Round Trip – part 3

This year, we did something VERY different.  It was Chris Haines’s idea to enter two cars in the race.  Besides ours, we’d have another car that was driven by mechanics with lots of parts.  They’d stay behind us and if we had a problem, they’d be right there pulling up on us to help us fix it.  Chris is a racing veteran and in his mind, every minute counts.  I reluctantly agreed.  I wasn’t crazy about the plan because it was a big team – 14 people and five chase vehicles.

But now with my new race plan, I decided to steal a driver from the number two car and put him on my team so we could have three drivers.  Mike Sandoval was a great driver with lots of experience.  In my new plan, he’d take the car from me at mile 210 and go to 400, then up 70 miles of pavement that was in the middle of the racecourse and give it to Javier.  Javi would take it 260 miles and give it to me and Dustin at mile 730 and we would finish.  I thought it was a much better plan and that there would be far less suffering for everyone this way.  The old plan had us in the car for 12 race hours, Javi for nearly as many, and then we had to 4 hours to finish.  The new plan made more sense.

I woke up sick.  No better.  There was a war going on in my chest.  An infection I was sure. I was very aware of my lungs and where they were in my body.  They were inflamed.

We drove two hours north of San Felipe along the Sea of Cortez.  I was curled up in the back seat amongst backpacks and luggage.  We went through the military check near El Chinero.  El Chinero is not a town; it’s just an area – a spot.  It’s named that because many years ago a Chinese ship was grounded in the nearby Sea of Cortez – it’s shallow at north end and turns into salt flats.  The Chinese crew wound up getting to shore and walking.  They died in the desert here.  So, it’s El Chinero.

We stopped at Valle Trinidad and unloaded the pre-runner.  I decided to take Bobby with me for the 48 miles to where we’d see the road again.  Bobby had been on many trips with me to Baja races but had never been in the race car.  It was a great section for him to experience.  A mix of terrain.  He got to see how rough it was, and how beautiful the inner parts of the landscape were that few ever see.

When we emerged back at the road at kilometer 77, we pulled over at the chase trucks.  I sat there, sick, happy to be stopped.  Someone suggested we could skip the next section – that I didn’t have to pre-run it if I was sick because it was the same as the Baja 400 course that I raced two months earlier, and I knew it anyway.  I quickly agreed.  We loaded the car on the trailer and drove back through the switchbacks to the big city of Ensenada.

As soon as we got back I had to lay down – right now.  After an hour, they took me to the hospital.  I saw a doctor who prescribed something for the incessant cough and something else that was mostly acetaminophen.   They wanted to x-ray me but the technician wasn’t in.  The doctor said I should come back tomorrow.  I got the prescription and went to bed.  56 hours to race the green flag.

The next day, we had to go to registration, go through tech inspection, get interviewed, and get our trackers installed.  That took until noon.  Then I went back to the hospital.  I got an x-ray and a blood test.  Then he said I should get an EKG.  All three in under an hour – for $160.  I got an amoxicillin prescription and steroids.  We went to the drugstore and bought a nebulizer. 

This is a crappy race trip.