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Message started by overthehill on 07/20/11 at 13:41:02

Title: Chasing the dust in the high desert
Post by overthehill on 07/20/11 at 13:41:02

Mods, please remove if it does not belong here. However, since I was proudly wearing a suit with MLRC logo on it, I thought I might post my story from my participation in the last weekend's USA 500 here. ;)

Here is the link:
http://www.desertdingo.com/blog/2011/07/20/vorra-usa-500-race-recap/

Title: Re: Chasing the dust in the high desert
Post by solitude99 on 07/20/11 at 18:28:18

Paul i do not care if you posted that in the want ads. That is a great story and a spectacular finish.

Congrats.

Derek

Title: Re: Chasing the dust in the high desert
Post by Alexei S on 07/21/11 at 07:51:00

Awesome story, and a great read :)

How does the co-driving work in these events? I'm guessing it's too long to have notes, so do you just use a GPS and such to give a rough idea of where you're going? Is there any warning about jumps and bad corners?

Title: Re: Chasing the dust in the high desert
Post by overthehill on 07/21/11 at 08:10:16

The course is on the GPS (ours did not work) and you can pre-run (we did not have time), but no notes are created and then read back . :) The co-driver is basically a second set of eyes.

So if you do not have GPS and do not pre-run you drive according to what you can see and according to the arrows that point you where to turn. SOMETIMES there are arrows for a sharp corner with a big drop off on the outside, sometimes there is a caution sign (usually on a huge rock - it does not make much sense to me, because I saw the huge rock before seeing the caution sign on it).

The crests are interesting. I was scolded by Crusty for going too fast over the crests. So I slowed down. About 5 miles later I came over a (no caution) crest and faced a 50-60 feet of a cliff with such a slope I was afraid the car might roll over its front :o. Fun.