Holy sh!t...what an adventure! We did ~400 chase miles and we're up 47 hours. The day started at 6AM leaving Ensenada for RM165 to gas the AGM 101 car. At that point he was 9th in the race and our 104 car was running 10th and both were running strong. Once we fueled him, we headed out for RM 400 to fuel up the 104 car.
Got the pit setup and the radio chatter had us getting 101 first (not planned) as they had lost all front brakes and were buring up tranny fluid. We prepared fluids and brakes for this car and also setup to fuel the 104 car, which was burning up about 3-4 quarts of engine oil every pit up to this point. Car 101 came in first and got tranny fluid, front brakes, replaced a broken front light assy. We also replaced a flat tire in the carrier and found the right rear tire flat. Car 101 got to the pit about 5 mins later and was fueld up and found no oil loss in the engine. Both were off and we headed out for our last pit at RM 630...the night and Baja took over at this point!
We got to Valley T to fuel up our chase truck (and eat YUMMY tacos) when heard that 104 was stopped with cooling issues. They found the problem and needed a part that was in a chase coming from San Felipe over to Ojos Negros. We hooked up with them, got the part and delivered it to the pre-runner, at Valley T, to get out to 104 (by way of Mikes Sky Ranch...nasty little section of road). You can see in the pics that things turned bad for us when the pre-runner broke and then got a new hat courtesy of #1248. This little mishap cost us 8 hours as our 104 car was sitting and waiting for the part that took less than 5 minutes to change. BTW is was F'IN COLD OUT THERE!!!! 104 has a camelback style drinking system for driver/co-driver and the water lines froze up. One of our trucks sitting around RM500 reported temps of 26 degrees early in the morning...In the meantime 101 was moving along at great pace.
We arrived at Ojos Negros for our final pit (visual) and rooted our 101 car on to the finish. The pre-runner mishap and radio comm loss had us here for 12 hours until 104 limped past and finally finished the race.
I was a little bummed that I didn't see any UTV's out on the course during my chase around the Baja.
Many thanks goes out to All German and the team for an experience that is too great for words. There really is nothing on the race course that sounds as good as the 101's BMW engine spooling up!!!! Thanks to Rusty for hooking me up with this gig (500 is next!) and to all the racers and teams who attempt this race.
Once I get home I'll post up some pics...
