LantanaTX
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Our race report starts when I flew into Palm Spring on Tuesday and my uncle Dave Tilton showed up to pick me up with a beautifully prepped race car on the trailer. We headed straight from the airport to Ocotillo Wells for testing. Our brand new trans went four miles and split the case of the trans the full length on the underside. Next stop was to Bud Feldkamp's office to talk about taking the engine and trans out of the Bel-Ray Bullet. Bud had to pull his entry because of back surgery caused by 40 years of racing in the desert. With Bud's blessing Dave and I worked hard the get the car ready to leave Friday morning.
Saturday, Contingency was a blast kink of like a cool car show and making new friends and meeting legends of the sport.
Sunday Race Day: Ensenada to Bay of LA 460 miles
They started us about 5th from last. The transit section from Ensenada was about the only testing we got before I hit the dirt in Santo Tomas. I had driven this section last year but this year was noticeably more rutted out. I passed quite a few cars heading over the mountains to the Pacific. Everyone was polite and waved me by. About 70 miles in disaster struck. The car would run well for a bout 5 miles and then barely run at all. Sometimes it just died. Because of this I got some needed experience passing people. Rod Hall had to wonder if I was just messing with him. I would pass him and then a few miles later I was dead on the side of the road. I am pretty sure I passed Rod Hall 6 times on this stage. I didn't know what to do so I decided to pray that god would heal this screwed up engine. Then a mile later about 100 miles in the car suddenly ran like a bullet! but once I hit the highway it started cutting out again. I pulled over and Dave re adjusted the floats. Back in the dirt and a mile later and it wanted to die. Towards the end of the stage it was running well again and I gave the car to Jake Johnson for the second half of the day. He rand 90 miles no problem and then he started having the same issue. We brought the car into Bay of LA and we had lost 20 minutes to overall leader Mark Stahl. Dave ruled out electrical and went to work on the carb. The old Zenith seemed to have self adjusting floats! Running good we called it a night.
Day two - Bay of LA to Loretto
This day was two long specials that would test our gas mileage. Jake was to take the morning and I would drive the second stage into Loretto. Well the carb started doing the same thing but now would only go about a mile. At the highway crossing on the first stage Jake could barely drive the car. Dave took the carb completely apart and rebuilt it. Still no Beuno. The car ended up on the trailer into Loretto. That night we visited a local named Rick where we did an engine change last year. After hours of ruling out every possible cause we were left with a serious carb problem. The old Zenith that had overalled so many races including the Baja 1000 was dead. Our local friend Rick took the Weber and manifold of his 2180 sand rail and loaned it to us. We promised to bring it back on the way home. Engine sounded great now and we were in bed by 4 am.
Day 3 Loretto to La Paz
I drove the morning and Jake drove the afternoon. Because we missed a stage NORA started us almost dead last. Heading up the wash out of Loretto I instantly knew that the Weber carb had really woken up the engine. Since I am in a single seater and doing my own navigating, I sometime borrow the navigator of the car in front of me. I followed Todd Z in his Bronco right off course and got stuck! Todd waited for me to get unstuck (thank you!). Once back on course you hit a very twisty highway section up to the mission were the little Funco hauled the mail and passed many trucks. The rest of the course is very fast and I was seeing speeds of 97 as I kept approaching dust and making passes. Everyone was polite and easily let me byEXCEPT ONE!!!! YOU $%^$@#ing Jerk! I come up on one of Pistol Pete's Rental Baja Lites. He is in the center of the course. I hit the horn and watch the back of his truck dip as he tried to run away. Not a chance! I stayed right on his bumper. there was big berms on each side and he was giving me half the width of my car on each side of him. I moved to the left let him know I was still there. He moved left to block me!! I shot right, he shot right! He kept doing this for a few more miles. I moved up to see if there was anyway to nerf him. I realized that my car was so low that I would be nerfing with my A pillars! So I lined up with his left fender and though about taking out the fender knowing that these renters are responsible for damage. I thought about taking out his fender and nerfing him in the left rear tire but being a rookie didn't know if this maneuver whould shoot me into the air. Just then he entered a right trun and I had half the width of my car and big berm available so I made my move and powered past him on the outside fo the turn. Good thing we run tubes because that pass cost us a brand new polished Centerline. Jake got in the car and drove an almost flawless race into La Paz. He just got one flat when he picked up a nail crossing the dump.
Day 4 La Paz to San Jose del Cabo finishline
I drove the whole final day. Car ran great until I started up the goat trail. it lost a bunch of power and felt like it had a dead cylinder. Stopping to check the engine on the goat trail over the mountain is not a good place to stop as it would just create a log jam which is exactly what I drove up to. When the jam up cleared everyone kept moving over to let me by. Nice guys but this was the one time I didn't want to pass anyone since I was nursing a sick engine and did't want to be the cause of the next log jam. Regardless, sick engine and all I passed 7 cars before I saw the ocean shear cliffs. I was first of the bunch to the stage finish. The course was super fun until I hit big woops in the wash as you approach the finish line. At one point I was tired of those huge woops and nailed the gas in second and tried to get up on top of them. BAD MOVE with stock VW suspension!!!!! I am pretty sure this is why my back still hurts so bad!!! The finish really sneaks up on you. I was in my zone going as fast as the little car would go when I flew up a hill and landed on pavement with a traffic cop scared I was going to run him over. Holy Crap I mait to the finish!!!! We finished 1st in class and second overall to Mark Stahl. Congrats on the win Mark!! We will try again next year!!
Saturday, Contingency was a blast kink of like a cool car show and making new friends and meeting legends of the sport.
Sunday Race Day: Ensenada to Bay of LA 460 miles
They started us about 5th from last. The transit section from Ensenada was about the only testing we got before I hit the dirt in Santo Tomas. I had driven this section last year but this year was noticeably more rutted out. I passed quite a few cars heading over the mountains to the Pacific. Everyone was polite and waved me by. About 70 miles in disaster struck. The car would run well for a bout 5 miles and then barely run at all. Sometimes it just died. Because of this I got some needed experience passing people. Rod Hall had to wonder if I was just messing with him. I would pass him and then a few miles later I was dead on the side of the road. I am pretty sure I passed Rod Hall 6 times on this stage. I didn't know what to do so I decided to pray that god would heal this screwed up engine. Then a mile later about 100 miles in the car suddenly ran like a bullet! but once I hit the highway it started cutting out again. I pulled over and Dave re adjusted the floats. Back in the dirt and a mile later and it wanted to die. Towards the end of the stage it was running well again and I gave the car to Jake Johnson for the second half of the day. He rand 90 miles no problem and then he started having the same issue. We brought the car into Bay of LA and we had lost 20 minutes to overall leader Mark Stahl. Dave ruled out electrical and went to work on the carb. The old Zenith seemed to have self adjusting floats! Running good we called it a night.
Day two - Bay of LA to Loretto
This day was two long specials that would test our gas mileage. Jake was to take the morning and I would drive the second stage into Loretto. Well the carb started doing the same thing but now would only go about a mile. At the highway crossing on the first stage Jake could barely drive the car. Dave took the carb completely apart and rebuilt it. Still no Beuno. The car ended up on the trailer into Loretto. That night we visited a local named Rick where we did an engine change last year. After hours of ruling out every possible cause we were left with a serious carb problem. The old Zenith that had overalled so many races including the Baja 1000 was dead. Our local friend Rick took the Weber and manifold of his 2180 sand rail and loaned it to us. We promised to bring it back on the way home. Engine sounded great now and we were in bed by 4 am.
Day 3 Loretto to La Paz
I drove the morning and Jake drove the afternoon. Because we missed a stage NORA started us almost dead last. Heading up the wash out of Loretto I instantly knew that the Weber carb had really woken up the engine. Since I am in a single seater and doing my own navigating, I sometime borrow the navigator of the car in front of me. I followed Todd Z in his Bronco right off course and got stuck! Todd waited for me to get unstuck (thank you!). Once back on course you hit a very twisty highway section up to the mission were the little Funco hauled the mail and passed many trucks. The rest of the course is very fast and I was seeing speeds of 97 as I kept approaching dust and making passes. Everyone was polite and easily let me byEXCEPT ONE!!!! YOU $%^$@#ing Jerk! I come up on one of Pistol Pete's Rental Baja Lites. He is in the center of the course. I hit the horn and watch the back of his truck dip as he tried to run away. Not a chance! I stayed right on his bumper. there was big berms on each side and he was giving me half the width of my car on each side of him. I moved to the left let him know I was still there. He moved left to block me!! I shot right, he shot right! He kept doing this for a few more miles. I moved up to see if there was anyway to nerf him. I realized that my car was so low that I would be nerfing with my A pillars! So I lined up with his left fender and though about taking out the fender knowing that these renters are responsible for damage. I thought about taking out his fender and nerfing him in the left rear tire but being a rookie didn't know if this maneuver whould shoot me into the air. Just then he entered a right trun and I had half the width of my car and big berm available so I made my move and powered past him on the outside fo the turn. Good thing we run tubes because that pass cost us a brand new polished Centerline. Jake got in the car and drove an almost flawless race into La Paz. He just got one flat when he picked up a nail crossing the dump.
Day 4 La Paz to San Jose del Cabo finishline
I drove the whole final day. Car ran great until I started up the goat trail. it lost a bunch of power and felt like it had a dead cylinder. Stopping to check the engine on the goat trail over the mountain is not a good place to stop as it would just create a log jam which is exactly what I drove up to. When the jam up cleared everyone kept moving over to let me by. Nice guys but this was the one time I didn't want to pass anyone since I was nursing a sick engine and did't want to be the cause of the next log jam. Regardless, sick engine and all I passed 7 cars before I saw the ocean shear cliffs. I was first of the bunch to the stage finish. The course was super fun until I hit big woops in the wash as you approach the finish line. At one point I was tired of those huge woops and nailed the gas in second and tried to get up on top of them. BAD MOVE with stock VW suspension!!!!! I am pretty sure this is why my back still hurts so bad!!! The finish really sneaks up on you. I was in my zone going as fast as the little car would go when I flew up a hill and landed on pavement with a traffic cop scared I was going to run him over. Holy Crap I mait to the finish!!!! We finished 1st in class and second overall to Mark Stahl. Congrats on the win Mark!! We will try again next year!!
