Since January, Dan and Thomas Chamlee have been spending their weekends and evenings after work building a new race truck. The new truck was shown to the public for the first time at Contingency for the Baja 500. Here's a pic:
Despite this being the first race with the new truck and knowing that there was a strong possibility that there would be unanticipated bugs, the team really wanted to win this race. There had been a lot of chatter on the online forums once it was leaked that Dan was building a new truck and not all of it positive. A strong showing at this first race would really be vindicating.
We were second off the line in our class but were quickly passed by many as a fan belt fell off at race mile 10. A quick repair later and we were back on the road. By the first highway crossing at Ojos Negros, it was obvious that there was serious problems with the race truck's radio. We could barely hear them when they were in sight.
We had only been at BFG pit 1 (race mile 87) for minute or two when the spotter announced that 701 was 2 miles out. Ten minutes later, after seeing a couple more of our competitors pass by we heard that 700 was on it's way. Along with refueling and checking fluid levels, we changed the antenna for the radio to the alternate mount. As they drove off, we could tell that it was an improvement, but still less than ideal.
We had a bit more time to wait at BFG pit 2 (race mile 199) but had a good view of the Trophy trucks and class 1 vehicles. We also were hit by a couple of dust devils that blew neighboring easy-ups completely over and showered the inside of the truck with marble sized chunks of gravel and sand. My laptop that was sitting open inside that vehicle required a little percussive maintenance to clear all the rubble out from under the keyboard. Dan showed up at the pit earlier than we anticipated and with the rest of the class behind him. I hopped into the truck and we were off. It was my first time in the new race truck and I was immediately very impressed with the ride.
As we came into BFG pit 3 (race mile 298) we had had almost no problems, only having to monitor the thermostat as the fan wouldn't always kick in to cool things down when needed. While at pit 3 the BFG guys informed us that we were leaking something from under the cab. After a quick inspection, we determined that it was coolant. Knowing that we had 150 miles to go, we decided to deal with it when it started causing a problem and headed off. The last section of the course was rough. At race mile 360-something we received a transmission from our chase team that our closest competitor was at race mile 300, more than an hour and a half behind us.
We began to have problems with the starter and a couple of times stalled, only to find we couldn't restart. Once we ended up sideways on a hill as we were trying to go around a stuck vehicle. No matter what we did, it wouldn't start and we couldn't roll straight back, because of a cliff. We were eventually dragged back into a straight position by one of the seven or eight vehicles stuck behind us and as soon as we were straightened out, the started worked and we were off. Though we did have a few more frustrating spots with the uncooperative starter, we continued to move pretty well through the course, occasionally manually turning on the fan to make sure we could cool the engine down, since we were still leaking coolant and could now see it collecting in the baseboards by Dan's feet. The last 20 miles of the race were a bit nerve racking as we kept sputtering as we were running out of gas. There was still fuel in the tank, but the intake hose was too high and wasn't able to get to it, especially as we went around left turns. One of those new truck bugs we were worried about. Luckily, every time we started to sputter, it would pick back up and keep going. Our unofficial time was 11:46:18, over an hour and a half in front of the next finisher. Of the eleven class7 vehicles entered in this race, only four finished in the allotted time.
Overall, it was a great first race for the new truck and wonderful to be able to come home with the Baja 500 win for the fourth time in a row.
The end of the race was not the end of the drama, however. After attending the awards ceremony in Ensenada, we headed out for home. Soon we discovered that one of the towing vehicles was having problems. It had no power and couldn't pull the trailer up a hill at speeds faster than 25mph. Eventually we ended up pulling it on a strap with the other truck and trailer. It took us over two and a half hours to make the one hour trip from Ensenada to Tijuana. We ended up pulling the truck and trailer across the boarder on the strap. We pulled over as soon as we got into the U.S. and found ourselfs behind another team having a very similiar problem. We attempted to continue on, but decided just North of San Diego to check the fuel filter to see if there was water, dirt or mud in the fuel. While doing this, it was discovered that the gas station in Ensenada had fueled that truck with gasoline instead of diesel. After siphoning all of the gas out and replacing it with diesel, the truck ran better, but still not 100%. We finally made it home 13 hours after we left Ensenada.
Four days later, the official results were posted for the Trophy trucks and class 1 buggys. What a surprise! Unofficial first place Robby Gordon was now officially listed in 7th place after a 90 minute penalty for an illegal pit stop. Apparently his team had set up a pit stop along one of the highway sections of the course and instead of pulling off the road into the pit, he stopped in the middle of the lane on the highway and his crew ran out onto the road (race course and open two lane highway) to refuel and do a visual inspection. I don't know why he didn't pull the 50 feet further off the road and into the pit proper, but it cost him. There were also other switch ups in the Trophy truck class. Unofficial 2nd place, Bobby Baldwin ended up officially in 8th after time penalties were added for course deviation and speeding on the highway. In total, 10 of the 19 trophy trucks that finished were assessed penalties for Course Deviation. I'm glad that we have the new IRC GPS system that allows us to not only track the race vehicles online in real time during a race, but also allows SCORE to review the route taken by each vehicle and make sure that the course and rules are being followed.
Official results for Class 7 have not been released at the time of this posting. I will update as they come in.
We were second off the line in our class but were quickly passed by many as a fan belt fell off at race mile 10. A quick repair later and we were back on the road. By the first highway crossing at Ojos Negros, it was obvious that there was serious problems with the race truck's radio. We could barely hear them when they were in sight.
We had only been at BFG pit 1 (race mile 87) for minute or two when the spotter announced that 701 was 2 miles out. Ten minutes later, after seeing a couple more of our competitors pass by we heard that 700 was on it's way. Along with refueling and checking fluid levels, we changed the antenna for the radio to the alternate mount. As they drove off, we could tell that it was an improvement, but still less than ideal.
We had a bit more time to wait at BFG pit 2 (race mile 199) but had a good view of the Trophy trucks and class 1 vehicles. We also were hit by a couple of dust devils that blew neighboring easy-ups completely over and showered the inside of the truck with marble sized chunks of gravel and sand. My laptop that was sitting open inside that vehicle required a little percussive maintenance to clear all the rubble out from under the keyboard. Dan showed up at the pit earlier than we anticipated and with the rest of the class behind him. I hopped into the truck and we were off. It was my first time in the new race truck and I was immediately very impressed with the ride.
As we came into BFG pit 3 (race mile 298) we had had almost no problems, only having to monitor the thermostat as the fan wouldn't always kick in to cool things down when needed. While at pit 3 the BFG guys informed us that we were leaking something from under the cab. After a quick inspection, we determined that it was coolant. Knowing that we had 150 miles to go, we decided to deal with it when it started causing a problem and headed off. The last section of the course was rough. At race mile 360-something we received a transmission from our chase team that our closest competitor was at race mile 300, more than an hour and a half behind us.
We began to have problems with the starter and a couple of times stalled, only to find we couldn't restart. Once we ended up sideways on a hill as we were trying to go around a stuck vehicle. No matter what we did, it wouldn't start and we couldn't roll straight back, because of a cliff. We were eventually dragged back into a straight position by one of the seven or eight vehicles stuck behind us and as soon as we were straightened out, the started worked and we were off. Though we did have a few more frustrating spots with the uncooperative starter, we continued to move pretty well through the course, occasionally manually turning on the fan to make sure we could cool the engine down, since we were still leaking coolant and could now see it collecting in the baseboards by Dan's feet. The last 20 miles of the race were a bit nerve racking as we kept sputtering as we were running out of gas. There was still fuel in the tank, but the intake hose was too high and wasn't able to get to it, especially as we went around left turns. One of those new truck bugs we were worried about. Luckily, every time we started to sputter, it would pick back up and keep going. Our unofficial time was 11:46:18, over an hour and a half in front of the next finisher. Of the eleven class7 vehicles entered in this race, only four finished in the allotted time.
Overall, it was a great first race for the new truck and wonderful to be able to come home with the Baja 500 win for the fourth time in a row.
The end of the race was not the end of the drama, however. After attending the awards ceremony in Ensenada, we headed out for home. Soon we discovered that one of the towing vehicles was having problems. It had no power and couldn't pull the trailer up a hill at speeds faster than 25mph. Eventually we ended up pulling it on a strap with the other truck and trailer. It took us over two and a half hours to make the one hour trip from Ensenada to Tijuana. We ended up pulling the truck and trailer across the boarder on the strap. We pulled over as soon as we got into the U.S. and found ourselfs behind another team having a very similiar problem. We attempted to continue on, but decided just North of San Diego to check the fuel filter to see if there was water, dirt or mud in the fuel. While doing this, it was discovered that the gas station in Ensenada had fueled that truck with gasoline instead of diesel. After siphoning all of the gas out and replacing it with diesel, the truck ran better, but still not 100%. We finally made it home 13 hours after we left Ensenada.
Four days later, the official results were posted for the Trophy trucks and class 1 buggys. What a surprise! Unofficial first place Robby Gordon was now officially listed in 7th place after a 90 minute penalty for an illegal pit stop. Apparently his team had set up a pit stop along one of the highway sections of the course and instead of pulling off the road into the pit, he stopped in the middle of the lane on the highway and his crew ran out onto the road (race course and open two lane highway) to refuel and do a visual inspection. I don't know why he didn't pull the 50 feet further off the road and into the pit proper, but it cost him. There were also other switch ups in the Trophy truck class. Unofficial 2nd place, Bobby Baldwin ended up officially in 8th after time penalties were added for course deviation and speeding on the highway. In total, 10 of the 19 trophy trucks that finished were assessed penalties for Course Deviation. I'm glad that we have the new IRC GPS system that allows us to not only track the race vehicles online in real time during a race, but also allows SCORE to review the route taken by each vehicle and make sure that the course and rules are being followed.
Official results for Class 7 have not been released at the time of this posting. I will update as they come in.
go Amy! sounds like an adventure, of course
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