This year I had raced three big races by September. I was tired and beat up after soloing the Baja 400 on a motorcycle. Just two weeks after I got back we had our annual convention – CN Live! For that I needed energy. I decided to rest for those two weeks and heal up. The four-day event takes a lot of energy for me. It went great and I needed some rest. But 36 hours later I’d be heading to JFK airport in New York with Ted for a 9:30 pm red eye Air France flight. We’d arrive at 10:30 am in Paris with a five hour time difference.
Jet lag sucks. You are falling asleep midday, and then even though you are tired, you have trouble falling asleep when it’s time.
We catch a connection to Marrakesh. When we crossed the water and land appeared again, it was parched hues of brown. No green anywhere. The fringes of the great Sahara.
We catch our ground transport and it drops us off at an all-inclusive resort. Wonderful rooms, giant buffet for every meal, big pool with Europeans speaking various languages sunbathing all day long. “I like Morocco so far Ted!”
So far…
It was Wednesday. The race didn’t start until Sunday. We rested and tried to catch up on sleep. Thursday we met Bruno. We hit it off right away. It was a 15 minute ride to the “Service Area” – the pits where all the race vehicle and teams set up in the parking lot of a soccer stadium. There were 260 vehicles in the race and they were all there. South Racing had eight UTV’s lined up under pop up tents with two mechanics per vehicle. here were engineers, electrical mechanics, logistic people, giant supply trucks…it was impressive. It seemed like the big leagues. South Racing had it down.
There was plenty of seating areas under tents where you could talk and have cold drinks and snacks, and there was a coffee machine! They named it Maria.
South Racing gave me a giant gear bag filled with Janesky Racing gear and clothing. Bruno and I had custom race suits saying Janesky Racing and Contractor Nation. “Shake and bake baby!”
Today we had to shake down the race car. It was a Can Am Maverick – custom built by South Racing. Essentially it was my rent-a-car for the six day rally. This car was a turbo. It had 230 horsepower compared to the 105 horsepower my non-turbo car in Baja had. It was a different class. It was all dolled up with my graphics.
I met my mechanics – Braulio and Tomas. Great guys. I walked around the car observing. I got in to get familiar. There was a windshield. That’s different. It allowed me to wear an open faced helmet. The windshield would protect my face from rock projectiles if a vehicle passed us. It became clear this car was high tech. South Racing had built 131 of these over the years and they had it dialed in for Rally.
Bruno and I drove the car 15 minutes away to an area where we could run around a 10 kilometer course following the road book to make sure everything about the car was good. I smashed the gas pedal down and all four wheels spun, kicking up rocks and dirt. That’s different. I can’t spin the wheels of my Baja car. It was fun.
We did seven laps, made some adjustments and practiced the navigation. I was getting used to metric. I like kilometers. They are “baby miles”.
The new helmet I had was round and my head was oval. The helmet dug into my forehead and it was unbearable. The mechanics told me they could shave some foam off the inside of the helmet, but they wanted to wait until after tech inspection so they didn’t flag us for modifying the helmet.
While I was happy the car was good, I just wasn’t quite comfortable yet….