WTF

Today in the afternoon we ran the prequalification speed stage outside of Oaxaca. The times don't count towards the official finish of the race and are run to determine a starting order for tomorrow, the official race start. This places the cars in a rough order of relative speed so that fast cars are not constantly overtaking the slower cars during speed stages as it is very dangerous. It's good to get out there and test El Jefe again and get ready for tomorrow. Last year in Veracruz the race field had 3 rollovers on Day 0 - an unprecedented number of crashes. Only the Mini was able to get back on the road and finish the race. We all heard the warnings at the meeting last night to be extra careful. There are approximately 96 cars in the field and some 80 showed up for the optional run today. El Jefe put out a decent showing in the middle of the pack at 41st place. Our class (Turismo de Producion) is tough this year....small but tough. There are a ton of Studebakers here plus a...

Today is Wednesday, October 24th and tomorrow is Day 0 of racing already! We got to the ball stadium for another day of pre-race socializing, checking and re-checking the car and our equipment, and anxiety-ridden anticipation. Ray told me that he and his buddy Russ, both firemen in Phoenix, met some fireman from Oaxaca and they were taking them on a personal tour of Oaxaca and the ruins. The Mexican fireman gave them patches and hats from the local station and said they would call ahead on the PanAm route to make sure that Ray and Russ were taken care of all throughout their trip. What an amazing international brotherhood! More and more cars arrived today until the race field was bursting with activity and seemed like it had to be nearly full. There seemed to be a lot of Studebakers this year, but as far as I could tell, only one was in the Original PanAm class. There were quite a few Mustangs too, which always makes Geezer and I smile as we love the Mustangs. Many cars arrived with wo...