Dia 3: Puebla - Queretaro

This day was big, we got to race through downtown Mexico City. Somehow, the organizers of the Carrera Panamericana, have connections to shut the roads, on a Sunday, in the middle of the worlds largest city, to let a bunch of gringos go as fast as they can for 5 or 6 kilometers down the
freeway. It was a first, I think, for the

modern Carrera. The drive toward the city was beautiful, but cold, a winding freeway through pine forests that looked like somewhere near Monterey California. But as we got closer, it became stop and go... mostly stop. The route book was very precise with its directions, but we just hoped the Porsche in front of us knew where they were going. The stop and go traffic for miles upon miles

reminded us that we were dealing with a clutch that was fragile at best. We all finally made it to a stretch just off the freeway and waited while the Federales and Transit Police cleared the last cars off the road. When our turn came, it was just "pedal to the metal " and lets see how fast the ol' Chev could go. We ran a "rev limiter", which was set at 6000 RPM, so when I peaked over at the speedometer, we were at about 130MPH on the red line. The one thing about this was there were two slight hill crests we went over, and at top speed all the weight of the car comes off the suspension making for a feeling of lightness that makes things interesting in an old car at these speeds.
( Here's a link to a video for a ride through Mexico City in a Porsche GT3... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfbEYlQqmhs

As we came to the end of the freeway and a toll booth, we were supposed to turn off toward a service stop for lunch. Somehow the navigator missed that one, and we just kept on going down the highway. You never want to miss these stops because of penalties, unsigned time cards, and who knows what, so our idea was to turn around and get back to where we were supposed to be. This particular toll road had no where to get off for about 8 or 9 miles, and naturally when we did get turned around, here came everyone passing us the other way. Another trip through the toll booth, and a mad dash to catch the stragglers.

The day continued in the mountains outside of Queretaro with some long downhill sections that were tough on brakes. I remember being passed by a Team Tangerine Porsche 356 in the curves that made us feel slow. The last speed section was held at the Autodromo in Queretaro. This is a newer race track that was... quirky, peculiar, odd, take your pick. Now, I don't know much about race track design, but this one didn't seem to have much of a "flow" to it, but we only had to run 6 laps not 500, so no big deal. The idea here was to get through the laps with no dents and no problems. The cars were let out a few at a time, and we somehow began tangling with a Volvo. We were faster in the straights but they would catch us in the turns, which caused them to start honking at us. Honking... on a race track... what's with that?!?

Another long day, about 275 miles, but with pretty smiling faces and cold beer awaiting our arrival in Queretaro, all was well for today. Tomorrow is Mil Cumbres. Today we are 20th overall, 4th in class.



Next Time: Dia 4- Queretaro - Morelia

Dia 2: Tehuacan - Puebla

The reception in Tehuacan was something not to forget. The dinner and drivers meeting was numbing, my notes tell of a band playing, some very pretty girls and the highlight being afterwards, a guy with a contraption on his head like bulls horns, loaded with fireworks, pinwheels and fountains going off, chasing would be Matadors around, as they gave him the "OLAY". It was a good time.
Another 6 AM rise, breakfast and off to find time cards and the starting order. Today the landscape changed to the look of high desert, lots of cactus, rolling hills with the Sierra Madre in the backround. The first speed stages we ran were fast and clean ......we done good! Not so for one of the Corvettes, a 60's Stingray that burnt to a crisp. As we came over a pass during a morning speed stage, we saw a plume of smoke in the valley ahead. In Mexico, they're always burning something, so as we passed the flames and it did not look like a Corvette, we didn't think much about it. Later we found out that the pilot and co-pilot just got did get out before it completely melted. This was a day for accidents, a beautiful black Mercury went off road and over an embankment with no injures and a slightly spectacular head-on involving a Facal Vega, a Studebaker and a civilians car during a transit section. I think there were a couple others that I didn't make note of. What was noted were the "topes" that day. That's prononuced "toe-pay", and basically they are speed bumps, but that doesn't do them justice. They come in all shapes and sizes, everything from a "Botts Dot" to standard, rounded top ones to something more like a parking barrier. The good thing is they keep small towns from having traffic from going full speed down Main St. The worst is having to drive over seemingly hundreds of them in a lowered race car. And there's always a stray one that's not marked, and that's when you want to make sure your exhaust is bolted on tight.
Today we also had an event that I have a special memory of, passing two cars during a speed stage. I don't know why, but an Alfa Romero and a Porsche 356 started ahead of us, halfway through the stage we caught the Porsche who had caught the Alfa. We both got around the Alfa Romero and a couple turns after that, we got past the Porsche. Navigating while passing cars takes some focus to not just start watching the show, but...OOOOWEE BABY, it sure is fun!!
My last remembrances of this day were of a pink church on a hillside during a transit and gorgeous flower orchards in valleys we crossed. Also in our sights, as we were heading toward Mexico City, there were the two volcanoes, Pico de Orizaba and Popocatepetl with snow capped peaks. Our next day would take us racing through downtown Mexico City.
Today we are 28th overall, 7th in class.

Next Time: Dia 3 - Puebla - Queretaro

Please see: www.lcp2009.blogspot.com

Dia 1: Oaxaca - Tehuacan

The nights sleep was a sound one for me, with no dreams of flying.....off cliffs, or turning browsing cows into tenderloin. Our morning routine had been to eat breakfast at the Hotel Victoria and that stayed the same. Since we would now be only staying overnight in hotels we were packed, and Scott, being our lead mechanic and bellboy, got all our stuff to our truck and was off early to meet us down the road. Time had come for us to suit-up, and find our place at the start. All our days supplies were packed in the car, camel backs full of water - check,... snacks for the road - check,... full tank of gas - check,... all switches on - check, all was good. The Chevy was parked on the steep downhill at the hotel, and I do mean steep. Rick settles in, ready to go, pushes the start button..... click, ...nothing..., zero..., car doesn't start. I start thinking, maybe I'm still asleep, and am now just having a bad dream. Rick is thinking, we left something on, and drained the battery. We are on the long downhill, so a rolling start in obvious, except it won't start. We get to the bottom of the hill and still, ...nothing. Now we're at the bottom of the hill, with a sharp left hand turn that leads us through some flat lands toward the hotels main entrance. Looks like it's time for some morning exercise for the co-driver, and fortunately there were a couple of the hotels gardeners nearby who helped with the pushing, as the flat lands weren't exactly flat. And still, we have no start. Just before getting to the last bit of downhill, out the driveway and into traffic, we tried turning the main outside battery switch off and back on again, and we get a start. It turned out, that switch was bad and could have failed anytime that first day. We wound up bypassing it later on, and all was fine.
The Victoria wasn't too far from the Zocalo and as we got closer, the crowd got bigger, until the crowds and traffic became one big entity. The transit police finally got us to where we needed to be and we had enough time to get out and take a some pictures and say a few hellos.

It was time to get the show on the road and now we were moving toward the ceremonial starting arch and I'm thinking " WOW, this is it, this is what we worked almost two years getting ready for, and now it's time to go, go go!" As we became the next car to start, Eduardo Leon, the main man, gave us the 'ol keep the rubber side down speech, and a thumbs up, and we were on our way. The first stage was the same stage as qualifying, but longer, and the ride out of town was an exercise in waving and horn honking to the gathered locals.
Once there, as might be expected, at the first stage, on the first day, had it's confusion finding the time cards, starting order, the official time and various other ingredients you need as a co-pilot. But as with most things in Mexico, with a little patience, it works out. The big news of the morning was having one of the Mustangs in our class removed to the exhibition class for having aluminum heads. Surprisingly it's sister car was not DQ'ed, a better paint job on the heads, I would think.
So now starts the beginning of the speed sections, where the actual timing occurs, these being between two to about ten miles long each. The line of cars moves up until you get to the first control, where you had over your time card, wait, move to the next control, time card, wait, and next is the countdown and the green flag.

And....... we're off! To try and tell about every section or even the day, forget it, I can't hardly remember anything, and I didn't take that great a notes. I do remember a few choice moments though, that I'll drop in. We were on the road to Tehuacan, which would take us through Huitzo and Asuncion Nochixtlan, on to Telixtlanhuaca and through Cuicatlan to Teotitlan de Flores Magon, Zinacatepec and finally Tehuacan. Now if you've never heard of any of these places, that's understandable because they are on some way back roads north of Oaxaca. Absolutely gorgeous country. The first section had probably our most memorable moment of the day, as we caught and passed the Mustang that started in front of us. That only lasted for a few minutes as he repassed us at the finish of the section, but it's always fun to pass somebody.... and never fun to be passed.

At the service stop, we met up with Scott, had some lunch, filled the car with gas and on to another speed section. The day wound down to a last transit into Tehuacan of about 75k. Now I believe Tehuacan had never hosted the Carrera as an overnight stop, but the race has been through here a number of times. These guys were ready! As always, in the transit sections, there were people lining the road, waving and cheering us all on, and entering Tehuacan was no different, except maybe a little more enthusiastic. This wasn't the first time Rick or I had finished a race in Mexico, being in the Chihuahua Express, but the these folks were going nuts! I remember driving toward the Zocalo and the finishing arch, handing over our time cards and getting the first of seven daily finishing medals, put around our necks by beautiful Oaxican girls and then driving around to try and park. There was a stage with a band playing, dancing girls, a DJ, all at about 11 on the volume scale. The place was packed! As we crept along, autograph books, t-shirts, posters, scraps of paper, babies? were thrust through the window for us to sign. After finally getting parked and out of the car, we started handing our "El Platillo Volador" postcards, which were a big hit. These people wanted stuff , whether it was an autograph, a picture holding their baby or one next to the car, or a hello and a smile, it was great! These folks were into it! All the rest of the end of the day ceremonies were fun, but this was the best. As more cars pulled into park it got even more crowded and crazy. One of the Studebaker's decided to have a small engine fire just as it got to where we were parked, causing even more excitement. With that put out, Chip Johns and I scampered off and brought back some beers, and we all hung out for another couple of hours till having to go off and find our hotels. And just to mention, the Chevy ran terrific, what a great car.

And finally came dinner, the drivers meeting and days awards with fireworks, pretty girls, music, all good. Again, this one was better of these affairs because I hadn't yet realized how late they would go, and they didn't pass out the information we were waiting for until the very end, making us all a very captive audience. But when all was said and done, this was one of the

all-time great days for me to remember from the Carrera.

The first day was about 285 miles total, tomorrow is on to Puebla.

Today we are 28th overall, 7th in class.

This days blog is dedicated to Jerry Churchill, who we lost in 2008.

Next Time: Dia 2: Tehuacan - Puebla