Dia 7 - Zacatecas - Nuevo Laredo

This is it, Day Seven! We are energized by the party at the bullring and also saddened because the end of this great adventure is near. The day starts as always - early rise, pack, breakfast, and Scott is off with the truck. This morning, we start our third run at La Bufa right in front of our hotel. There had been a rumor that there was ice on the road for the first section, but a check with Jerry Churchill, who had already made a pre-run, puts that gossip to bed- it's good to ask the right people!

There was some confusion with the time cards and official clock and I dealt with that. Rick was helping the 57 Chevy Tropical Gangster crew siphon gas from our car.
Our third pass at La Bufa was our best and then it was a day of long transits and short speed sections North. Our drive today is about 410 miles, with only 30 of those race sections.

Some of the transit sections consisted of a verrry long, and verrry straight two lane highway that disappeared into the horizon. At best, this was tiring and to give Rick a break, I got to drive these. Joy!
Somewhere along one of these straights, we were stopped by Federales due to an accident and because we were not sure of how long to the next section, I tired sneak on through. One officer waved us forward, but the second gave us the Mexican version of the stink eye as we came upon a single boot in the in the road. Not pretty, but it seemed a fitting memorial to a lost motorcyclist.

The day went on to a very fast speed section on a highway that was run full out. This video will show you what the start was like, our Chevelle shows up at about the 6 minute mark. A couple more short runs and a stop for gas brought us to the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo.

Here everyone was told to keep up their speed through town to the finishing arch.

As we got closer to the finish, the crowd grew, as did the waving and cheering and the chaos of

of it all!

Ultimately, we come to the line of cars waiting to hand in their time cards, as we inch forward and cross through the arch, the awareness of "WOW.... that was it.... it's over" becomes a reality.

We receive our last finishing metal, and move on through more wild crowds, to park down the street anywhere where we can.

Our pal and crew member Scott is here to greet us, and once out of the car, there's hugs and

kisses and handshakes for him and anyone nearby, such as our old friend Chip Johns and his co-pilot Dee Grisamore who parked next to us.

For me, I was feeling a bit glum because the end of the race had come, but with a couple of beers and the arrival of the Tecate Girls, things brightened up.

The next two hours were spent talking to anyone and everyone who came by. Then it got dark and we needed to get to our hotel to get ready for the last drivers meeting and the final awards.

The event was held at the Cultural Center somewhere in downtown Nuevo Laredo.

It took us awhile to get down there and being late as usual, it was tough to find a table for three. So we hung around the fringes, ate, watched the award ceremonies, shopped the souvenir stands, and bought pictures of our race car.

Of course we chatted with all the good folks we had met, and knowing we were not going to see the podium, I sampled a little of the Johnny Walker that was at each table.

As the evening wound down, there was the exchange of phone numbers and e-mails with new friends, congratulations to the winners, encouragement to the runner-ups, and good-byes to everyone till next time. Our results for the day were a 23rd place finish, 7th in class Historic "C".
By now the seven days had caught up with us, it was time to get a ride and head back to the hotel. It took awhile to get a taxi as everyone seemed to have the same idea at the same time.

We rode back with the Fiat-Abarth crew to a sound sleep till the morning. The next day, Scott was off early to catch a cab to cross the border and fly home from Laredo.

Rick and I got the car loaded on the trailer, and things packed up for the trip home. As we were leaving I remember a remark from Jerry Churchill who said something to the effect, that you'll never forget your first La Carrera Panamericana. How very true!

In the final overall results, we finished in 20th place, 5th in Historic "C" class. http://lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx/resultados_07.asp

Next Time: And finally, some final thoughts

Dia 6: Aguascalientes-Zacatecas

Our night here was spent at the Hotel Fiesta Americana and the morning was leisurely in that today's start wasn't until noon. After a big breakfast and walk around near the hotel, we decided to go downtown and see what was happening at the main market. A short cab ride showed us that Aguascalientes mercado was interesting but nothing special, unless you wanted to buy a sombrero like I did.

The start was at the same park from the night before, with everyone lined up so pictures could be taken and the cars viewed by the admiring fans. It was a day of short transit and speed sections, only about 130 miles, until we reached the edge of Zacatecas and its La Bufa. La Bufa is the name of a small mountain that rises about 500 ft above the city, the names meaning having something to do with a pigs kidney, I think from the shape of the rock at the top.

This section is as notable and infamous as Mil Cumbres with a much different look to it. It's at 8200 ft. in elevation, in high desert rather than forest, so as turns are made you're seeing a sweeping panorama spread out below you. This section is one of the biggest challenges of the race and the entire seven days. There have been many serious accidents here, if you've seen the Pink Floyd race video on the La Carrera, this is there they lost both of their cars, and more recently in 2005, the spectacular crash involving our pal Gerie Bledsoe. If you want to see what spectacular looks like, here's the video... www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCTKlWNKpSo Amazingly, only a broken bone and no serious injures.

The first thing I remember was about our start at La Bufa, as we slowly moved forward to the Z control, is me being out of the car, with the backdoor open, fiddling with the video camera trying to get it to work, and Rick saying "git in and buckle up before they give us a penalty". Needless to say, there is no video of our first run at La Bufa.

The pre-start of this section begins on an uphill that crept along slowly, so, the go, the stop, the move up, the wait, to get to the green flag was a grind on our clutch, our possible Achilles Heel. But as always, the Chevy hung tough, and finally the flag goes up and we're away.

One thing we had been told about was a weird turn at the top of the first hill to watch out for, it looked like you could go left but it was a sharp right turn. It was something like, oh yea, here we come over a crest, here's a junction, left looks good, except there's a crowd of spectators and orange cones and it's a really a 3 right.... whoops.... that could have been ugly!!

There's a couple other spots where you can get confused, that seemed to happen to a '54 Ford that started in front of us. As we came around a sweeping turn, they were just reorienting themselves after a spin at what looked like a freeway off-ramp and once they straightened out, we tailed them to the finish. That was about all the excitement for the first run, we thought, which ended with our lunch break. The stop was at a Pemex station, and as we siestaed, news started to filter in about an accident. It turned out that the good looking '52 Chevrolet of Mike Anderson and Steve Warwick had flipped over an embankment, and been destroyed. Neither one was badly injured although Steve received some battery acid burns, but nothing broken. Before we left, we watched Doug Mockett's crew working hard to keep his car running and in the race with a faulty clutch.

The last run of the afternoon was La Bufa in the other direction, this time we were ready for the turn at the top of the hill, and it still spooked us. The arrival arch was next to a pink cathedral and the drive to it being through the city's winding, narrow streets. Everyone parked in front of the church and the reception seemed to be more enthusiastic than some of the others.

The beautiful city of Zacatecas was founded in the mid 16th century after silver was discovered. It continues to to be a center for silver mining and is still the largest producer in Mexico. It's definitely a place I would like to go back to explore more thoroughly.

Tonight was Halloween and kids were dressed in costumes all around, all kinds of kids. The next day was "Dia de Muerto" or "Day of the Dead" and signs of it were everywhere. The night is also special because it's the last one before the end of the race. It has a tradition of the "tequila walk" from the center of town to the drivers meeting where a burro carries a cask of tequila and everyone drinks from miniature cups worn around their necks to be refilled as often as needed.

Our squad had decided to settle in for a steak dinner at Garufa and as the festivities stopped at the restaurant, we were able to indulge in a few shots as we waited for dinner.



After dinner Rick and Scott decided to go hunt for silver bling bling, while I headed to the meeting with the Camaro crew. Tonight the drivers meeting was held at the Hotel Quinta Real, which was once an actual bullring built in the 1800's. We found some seats up high on the sides and watched the evenings ceremonies below. Afterwards, I spent a few minutes watching the crew with the '57 Chevy change their engine out front of the hotel and that was enough for me, so I grabbed a cab back to my hotel. Tomorrow is day seven, the last day of the race, and tonight has some brought thoughts about the last two weeks of preparation and racing, meeting new friends, and everything thats happened in the last two years. Ah but before getting to caught up in that, we have to make it to the finish line and one last big blow out tomorrow night in Nuevo Laredo. Today we are in 25th place, 6th in class.

Next time: Dia 7 - Zacatecas-Nuevo Laredo

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