New race, new card off to the printer.

Mugshots.

Willy and Al are prepping the car for this year in the shop. New distributor, Richard's hand-grooved sticky tires, new seats and harnesses, all kinds of stuff. We still need to wash the Mexico off of it.

Richard bought these stickies and hand-grooved his own groove patterns so we can get bite in the gravel sections.

This should do the job.

Vitek at AXWare (http://www.axwaresystems.com/) is cutting us some new vinyl graphics for the race. This piece is going on the roof, white on red.

Willy is going over everything

Our airbox cracked from vibration in Mexico. Richard's friends at RedDot Corp. are fabbing us up a new one for Monday.

Al wants to know where the new seats are. Check out his Chevelle drag car off to the side.

John Parker at VPD supplied us with a new solid-state 123 distributor. Installed and fired, everything looks good. Check out those OEM volvo mudflaps.

Everything we need is ordered and in the mail.

These need to be replaced every 2 years to pass tech. New seatbelts and an over-engineered rollcage are mandatory for sliding the car through dirt past turns with nicknames like "Bottomless Pit" and "Ragged Edge"

Willy fine tunes the the webers. We've got a healthy collection of jets and a wideband AFR gauge to guide us but the race is a 5000' climb and carbs don't adjust to air density changes. We'll be running lean at the bottom and rich near the top of the mountain, we just have to find the sweet spot and deal with it.

Starting to look like a new car.

Richard's design. Gray and orange nomex.

24"x72" laminated course map. Thanks to Guido H. for the stitched together digital image file used to make this map. All turns are labeled and some of the terrain is enhanced. We'll use this as a visual aid between practice sections.

A rally navigator uses pace notes to call out turns to the driver to warn them of what's next on course. I built the final notes in Indesign by combining several sources and converting them into the notation format Richard prefers. We'll hone these during practice.

Tajima's monster looking to beat 10 min record

Green light.

Sonia worked all morning to get these on the truck. Top of the car looks good too.

Lots of texans in this race

All drivers meetings and tech are done. Will post practice results tomorrow when we get time.

We practiced at the top of the mountain yesterday. Glassy dirt and thousand foot drop offs were pretty hairy as we worked to sort out the mixtures. Finding Internet connections is very difficult so expect sporadic updates.

These guys are fast and loose. Really exciting to see them run.

Black smoke from the racing semi behind Richard. We ran well on the bottom section. Were pretty far back in the class but happy with our performance. We could sure use an extra 300 cubic inches.

#290 3:37 for this section. We're doin alright.

Willy took some time to help these guys with fueling on their car as they break it in

One of our competitors in vintage. Sorry for the sparse updates- I've been limited to getting updates out via phone for the most part and even phone connectivity is spotty near the mountain. It makes it hard to tell a story,

This guy caught us and passed us yesterday right before th tollbooths at Glen cove. All we heard was turbo whine and he was around us like we were standing still. Here is vid from his crew - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF1ZtTlgLq4 - pass is at the end. This guy is so bloody fast...

Practiced today on the middle section of the course. Lots of switchbacks over a brief distance. We put in one solid practice run and decided to save the car after that and watched the big dogs head up the first leg of the mountain. If weather holds up this will definitely be a record breaking year.

This is one of the premier cars here. The Millen family has a long history at the peak and Rhys is here this year with a purpose built car to break the 10 minute barrier.

This guy is is a monster. Neat to meet these people in person.

This car is a force of nature.

One of the top cars dicing on the hill

The media attention given the top cars is exciting. The top drivers are consumed by press and photo ops.

These guys are dominant in La Carrera Panamericana and they are pushing for a big win on the mountain Sunday in their "Mocket Rocket" Olds (available as a hothweels car)

Several thousand foot drop off of the road side. The natural beauty here is incredible.

One of the great vantage points to watch cars come up the mountain.

LS7 and weighs next to nothing

Ashley and Andy stopped through during practice days to watch some pikes peak runs. They run a clean 122 in targa tasmania. Great to talk with them. Learn more at govolvogo.com

3rd practice is over. We aren't last with a 3:37 but we are further from the leaderboard than Apple Farmer Racing is used to. We're having a hell of the good time.

Getting ready to run

9:50 am

We were shooting for 15:00. The Apple Farmer is somewhat disappointed but we acknowledge that we brought a knife to a gunfight. We'll be back next year with an optimized car (sharper knife) and maybe leading a new vintage 4 cylinder class. Tons of video and hi res photos to come. Thanks for following!

The following pics were items I couldn't find the bandwidth to upload.

She's definitely the Rookie of the year.

Bailey wanted to ride in a pickup truck bed so he could see the course better. We flagged down these guys and they gave him a ride. Several thousand people camp on the mountain the night before the race. These folks had 2 kegs of beer in the bed of the truck to get them through the race. Party on.

Sonia helped us all week with general organization and everything from food procurement to vinyl installation. She made herself a useful crew member.

Coolest yeti

The crew splits off and heads up to camp out while Richard and I head for the pit area.

These guys kick ass - super nice people with an all pro racing program. They did a great job representing Honda.

What a race. Making it to the top is something awesome. Richard and Tom soak it in.

The climb was hard on cooling systems. This was contained and cleaned up immediately.

We were on top of the mountain for 5 hours. During that time the temp swung 40 degrees, it rained, snowed, sleeted and the sun shone. It's a beast.

This was a great team of young, smart guys from Austin who took first place. Hell yes.

Dave C's evo brings it home. Andrew Hawkeswood didn't make it to the top.

Interviews and coverage from the finish line. The driver of the electric racer is being interviewed - he just broke his own record.

He had a rough start in practice - we were all glad to see him and his wife/navigator make it to the top.

Angelica Fuentes has a 27 year pro motorsports career. She is hired by drivers all over the world. It was really great to compete and talk with her.

All hand written, developed over several years.

Thanks to my employer for helping to drum up some support for the race. We also got some press support from Daniel Johnston at Volvo Cars NA.

I set up with a camera for an hour or so and snapped some good action pics

The helicopter was awesome. They would appear suddenly over the ridges, looked like obligatory helicopter shots from 1980's action tv shows.

His >11 min run was a far from the 10 minute mark. I heard they were having a lot of trouble with tires and traction. I'm sure we'll see them back next year with these issues solved.

Lots of emotion as people crossed the finish line

This guy is cool-as-shit and he sums up what is so great about the grassroots racer ethic. He once again won the vintage class (unmodified) in his Falcon this year. Keith and the rest of RMVR are the definition of class - we all really appreciate the hard work they do to make this race happen for us.

Bryan brought this amazing replica datsun rally car and laid down incredible times. Thanks to him and his team for helping us with jetting issues.

Tajima got a 10:11. This was supposed to be the year the record was shattered. Everything was perfect for the run, it just didn't happen. When he walked by the rest of the drivers in the cafeteria everyone started spontaneously clapping for him. He won overall and still holds the record. Next year is the year.

We all start up engines and run downhill. Fans line the course and we get a thousand hi-fives on our way down. Everybody loves the car and we hand out cards to the kids. The best was shaking hands with Al, Willy and Sonia and all of our friends who came to watch. This was a great way to close out months of hard work and made everything worthwhile. See you next year.