Official NORRA 2015 MEXICAN 1000 thread (April 25-29)

[manxvair]

Saturday, Tech Inspection, Enter Team Tow'd into the race.

Lined up for Tech inspection.

Team Tow'd L-R Mike, Jon, Mark and the Driver of record/team Captain Andrew.

Lot's of cool vintage race vehicles, all still shiny and straight. That would change!

1 Baja legend interviewing another.

Bruce giving some background on the James Garner Manx.

1 more final check!

Both cars pass with flying colors! Let's go racing!

The all important drivers meeting, and then free drinks afterwards.

[manxvair]

Race day 1, Andrew driving, Mike Navigator Mark and Jon in the chase truck,

notice the Garmin GPS. The race officials thought we were nuts, we didn't know any better, and it worked!



still nice and clean, that wouldn't last!

The Dual Sport started 1 min ahead of us with Brad driving, Paul Navigator, Chris and Buck in the chase Subi Forester.

A sample of the route book, the numbers on the left are the odometer readings from the start location, don't make a wrong turn because it could throw your numbers off(and then you have to do quick math), not everything was listed in the book you still had to pay attention to the changing road. !=danger 1, !!=danger 2, !!!=danger 3. The 1st off road section was a lot of fun, high speed graded roads out to and along the coast line, beautiful scenery. They say you cannot win a race at the begining but you can sure lose it, we saw quite a few broken, flipped race vehicles in this 1 st stage. I got us off course at one point and it cost us a couple of miles, fortunately I was able to switch the GPS to track mode and get us on the right course(we really could of used a larger screen to view). We caught up to the Dual Sport right after the silt bed and we both started experiencing clutch slippage. It turns out we must have gotten silt powder into the bell housing and when we used the clutch the powder coated the disc. We later learned form some others not to shift gears in the silt bed. With the clutches slipping we chose not to run the 2nd off road stage of the day but head to Bay of LA and pull the engines and repair what we could. That stage would have taken 4-5 hrs to complete in a good performing car and put us at the next stop very late into the night. The penalty time was 4 hrs 29 min. Well worth the time to make repairs.
https://youtu.be/GQ2h2nb5vvM
Here's a little taste of what the silt bed is like, notice how clean they all are at the start. pay attention around the 1:05 mark.

[manxvair]

The Bay of LA has no cell service, no internet I don't think they even have land line phones. You have what you brought tools, parts sleeping bags, desire! We pulled both engines for clutch repairs, Team Dual Sport got a new disc and pressure plate, Team Tow'd was able to clean up what they had.


The next day had Jon & Mark in the Tow'd splitting the duties so they both got On & Off road stages.

Jon driving, Mark Navigating after the 1st off road stage of the day.

Team Dual Sport day 2 with Buck driving & Chris Navigating after the 1 st Off road stage.

The chase truck with the Kick Out on the trailer. The Kick Out was experiencing some oil issues so to play it safe we just put it on the trailer.

both cars stopped for fuel in the Tow'd, a drink and throttle cable adjustment on the DS. The next off road stage had us worried due to it's 170 mile length and the stock 10 gal fuel tank in the Tow'd, but it turned out to be no problem for Mark & Jon the 2.5 ltr Tow'd with it's Subaru 5 speed trans got averaged around 20 mpg even off road.

This day did not go as planned, at 1 point the Dual Sport suffered from a crappy electric fan that burned up in the 170 mile off road stage, thus leading to over heating add to that the tracker didn't work and showed them in the Bay of LA the whole time. I can't tell the story the way Buck & Chris did but here's the short version, the fan failed, the car sounded like a tea pot boiling, they turned around and headed for a reservoir to get some water, a local on a quad had a fan they took off of some other broke down machine, they had beers with some locals, they got the car running and finished the stage while we were trying to pinpoint their location with the race officials, because the other racers had spotted them in a dozen different locations according to their memory. The Tow'd finished this stage with out a hitch by the way.

[manxvair]

Race Day 3, Sunrise in Loreto.


Getting ready to start the 1st stage, short section through town and then off road. Andrew driving, Mike Navigating. take a close look at the roof line of the Bronco in front of us, it's not straight anymore!

That 1st stage was extremely rocky and up and down hills but Andrew drove the car great. We hit our next pit stop prior to the 2nd Off road stage where the chase team fueled us up, cleaned our windshield. 2nd stage Mike driving, Andrew Navigating. The 1st part of the stage was pretty fast and smooth around some farm land, then into some sand wash's and another refueling stop 90 miles in to ensure we could make it another 90 miles to La Paz. All was going well until around race mile 106, another silt bed, this one wasn't marked in our book. We got stuck and a sweep truck pulled us out, he was en route to 114 mile mark where he said 6 vehicles were stuck in the silt. When we got to the 114 mark 3 vehicles had turned around to try and find another way, of the 6 stuck it was down to 1, they cleared that and we decided to air down and go for it, we were doing great with another 100 feet to go and as I came around a corner here's a local kid in the path stuck on his dirt bike! it was either nail him or stop. I stopped and then got stuck, he got out and left. 3 other race vehicles were stopped behind me so we all worked together to get us out and make sure all 4 vehicles made it through(we lost at least1-2 hrs with all this) back on the trail again and we experienced clutch slippage again, so much we would have to stop and let it cool off, this was slow agonizing drive to the stage finish but we made it.

The view of the Pacific Ocean during 1 of our stops to let the clutch cool off, it sure gets beautiful out there.

[manxvair]

Race day 4, Almost home.

Jon driving, Mike Navigating 11 miles into the 1st off road stage, Mike would switch with Jon and eventually hand the car over to the team of Andrew & Mark to take the Tow'd to the finish line.

Chris & Buck would share and trade the duties in the Dual Sport for the final stages.


What we all worked for, The Checkered Flag! Congratulations Team Dual Sport Baja Edition.

Team Dual Sport Baja Edition L-R Paul, Brad, Chris, Bruce, Buck & Winnie.

Team Towd's turn

The finish line platform, We did it!

Team Towd's scorecard, not perfect but we survived, that in it self is an accomplishment!

and then there's the awards dinner/party on the beach, this was pretty cool!

[manxvair]

Race day 5; race is over so it's a rest day right! not until the cars are cleaned and serviced (engine and trans oil changed) tires and wheel bearings checked and greased and a bath. this is our other chase vehicle,

Chris from Subiworks Subaru Forester, Chris is responsible for the engine and transmissions in both cars, he also fixed Team Towd's electrical gremlin that surfaced prior to leaving Valley Center.
To say the course was rough you might just say yeah right, so here are some pictures of the undersides of the 2 cars before we removed the skid plates to change the oils. I personally installed or assisted in the install of both cars skid plates, they were both made from brand new sheets of aluminum, we put the 1st marks when we drilled the the attachment holes.


Team Tow'd

Team Dual Sport Baja Edition.


now anybody can run a 1300 mile race and put it on a trailer, that just wouldn't be a our style, we drove them to the race, raced them hard for 1300 miles, cleaned them up, showed them some love and drove them 1200 miles back home! No trailer Queens here!

OK the kick out is another story.

We even camped out on El Burro Beach 1 nite.


1 last stop at Meyers Manx HQ.

Back where it all started!
BAJA PROVEN!
Thanks to all involved for such an awesome adventure, especially the wives that let us all go play!

WOW! WHAT A RIDE!

[rich.roy.9]

great pics thanx


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rzeller]

Mike, Brad,

I have a question for you guys. I noticed that at some point during the race Brad (or someone) changed the orientation of the wing on the Duel Sport from the normal position to it being mounted on the roof. I assume it was for added cooling and may have been done after the fan motor gave out. Yes?

I noticed it stayed on the roof all the way home.

Bud

Normal orientation:


Mounted on the roof:

[marklandon]

Bud

Yes the wing was moved after the fan burned up and the replacement one was smaller so Brad came up
with moving it up top to direct air also if you see the Au. plate bolted on the back of the rad. to help
put air into the Rad. It seem to work well enought

Mark

[manxvair]

Yes Bud it was all because of the failed fan motor, another thing Chris and Buck did was to buy a ratchet strap/tie down form a local to hold the spare tire on the roof that night to improve airflow to the radiator. Race Day 3, To help the Tow'd with it's clutch issues we put the spare front tires 30's on the back and took the 33's off. It's always handy to have cash in your pocket in the middle of the Mexican desert. I paid a local $20 for clearing a trail out of the 1st silt bed on day 3, plus it was insurance in case I got stuck there again and needed him to pull me out, not to mention if you needed to stop at a Pemex station.

[manxter36]

Awesome reports and pics. Thank you. Congrats guys. I sure wish I could have been there.

So...... Are u guys ready to do it again?


Doran

[marklandon]

Doran just let us know when

Awesome reports and pics. Thank you. Congrats guys. I sure wish I could have been there.

So...... Are u guys ready to do it again?


Doran

[manxvair]

Awesome reports and pics. Thank you. Congrats guys. I sure wish I could have been there.

So...... Are u guys ready to do it again?


Doran

In a Heartbeat! Let's go!