One Week in the Life of a Class 11 Race Team

Monday – 3-days until the start of the Mexican 1000, we finally get to drive and test the Volkswagen for the first time. It’s been 5-months of work since we started the project; turning a bone-stock 1974 VW into a competitive Class11 race car.

Martin Garibay, the chief builder of the car, Jorge Jimenez, Gustavo Vildosola and yours truly took turns driving test loops in the desert outside of Mexicali and the car worked very well. The only complaint was that it ran a bit warmer then we hoped for but a quick relocation of the oil cooler assured proper temperatures the next day.

Jorge and I are new to driving duties and receive a quick crash lesson by Martin, our multiple time Class 11 winner and champion. Gustavo Vildosola raced a 5-1600 a long time ago and just like riding a bicycle it all came back to him after one lap on our 5-mile test loop in the Laguna Salada desert.
Simon Perez helped the team valve the Fox Shox to optimum performance.

Tuesday – We finish building all the pretty things on the car; such as mounting the Mastercraft tool bags, installing proper spare tire mounts, labeling the dash board switches, installing the Vision-X LED light bar and adjusting the flood lights to shine in the right direction. We also stocked our Mastercraft tool bags with essential tools that we hopefully would never have to use during the race.
We finished the day with a team meeting and decided on driving duties and pit strategies.

Wednesday – Our last day to get things ready for the big race. We assembled early at Martin’s shop to finish up last minute things such as; mounting our SPOT tracking device, radio programming, decal placement and a quick cleanup before heading over to contingency just a few blocks away.
During contingency we had a chance to look over the competition for the race. There where a total of 3 entries in our class. NORRA used the old class designation of Class12 instead of the current common Class11. Our car is built to today’s Class11 rules.

Following contingency was a drivers meeting at the Colonial Hotel’s pool. NORRA explained the race concept of a Rally race with fast Special Stages and transition stages in between. Special Stages are similar to normal off-road races where there is no speed limit and the objective is to go from point A to point B the fastest while staying on a designated course.

Transitional stages are in-between stages and on public roads with regular traffic. All traffic laws are to be followed and enforced by local police. A minimum and maximum time limit is set for the teams to complete these stages. The minimum time limit assumes driving the speed limit while the maximum limit allows for some minor repairs, driver changes and refueling along the transitional stage. Arriving at the next Special Stage too soon or too late and penalties are imposed.

After the formal NORRA meeting our team held a meeting that included all chase support and drivers. We planned out the over-all rally but ended up deciding to have more meetings at the evening of each stage for a precise plan of attack the following day.

We spend the late evening packing the chase trucks with supplies, parts and tools. Our spare parts include a spare set of FOX Shox, a spare engine, transmission, complete spare front and rear suspension and a total of 8 spare General Tire tires.

Thursday – Day 1 of the race. Gustavo Vildosola starts SS1 from Laguna Salada to the Highway going to San Felipe. I take the wheel from there through Laguna Diablo into San Felipe. Finally, Jorge drives from Puertocitos to Chapala and ultimately into Bahia de Los Angeles.

Day one’s in the books without any problems and we’re in the lead for our class!

Daniel Salas our co-driver had his favorite moment during SS2 that day. “While driving flat out in the Laguna Diablo, Roger Norman snuck up to us and passed us a couple of hundred yards to the left,” Dani recalls, “It was an ESPN moment to see a trophy truck go wide-open past you while we we’re moving at around 75mph.”

Friday – Day 2 of the race. Gustavo started the day with SS1 from Bahia de Los Angeles to Viscaino. I drive the transition to San Ignatio. San Ignatio to Loreto is Martin Garibay’s stage.

After Gustavo gets out of the race car he has a huge grin on his face, “I just passed Parnelli Jones!” Gus tells everyone, “Not only did I pass him. I passed Parnelli in a Class11! I would never have thought that to be possible…..wow…I just had my moment and it made the trip so worth it!”

Stage 2 winds up being our problem stage. After Martin takes off at San Ignatio, the chase assets stayed behind for a while, but eventually drove the long highway section towards Loreto. We were past Muelege when the call came in that the race car had problems. Around Race Mile 56 the cooling fan exploded and took out the fan shroud, alternator bracket and alternator. We were stuck with no way to get going. From the time the race car stopped until it got going many hours went by.

Our chase truck and the Chase 4-Runner had to turn around on the highway and drive back for what seemed like hours. Once in San Ignatio, Jorge took his Jeep onto the course to drive the parts to the broken down car.

The chase crew watched the process at the Rice and Beans Restaurant in San Ignatio. Since we had SPOT units on our race and chase vehicles we were able to monitor all movement from an internet connection. Once the race car was repaired the chase support crew left the scene and made the long way around towards the end of the stage to await the race car.

While Martin and Daniel waited with the broken VW, a local family stopped by and brought hot coffee and a complete meal served on a plate. The people of Baja Sur are the nicest on the planet. Muchas gracias amigos.

By now it was night-time but since our race car was equipped with Vision-X lights it was no challenge to navigate the desert in the dark. While we watched the light beams bounce in the dark sky night at the end of the stage we knew that the car would survive another stage.

We timed out that day and received time penalties. Our points lead was now in danger and it certainly increased the pressure.

When we arrived that night in Loreto, it was very late and after all the prep for the next day was completed it was 3AM. We also traveled into another time zone as Baja Sur is one hour ahead. That stole another hour from the now sleep deprived race team.

Saturday – Day 3 of the race. Staging was around 6AM, after less then 3 hours of sleep I start Stage 1 for the day. Right off the start we get stuck in a wash along with 6 other race cars. Daniel jumped out the car, scouted an alternative route and bounced and pushed the rear of the car until unstuck. 2-minutes down time. The stage had lots of technical turns and made use of all 4 gears of our mighty VW.

Daniel is from Mexicali and speaks limited English. I’m German and speak proficient English and very little Spanish. This leads to some left and right mix-ups, and after one wrong turn in a Y-Intersection we decide on Spanish from here on out. I receive a crash course in Spanish while driving.

One of those “izquierda” turns is overshot into a rock pile, but the Garibay craftsmanship pays off as the car simply dented the floor-board inwards and kept going. We pass a total of 12 cars on the stage before handing it over to Martin for the last stage of the race.

While the crew services the race car after the stage, we noticed that the steering was a little loose. A local race fan offers us a used VW steering box. I drive into his home town just a couple miles away to get the spare part just in case. This unknown guy refused any money for his part and service but is now the proud owner of a RDC shirt. The friendliness of Baja Sur is just mind blowing and an encouragement to pass on the goodwill and give to a stranger in need.

Also notable was that Gustavo lend a hand during our pit. “Gustavo is pitting the car while I am strapped into the passenger race seat” Daniel explains ” Usually it’s the other way around that we chase for him in the Trophy truck…wow…he must really enjoy the team effort that he gets so involved…”

Next Martin jumped into the car. Martin had a flawless run until the electrical system showed lower-and-lower voltages. The ignition suffered and power was noticeably down. When the car came to its mandatory stop at the end of the SS2 it quit and wouldn’t start over, due to a fully drained battery. The NORRA timing people and race fans helped push start the car for its last transition stage. “Driving over 1000 miles and having the car quit 1-foot after the finish line was a first for me and is my hi-light of the race,” explained Martin the next day to the crew.

Jorge drove the car for the last miles into the town of La Paz through the official finish line. “It was very emotional for me to win my first race and have it finish in La Paz my birthplace.” Jorge tells us with an emotional voice at the finish line “Can you say lucky?”

Sunday – We sleep in after a brief outing the previous night. Freshly showered and dressed we head over to the Grand Hotel for the awards ceremony. As a great surprise we learn of our win over the next Class11 car by 17 minutes, despite our penalty during one of the stages. We consistently had good stage times over the competition and it can attributed to the best Class11 car ever built by Martin Garibay, Gus Vildosolas chase truck support, and a very dedicated race team.

The rest of the day is spent killing brain cells in the parking lot with our trophy placed on the roof of the car.

Monday and Tuesday we made our very slow drive home back to Mexicali with many stops along the way for a swim in the Sea of Cortez, various forms of shrimp meals and even a quick visit at Cocos.

During our 2-day drive home, I fessed up that this was the first time that I had driven an air-cooled VW. “Being German, it might be a surprise to some, but by the time I was of driving age in Germany there were just no VW bugs on the streets and I missed out” Klaus explained “I may have gotten into it late but now I’ve been bitten by the VW bug and there will be plenty more racing action in our Mean Green Machine. I am glad my first drive in a VW was a Class11 winning the NORRA Mexican 1000″

Watch for the team to take on the SCORE Baja 1000.