should anything happen to him. How is that for sportsmanlike spirit?

Anyway I got to ride with Pete to return the tires. I climbed into the truck, buckled up the five point harness and we headed out into traffic. Take alook at the pics and you can imagine what riding inone of these is like...for one things its loud, rumbly....and that´s with tame exhaust as this truck does not compete anymore. its windy as it has no windsheild and it garners soo many looks. In Cabo and all of the Baja these trucks and their drivers are reveared as gods. Everyone looks, some traffic even stops. For the people who recognized Pete driving they lost their minds pointing and yelling. Pete, well he barely notices or seems to care. Even the autograph hounds and ¨sign my shirt¨ people leave him seeming non-plussed. Old hat I guess. Me, I just flashed the peace signs and played the coool cucumber.

Regardless of all that, the irony of dropping off a set of race wheels to the fully gated and gaurded resort of the Sheraton in a kickass offraod truck was not lost on me. Stop and go traffic jams were not so entertaining though. I kept pointing to the ditch and as often as Pete looked at it he didnt take the bait so ensconsed in the city.

Thát afternoon during cocktails near the pool I got interviewed by a video production crew (they did Overhaulin' with chip foose) for their upcoming movie - Chasing Baja. Its about the chase crews like I was on. They heard about Canada (my nickname here) and sought out the new guy who rode up on a old motorbike looking for a ride and got to crew for a trophy truck, lol. We´ll have to look for that on the bigscreen.

In the evening we partied in Cabo, many cervecas, a few tequilas and few hangovers. Personally I felt really rough and had a sore throat, more than a hangover, I thought allergies.

The next day a few guys went fishing on a boat, I had another swim, did some online stuff and had another liquid brunch with fast eddie. Apparently that morning a guy punched Pete in the face. During the race the guy (driving a volkwagon bug) would not let Pete in the much faster and bigger vehicle pass. After thrre faield attempts at passing and blaring the very very loud siren, Pete did what is standard practise, he ´nerfed´the guy aka he bumped him. Apparently this bump resulting the guys car breaking down and he did not finish the race. Sooo he obviously blames Pete for his loss. How unsportsmanlike is that? Contentious?, yeah.

The guys were leaving to return to Pheonix after the award ceremony at noon so I packed my stuff and got int he cab to the ceremony. Basically that lasted a few hours with a million autographs. The second Pete walked off the stage he headed for the trucks, he wanted to be back with his family.

I was getting off in Ensenada so my trip was shorter but basically I spend 25 hours in that truck again with a cold. i thought it was allergies but i was and am genuinely sick. It was a long trip so last night and tonight I got a hotel room and am eating good meals and resting alot.

There are so many thoughts and stories that come to mind re this past week that I´ll have to try to insert a few of them in here and there over the next little while. I the meantime take a look at some of the pics. The ones from vancouver to LA will come later but enjoy the Baja ones for now. If the race photos don´t look really racey that´s because I was on the crew, I really didn´t see alot of the race, only from the pits but I was too busy then to take pics. I did get abit of video but can´t really post that here.
pics - http://www.flickr.com/photos/86368852@N00/sets/

A video of Pete - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VavFAZKEj6U&feature=related

Another -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-il56Ki9Rw

Some people I have said hello to or saw - Robbie Gordon, Jesse James, Joe Carruthers, and Ivan 'the Ironman' Stewart, and the founder of Baja - Sal Fish.

Tomorrow? an early start to drive down the Baja to La Paz then a ferry to Mazatlan. Three trips the length of the Baja in a week, tough.

'Canada'
Chase Crew for Pistol Pete, #2