Dia 5: Morelia - Aguascalientes

Today was another early start and it was back to Mil Cumbres to drive it in the reverse direction. The day started with some foggy overcast and Rick requesting not to be told how many sections or how far we had to go. By the time we arrived at the hill both the sun and Rick had started to come around.
Again, the velocity sections here were cut short like the previous day, because of gravel and trees on the road. The day before had been disappointing at our first attempt on Mil Cumbres because of all the buzz about its dangers, which in fact is true, but we were just too cautious. There's nothing wrong with being careful, but

today called for... a little more oomph... some real gusto and worry later if the life insurance policy was paid up. And what we ended up with was a much more satisfying run, not a worlds record, but much better than the the day before and preferable to the lead Mustang in our class which formed a very close relationship with a tree, and put them out of commission for the day. In watching some of our in-car video, what was really tough about the drive today on Mil Cumbres was with the early morning light coming through the trees and driving into sun with the shadows across the road, it's dark into bright and with so many turns, it becomes intensely challenging.

Two more speed sections took us out of the pine forests and the state of Michoacan, past a large lake, to a transit of almost 150 miles toward Leon. After a lunch stop, the hills north of Leon held the last speed sections, before the long, flat, and fast drive into Aguascalientes. Another demanding day of about 300 miles.

The finishing arch was at a park on the far side of town that had a large covered area in the back, where a number of the cars put in for the night and did repairs, including us. Today the Terra Trip's probe went on the blink, which was OK, we never did get the darned thing dialed in anyway. As was always the case, there were pretty young women everywhere, serving up free cold beer, doing advertising for companies, and tonight, draping themselves all over a Porsche for a photo shoot.

The night moved from outside to inside as the dinner and drivers meeting were also held here. As usual it would go long, but tomorrow we have a treat, a late start at noon.

The picture of our three colleagues at our table has some meaning, Steve Walters looks like I felt...beat! The other two, Mike Anderson and Steve Warwick will take on meaning in the next challenge, La Bufa.

Today we are 21st, 5th in class.


Next Time: Dia 6 - Aguascalientes - Zacatecas

Please see - www.blogspot2009.blogspot.com

Dia 4: Queretaro - Morelia

My notes get shorter and say less as the days go on, but today one sentence stands out, "this has all become a blur". Today we drove Mil Cumbres, which roughly means "a thousand peaks" and what feels like a thousand turns. Mil Cumbres is one of the most famous segments of the Carrera, this is arguably the most dangerous part of the entire race, thats had numerable crashes and a few deaths.

The day was one of short speed sections and long, seemingly uphill transits. Once at the top of the mountain, the start of this section was delayed, which gave everyone a chance to look at

fantastic scenery and brought a
rush on the timing officials by anxious navigators waving time cards. For me, and I think Rick, this was our moment of highest anxiety, waiting for this start, because of all we had heard and read regarding Mil Cumbres. The word on the delay was that the section had been cut short because of loose gravel from repaving and fallen trees on the road because of logging. It turned out that the section was shortened by about 9k because of this. It would have been better for us if the entire portion

had been cut, as we flat out did poorly. Our philosophy for the race was, 1: to finish and 2; as they say when you rent a car in Mexico "no dents". This thinking led us to run a very, very conservative section, so much so that we were passed by, dare I say it... a Ford. Uggggch!

The stories of Mil Cumbres seem always to have living and/or deceased animals on the road, our version included a dead horse, a few alert cows who watched us go by and tree trunk or two. And there's always a few

rocks, whether placed there by enthusiastic locals or Mother Nature, it makes for interesting driving.
After our drive into beautiful Moreila, our evening was filled with changing all the fluids in the Chevelle, which is running excellent, and attending another late drivers meeting. Our thoughts for tomorrow focus on doing a better job driving Mil Cumbres again.
Today we are 36th overall, 6th in class.

Next Time: Dia 5 - Morelia - Aguascalientes

Please see - http://lcp2009.blogspot.com