Rallye Maroc Historique 2014

Well here's a great vintage rally event over in Morocco.  Running for a number of years this event draws big numbers of competitors.  This year saw some 90 entrants running a cool mix of vehicles from vintage Porsche 911s to Ford Escort RS Mk2s to a Nissan 240.

The event lasted for almost a full week covering 25 special stages and some 450 racing kilometers.  In the end it was Jean-Francois Berenguer taking the win in his Escort RS Mk2 and a the aforementioned Nissan 240 RS (the only Nissan/Datsun in the event) taking third and driven by Gregoire de Mevius.

The event web page can be found in French and English here:  http://www.rallyedumaroc-historique.com/

Throwback Thursday with Roger Mears...

This is the short course Pathfinder built by SPD products for Roger Mears and Sherman Balch racing and who were heavily involved in a number of Nissan racing projects over the years.  Not sure why they went with an SUV for this vehicle as a short course race would seem to suit a pickup much better...but what do I know!?!?!
SPD Prodcuts...

NORRA Mexican 1000--Part 1

 Boy oh boy...as you might have noticed I didn't post much while I was away for this event and even once back it has taken me 4 or 5 days to catch up on everything at home to feel like I could dedicate any time to writing about it.  I'll divide the tale up into three parts.  Getting to the race, the race itself and getting home.

In truth each part was more challenging than I ever anticipated.  The whole adventure taught me more than I thought I could learn and humbled me like few things ever have.

Part One:  We (in this case myself, Tim Meunier and Matthew Stryker) left my home in Windham, NH on a late Monday afternoon.  Towing the Nissan Frontier behind a 270,000 mile, 1999 Ford E350 van was perhaps one of my first errors in judgement.  While I had provided brand new tires all around for the van and two new tires for the two axle trailer, I neglected to consider the fact that the van or trailer itself might not be in the best of operating conditions having assumed that as they were used to transport a separate team's racing efforts they would be fully examined and prepared.

Early miles fly by and we are determined to make great headway and arrive in San Diego early.  Unfortunately early in the afternoon on Tuesday the van develops an awful popping noise from the engine.  Pulling over we discover that the 10th cylinder of the engine has a chronically dislodged spark plug that due to its aluminum heads and 4 threads worth of seating grip is impossible to install without a complete job on the heads and/or helicoil work.  So we stuff the 10th plug in the best we can, eliminate the noise resign ourselves to operating on only nine cylinders and carry on, inhaling the gaseous fumes that go unburned and continue to pass by the 10th cylinder every time one would step on the gas. 

Having driven straight through the first night and on into Tuesday afternoon we reached St. Louis in the early evening.  I make a wrong turn in directing the van and exit the highway almost right at the St. Louis baseball stadium.  No big deal we think as we can just turn around and be back on our way again--except when I attempt to slow the van at the first light we encounter my foot goes straight to the floor.  No brakes.  We pull into a McDonald's parking lot and discover that the rear brake lines are shot...rusted through and spilling their guts on the ground.  No stopgap repair would suffice with so much mileage to go so we bed down in St. Louis for the night hoping for a swift brakeline replacement in the AM.

Come morning at a St. Louis auto repair facility (we turned down the offer of our hotel desk clerk to have her brother in law come over and fix the brake line in the hotel parking lot!) we are told that the entire brake line system lines from front to rear had to be replaced as it was rusted through in a number of spots with smaller, piecemeal repairs not feasible.  So off we wander around downtown St. Louis, a quiet and attractive downtown area, taking a tour of the famous Gateway Arch.  Upon return to the garage we are told that yes, the brake lines are replaced but in doing so they have discovered that the brake master cylinder and its seals are completely shot as well and needs to be replaced.  No having or not having confidence in your brakes is simply not an option for a trip of this magnitude and so we have that replaced as well.

By 5 PM we are finally on our way again and proceed to rip off another 24+ hour driving shift.  This time we reach Yuma, Arizona (now Thursday) and bed down on the border knowing that we only have a few hours left the next day to reach San Diego where we plan to pick up our other two drivers.

We drive on to Lemon Grove, CA in the morning where we pick up at the local post office a new alternator and our IRC satellite tracking unit, both of which had been sent General Delivery to this location.  We also stopped by Offroad Warehouse which was practically next door in order to grab some more suitable gas cans.  While we pick these quick fill jugs we meet Jeremy Johnson of Weldtec Designs who has some welcome but critical words for our effort.  A former Class 1 pilot and top notch fabricator Jeremy sees our unsupported suspension crossmembers and lack of front limit straps as being particularly concerning for as long and as rough a race we are about to endure.  Quickly I decide that I need to do everything I can to stay in the race as long as we can and enlist Jeremy and his shop to install some limit straps for the front and create some additional bracing.  His quick work is excellent in form and function and we are out the door in time to grab Paul Hartl from the San Diego airport.  Our fourth driver will not show up until after midnight (this is now Friday afternoon) as he missed his initial flight from Chicago due to multiple flats on his way to the airport.

We install the new alternator in the race truck (original alternator was diagnosed as going bad the day we loaded the truck on the trailer to leave) in the parking lot of our hotel, grab some food, hit up Home Depot and Wal Mart for some last minute supplies (water, air mattress, loctite, etc.), send Matt to pick up Elliott Sherwood while we slept and prepared for our entry into Mexico the next day.

Leaving Matt in California to wander around on his motorcycle while we are away the four of us (myself, Tim Meunier, Paul Hartl and Elliott Sherwood).  Entering Mexico was a breeze.  A quick glance at our passports, a quick look at our registrations for van and trailer and we are in.  Tijuana is a shanty-town and truly worthy of third world status.  Luckily we fly through there in short order and are heading toward Ensenada that Saturday morning.  We arrive at contingency/tech in the late morning and queue up in line while checking into our hotel which was quite nice, as nice as almost any hotel I've stayed at here in the States.  We have lots to do--installing satellite tracker, grabbing cash, fueling vehicles, obtaining GPS files (some of which tasks are easier than others)--which keeps us from attending the opening night party (we already missed the pre-event party at the Horsepower Ranch but not arriving in Mexico until Saturday vs. the Friday arrival we had planned on, due to Elliott's late flight in) and we are working well into the dark to feel ready for the first day of racing.  Our spirits are upbeat however as afterall....we're in Mexico about to begin a 1000 mile race!!

8000+ Miles to Glory...

That's how far we'll be driving over the next two weeks on our way to and from Cabo San Lucas in Baja, Mexico, starting from here in NH. 

Some 3000 miles of this will be done over the next few days as we transport the NISMO Stuff Racing Nissan Frontier sponsored by Body Armor Outlet and Gamer Soda to San Diego/Ensenada, Mexico where the race is to begin.  Then we will race some 1000 miles due South along the Baja Penninsula for the following four days and then return home.  The team and I will attempt to update this page and our personal FB and Twitter and Instagram accounts as we go along.  To find each of us on Facebook you can look for: Dan Spalinger, Elliott Sherwood and Paul Hartl and you can look me up on Twitter by the link on this page or under "NISMO Stuff" and on Instagram under "spalind"

For those of you who wish to see where we are exactly on our route, you can use this link to see where we are based upon my last Glympse update which tracks my  
phone: http://glympse.com/09F6-JQ2G
Once the race begins this coming Sunday 5/11 you will be able to track the race vehicle at this website which tracks us by a satellite transponder.  The event on the site is the NORRA Mexican 1000 and the links to tracking will not be "live" until about the beginning of the race so check back then for the "live" links:  http://www.racetheworld.net/ircstore/

Right now there are over 162 entries in the event with a number of full Dakar-spec vehicles and world class competitors included so we have no pretensions about winning anything, this is purely for the enjoyment of the adventure.  We hope you follow along and throw back a few tequilas and Tecates in common spirit while we are away.

Thanks to my wonderful wife Wendy who has supported me through this silly idea, my kids who I keep fresh in my mind every day and all those who have assisted and supported me over the years while I play little boy games with big boy toys.

The full NORRA Mexican 1000 website is linked below and contains info on the exact schedule, maps of the course, competitor listings and more.  When I find out where the daily scoring and results updates will be posted I will post that link directly here as well.

Vaya con dias!!

NORRA Mexican 1000 webpage...

Body Armor Outlet---Embroidery Services

In their ever expanding line of products and services, Body Armor Outlet in Salem, NH now offers a full set of embroidery services.  From hemming pants to sewing patches BAO's desicated embroidery employees can handle all your needs.

For me that meant sewing a BAO patch on my racesuit.  Something simple but not an item I could do and have come out looking good with a needle and thread by hand.  If you have embriodery needs...check them out!

Throwback Thursday: CORR Bully Dog Nissan Titan

Hopefully this can be a new trend for the site going forward, ripping off 10,000 other "throwback Thursday" items.  Here we'll try to highlight a single old school Nissan/Datsun, particularly a motorsport/dirt related vehicle.

Here we have the old BullyDog/CORR Nissan Titan.  Nissan was a title sponsor of the CORR events for a handful of years, also sponsoring Carl Renezeder and the pace truck as well in conjunction with aftermarket ECU tuner BullyDog.  The last I knew, Mike DeFord of BullyDog was still in possession of this vehicle and may have tried to sell it at one point.  The suspension setup has a number of PRG components including rear leafs and Sway-Away shocks and bumpstops.