An ongoing look at the people, places and machines of the worlds most demanding open road race.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Un-be-leav-able!!!
Today was one hell of a day. The racing was awesome as we raced along cliffs on twisty mountain roads at high speed with no guard rails and in many spots if you went off it was so far down you would have time to write your will on the way down. The in-car video is going to be un-real!
There was a lot of carnage today and a lot of very expensive cars will not run again.... ever. Even though the crashes were spectacular and the cars totally destroyed everyone is in good shape and only a few cast were needed. At to nights awards ceremony they told us the doctors could not attend because the had to tend to some of the racers that suffered bad accidents today.
Lucky had some bad gas... (not that kind) but it was bad enough that I was losing fuel pressure and had to milk the car along but at the service stop the crew was waiting and I diagnosed the problem in seconds, cleaned the filter and took off again. Before dinner this evening Will and I took the fuel cell apart and cleaned it and cleaned the filter again. Hopefully this will eliminate any further problems
because we were sitting ducks with only 2 pounds of fuel pressure. As a result we fell back one position in class but better yet was we moved up to 17th overall!
As navigator Jon is awesome and there is absolutely no way I could get this far along
without him. The navigator roll is extremely complicated and requires him to be on the ball for so many variables but he really has a handle on it.
Besides the racing there is so much beauty in this country and the people here just love the La Carrera Panamericana. They live to see this race and all along the hundreds of miles fans old and young alike find out where the route is and they line the highways and overpasses just to watch all the cars whisk by. Last night we took a cab to go to a palace for a meeting and along the way a car was blocking the way so our taxi driver honked but the guy didn't move. Then he yelled and still nothing. TheN he goT out and went up to his window and yelled, I HAVE VERY IMPORTANT MEN IN MY TAXI. THEY ARE LA CARRERA PANAMERICANA PILOTOS! When we arrived in Teheacan there was over 450,000 fans lining the streets within inches of the car. Lucky is a very popular car and we stood for three hours signing autographs, shaking hands, posed with fans for photos and I even signed a few baby's and lots of shirts and hats. That took place in a square with a live band and all the food and drinks all of the drivers and crew could eat. WOW, was the food great and boy do these people know how to make you feel welcome. Once again, the footage is unreal.
Here are a few photos from today that I hope you will enjoy.
Sounds like the Adventure of a lifetime!
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