DAY 2 to 7: just call me a pit tootsie

i got back from mexico sunday afternoon, looking like i’d been in the sun the past 5 days straight. Oh wait, I had been. I was down in mexico from wed to sunday for the 2008 baja 500 to help out at the party (and to party) and to chase our mexican plus two gringos team race through the desert of baja. it was a TON of fun and a wonderful way to spend my unemployment.

WEDNESDAY i drove down with Debbie down to the ranch. I got settled into my room and was greeted by a family of beetles right outside my room (3 of them dead); gotta love mexico. Pretty much just hung out the whole day, helped out with some posters, then spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool. I actually worked on my resume a bit, read a little, took a little nap. It was nice. Then I met up with the guys down at the shop to check out what

was goin on and I ended up helping out with putting the decals on the body of the car (I wasn’t there just to play, come on now. And

I know, that’s not a picture of me putting on decals, but someone had to take the picture)

THURSDAY was

the day of the party so i helped out with a lot of the setup that needed to be done in the morning. By the time lunch came around we were pretty much done with what we had to do before the party (hung sponsor banners, setup table

centerpieces, setup swag table) started so me and my crew (crystal, roger, and my new friend er
in) took some beers back out to the pool and continued to work on my tan. After a few hours of layin in the sun I had to man my post, giving out t-shirts and posters. I got yelled at by Debbie who caught me with a beer while I was working, but she knows I love her, and knows that I didn’t intentionally not listen to her. Someone GAVE the beers to me =) oh yeah, party was alright, nothing too exciting

FRIDAY was contingency (a chaotic line up cars waiting to get tech inspected by SCORE officials in downtown ensenada) we brought the car down, hung out with the car, and made sure it had all the right stamps of approval before it went through tech. I had to pee, and was really upset when I found some porta-potties that made you pay. The upsetting part wasn’t that I had to pay, but that they actually charged more for chicks than guys to pee. (50 more cents bought me some tp and a toilet seat cover. What chick actually sits on those things??). after contingency, we went to grab lunch at the most AMAZING fish taco place that you will find anywhere. It was called la chispa fish (note: not la chispa pescado). Angelita was the little angel from heaven who served the best tacos de pescadito y camaron. omg they were good. If youre ever in Ensenada you have to stop there. Imagine a short mexican lady, that looks Chinese (only looks, she isn’t, I asked) smiling and serving fish and shrimptacos fresh out of the fryer. Oh yeah, and she’s the biggest robby gordon fan in mexico to top it off.

SATURDAY was race day! I actually busted out my computer out while driving down to our pit, and got a lot of shit for being a dork that not only

has a blog, but that I was actually blogging in our truck. Whatever. Here’s what I wrote: “ So currently I'm sitting in a truck driving down Hwy 3 down to KM 102 – Nuevo Junction, with the

driver of the second leg of the race, jose veloz arzate and tom and jeff, my two co-chase trucke
rs (chase 33, right jeff?) There we are going todrop off Senor Jose, refuel t

h

e race car and do whatever else needs to be done to it (well, Tom and Jeff will, I have the very important job of changing out the tape for the in car camera; see picture on left) after that, nick and matt gonna get out of the race car, we'll chase for a couple more hundred miles then head back to Ensenada to wait for the car to finish tonight." That was written in the morning and that’s pretty much what we did. Lots of excitement, lots of sitting around in the middle of the desert and lots of fun.

The car finished in 7^th in Class 1 around 11:15 PM, which was pretty good considering their competition. (I’d go into the specifics of the car, but quite honestly know nothing about them). We celebrated by drinking more beers and just hanging out with our Mexicans. The last picture of the night, is us eating tacos on the floor of one the ranch rooms by candlelight, cuz the generator was off by the time we got back at 2:14 AM. It was romantic, especially for the boys.

SUNDAY was just spent getting our stuff together and driving back to “el otro lado” (what the Mexicans call the US; found this o ut while I was down there). of course before we headed up we HAD to visit Angelita and have a few more heavenly fish tacos at la chispa fish, accompanied by one of the best and peppery-est (I know, not a word) bloody mary’s you’ll find in Ensenada. they were great and was a fantas tic way to finish off my 2008 baja 500 experience