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Showing posts from October, 2011

2011 La Carrera Panamericana: The Big Finish

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Blogging from my dad's office in Zacatecas.  It was a banner year.  El Jefe and Team TBZ finished 3rd overall in class Turismo Producion!  The Greenwoods brothers finished 19th overall!  Congratulations to everyone! El Jefe's triumphant arrival in Zacatecas! The Gypsy Wind at the finish arch! Geezer, Uriel y Eloisa celebrate. Uriel got to ride in El Jefe through the arch and got his own medal! Greenwood Bros capture 19th overall!  Ben & John Greenwood.  My brother had to leave the race a day early so he is missing from the team photos above but he contributed greatly to the success of the team.  Sadly his mother-in-law passed away after a long battle with cancer while we were racing.  Rest in Peace, Marlene . Marlene J. (Cihla) Voracek, RIP   Geezer and Stewie on the podium in Morelia. The Stewarts: Vance Jr. Kristin Sr. and Vance III.

2011 La Carrera Panamericana: Day 6 Begins

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We are in Guanajuato and preparing to begin the 6th day.  As usual we have very few official results .  The red squares denote results for that section; you can see there are many blanks.    

2011 La Carrera Panamericana: Day 5 - Mil Cumbres and Into Guanajuato

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Today a Mini Cooper rolled and though we didn't hear details, the guys were okay and we saw the car in the parking lot and it is pretty munched.  Good luck on Day 5. I say good luck because the guys were okay. Any day this happens and you are okay is a great day. We swept the course today and enjoyed a very relaxing (believe it or not!) morning sitting on the mountainside of Mil Cumbres waiting for the race cars to pass by. It is such a beautiful place, neither words nor photos can do it justice. It was fun to see the Gypsy Wind and El Jefe roar by on the speed stage, as well as all of the others, some going so fast, and some struggling. Later when we swept the course we saw Michel Jordain who had gone off the road, as well as Eric Werner's Studebaker, and a few other cars. Luckily Eric was able to quickly get back on the road, but Jordain looked to be out for the day. Michel Jordain off the road in Mil Cumbres on Day 5. Eric Werner (copilot) Studebaker of

2011 La Carrera Panamericana: Day 4 - A Rough Day

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I'm way behind; the hotel we stayed at last night was such a historic palace in the centro of Morelia that it did not have internet.  My dad says Morelia is the most beautiful town square in all of Mexico and though he's seen more of Mexico than me, I have driven about 25,000 miles through capitol cities and villages and I agree! There was a very bad crash today where a Mustang built by Mats Hammerland and driven by two Swedes was on the wrong side of a country road and drove head on into a local's car containing 3 people.  We don't know the whole story and have very few facts, but we did come upon the scene maybe an hour later and saw the carnage and I do not believe the reports that all 5 people involved are okay.  The front end of both cars, on the passenger side, was pushed to the windshield.  What a mess.  The car was newly built and painted to look just like the Gypsy Wind so we hoped no one thought it was our car with the Greenwoods in it.  This accident did no

2011 La Carrera Panamericana: Day 3 Success and Another Podium for TBZ

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Creepy beyond words.  Even the locals stopped in their tracks.  And the baby was fake. Carina, Rudi and little Sami arrive for our annual visit! Day 3 was long and grueling but great.  Both El Jefe and the Gypsy Wind had great morning and afternoon speed stages and survived when others went off the road.  The laps at the Autodromo de Queretaro was cancelled - we don't know why.  El Jefe came in 3rd place in class again!  The Greenwoods are suppsedly 37th overall.  Results can be seen at http://lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx/resultados . Today was a very long day of transits for both the race cars and the service vehicles, about 350 miles in all.  My morning started out with a giant smile as there were two Dr. Simi's dancing around at the starting arch!  I love Dr. Simi and two of them at once is over the top!  There were quite a few stragglers at the arch long past the time they should have left, including Johnny Tipler in a Porsche 914, who to my delight, I saw the