Official 2009 Baja 1000 - Endeavor #301 Thread

[NicksTrix]

kind of like the bronco and the stock vw (cl 11)

 

[broncotime]

Electrical problems at night has to suck. But still better than stuck down in a ravine at night. so if we had started with a stock type bronco and went slow and easy do you think we would be passing them about now? kind of the tortoise and hare thing.

I was thinking the exact same thing. How did those close to stock Stroppe's finish all those years??

I agree that sitting in a ravine all night has got to suck, especially if you think there's a chance of someone else falling in there after you! From the chatter on the weatherman it sounds like baja is littered with broken and stuck racers. Long night for a lot of folks.

 

[toddz69]

How did those close to stock Stroppe's finish all those years??

Excellent prep, awesome drivers, and easier courses. The courses in the earlier years used a lot more graded roads than they do today.

Todd Z.

 

[bax]

WTF no MPH?0301
Date: 21 Nov 2009 03:27:31 GMT-8h
Speed: 0 mph
Name: Scott Barnes

 

[ransil]

off the BFG relay..
0301 mile 169 tranny problems..

 

[Bukin 67]

Sorry to see the news. That always sucks after all the time into and effort put into these races - especially the 1000.

We're (1245) out also with a blown motor at mm400
Time to set sights on getting it back to race ready for the next one.

 

[ransil]

0302 still waiting on getting extracted at 86.3

 

[astark]

Just got up and checked tracking, looks like they are out of the race but moving along the highway, but I could be wrong and I hope I am.

 

[NicksTrix]

cl 3 leader still only about rm 492 and idle. as TZ said, this is a long rough course.
moss bronco is about 20 miles behind them creeping along, nobody else moving at this time.
looks like a long night for our bronco buddies.

 

[goneballistic]

NicksTrix... You sound like our personal announcer! If cant nothing to open up to listen in on everything. Ive got the tracking ones opened.

 

[bptommy]

im listening here and getting pretty good info but nothing on our guys yet

http://www.bajaracingnews.com/

 

[broncotime]

im listening here and getting pretty good info but nothing on our guys yet

http://www.bajaracingnews.com/

Tracking shows #302 Dan Wright moving again at 38 mph so he must have got out of the ravine and is driving back to Ensenada or on a trailer.

 

[bptommy]

yeah 302 is making good time now i bet they are on a trailer looks like they will be back in ensenada real soon

 

[offroadaction]

A few photos of Dans wander into the ravine were posted on www.class3racing.com No wonder they needed some help!

A missed corner, lot of rocks. It did a full roll and hug on some rocks that kept it from going over again. If it hadn't we would have been taking it out in parts. We spent most of the eveing extracing it. After it was up it drove to the hwy.

Dan

Here's a couple of pics.

http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/IMG_9864.jpg

http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/IMG_9868.jpg

 

[THEHEAT]

I hope everybody was alright. Looks like a big chunk was taken out of his right rear rim.

 

[Rockit]

Posted on http://www.class3racing.com/ from Dan.

Not a scratch on any one when it happened. A few bruises, metal cuts, muscle strains and such from the extraction.

The remote extraction was as harry one as you could ask for. That is what took all the time. The big rock that is just below and to the back of the rear tire in the second picture started it life on the uphill side on the other side rear tire of the bronco. We had to come-long, push and lever it around the back of the bronco. Then roll it off the edge to get a good safe path for the extraction. It is by far the largest rock I have ever moved by hand. It took 5 of us about 2 hrs to get it moved.

Then we started to move the rear of the bronco up and over the one it was setting on, to be in position to then get it back up the hill. Amazingly after getting it in the slot and replacing the right rear tire with the broken rim. We unhooked the winch and just kept the saftey lines hooked to it. The bronco backed up out of the slot it own power. A repositioning of the the tow rig on a strap for a bit of added pull and it came on up the hill in reverse. Not with out incident though, Russ had to hit it pretty hard on the way up and it broke the cv on the front driveline on the way up. Other than the CV, all for damage to the racer itself, is cosmetic, even the lights on top survived.

Of course we will take it clear apart now and go over every inch of it with a fine tooth comb to make sure there is no hidden damage.

 

[goneballistic]

#301 is on hwy 5 the way it looks but not moving. Are they working on it and plan on trying to finish or they trying to get it loaded? I wish they could kept running good! I know they had alot of hard work in it!

 

[Tazz]

Been up for 39 hrs, it was a rough night so I'll copy and paste what I put up over at the other site. Heading to bed, I have about a 15 hr drive home tomorrow.

-------
A missed corner, lot of rocks. It did a full roll and hung on some rocks that kept it from going over again. If it hadn't we would have been taking it out in parts. We spent most of the eveing extracing it. After it was up it drove to the hwy.

--------
Not a scratch on any one when it happened. A few bruises, metal cuts, muscle strains and such from the extraction.

The remote extraction was as harry one as you could ask for. That is what took all the time. The big rock that is just below and to the back of the rear tire in the second picture started it life on the uphill side on the other side rear tire of the bronco. We had to come-long, push and lever it around the back of the bronco. Then roll it off the edge to get a good safe path for the extraction. It is by far the largest rock I have ever moved by hand. It took 5 of us about 2 hrs to get it moved.

Then we started to move the rear of the bronco up and over the one it was setting on, to be in position to then get it back up the hill. Amazingly after getting it in the slot and replacing the right rear tire with the broken rim. We unhooked the winch and just kept the saftey lines hooked to it. The bronco backed up out of the slot it own power. A repositioning of the the tow rig on a strap for a bit of added pull and it came on up the hill in reverse. Not with out incident though, Russ had to hit it pretty hard on the way up and it broke the cv on the front driveline on the way up. Other than the CV, all for damage to the racer itself, is cosmetic, even the lights on top survived.

Of course we will take it clear apart now and go over every inch of it with a fine tooth comb to make sure there is no hidden damage.
--------
Here are a few more pic of the racer and the extraction. As usual no one on the team got any pictures from the start. I'll have to look for them else where.

Things going right
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/DSC_0011.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/DSC_0017.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/DSC_0025.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9804.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9840.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9844.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9856.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9858.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/P1010513.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/P1010517.jpg

Extraction Pics
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9860.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9861.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9862.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9863.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9864.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9865.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9866.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9867.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/IMG_9868.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/DSC_0038.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/DSC_0039.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/DSC_0040.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/DSC_0041.jpg
http://www.oldhorseracing.org/Baja09/race_pics/DSC_0045.jpg

Dan

 

[coachbarnes]

I'm about to leave Ensenada, heading back to DFW. It was a long, long day/night of fighting a good fight -- but once again, Baja got the best of us. We busted a CV right out of town to start the day off..must have slammed down on a huge rock or something. Got that changed, but it burned alot of time. Racer was running good, making up time (Nick..not sure why you thought we weren't because we were clipping pretty good. The tracking mph is only a point in time, not an average). Made it through some rough, rough stuff and lost all electrical at about RM 100. Looks like our isolator failed, so had to bypass that -- burned another couple of hours. Racer again running GREAT -- hit about 90 mph in the dry lake beds, and handing better than ever. The the thing we couldn't overcome happened at about RM 172. Looks like we sucked a valve or busted a rocker arm. Not for certain, but it wasn't repairable in the desert and we were done. It's ashame, because we just had the motor completely rebuilt to carve off a couple hundred HP, but add lot's of torque at low RPM and it was working like a champ! We put about 300 miles on the new motor prior to Baja, so we felt good about it -- but here's the deal about Baja -- if it can go wrong, it will. As to the question about taking a stocker and doing the tortoise and the hare thing, my suggestion is "go for it". Everyone seems to have the answers, but the fact is that only about half that start the race ever finish. That's why it's considered one of the toughest off-road races in the world. I'm not going to be ashamed for not finishing, because most won't ever get off the couch and even try it. I'm VERY proud of my team -- Jerry Hoover, Matt Chapman, Chuck Shuerer, Tim Mason, Tim Morris, Doug Graddick and Bill Veiring, John McKinney (owner/driver like myself). I would go anywhere with these guys and race, because I know that they would all give 100%. We prepped well, we built a good vehicle and we worked our asses off trying to get to the finish line. It just didn't happen for us. I'm as dissapointed as a human can be, because my DNA is all about winning...but I will not apologize for not finishing. So everyone that has a better idea, I say "go for it"...put your money, time, energy where your mouth is...I'll post pics when I get home..thanks to all who had positive things to say and supported this great group of EB enthusiast.

Scott

 

[74creamsickle]

Loved this thread !! Thanks for all the updates!! Better Luck next year !!!