An ongoing look at the people, places and machines of the worlds most demanding open road race.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Move on up
Sorry, it's late and we have some very long stages tomorrow and I need some sleep. But real quick here are some updates. I have a lot of awesome photos from today. There where some major accidents today including some that injured some locals. During the crash several other race cars where wrecked as well. If you injure anyone while in Mexico during a transit stage they put you in jail... no if's and's or buts, that's the law. So now a Brit sits in jail and will probably stay there.
Today we ran some very dangerous roads mostly along cliffs again. My first two runs where far from spectacular however the rest were stellar and now I have moved up into 16th overall out of the hundred that started. Today a Corvette that was right in front of me lost control and crashed of the road over a hillside and the car burnt so bad there was only a frame left. Most people could not even tell that it was a car let alone A Corvette.
By the way, for those of you who want to know how the father and son team of Apple Farmer's racing is doing... Jon, my Co-piloto/navigator spent some time with them this morning helping them to better understand timing and so on. Then they won a position in their class on the podium today. They were very happy and rightly so and we are happy to see them doing so well.
One last thing... After a very dangerous stage today where we ran thru some mountains and cliffs at high speed on what I know is the most dangerous place I have ever raced we came into a small town and all of a sudden my front brake locked up and we skid to a halt. One of the brake caliper bolts had worked loose and fallen out which allowed the caliper to lock up on the wheel. Jon had a dozen Mexicans lift the car out of the street so I could take off the wheel and put the bolt back in which we found laying in the street and we still finished in time.
Today we were greeted by 350,000 people after we were given a high speed motorcycle escort thru traffic sirens blazing and all. I have lots of photos but no time to post them tonight. Tomorrow they are doing something that has never been done since the first days of the original route of the La Carrera Panamericana... they are stopping the traffic in Mexico City, one of the largest cities in the world so that we can race there. There will be literally millions of people lining the highways to watch us. Today Jon and I did three more news interviews in different places and one news paper interview as well. One of our race stages will be on a brand new race track after we run thru Mexico City.
In the mean time here is a video from two days ago of a "safe" and "slower" section of road Lucky took us safely thru.
Wow! Having driven through Mexico City this past Spring, I'm amazed they can even attempt to close roads down! That will be one heck of an experience. Good job guys...keep the rubber side down!
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention...I've never seen or heard a "Left Zero" pace note before!
ReplyDeleteGary & Jon, You guys sure don't have to appologize about your posting, it's very timely and the content is excellent. Fantastic video, appreciated it very much. Keep on Racin' and be safe.
ReplyDeleteWith all you have to do down there how do you find time to post. I talked to Kristen Stewart yesterday and she wasn't to excited about going down the side of a hill and then almost going over another on. Mil Cumbres is pretty exciting 3 cars went off there last year, Be safe
ReplyDeleteway to go pop!.. you and jon always have made an awesome team, im proud of you all imensely.. be safe and keep moving up that ladder..we have been cheering you on daily, its kinda nice that we can watch the race via gps..
ReplyDelete