2015 NORRA Mex 1k, Vintage Chase for a Vintage Race

[1leglance]

I thought you guys might enjoy a look at one of our vintage burbs out playing in Baja.

Well I have been back home safe and sound for a week now so I figured it was time to post up some kind of trip report.
This is also to encourage anyone interested in getting down to Baja either for fun or to chase for a race team.

It all started in 2012 with a friend ToddZ who co-owns the 1969 Baja 1000 winning Bronco and his effort with friends to race the Mexican 1000. I had a blast and this year it worked out that I could chase again. However the vehicle this year was a different early Bronco and some new friends along with part of the previous cast of characters.

Friday evening found 3 of us in my 1970 Suburban in route to San Diego fighting some insane fog...Here is a shot out my windshield and my Burb at the hotel the next morning. Pics are mine, Todd's, Andrew's, and my wife Veronica's....not going to hassle with more credit than that


This was about as clean and shinny as my Burb was even till today


Saturday am found us up early on and the road. The crossing in TJ was a breeze and $20 USD got us all 30 trip permit for Mexico. The permit are easy to get and Mexico is starting to ask for them more, hey it is the law and worth following.
Tech inspection was the insanity is always is and registration as much so. NORRA does an amazing job of herding cats/racers. As is my norm I get into Comandante mode making sure we make drivers meetings, Rally Nav class and actually get our vehicle through Tech Inspection.


It was nice to see another Chevy, and of course it was the BFI guys who are a hoot and always fun. Everywhere I went folks thought I was either them or chasing for them


more to come.....

[1leglance]

Sunday morning the race was on...
And we were testing out some new concepts.
This year we would have Todd's Delorme InReach zip tie'd to the race Bronco in tracking mode. I would have mine tracking in the Burb and Sam would have his in the chase SuperDuty. In addition my amazing wife Veronica & Sam's wife Lori would provide home base support keeping eye on things and giving us chase folks updates on the Bronco's progress....little did we know how helpful home base would become.

I have built my Burb to handle Baja washboard and rough tracks and as the 4wd chase rig I was looking forward to some fun. That happened way to early as we got our first "oh crap" message way too soon as the Bronco got rolled 8 miles into the first Special Stage (dirt).
I didn't get pics of that but I did enjoy the drive on the race course with amazing beaches and views.


The Bronco was upright by the time we arrived and with some amazing help from another race team our guys were back into the battle.
The InReach was even helpful between chase rigs for letting us know about highway carnage. Mexican roads don't have alot of shoulder and things can go crazy fast. Luckily we didn't see many body bags for this Semi vs School/City bus crash and the police let us through after a bit of dirt road effort to get around the backup of traffic.


Sunday night in Mexico usually means everything is closed. And with a very damaged Bronco we were worried. The Bronco badly needed a tie rod end and again the InReach and my wife Veronica came to the rescue. We reached out to my buddy Nick (anything cool on my Burb is his work) and we sourced a part number. Now to find a shop at 5pm on Sunday in Baja. Well the desert gnomes were watching over us as we passed through El Rosario (home of the famous Mama Espinozas). One nice thing about small town Mexico is the shop owner often lives in, beside or near the shop and that is what saved us this time. Parts were sourced, and extra goodies grabbed while we could.


Then into Bay of LA we went for a late night repair party. After a ton of work it looked like we would need a welder and some tire repair. I went for a 11pm drive and found a shop for the next morning. And even at 6am were were the second folks getting work done. But all went well and we were back in the fray.


The locals really love desert racing and folks will hang out for hours watching the fun.


And can you blame them when stuff like this is racing?


Turns out Day 1 had been rough on a bunch of rigs but the Baja spirit was in many a soul and teams were patching and wrenching to get back to the starting line in any shape possible.

[1leglance]

So I left the story with our team in Bahia de Los Angeles on the start of Day 2, well repaired if not well rested.
Day 1 had Andrew driving and Jake as navigator, this day saw Todd behind the wheel with Sam as navigator....and that is pure focus on Todd's face at the starting line..or maybe focus mixed with fatigue.



We got off to a great start in the race truck....Chase SuperDuty not so much. But after a tug out of the sand by my might Burb all chase rigs were in action.
One thing I insisted on was a safety person in front of the race Bronco so they could not leave if someone was under the rig, adding fuel or any of the million things you want to do during a pit. This worked great....


I was amazed by other teams that didn't seem as safety aware.


We were having a great run it seemed and I was following closely behind the Bronco on a highway transit when I actually got to see a u-joint let go...very exciting and very grateful we didn't pole vault the rig. But this resulted in another roadside repair stop and a mad dash by me to Guerro Negro to do the parts store hunt.
It was an excellent test of long range ham radio and when that went out the InReach Sat texting proved it's worth again.


My buddy Nick always likes common parts and we have kept to a plan that let's me call my Burb an 1988 except for the body...we got lucky with the Bronco that it still used the 1970 u-joint as that was the only way the parts store could reference what they had. Once I sourced a couple it was a great sense of relief that we could get back into 4wd if needed.
We sent Andrew head to San Ignacio to start the driveshaft service while the rest of us awaited the Bronco to make sure I would not have another on course retrieval adventure.
Repairs were made at another Pemex, relaxation for the rest of us at Rice & Beans was enjoyed.
Andrew and I kept with the plan to hang back and make sure the Bronco got 1/2 through the dirt before moving out....and that is when we learned that the Volocore tracking system was still showing us in BOLA...eek!!
Luckily we had my wife for home base and she let us know the Bronco was moving well so after we filled a written Inquiry with timing control we were off and running.

This is the best part of the route for me...San Ignacio, Mulege, and Santa Rosalio....and that last one is neat as the a French mining company controlled things for a long time so the town as a different feel that much else in Baja.

[1leglance]

We made it into Loreto, food was ate, repairs were made and sleep was found...finally.
Then came the start of Day 3 with Andrew again at the wheel and Jake again navigating.
Of course first we had to get a tired repaired....and these shops are impressive with the great work at a cheap price.


And the check list we started using kept getting longer and longer....


And after once again the InReach proved super helpful....Todd and I had just gotten our amazing smelling Pollo Asado (grilled chicken and french fries), which I had insisted we eat on the Burb tailgate under shade, just in case you know, when sure enough the "Mech problem" message came in.
So as Todd is trying to eat while bouncing I am nav plotting an intercept on the race course with the gps co-ord's we got.
This is what we found...and gives a view of how the course had me worried as we would not see anyone coming up behind us.


But after some chatter we figured the tracks meant our guys were moving and now WE just needed to get off course...out of the silt, out of the way...and into the zombie dumpground filled with evil looking vultures.


But in the end we caught up with our Bronco and followed them into La Paz...and learned that as Team Logstics make sure I read all the drivers meeting notes...then I would not be surprised by a move of the finish line

[1leglance]

the morning of Day 4 found me using all my spanish language skills in a dash around town for tire repair, getting rid of old oil from our change out and finding a shock bolt..yeah that is a nice list at 7am in La Paz.


Put in the end we pulled it all together, including a GPS course reload with changes, a change in start time and finally our Bronco was off and racing.
We got in another great pit with safety in mind, food and water into our guys and everyone feeling good.


And for once I was able to actually relax and await our race Bronco instead of chasing broken parts or going on course to find them.


And while you can't tell in this pic I am cutting a fine habano cigar to enjoy during the downtime...something that kept me sane throughout the event.


In the end we made it across the finish line feeling pretty good about our last 2 days run.
We even got a little Robby Gordon commentary as we rolled up the ramps.


Happiness all around that everyone got in safe and the Bronco still moved under it's own power.


Personally I was just happy that my wife was waiting in a hotel room for me...yep Veronica our amazing home base had flown in since her birthday was the next day and we wanted to enjoy some quiet beach time together.
But before that was the matter of an awards dinner...3rd in class for our Bronco amazingly enough. And Andrew of www.bajabroncos.com won the Spirit Award..very well deserved I felt.

[1leglance]

The next day was all about my time with my lovely wife so no pics for you goofs to slobber over

However Friday morning saw our motley crew in route towards home after a must welcomed rest day. The pace was solid as we wanted to do San Jose del Cabo to Loreto, then Loreto to San Felipe and the SF to home...with a goal of seeing home mid-day on Sunday.

The highlights for me were...
Finally getting to enjoy that amazing Pollo Asado without chasing a broken Bronco at the same time...


The incredible melted mess that is a Super Burro Queso Fundito...3 meats in all that bubbling cheese.


A fun dirt run to Coco's on our way to San Felipe where I got to see what my Burb would do at up to 80% of race pace....loved that!!


And funny enough the only flats I had to deal with were on the way home....1 was not really a flat but a protective change when I saw a nail...this one between Gila Bend and Phoenix was a full on whistler as the air escaped.


Next post I will try to gather my lessons learned as a chase rig...

[1leglance]

I will try to get a pics of my nav/comm setup to give people an idea of how things looked during my chase adventure. But until then here are some thoughts.

Delorme InReach
I have been a Spot user since the first gen device came out. The one way tracking/ok/help/911 was great as that was enough for my wife to know everything was cool when I traveled solo.
However the 2 way texting was amazing when added with a home base that could track the race truck, me and the other chase and keep others who had cellular in the loop.
Also our ability to tickle Nick's brain on part numbers saved our bacon on a Sunday at 5pm when all hope was lost.
The unlimited messaging was worthwhile during the event but I will drop back a level now at home.

Acer 10in netbook with GPS puck into Franson GPSgate with Delorme Topo, Oziexplorer and new for this trip...and old version of Garmin NRoute with mapsource. This allowed me to use a Garmin map I have wanted to try for a long time
http://cartografiagps.com/mape32/index.htm
It had great detail and with the race course overlaid on this map & Delorme Topo I had autorouting for the highway and great resolution for when we needed to find tracks to get on & off course.

The Yaesu 2900 2m radio mod'd for race freq was solid as ever but my cool/retro ham antenna sucked. I think I will go middle of the roof Larson NMO and keep the other antenna as a showpiece.

ARB Fridge, Hannibal awning, UV blocking window tint, custom springs with Fox shocks & active bumpstops all things that worked perfectly as expected.
Huge thanks to Nick for my power steering rebuild/upgrade shortly before I left as that setup got some serious siltbed/rut workout.

Lessons learned as team logistics...
Bring a variety of highlighter colors for the roadbook, maps and more.
Have roles for everyone as many hands make light work.
Fuel your vehicles at night as the morning is crazy time.
Charge the batteries of all the devices at night so nothing dies during the day.
Checklist really do help.
Have a plan, then mod the plan as needed.

more as I think of it

[ryanroo]

Sweet! i have some buddies that prerun the baja every year. always looks like a blast. great story, sweet rigs

[Zoomad75]

Very cool trip report Lance! That's a bucket list type of trip to do. Even Chasing for a Bronco!

I'll be keeping track of you guys on Spot next week with Larry in Utah. I'm the designated rescue clown if Larry or Bill break something. Sadly those two never break. (knock on wood!)

[Prerun71]

Very cool , I hope to participate in the next couple years as well.

[3Lug]

Love those NORRA photos.
Are you planning on doing it again in '16?
We are the group from Phoenix who had the 2 military blazers and the Jeep XJ.