We all arrived last night (thursday night) and caught up over a few beers and some food. On the way up from El Cajon, Tony and the gang in the motorhome got a flat and didn’t make it till late. I had to wait till the morning to meet the newest member of Greasecar Motorsports, Emma.

Morning rolled around and we all met up for a big breakfast then headed over to registration and contingency. It’s a much different atmosphere here than in Mexico. There aren’t any kids coming up to you asking for stickers or your autograph and there’s no Tecate girls running around. Never thought I’d miss Ensenada so much.

Because this is a special Primm 300, we thought we’d use a helicopter to help chase. Here’s a shot from the helicopter of the infield part of the race course…

helicopter shot

This year, there are about 1/3 fewer entries than in the past. No one’s really sure why, but the economy is the likely culprit. At registration, there were only a handful of people. A much quieter and calmer scene than in Ensenada.

putting the BFG

After we registered, we headed back to the car and rolled through contingency. This didn’t take too long as there weren’t thousands of people and hundreds of cars and trucks. We strolled through, talked up the grease factor and breezed through tech inspection. Since the car was basically done, except for hooking up the IRC tracker, we thought we’d take it easy and wait for it to cool down.

As it got cooler we figured why not take a ride on the roller coaster. This roller coaster had at one time the highest drop of any roller coaster in the world. There might be a few that are higher, but at 227′, the first drop is pretty damn good.

We finished up putting the car together later in the evening. Because of our early start, everyone is getting to bed early. Sorry there aren’t any great stories, but hopefully tomorrow, we’ll have a lot to write about.

Hope you enjoyed the pics and the video links. Thanks for stoppin by.

-Jay

Mark and I are going to have to take everything we’ve learned over the last 3 years and put it to work. I think I might have the edge on Mark due to my co-driving for John Castillo in the 500.

Before we go on and start getting ready for the Primm 300, some people should be recognized for their hard work and dedication to the Greasecar Motorsports team. With Tony’s hand not usable, Shawn and the rest of the crew had to basically get the car ready to race and they did an amazing job. We wouldn’t have had a car in such good shape with out Shawn, Kyle, John and Trevor doing a killer job prepping it. If Tony had a bit in his mouth he’d be chomping on it. Hopefully, the doc will give Tony the go-ahead soon and he’ll get his chance at driving the car. He’s the fastest driver of our group and I’m sure he wants to see if he can hang with Kevin and the #500 car.

Here’s another from the 500…

On to the Primm 300…

Mark and I have been training hard here in New York. To work on our balance, we’ve been riding the subway with out holding onto anything. People are looking at us a little funny because while we’re doing this, we’re wearing our race suits and helmets. It’s a good thing too, because the other day while on the 6 train, it took a hard right and both Mark and I went down hard. If we weren’t wearing the helmets, we’d probably be in the hospital.

We’ve also been driving through Brooklyn on Mark’s son Harper’s push scooter. We’ve been able to get some good air over some of the bigger pot holes. We’ve been shooting video of these jumps and have had to dial in the suspension on Harper’s scooter, but we’re pretty close at this point.

Anyway, that’s the update for now. Hopefullly Trevor will be back soon because we’re missing him in the shop and down in Mexico.

Photos of the New York training sessions soon to follow…stay tuned!!!

Go Greasecar!

5:30am...car is ready to go.

Stopping for a little Mexican insurance...can

We finished getting everything together Thursday night in order to leave by 5am. Yeah, right…leave at 5am…well, we got close, we took off for Mexico around 5:30 which for this team is on time. Nothing very exciting happened on the way down. We had 20+ gallons of “race fuel” with us on the trailer and the Mexican border guards didn’t even look at it. We were afraid that the grease might get confiscated due to the rules of not allowing race fuel to be transported.

the buggy looks good in Mexico, doesn

Once in Ensenada, we went straight away to Baja Joe’s house where we dumped all the gear and loaded up only the essentials into the cars that we were taking back to town for contingency and tech. We rolled into town about 11am and got in line for tech. As soon as we arrived people started checking the car out and asking all sorts of questions. I, of course, gave them the specs on the car. 478HP, 845ft lbs of torque. as well as getting 73mpg. 

John pushing the car through contingency.

Tony found some super strength Rogain at a local pharmacy.

We signed up, rolled through contingency and passed tech with out a hitch. It was the first time for me, in 3 years of doing this stuff, that we were relaxed and confident that the car was dialed in. We weren’t up till 3am and up at 6am working on the car the day before leaving. We were rested and ready to go. There might’ve even been a Tecate or two consumed during contingency, but who can remember. 

untitled

John securing one of the much needed spares.

They're almost in the car. Shaun is thinking about something...

RACE DAY:

Shaun and Kyle took off from Baja Joe’s house and headed for the start line with Tony and Bob following them to see them off. John, Jerry and I headed down highway 3 to the RM80(race mile 80) to top off the tank and give the car a once over. I think they took off from the start line around 11am. By the time they got to us, #500 had come and gone. That’s not surprising since Perry McNeil was behind the wheel. If you don’t know who he is, google him and you’ll find out. By the time he handed the #500 car over to Kevin Carr, Perry had passed 48 cars. Included in those 48 cars were 10 and 12 class cars. 

When Shaun and Kyle arrived we topped them off with grease and did a once over on the car. Everything looked good and they were off. They were making great time until around RM160, the got a flat. #500 was gone, but #519 was still close. As they changed the flat, #519 pulled away. We wouldn’t see them till much later.

trophy truck with helicopter chasing...Justin, when do we get a chase helicopter?

in the pits at RM80...5 gallons of grease and they're off...

John, Jerry and I headed for the driver change area at RM225. Communicating with the car was great up to now. Mark in NYC and Jason in Las Vegas had been sending out texts as often as they could. I really don’t want to see what my cell phone bill is, but I’m sure it’s gonna be good.

At RM225, we met up with the Checkers pit crew and waited for the car to show up. Cell reception was spotty at best and getting messages was tough. Only until Shaun and Kyle were about 10 miles away did we find out. They pulled into the pits and John and I jumped in. A new spare was strapped on to the car and we were off…

another shot from in the car...

sunset...only 7 more hours to go.

taking pictures and co-driving...

looks like a full moon

John was cruising. It felt great to be back in the car. Sure, I would’ve loved to have been driving, but it wasn’t my turn so the co-driver seat would have to do. All we had to do was catch #519. At first that seemed like a possibility. On one section we were flying. I looked down at the gps and it has us going 80.4mph. I knew the roads were going to get bad, they always do, but I thought at least we’re going to make up some time now…

The we hit the rock. Neither John or I saw it. It didn’t sound good. I crunching/popping sound. We knew pretty instantly we lost the tire. We found a place to pull off. I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to use a spare, but I was thankful that Shaun gave me the jack and lug wrench lesson. We hopped out of the car and saw that the tire was a goner as well as the rim which was missing a large chunk. I started with the lug wrench only to find that the 19mm socket was cracked in 4 places making it impossible to loosen the lugs that Shaun had Godzilla’d on. We tried a locking pliers, but couldn’t budge them. Then I searched in the tool bag for another 19mm. I found one as well as the 3/8″ driver. With out the leverage from the big lug wrench I couldn’t loosen them. I had to grab the hammer and hit the end of the driver until I got all the lugs off. We secured the jack and hopped in the car, but not before having to re-build the tool bag that had developed a few large holes in the bottom of it. Once we got going, we had lost over 25 minutes. It was the longest tire change ever. 

At this point we just tried to drive steady and not hit any more wheel killers. Especially since we weren’t going to have another spare for 20+ miles. We met up with Tony who gave us a spare and good excuse to take a much needed leak. 

gave my camera to Tony and found this on it...not sure what to say about it. Tony?

I knew it was a bad idea to give Tony my camera.

As the night went on we traveled over mountains all the way to the Pacific ocean. At one point, we were on a “road” that was right next to the ocean. Had it been daylight still, I’m sure it would’ve been a spectacular view. 

We kept driving and finally arrived at the finish line at 3:02am. 14 hours after we started. Had we not had the 2 flats, we would’ve been in much sooner. All the guys were there at the end and it was great to see them. We got back to Baja Joe’s and swapped stories and had a much needed beer. At around 5am we finally went to bed only to get up a few hours later for the awards ceremony. Kevin got first place and Shaun received the trophy for 2nd place. 

crossing the finish line..3:02am...very tired, very thirsty...

2009 Baja 500 team

the next day...checking out the car

other side...

missing a little bit of the paint and we're gonna need a new Greasecar sticker

Shaun with Kevin Carr after receiving their trophies.

We headed back to Tony’s house in San Diego. It was great to be heading back not only having finished a race, but coming in 2nd place. There’s still a lot of work to do in order for us to be more competitive, but we know what we have to do and are looking forward to the next race, the Primm 300 which Mark and I will be driving. We’ll have to flip to see who goes first. 

back home, safe and sounds. 4 months and 3 days till the Primm...

Keep checking the site as I’ll put up more photos as I get them. 

Thanks to everyone who helped us out over the weekend. It really means a lot to get the text messages letting us know where the car is and how fast it’s going. 

-Jay

The team heading down for this race is the smallest we’ve had so far. Probably a combination of everyone being busy and trying to save their money. The first 225 miles of the race will be Shaun driving with Kyle co-driving. We’ll make a driver change and John will get in the driver’s seat and I’ll hop in the co-driver’s seat. 

I’m not sure how long it’ll take us to finish the race, but I’m hoping in under 13 hours. That would give us an average speed of 35 mph. 

The car looks great and after they guys were testing it a couple of weeks ago, it’s riding better than ever. They were doing 55mph over terrain that last years 5/1600 bug could only do 25mph.

Here are some pics I just took before the sun set. I’ll try and do a recap as soon as we return.

Keep your fingers crossed and send us your text messages…

-Jay

early morning…still in the garage…

left side

full frontal

bird’s eye…very, very shiny…a little too shiny…the 500 ought to change that.

Right side…

rear right…

right side detail

ass end…

belly of the beast…

front right detail

nice and low..

Turbo II - rag free.

check out Shaun’s jack mount

pure grease.

TDi beyatches!

Photo by Rodney Windrim

Photo by Rodney Windrim

Photo by Rodney Windrim

Photo by Rodney Windrim

Photo by Rodney Windrim

Video: Race Start

Video 2

After packing up the car and making final arrangements, Shaun, Tony, Kyle, Trevor, Karp and I hit the trail to San Felipe around 5PM on Thursday.  Loaded down with 2 RVs, two support trucks and trailering the race car our pace was a bit slow.  Crossing the border after dark, we set off across the desert down the desolate single lane highway to San Felipe. Sections of the road were under construction forcing our caravan onto unpaved wash board stretches that shook the motor homes so hard they felt as though they were going to rattle apart at the seams.  We finally made it into Pete’s Camp around midnight Mexican time and promptly went to bed.

In the morning we woke up on in our sandy beach camp as the sun rose over the Sea of Cortez. The tide was out almost 1/8 of a mile exposing the remnants of a truck frame belonging to one of the many racers who had decided that it might be fun to drive out onto the sand bar never to return.

After an all you can eat Mexican breakfast the team un loaded the racer and headed to town for registration, tech and contingency. The car was well received and got a lot of attention. 

While in tech we found ourselves right next to a military spec diesel bike that would be the first diesel to finish in a SCORE MotoX class.

After contingency I met up with my cousin and uncles who made it out for the race while the rest of the team headed to Petes Camp to pack up tools and make final preparations.

The next morning Tony Karp and I headed down to the start with Shaun and Trevor while the rest of the team split up into support crews and made their way to check points around the course.  Shaun and Trevor were the first 5 car off the line and whizzed past us as they hit the dirt out of town.  Kevin Carr and Albanez (1st and 2nd place winners) came roaring through right afterwards.  We then headed south on the course towards checkpoint 3 to setup for a fueling and drivers change pit.

Shaun and Trevor were out of radio contact during most of the race but we got several calls from John as they made it through the northern checkpoints and onto the dry lake bed on the far side of the mountain range running through the peninsula.  when we made it to the pit just north of checkpoint 3 we were out of radio contact so Tony and I had to stand in the course to flag the guys down as the cars rushed through.  After about 45 minutes we saw them whip the corner into pit row and were able to catch Shauns attention at the last minute and directed him in. Karp and Tony dumped 5 gallons of veggie oil into the car while Shaun and Trevor traded places and a small group of spectators gathered around to sniff the tailpipe and comment on the car.  Two minutes later they were off.

We headed back north to one of the final race mile turns with the light bar just in case they made it after dark but they plowed through right at dusk and headed to the finish.

It was a satisfying moment for everyone when the guys crossed the line marking our first successful finish of a SCORE race in the new car and especially one that is considered to be a rough course. The race went pretty much without a hitch.  Kyle replaced a hood bolt that had rattled loose near checkpoint 2 and a flat cost the guys 5 minutes after the driver change.  With one more race under our belt there is a short checklist of items that need to be gone through most importantly beefing up the rear suspension but the car has improved dramatically since November.

Trevor is being deployed to Spain this week and will not be back until the 1000 so we’ll be short handed for the 500 coming up in June but hopefully we can keep the momentum going.

Race phtos wil be up as soon as we get them.

With the engine ready to go it was off to the desert for some suspension testing.  New shock, spring and valving combinations were applied to all four corners and adjusted until they were happy.  The car was ready to go more than 7 days before the race (unheard of) and running and riding better than ever.  Adam even repaired and repainted the body after the roll at Laughlin.

Trevor’s deployment has been delayed so he and Shaun will be taking turns driving/co-driving down in San Felipe. Updates to follow.

We made it to contingency row bright and early and proudly unveiled the Grease bug which was polished up and ready for her debut.We got a lot of attention form the crowd who gathered around to sniff the tailpipe as we made our way down the strip towards the tech inspection tent.  When we finally made it to tech John Castillo tracked down Bill Savage to formally voice our request for being allowed to compete in the pro 5 class with the proposal that we would get written permission from the two other class competitors.  We were thrilled when when he agreed and John quickly ran off to track down Kevin Carr and Carlos Albarez and shortly returned with their authorization.

Kevin made his way over to our camp as he pulled out of tech to welcome us into the class.  We all appricieted the gracious sentiment from the current class champ and 2008 Milestone recipient and the chance to swap build compliments.

Saturday morning started with some final race prep and a photo shoot with DirtSports magazine who were interested in leaning more about what we were doing.  Trevor and Ethan were slotted to run the qualifying laps starting a 11:00am at the tail end of the pack.  The Laughlin event is a unique closed course with a man made infield of jumps and 180 degree berms to give spectators the biggest bang for their buck but requiring drivers to modify their usual drive style.

The buggys made their way off the line in pairs separated by about 30 seconds with Kevin Carr quickly taking the class 5 lead and Trevor working hard to make up additional seconds on each lap. Shaun and I stood on the side lines of the in field while the rest of the team took a wider perspective from the hill behind the pits.  Trevor and Ethan came in real strong on the first lap leaping effortlessly of each woop and feeling out the rutted berms.  We were all surprised at how confidently they took the famous Laughlin leap on the first go.

With each lap Treavor made up time as he closed in on Albanez and improved his approach on the first infield berm after a close call riding 2 wheels on lap 3.  It looked like Trevor was hitting his stride as he roared into the in field on lap 4 and hit the first berm perfectly and powered into the second straightaway leg, then trouble struck.  As he made it into the second berm to line up for a 4th shot at the leap he caught a rut mid turn the rolled the bug onto its lid.

As the bug sat on the course shiny side up Ethan and Trevor tried to shovel loads of dirt out of the roof before side line crews rolled the car back onto it’s rubber.  Sal Fish was on the scene and quickly pointed out that there was motor oil leaking from the air filter.  As the engine hung upside down in the chassis, oil leaked from the sump out of the crank case breather and into the intake.

Once righted Trevor tried the starter which seemed to be stuck.  In a desperate attempt to get back in the race they tried to roll start the car with the help of the sideline crew with no luck.  By the time the rest of us made it down to the car it was apparent that we were out of the day’s race.  Though the poor car was a bit bent and battered, trading it’s polished new car gleam for racing battle wounds mechanically everything looked okay.  We towed the car back to the pits to find out what was wrong with the engine.

When we got to looking it was pretty apparent that the engine was hydro locked after taking a big drink of engine oil.  I pulled the injectors and turned the engine by hand to burp out about a liter of oil from the two center cylinders and found that it was binding a bit when turning all the way over.  With the evidence of a bent rod or two pretty clear we decided to give a last try at starting the engine to see how bad the situation was.  With the glow plugs back in place we kicked the starter and with a plume of smoke the engine chugged back to life and though running a bit rough did not sound as bad as expected.  A number of the neighboring pit crews who had seen the initial carnage wandered over  see the encouraging site.  After a minute or two the exhaust was cleaning up and it sounded as though the engine was evening when all the sudden the revs began to climb a bit on their own and with a quick puff of smoke the #3 connecting rod snapped and punched a hole through both sides of the block. Thankfully no one was seriously injured in the event but sadly it was clear that we were out of the Laughlin Challange for 2009.

After another discouraging DNF we packed up and did our best to enjoy being spectators and watching the rest of the event from the sidelines.  We’ll be sending out a replacement longblock that happens to be on the stand at Greasecar and plan to make it out to finish the Baja 250 coming up in March.

The whole team would like to thank all of the folks from Pyramid Racing, K.I.T and Ian of Mendeola, along with everyone else in our pit neighborhood for their support, we look forward to seeing you on better terms in San Felipe.