"Baja Fab" (Fabrication)

All great adventures start as audacious.  A little crazy.  Maybe a lot crazy. 

Sometimes they prove to actually be crazy.  Unrealistic.  Stupid.  Bad ideas.  Other times….

We had assembled a team of Contractor Nation friends to do this.  The longest point-to-point race on earth.  Marie and I were in the car for a 110-mile leg to mile 1000.  We were all tired.  Ragged even.    But more miles were behind us than we had to go, and an optimism grew in us for finishing.

We went through a tiny town of San Javier where a Spanish Mission church, hundreds of years old was the center of the town.  The only road through town was paved with round cobblestones from the nearby riverbed.  Charming.  But the trophy trucks had torn it up as they made a turn and the round stones were strewn across the street.  A shame, but the people there seemed to be excited the race came through their tiny town and not worried about their romantic street that was torn up.  

We crossed the same riverbed six times; it was as captive as we were in the confines of a canyon.  The course got straight and fast as we sped toward the gas pit at mile 1000.  

When we arrived and were being fueled, some guys did a walk around of our car.  They told me a CV joint boot was ripped open in the back and grease had been flung over the engine.  I thanked them and pulled 200 feet ahead to our chase truck. 

Fans were gathered there in the town of Constitucion.  When we preran we gave stickers out here.  People took days off work just to catch a glimpse of any race vehicle prerunning.  They recognized me from our movies.  Victor had an 8-year-old kid sit in the car for the thrill of his year, as his father took pictures.  

I told Rodrigo, one of our crew, about the torn boot.  In the back where the spinning axle comes out of the rear end, there is a universal joint.  As the wheel goes up and down and spins the joint needs grease so it doesn’t self-destruct.  Now dirt and abrasive silt was getting in and grease was getting out because the rubber boot was torn open.  Could we make it to the finish this way?  226 miles to go.

Rod and another Mexican buggy team spoke about it as they looked it over.  They hatched a plan.  I couldn’t understand Spanish so I watched.  First, they produced a tub of grease.  Rod scooped three big handfuls and smeared it inside the torn boot.  Victor and Tony strapped in inside the car and waited.

Then they took blue paper shop towels, like heavy paper towels and wrapped them around the boot.  I was thinking “there is no way this will work…what the heck are they doing?”.  Then they took duct tape and wrapped strips around the shop towels.  My doubts persisted.  Then they took zip ties and ran them around the duct tape.  It was a cocoon to hold the grease in and keep grit out.  Would it get us to the finish?  We’d find out.

Victor an Tony got the signal – go!  The rest of the team drove to mile 1100 to meet them again in about three hours.  Marie and I ate and got ready for our longest leg of the race – the 170 miles into the finish.

We were grateful for the help from the other team, hoping there was a chance it would work.  I had my doubts.

The next stop had the course coming out to a road after a sand whoop section (rolling waves formed in the sand) that was over 20 miles long.  There were many chase teams there, waiting as darkness settled in.

One more leg – a long one….