Norra Mexican 1000 2015 (1 Viewer)

[Realslow80]

Hi guys, I've been following mud forever now. Whenever something breaks on the 80 this is the first stop (usually the last one too). This will be my first post, and its a call for help!

I'll try and keep it short, but bear with me. Back in 2013 I decided to participate in the NORRA Mexican 1000 at Baja with my then daily driven 80. After a bit of tinkering I did. Well, we did, since as you probably know racing is always a team effort. We did not finish, our ignition died 40 miles out from the finish on the 3rd day. Long story, but it was our mechanics fault, and mine I guess for not checking up on him!. Our truck was doing great so far.

After two years of planning or something like that, our team went to s*** and basically only two of the original 6 members remain, We still intend to go, rain or shine. But, and here is where I hope the mud community can help, we have zero support as in a chase crew, mechanic, cheerleaders, and team drunk (well we might have that one), like most teams we pool resources for expenses, so its gotten really steep for the remaining two!. To the extent possible all team members get to ride on the race vehicle (we have 3 seats), but all must pull their weight!

The truck is currently in Ft. Lauderdale, and we intend to actually drive it all the way to mexico ( I know, I know), but she's an 80...seats are kinda stiff these days though, last time we had a car carrier and we towed the truck to the border, no such luck this time around.

We need all the help we can get, she's the only 80 that I've seen racing at Baja, I was there last year with another team an still no 80's There is no $ in this and its all voluntary. it's all s***s and giggles, and maybe bragging rights!, but mainly the experience and to see the look on the face of those that say 80's are not race vehicles! Did I mention it is really fun!

Please check out the norra.com web for info on the race.

If it interests you, please get in touch. We have set our cutoff date for the 15 of march 2015

Thanks guys,

Mike

 

[Realslow80]

Hi guys, I've been following mud forever now. Whenever something breaks on the 80 this is the first stop (usually the last one too). This will be my first post, and its a call for help!

I'll try and keep it short, but bear with me. Back in 2013 I decided to participate in the NORRA Mexican 1000 at Baja with my then daily driven 80. After a bit of tinkering I did. Well, we did, since as you probably know racing is always a team effort. We did not finish, our ignition died 40 miles out from the finish on the 3rd day. Long story, but it was our mechanics fault, and mine I guess for not checking up on him!. Our truck was doing great so far.

After two years of planning or something like that, our team went to **** and basically only two of the original 6 members remain, We still intend to go, rain or shine. But, and here is where I hope the mud community can help, we have zero support as in a chase crew, mechanic, cheerleaders, and team drunk (well we might have that one), like most teams we pool resources for expenses, so its gotten really steep for the remaining two!. To the extent possible all team members get to ride on the race vehicle (we have 3 seats), but all must pull their weight!

The truck is currently in Ft. Lauderdale, and we intend to actually drive it all the way to mexico ( I know, I know), but she's an 80...seats are kinda stiff these days though, last time we had a car carrier and we towed the truck to the border, no such luck this time around.

We need all the help we can get, she's the only 80 that I've seen racing at Baja, I was there last year with another team an still no 80's There is no $ in this and its all voluntary. it's all ****s and giggles, and maybe bragging rights!, but mainly the experience and to see the look on the face of those that say 80's are not race vehicles! Did I mention it is really fun!

Please check out the norra.com web for info on the race.

If it interests you, please get in touch. We have set our cutoff date for the 15 of march 2015

Thanks guys,

Mike

Update Guys Race takes place from April 24th to the 29th. Return trip is about three days.

 

[Big Dave]

Hi RealSlow, I was wondering what your race status is? I don't see you on the list of registered vehicles yet. Are you going to make it this year? I'll be going down as an official recovery/sweep vehicle this year.

 

[Realslow80]

Hey Dave!, Yeah we are going for sure. We'll be registering at some point next week. Since you are sweeping, I hope we only see you for beer!

We'll keep you posted. Thanks for caring!

 

[Big Dave]

Hi RealSlow, see you Friday or Saturday in Ensenada! I'm looking forward to seeing what changes you have made for this year.

 

[1leglance]

You guys put in an amazing effort, driving across the country and then racing without chase.
Tough that the front birf blew and you really should share the entire story with everyone.
Hope to see you back again and with some advance notice I bet some Socal or Az folks would chase/help.

 

[cruisermatt]

This is awesome. What cage did you use?

 

[Huttm]

I can share the story. I’ll try to keep it reasonable. We made it about 350 miles on Day 1, about 60 miles from Bay of LA. Passenger side Knuckle fell off.
I answered this post way back in March. I’m in Oregon, realslow80 is in Puerto Rico & the truck was in Florida. We obviously never meet and I was unfamiliar with the truck so I was very nervous about all this but finally committed. I wasn’t an easy sell. We worked very hard to pull everything together in a very short time. It was a 6 week panic rush. They worked much harder than I did trying to get the truck ready.
They (Puerto Ricans) drove the 96 FZJ80 from Florida to San Diego in about 2.5 days, brutal drive. They picked me up in San Diego Saturday morning. I flew down from PDX. We then worked our way to Ensenada, MX for tech inspection. We worked all night trying to finish up details.
We were the very last truck to start the race Sunday morning. We had very little sleep, no chase and weren’t nearly as prepared as necessary but it was go time. We got the GPS file loaded in to the GPS just minutes before starting the race. Keep in mind we just meet less than 24 hours earlier.
We made it through the first stage unharmed. Since we were all strangers navigating was difficult and we were learning along the way. Saw a few rolled trucks, thought we had a fire, etc. Too much to tell.
We started the second stage ready to go. We were navigating as a team and doing pretty good for newbs. This was one of the highlights for me. We were actually doing this. Pretty sure I said that. It was a very surreal for me and something I’ll remember forever.
As we got further into the 2nd stage things started going downhill. It started with a flat tire, replaced that. Then we got swallowed by silt a couple times. No problem, people stopped and helped us get out every time. Then the truck pitched sideways out of nowhere about a mile later our knuckle broke and we hit a cactus. The birf was fine. The 4 bolts holding the bottom of the knuckle failed. 1 fell out and the other 3 sheared off. Personally I suspect they backed out, causing them to shear. We’ll never really know. There’s a mechanic in FL I’d like to ask!!
So there we were broken & not towable. I think it was about 11pm Sunday night. Sent messages to let NORRA know, knew sweep was coming but also knew there were a lot of broken trucks behind us. Thought we were only a few miles from Bay of LA. Not even close. We were 8 miles from pavement then an additional 50 miles to Bay of LA.
A big Doge truck shows up. I thought it was NORRA. Nope, a chase for a Bronco team decided to drive in and help us. This is so NORRA racing. Everyone wanted to help us! We were the underdogs a few wanted to bash us but most wanted to help us. It was very cool.
Caught a ride to town and ended up at a hotel. I’m not really sure how that all worked out. I remember some beer and a lot of BS’ing. Had to be about 3am.
Recovered the truck the next night. That is a whole story in itself. With help from Salvador (Hotel Manager) we managed to get the 3 wheeled truck on a trailer, pulled the loaded trailer through 8 miles of trail, then 50 miles of pavement to Bay of LA. This was the scariest white knuckle drive I’ve ever had. Seriously! We towed the truck/trailer with an 03ish Tundra that had 360,000+ miles, 3 different size tires and no brakes. Got back to the hotel about 5am. Ask me about the rabbit some time. It’s an inside joke, sorry.
Realslow80 sold the Cruiser to Salvador in Bay of LA. As is, still on the trailer.
Salvador gave us a ride to Ensenada Wednesday. We toured a very cool mansion he manages and rents to Baja Race teams for $3k a day. The next day Salvador took us on a wine tour around Ensenada and we relaxed.
Friday we made a run for the border. Got to Tijuana and there was a taxi protest blocking everything. So we jumped on a van, ran across the border on foot, carrying way too much luggage and finally caught a ride to the San Diego airport.
I caught a flight back to PDX Friday evening.
They rented a car and drove all the way back to Florida.
There is so much more story here! I’d be happy to share more over a beer but way too much to type.
What’s next? Who knows? However, we’re planning on doing this again next year. Hopefully we can pull something together. We need a truck so if anyone knows of a good truck we can purchase please share.
Personally, this was an amazing experience!! I’m so very happy I took the chance to do this. I’ve meet 3 very good friends, had a great experience and get to tell a great story.
If you’re doing this race next year please keep in touch. We all want to be there again next year in some form.
Mike

 

[Cabo Cruiser]

I saw you down here big dave. Last day of the race, eastcape side. You passed then came back into oncoming traffic at a clip, bottomed her out hard on a g out. Didn't see you return though and I was there for hrs. What was the deal with the reverse run? Someone go down?