Tomorrow it will be just 21 days until we leave for Mexico. Boy, when things start to happen all hell breaks loose. Like everyone else I too have far too many times have for one reason or another lost track of friends. Some move away, some get married, some take on new jobs and a million other reasons but the end result is one day we wake up and ask ourselves, "I wonder where Marc and Kathy are?" Well, that is exactly what happened to one of my best friends Roger Dauffenbach whom I used to spend lots of time with back in my Stanford University days. We both loved performance cars and water skiing. Roger primarily spent hours building custom 4X4's that he used to make famous four-wheel runs like the famous RUBICON TRAIL. Trust me, if you don't know anything about the Rubicon you don't know what REAL 4-wheeling is all about. Roger and I used to have a blast and like I mentioned.. one day Roger was gone.
Some 25 years later, it was just a little over a year ago while I was talking to a performance warehouse in Reno Nevada regarding some research on building this years car for the La Carrera Panamericana. The owner told me he had another customer who had a La Carrera Panamericana car and as exciting as that was to hear I damn near fell off my chair when he told me the guy's name... Roger Dauffenbach! It was such a great day when we got back in touch on the phone after all those years and we have been trying to find time ever since to get together and relive old times.
But today I got an awesome e-mail. It was none other than... You guessed it, Roger! Roger told me he will be crewing for La Carrera Panamericana team of Bruce Redding from the U.S.A and his navigator Ronald McRae from Mexico driving their Subaru STI in the Exhibicion Class. Roger, Bruce and Ronald ran in the 2007 Expresso de Chihuahua which was a prelim to this years La Carrera Panmericana held in Northern Mexico. How darn cool is THAT! Boy will we have lots to talk about let alone sharing an amazing adventure together after all these years. What are the odds? Without a doubt Roger is one of those guys who can make a room light up by just walking past the door and I am betting it's going to get just a little bit wilder in Mexico if that's even possible. I can't wait for my team and myself to see him and meet his team. This just keeps getting better and better.
True to form with Roger, I have to laugh after reading an interview I found in the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza News when they wrote an article about his racing. "When Incline resident Roger Dauffenbach was growing up in the small farm town of Colusa, Calif. he enjoyed stealing cars.
Now the 54-year-old Dauffenbach is taking his love for adrenaline rushes to the speedway. In fact, last Sunday he took his equipped-for-racing 1998 white Mustang Cobra and his navigator, Stephen Bramlitt, to the Silver State Classic Challenge Inc. in Lund, Nev. where they placed eighth in the 125 mph category.
"I was a kid growing up in a farm town and that's what you did," he said. "You stole a car and went for a ride." But he admits he did get in trouble for his actions." I guess I better keep an eye on Roger or he may just steal some cars in Mexico. LOL.
Just to clairify ... Bruce is running the Unlimited Class .. for some reason (it was easier for them) the Mexico side of the website lists ours as Exhibition. They aren't ... they are Unlimited Class. (They have actualy asked us to sign up as Historic "C" because the website has a glitch) There are other cars like the Daytona Coupe that are running "Exhibition" and not in competition with anyone but themselves. The Unlimited Class cars are competing against each other and will recieve the same trophies as all other classes each night. The only thing different is that an Unlimited Class car is not allowed to win La Carrera Panamericana as the overall winner ... that honor is reserved only for a historic vehicle ... which as everyone in The Unlimited Class is a first year participant .. we have no worries of when we compete against the Studebakers.
ReplyDelete-Bret
Bret, thanks for the clarification. I am looking forward to meeting each and everyone of them.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that it's a tradition that they will not allow any of the Historic C class vehicles to win overall as well.
Gary, I'm wondering about this comment,"My understanding is that it's a tradition that they will not allow any of the Historic C class vehicles to win overall as well". It's bad enough that they're letting 67 and 68 cars run, now this! e
ReplyDeleteHello E,
ReplyDeleteThat was something Gerie Bledso told me many months ago. But you may have seen that recently in one of his newsletters he wrote "There is a great turnout for Historic C (V8/V12 engines). There are many fast cars, some are capable of winning the race overall."
He also informed me that because the Monte Carlo (lightweight) Falcons are some 800 pounds lighter than the Corvettes that the Corvettes are now allowed to use 4-barrel carbs like you are in your car. However, they feel that my car as well as all the Mustangs are so fast that they are still restricting us to 2-barrel carbs. None of it seems fair let alone making so many last minute changes HOWEVER, it's their race and it's their rules and the last thing I want to do when I get there is find myself or my team worrying or complaining. If that's the way it is and I am invited, then my team and I will play by their rules and have fun doing it. Besides, in my mind it's a learning experience for next year anyway. Every person on California's Best Team will tell you the same thing, there have been a lot bigger challenges all of which we overcame in the past and the challenge just makes it all the more rewarding.