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Another great race! I drove down from San Diego on Thursday morning to Calexico to meet up with Tony, Chris and Vic. Tony and Chris came down from Riverside to meet up with Vic and the Norman team. Vic met up with the Norman team in Alpine and helped ready the chase trucks and the race truck. We all converged on and met in Calexico, regrouped and headed down into Mexico. The Norman team had a prearranged escort from the border all the way down into San Felipe; flashing lights out front in lead and in trail as the caboose. It was a nice tight convoy all the way down. Not much traffic and we made pretty good time.
We got into Calexico and stopped at “The General” for some quick tacos as motored right through Calexico and Mexicali to avoid losing too much time so we wouldn’t get down to SF too late. After some quick chow, everyone split up and headed to their hotels to get settled.
It was actually pretty quiet down on the Malécon Thursday night. Jules and I had a couple of margaritas… hmmm, good!

BajaBuck made it down late Thursday night and we met up at Autofab John’s place.

Friday morning we made it back down to the Malécon to catch a little contingency and tech. We were down there for a few hours and saw quite a few folks… we caught up with Tony, Chris and Vic as they escorted the Norman TT through tech. They apparently had a few handling problems with the truck and stayed up fairly late working on the rear end trying to work out handling problems. They still had some work to accomplish after tech.

We looked for Paul W down by tech, but alas, I never saw the Denver Bronco’s hat all morning… hopefully, next time. Buck also saw Kris H. blasting through town, be we never met up with him.

Jules (mi esposa), Buck, Cody (Buck’s son) and John loaded up into the BajaF250 and Buck’s Bronco and headed out to the prearranged meeting point at Morelia Junction at 1300. When we got there we met up with Gunit and his Bronco! From there we blasted around the West side of the course for a few hours… had an absolute blast! After Gunit split off, we headed back into town, but just shy of Morelia, the BajaF250 just flat quit running… had to get a tow into town.

I spent ½-the night tearing into the truck to find the problem. I wasn’t getting fuel to the rail and it was electrical. Both (front and rear) tanks were inop. I finally traced the problem to the fuel tank selector switch on the dash. Apparently, the rear pump (yup, the new one I just installed) was drawing so much current, that it melted the switch and it lost contact on both the front and the rear tanks. So, I just hotwired the front tank and ran on that the rest of the weekend.

We headed out to the track the very next morning and staked out a place at RM175 point for some very relaxing race spectating… as it turned out, Tony, Chris and Vic ended up down there with us as they waited for the Norman TT to come through. The Norman TT had a few problems and the next thing we know, Tony and Chris headed out to try and rescue the TT with front hub problems. They apparently had quite a difficult time getting to the race truck. I’ll let Tony fill in from there. I also met up with some friends on the Vildosola team… We helped a little with the Vildolola pit stop… a quick in and out… we then just relaxed and watched the race go by… perfect afternoon!

We had a fantastic trip, the weather was perfect, wish we ran into more of the GFB guys!

Just a few tech and contingency pics

The Norman team at RM175... recognize any of them?

Gratuitous shot of the BajaF250 course side! (Just had to get a shot in!)

Looks like a great time!!! I wish I could have made it down there but wasn't in the cards this time.

Back at at the ranch after a super weekend. Fantastic weather, great friends, good food and fast wheeling. What else could a guy ask for? I did come back with my usual list of stuff to repair and or upgrade but no flats. The Bronc developed a fairly serious thunk in the rear end. Gonna have to get that sorted out before the next trip. Overall the rig ran very well and I had the best trip in it yet thanks to Tom getting my rear suspension in working order. Thanks to Gunit for a great little run along the course access routes also. That section of small dunes was an absolute blast! I could have played out there launching off those little rollers all day. Let's do it again soon.

Great write up Tom. It was nice seeing you and John.

While chalk up another great Baja trip. This time was a little different then my last Baja run as Tony, Vic and I were on board with the Roger Norman Motorsports crew and we had an absolute blast. Great bunch of guys and really let us jump in and help on the Trophy Truck. Here are some of my pics from this San Felipe 250:

We crossed into Mexico and headed down with a police escort with a caravan of 8 vehicles:



Spots for a quick break so I took a few pics of the number 8 TT:









Arrived in San Felo:



Time to get to work on the TT:

Jesse James was staying at the same hotel we were and as we were hanging out in front of the hotel Jesse in his prerunner was towed in. Jesse's guy came over and asked if we could help tow the prerunner onto the trailer so I jumped in Tony's ride and helped pull the truck up on the trailer:

Oh yeah, not too bad of a view at the SF Marina Hotel:



On race day we headed north with Chase 1, we were Chase 7. Chase 1 was going to position themselves at rm 45 and we were at rm 40 to help out if needed:



Nick Artsy Fartsy pic:



Early on the TT had issues, flat tire within the first two miles. Had that tire fixed and as we were monitoring the race radio we heard that the front shocks were having issues. We didn't have shocks in Chase 1 or Chase 7 so the TT kept going past both pits as our command center lined up the spare shocks from the other chase trucks to connect with the TT. After the truck passed us we headed South on the No. 5 highway past San Felo to rm 178. Chase 1 and us in Chase 7 hung out waiting for our truck to arrive for fresh tires or anything they may need. We ran into Tom and hung out for a while until we heard that the TT had a blown rear hub.

Our command center asked for us to send one of the Broncos down to race mile 160 to assist Chase 5 with getting into a remote section of the course. Tony and I jumped in his Bronco and hauled the mail all the way down to race mile 165 were the side tracks off the course seem to disappear. At that point we heard the TT had stopped and the rear axle was getting some attention.

We headed to race mile 165 and waited with at the Baja Fools pit. As it was getting darker we started to set up the light bar:

At this point the truck got to Baja Fools pit, had the light bar mounted and we checked the rest of the truck and all was good. It hauled out of our pit and headed North to the finish line. We jumped in our rigs and headed North on the No. 5 highway to an access road to hit race mile 244. As we waited for the TT to show up. We hit the side chase rack light and cheered on our truck as it screamed by and blasted the police siren. What an awesome view to see it humming as it did.

Roger headed north and finished the race all of the time radioing into the team to have everyone meet down at a restaurant 30 minutes South of our hotel. We all headed down to the hotel to clean up and then restuarant. As we arrived we noticed the TT was already there, Roger and his co-dog were still in their race suits hanging out having drinks and enjoying an awesome time in Baja. We had at least a good 50 people there and everyone just swapped stories, throw back some beers and had some great food. Roger Norman and the crew is a class act. I was so happy we could be a part of it for this race.

Sunday morning we decided to leave as early as possible to beat the border traffic and here are some pics I was able to take along the way:















The Householder Blazer, bummed to see it looks a little more beat up now then it did when I saw it on RDC:





Nice!:









Another successful Baja trip. I haven't been back in Cali for more then 24 hours and I'm already thinking of the Baja 500 in June. Until then.

Chris

Great write ups fellas!! Awesome to hear you had such a good time. Too bad Norman had so many issues. Love the pictures!

BajaF250 wrote: I spent ½-the night tearing into the truck to find the problem. I wasn’t getting fuel to the rail and it was electrical. Both (front and rear) tanks were inop. I finally traced the problem to the fuel tank selector switch on the dash. Apparently, the rear pump (yup, the new one I just installed) was drawing so much current, that it melted the switch and it lost contact on both the front and the rear tanks. So, I just hotwired the front tank and ran on that the rest of the weekend.

Sounds like it might be a good place to use relays to operate the pumps, rather than running the current through the dash switch. Good seeing you on Wednesday, wish I could have made it down there as well, but just could not swing it this year. I finished up at Pt Loma on Thursday, but didn't get back to Sacto until Saturday due to some WX issues.

Damn - sounds like I missed a good one... Baja 500 is just around the corner though!

300 wrote:

BajaF250 wrote: I spent ½-the night tearing into the truck to find the problem. I wasn’t getting fuel to the rail and it was electrical. Both (front and rear) tanks were inop. I finally traced the problem to the fuel tank selector switch on the dash. Apparently, the rear pump (yup, the new one I just installed) was drawing so much current, that it melted the switch and it lost contact on both the front and the rear tanks. So, I just hotwired the front tank and ran on that the rest of the weekend.

Sounds like it might be a good place to use relays to operate the pumps, rather than running the current through the dash switch.

That's what I was thinking. I imagine the melting was caused by the failing pump and not the new one. I would wire it with a relay and replace the relay every time you replace the pump. Use GOOD Bosch brand relays.

Thanks for the reports, guys. Looks like it was a great time!

SteveG wrote:

300 wrote:

BajaF250 wrote: I spent ½-the night tearing into the truck to find the problem. I wasn’t getting fuel to the rail and it was electrical. Both (front and rear) tanks were inop. I finally traced the problem to the fuel tank selector switch on the dash. Apparently, the rear pump (yup, the new one I just installed) was drawing so much current, that it melted the switch and it lost contact on both the front and the rear tanks. So, I just hotwired the front tank and ran on that the rest of the weekend.

Sounds like it might be a good place to use relays to operate the pumps, rather than running the current through the dash switch.

That's what I was thinking. I imagine the melting was caused by the failing pump and not the new one. I would wire it with a relay and replace the relay every time you replace the pump. Use GOOD Bosch brand relays.

Thanks for the reports, guys. Looks like it was a great time!

This was my initial assessment and plan, but when I jumped the pump, when operating on the rear tank, the jump wire got so hot I couldn't touch it... and when operating on the front pump, it was cool and fine... so, somethings causing a high current draw from my rear setup and I need to track it down before I start rewiring anything. I defininately have a problem with the rear.

Thanks for the writeups and pics. Thank god for the weatherman feed, since couldn't be there.

I saw the twin black broncos out in front of the Jolly Mon/Market store raceday morning. I was going to walk over and say hi but you guys had taken off before I got through the line and back outside.

The trucks look great in person!

Chris did a great job recapping, and picture taking. Here is my two cents to add, and pics will follow later this week.

Drove down Thursday, and had a great trip down, just as we are about to cross to mexicali, when we stop for a last fuel and pee stop, the bronco (princess) will not start. She was running perfectly.... after about a 15 minute assessment (thanks to Tom and Chris) we realize the starter isnt getting juice. The starter cable had come loose. Fixed it and we were on our way. We cross the border, and I get pulled over, speeding (50 kph in a 35 kph), $40 bucks later, and we are rolling and caught back up with the caravan.

Thursday was all work, hussled on the TT, learning how to pull apart the rear end, did a 3rd member change, driveshaft change, and SEVERAL pinion angle adjustments to get rid of a vibe at approx 95-105mph (Amazing to see that thing on the road doing 120, scared the bejesus out of me!!)

Friday, quick run through contingency, and then back to hussle on the TT, last minute fine tuning, tire pressure adjustments, more pinion angle adjustments (at this time, Vic, Chris and I had graduated from bolt cleaners, to actually holding wrenches hahaha). I will tell you this, it is not all glory and fame, a ton of hussling to get the truck where it needs to be.

Saturday, was all good, as Chris mentioned we set up pit, had a blast following around with Chase 1.

Race truck had one shock go early, around RM35, and then by RM55 the second was going south. New shocks were at RM95 so they kept pushing (mind you at a good clip) to get to there new shocks.

We then got on our way in to RM178, we had a power line road about 4 miles deep with nothing but 2-3 feet rollers, and so Vic and I were off. Probably some of the best running we have done, Chris was co-dawging for me and calling all the cars, the holes, and the lines. Also keeping a close eye on temps for me, was a FREAKIN blast, we arrived at the conclusion that at 45-50MPH, we were in a sweet spot on those rollers.When we stopped, Vic had such a big smile, I could not have wiped it off with a dirty diaper! It was great, he was happy with Jelly!

We hung at RM178 for a while when we got the call that they lost an entire hub at RM160, after about 30 minutes, it was decided it would be a good idea to have one of the 4wd Pre-Runners accessible with, so that meant a Bronco!! YEAH!!! Chris and I started blazing new trail, on and off a access road running off the course about 100 yds (some portions, we were having to cut new trail. We got to RM165, and they asked we hold ground..... a few minutes after we stop, I hear psssssssssss (yup, a flat). We changed it, NASCAR style (ok, maybe not that fast) and were back on our way. Did the pit for the TT, threw on a light bar (OK, Chris actually Did that) and then back up to RM245 to wave them by! Roger and Lance were in good spirits, even though they were coming in 17th in TT, we decided we should show them our Moobies, so we did... they laughed!!

Then, a few beers and tacos at Percebu! All in all, EPIC trip. Sunday morning high tailed it back home and was in LA by 1pm.

EPIC EPIC EPIC!!!!!

Forgot to add, small header leak.

So here was my damage:
1) Starter cable came loose $0
2) Speeding ticket in Mexico $40
3) Flat Tire (possible $0, most like $200 (twig in the sidewall possibly)
4) Leaky Header $$$ Dont know yet
5) Squeeky and dirty bronco ($40 wash)

4 days in Baja.............PRICELESS!

tcm glx wrote:Forgot to add, small header leak.

So here was my damage:
1) Starter cable came loose $0
2) Speeding ticket in Mexico $40
3) Flat Tire (possible $0, most like $200 (twig in the sidewall possibly)
4) Leaky Header $$$ Dont know yet
5) Squeeky and dirty bronco ($40 wash)

4 days in Baja.............PRICELESS!

HAHAHA....somehow when you heard pssssss I bet my Bajas don't seem too bad.

Glad to hear you had such a great time and they sound like a great team.