Sonora Rally 2016

[GotManx]

I participated a couple of years ago with my car "Nacho Cheeze" in the 2014 NORRA race in Baja. Things didn't go quite as planned. The car held up well, but the silt on the course was a little to much for my air cleaners at the time. Their failure allowed the fine dirt into my engine and although we completed all of the course on day one, there was just a little to much oil burning and rod knocking to continue on.

Nacho Cheeze was built as a family fun play car, not a race car, so after the NORRA race I thought it would be retired from racing.

Then I came across this thread on Race-Dezert.com:
http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/thread ... 16.123331/

Which lead me to this:
http://www.sonorarally.com/

The Sonora Rally is a race that is in its second year, (last year it was the Cortez Rally which was combined with NORRA), and it put on by Darren Skilton and Scott Whitney as a Dakar style rally. Their aim was to create a cross-country stage rally in North America and they chose the Sonoran Desert in Mexico just below Arizona. This years event was four days of racing covering the san dunes between San Luis Colorado and El Golfo and then down to the beaches and deserts of Puerto Penasco.

A rally is different from traditional off road racing as there are no gps maps or course marking to follow and you need to rely on the map books provided and their directions to find waypoints which lead you to more waypoints.



After following the thread on Race-Dezert and watching the Sonora Rally site for updates, I decided with my team that we should give the rally a try with Nacho Cheeze. We figured the location and the terrain would suit my car very well. In January I started prepping the car and added back in all of the racing safety equipment left over from NORRA race (along with some better air cleaners).

We arrived in San Luis Colorado at the host hotel for registration and scutineering (tech inspection) on Sunday morning 4/3.





The inside of the car ended up looking like the space shuttle with all of the rally computers, gps, radio and intercom.



Tech Inspection







The rally had a limit of 40 entries this year and about 30 of them where bikes, but here are a couple of the other four wheel vehicles.

[GotManx]

Day 1 Monday 4/4 started out as a transit from the host hotel in San Luis Colorado to an abandoned barn in the middle of the desert for the Bivouac area. This was where we would be staying and camping out for the next couple of nights with breakfast burritos and some awesome dinners provided by the locals.

Transit waiting to get into the Bivouac.





Getting our instructions from Scott Whitney, the creator of the course and the map books, before the start.



We had experienced the map books before with NORRA, but this time we were totally relying on them. It took a little bit to get use to them and it took us awhile each day to get our bearings as we usually got lost right off the start. There is nothing better than being totally lost and then the rally comp computer would beep to let you know you where close to a waypoint.

One of the other competitors has a great write-up about the navigation (and race in general) here:
http://www.race-dezert.com/home/sonora- ... 37164.html

The first day ran mostly on fast roads and trails throughout the region with some cross country bush-wacking before we headed out to the dunes and back to the finish at the Bivouac.

Finishing the first day in the daylight.



Life in the Bivouac.

[GotManx]

Day 2 Tuesday 4/5 started out with a little surprise. When we headed over to get our breakfast burritos at the barn, I took a glance at the posted day 1 results and saw that we were listed as #2 out of the four wheel vehicles. It was actually a little typo as there was also a UTV ahead of us, but we were very pleased at being #3. We had a few stops during day 1 to sort out electronics to our rally computers and I was just running a steady pace.



Day 2 was very similar in terrain as Day 1 other than a dry lake bed that had about 2 feet of salty, silty dust with a way point in the middle.



Day 2 also started and finished at the Bivouac and was quite a bit longer than the stage the day before and bigger dunes. We were able to maintain our pace of the day before without as many stops and were able to finish comfortably in third again.









Day 3 Wednesday 4/6 started again from the Bivouac and headed out across the dunes to El Golfo where we would then hit the highway for a transit to Puerto Penasco

Start of Day 3.





Highway transit.



Dinner setup for the end of Day 3 in Puerto Penasco.

[GotManx]

Day 4 Thursday 4/7 we were still running and solidly in 3rd place overall for the 4 wheel vehicles and 2nd in our class for 2wd. We were very happy to be where we were as my goal for this event was just to finish. Day 4 was going to be tough though with two long timed stages. The first of which ran south along he coast with trips into muddy marshes and long beach sections. The second stage brought us back north to the finish through desert terrain that is more typical of Baja.

Waiting for clearance at the Federally checkpoint.



The start of Day 4.





We just wanted to keep a steady pace during the day to maintain our position, it was a 2 1/2 hour gap to move up and another 2 1/2 hour gap behind us. The day started off pretty normal, we got lost off the start. Once we found our way we headed out to the coast to some really muddy areas. We followed the Mercedes G-Wagen until they got stuck in a muddy rut and then scouted our own route, full throttle across a marsh shooting rooster tails of mud. Then around the next corner we saw the Trophy/Buggy Truck, that was ahead of us in the standings, stuck way out in the marsh.

We managed to get through the rest of the marsh and then on to the beach section. With the delay of the Federalies and the time in the marsh, we were behind the tides a little bit on the beach. We had an area where we had to hug the cliffs and crawl over hard pack clay and then disaster struck. After all of the time in the dunes and not getting stuck as all most all of the others had, I got hung up on the engine on a three foot drop off. The front tire was just about in the surf and the tide was coming in. I had to dig out a little bit under the rear and a little push Nacho Cheeze got going again. We knew that anyone behind us was really going to have a difficult time trying to get down the beach.

The rest of the first stage went fairly well.

The start of the second stage started off as always, we got lost right away. Once settled and back on course the second stage went very well other than an angry rancher and the kluncking of a busted front beam mount.

We were able to complete the entire, almost 1200km (about 750 miles), rally with barely any incidents.

Nacho Cheeze after Day 4









Enjoying a Tecate with my awesome navigator Joe.



Enjoying some finish line champagne with one of the Canadian Competitors. And this was one of the great things about this rally. People came from all over and everyone was there to help anyone out that needed it. The camaraderie among the competitors was incredible.



Awards ceremony on the beach.



We ended up first in our class for 2wd and second overall just beating out the Trophy/Buggy Truck by 14 minutes.

I really want to thank my entire crew for all of there help. We kind of joke and laugh about who does what, but in the end, I never have to worry about anything. The crew gets the chase rigs where they need to be and always greet me at the finish line with a Tecate.

The Crew. L to R - Rick, Joe, Me, Jim, Warren.



A big thanks goes out to Darren Skilton and Scott Whitney and all of the volunteers for putting on such a great event.

I also want to thank all of the spouses for being patient with us.

[GotManx]

Here's a picture that I had to add for Vincent.



Sorry, I forgot to give the thumbs up.

[GotManx]

Here are some additional links to some web coverage:

Official Sonora Rally press release:
http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=df4 ... dc70def2cd

Race Dezert Rally Coverage:
http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/thread ... dc.125245/

Some NBC Sports coverage:
http://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2016/0 ... co-photos/

http://motorsports.nbcsports.com/2016/0 ... ll-photos/

[towddude]

Looks like a great rally,not to crowded. This rally style racing seems like the way to go.
Congrats on the win.
Bob

[langan]

Good times. Thanks for sharing.

[manxvair]

Awesome job guys! Congratulations!

[thesandbug77]

So cool. Congrats!

[manxter36]

That's so awesome! Thank you for sharing.

[Millertime]

Great job, congrats on your win, the Cheese Team does it again, WOW.

[FulsGld]

Man, that looked and read like a whole LOT of fun! Wish it was a spectator sport...

[GotManx]

It's a little different than a traditional off road race with a marked course and a gps route to follow. All of the competitors may not go the same way, but you still hit the waypoints. There still are spectating opportunities and hanging out in the bivouac with stories of the day and cars being repaired is awesome (and the food). If you want to be more in the action, they will gladly have you as a volunteer which can be something as simple as taking pictures along the course that they will give you coordinates for.

[aBuggymom1]

Loved this post! Looks like some times fersure! Thanks for sharing

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