After the 2016 NORRA Mexican 1000 thoughts thread

[oneleglance]

Team Kaysinger is making it's way back from another great NORRA event with our Bronco and last night here in Loreto we got to talking about how the event went and all that fun stuff.

What is everyone else's thoughts on this years NORRA Mex 1k???
Here are my thoughts to get things going:
-Live coverage was amazing....thanks Dave Kohl and all those hard working folks.
-Volocore was still a crap shoot for family but we used Spotwalla to track our 3 Delorme InReach devices on the same screen and that helped. Family could just go to that link.
-Very nice not having GPS changes each day!!!!
-Very cool that things were good enough to not HAVE to have a drivers meeting every night.
-I chase so I can't speak for the racers but I thought the event was smoother this year
-Really curious what is in store for next year 50th Annv.
-I am not happy about the board at Tech that mentioned maybe no EFI for vintage next year, just when I was thinking of entering my Burb.
-Having our time sticker blow off was interesting, but NORRA handled it well.
-Not sure why the Vintage Bronco's started last in Ensenada when the results show we are NOT the slowest??

 

[Zambo]

The dash for cash shouldn't be funded by a side bet, it should be paid in full by the driver who makes the longest acceptance speech at the awards banquet.


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[Phoenix0783]

The dash for cash shouldn't be funded by a side bet, it should be paid in full by the driver who makes the longest acceptance speech at the awards banquet.


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Just saying

 

[Josh 8]

It's more of a race than it gets credit for being.

 

[It's Me]

 

[Wendell #527]

Another great race. Nice to see less rule changes mid race this year. Zero rule changes would be better, though. Fantastic course, even better than last years course, which was also awesome. Shorter tech would be nice, but I'm not sniveling about that--it was fun. I missed having the horsepower ranch Friday party. The best thing about the whole race was the great attitude of the folks at NORRA. The start line girls, the tech inspectors, everybody was having fun including us drivers. I can't wait till next year. Unless they disallow EFI in Vintage class. Disallow it in challenger or something but not Vintage, please.

 

[NicksTrix]

hello lance!
for those of us not able to make it the live coverage was very cool. hard to believe it's taken this long to happen with today's technology. it was hard though to listen to the announcers who really didn't know much about what they where trying to talk about. just enough to make them dangerous. maybe have guest "color commentators" come in and help them that are knowledgeable. break it up into say a 2-3 hr stint per day

tracking worked out well. nice to be able to follow along at home even though it was slow to update.

 

[rustyb]

Best race EVER

 

[jamoffroad1]

WTF was with the drunk a holes attacking R Acer and trying to take off his helmet? { at the awards party}. If they are on your crew you need to pick better people to help you.

 

[Rory]

The good:

*New race courses, not the same old stuff.
*Tech inspection, very relaxing, park your car and walk around or go have breakfast or lunch.
*Safer on the HWYs for family and crew compared to the Baja 1000.
*NORRA listens to input from its racers.
*Very professionally run.
*The new trophies are some of the best in off road racing.
*Hanging out with legends of the sport.

Not good:

*Jack holes messing with R.Acer at the awards, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Regardless what you think of the guy in the helmet he is doing great things for the children in Mexico, that trumps the helmet gig.

Needs attention:

*The first 2 days are pretty long. We finished with no issues what so ever and still didn't finish until 9pm on day 1 and 8;30-ish on day 2, and that was with a fast car. I can only imagine the slower classes. Disclaimer...Most of us bitched the first couple years that day 1 was too easy and we wanted more miles...we got it and then we started finishing late. Hard to blame NORRA for this, Mike is trying to give racers what they want. Cat herding.

*More attention on which cars going into which class. There was a 2016 full blown class 1 car that won the "Vintage" class, how does that happen? I thought the new rules were pretty clear, might need to look into this because maybe something was missed.

No race is perfect and we all know that, but I can tell you this race was pretty close. NORRA got thrown some curve balls (Truggy fire, reroute the course) and they handled it very well.

It being a Vintage race, it would be nice to see more Vintage cars out there. Maybe all the guys with those cool 4 seaters could get together and build a vintage car, split the cost 4 ways and race it, then follow along with the 4 seater as a chase vehicle. Just an idea. Only 350-ish days till the next one.

 

[Zambo]

Agreed on the length of the first two days. I think the mileage was comparable to the last two years, but the amount of off road was longer and the condition of the trail were tougher. We too had no issues on day 1 and got to BOLA well after dark, and we had an hour of down time on day 2 and got to Loreto again well after dark. We finished both of those days in the daylight or at least dusk the past two years. I think that taking the south road out of BOLA and going past San Francisquito is a good way to go although maybe a little tougher to chase. A good sweep team should be able to help out there ok.

I thought the day 3 course was pretty nice and would do it again next year for sure.

The awards ceremony.....hmmm. Always a tough one, especially with so many classes. First, nice job Cam making the best of it. But the whole thing just needs to start sooner and move quicker. Most of the down time is because it takes minutes for people to make their way from their table thru the sand up to the stage. Announce the next class on deck while giving the award to the current class so that you can just call their names and they can walk right on stage. Would be cool to see pics or even video of the cars in that class up on the big screen while they are getting the award. Come to think of it, I think in years past NORRA already had some good video edited and playing during the dinner, which was cool.

Had a blast once again, can't wait for next year.

 

[SuperRanger]

Can't wait for next year!

 

[Ilovebaja]

Who are these A holes trying to remove ACER's helmet! Don't we all want ro k ow who he is?! But we are not going around trying to pulloff his helmet! Fro. What I understand or read it was his team? Correct me plz, wtf ! Seriously in mature people who can't respect the organization, glad I was not there to witness this.ya'll all fired and never will be back on the team if it was my way.

 

[bfiguy]

if they play YMCA again at the awards ceremony I am out!!

 

[NRT_Chris]

I have been desert racing for over a decade now and I have to say chasing for Charlie Currie at the NORRA1000 was the most fun I have ever had at a race I wasn't driving/navigating at. The people at NORRA have something very special going with this race. Congratulations to Charlie Currie on his win! Driving nearly 1400 miles in Baja with one arm was amazing to watch.

My Richard cranium award goes out tho the guy driving the Silver 4 door Raptor with Texas plates the felt the need to haul ass around a line of local traffic and chase trucks into on coming traffic in El Rosario. Totally uncalled for!

 

[LantanaTX]

It was another fantastic race.

Short answer: Wow! NORRA gets better every year!!

The Good:

1. The new Format with the classes within Era's was fantastic
2. NORRA did an outstanding job running the race.
3. The course layout was really cool which included part of the original 1967 course.
4. Chris Wilson did a great job with the pre-inspection and re-classifying vehicles who didn't read the rules. I can only think he was only fooled once by the brand new Roush powered Jimco class 1 car that was disguised to look like last years car was left in vintage.

The Bad:

1. Nothing was really all that bad and I would be fine racing the same way next year. We would just be better prepared to run in the dark on a course that has been groomed by TT's.

Possible improvements and things to think about

1. There is a lot more really really fast stuff and next year there will be even more unlimited modern TT's and class 1's. Starting the Pioneer, Legend and Challenger era's last resulted in our cars seeing a chewed up, wooped out course that was much different than our cars would have seen back in the day. If it stays that way we will have to update our car to the extent that the rules allow. In our case we would be getting rid of the 1976 period correct stock VW suspension and going to 1982 long travel which is permitted in the Legend era. Purist would be shocked but my 57 year old back will be happy. We also will have to convert the old Cibie lights to LED.
2. Maybe they would let us really old stuff run early with the bikes?
3. Do more to promote the rescue and restoration of the vehicles that started it all in Baja.
4. Put a limit (such as 100) on how many times the term "just saying" can be spoken into a microphone
5. Don't refer to the wife who rode the distance on the back of her husband's bike as "Are you stupid?"... "Are you crazy?" would have been better.
6. Be able to get a medical helicopter to a serious crash in less than 1.5 hours.

Final thoughts: Don't change much, it is almost perfection!!!!

 

[Dirty Harry]

1. There is a lot more really really fast stuff and next year there will be even more unlimited modern TT's and class 1's. Starting the Pioneer, Legend and Challenger era's last resulted in our cars seeing a chewed up, wooped out course that was much different than our cars would have seen back in the day. If it stays that way we will have to update our car to the extent that the rules allow. In our case we would be getting rid of the 1976 period correct stock VW suspension and going to 1982 long travel which is permitted in the Legend era. Purist would be shocked but my 57 year old back will be happy. We also will have to convert the old Cibie lights to LED.

Rather than have to update your car I wish that NORRA would put priority on the true vintage vehicles with courses that are not torn up by TTs and super long days. I know that not everyone feels this way, but when you have people moving away from true vintage vehicles to run more modern stuff that is moving in the wrong direction in my opinion.

 

[y2kbaja]

For this reason if we were to race again we would do it in a more modern car. Vintage was fun and we can say we finished the 2015 in a vintage car but we missed the party all 3 nights because we were still trying to get there.

 

[y2kbaja]

Dark and headlights: something to think about as we race south, Cabo is south of the tropics and it's dark at 6pm with little to no dusk.

 

[LantanaTX]

Rather than have to update your car I wish that NORRA would put priority on the true vintage vehicles with courses that are not torn up by TTs and super long days. I know that not everyone feels this way, but when you have people moving away from true vintage vehicles to run more modern stuff that is moving in the wrong direction in my opinion.

Our little car is very fast and competitive on period correct terrain but our era is 1976 - 1982. We are as raced in 1976 but by 1982 taller beams, longer front and rear arms were the norm. The modern unlimited's tend to knock big boulders into the course. I did not have the ground clearance to clear them all and a fiber glass seat shell with an inch of foam sitting on the skid plate doesn't help. Bottoming the car on woops is a back breaker!! I am not complaining but NORRA also has the coolest overall trophy's in off road racing and I want one!! About 75% of NORRA is fast and perfect for our car which was the smallest car entered in the race with the least ground clearance. There are not enough entries to break the era in two. I will be 58 next year and would like to continue as long as I am physically able to. I love the car the way it is, but if I can race more years on a wooped out deeply rutted course with more suspension then that is what I will do. If NORRA finds a way to start the old true vintage cars with the bikes or before the TT's then I wouldn't touch the car.