Divisadero and the Copper Canyon

Life is good, we made it through the first day with only some mechanical problems, and no need for any bodywork. Last night the carb was rejetted and the power valve replaced. Don't ask me what a power valve is, but the car seemed to run better. The second day, we left towards the southwest of Chihuahua to Mexico's Grand Canyon, the Copper Canyon. Again, we were up early, breakfast, and give the Chevy the once over. It was running much better, still not 100%, but good enough to try and do some damage in the standings. We had to travel about 200 kilometers to get to the first speed section and on the way we saw a few of the cars already in trouble. Chip's Falcon passed us going the other way, not a good sign, and the remaining Mustang was on the side of the road with the hood up. Also, the other Chevelle looked broken, but caught up when we stopped for lunch.



I'd kind of gotten the hang of the timing thing, or at least our 90 second theory was working, and our communication system was functioning again with the help of a little duct tape.The Chev had truly started to show it's ability, the suspension was working great, along with the Korean tires we were using. We'd finally seemed to have gotten the carburetor right, now if we could just solve the problem with the ignition. This was getting to be fun! In the first couple of speed sections, we started behind a Chrysler New Yorker, and were able to catch and pass him both times. One of those was in a corner, where the Chrysler was literally on three wheels, that's quite a site!
One of the obstacles in this days race was the railroad tracks that we had to cross and recross a number of times. I believe the LT Special with Sam Berg had to stop and wait for a train to pass during a speed section. At one point the route book said, "CAUTION, RR crossing, 2 1/2 right with JUMP!!", we took that seriously and slowed way down and still bottomed out. It was death knell for the Mercedes 220, they hit it and removed their oil pan.

The turn around point was the end of the road in Divisadero, where a lodge is perched right on the edge of the canyon. The train, to and from the coast, stops here so you spend the night, do some shopping, or have lunch. This is where I got my first taste of what it's like to be a BIG TIME race car driver. As I got out of the car, I was immediately surrounded by 14 year old girls wanting my autograph. I got to say, that's different. I guess they'd never seen anything like ol' number 17!
After the lunch stop and a little sightseeing, everyone was off again, on the reversed course, and without any incidents. It's really beautiful country out there, wild and rugged, it would be a great place to spend more time and explore. I'm told the train ride through the canyon is fantastic.
We felt like we had done pretty well this day, even though the car still had a miss. As we tailed the other Chevelle back to Chihuahua, we decided that the spark plug wires had to be changed. If that didn't solve our problem, it was something worse than we expected. It turned out, even though we had Nomex covers on the spark plug boots, two of them had melted through on the headers. What a difference having all eight cylinders makes!
As Ricked worked on that and Logan reported about his day in a machine shop, somewhere in the backwaters of Chihuahua, solving the Falcon's oiling problems, I went to the drivers meeting. Here among other things, the days standings are announced, and the top three in each class receive awards. And lo and behold, if we didn't come in 3rd in our class and win a little bling-bling. Now, I realize that this isn't the Indie 500 or the Mexican Grand Prix and we'd lost a few cars in our class, but I don't get to accept a metal around my neck too often, and that was cool. Even Rick got a tickle out of that one. So, buenas noches, hasta manana, tomorrows the last day and we head for Texas.
Next Time: Can You Say "Ojinaga"?
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