La Carrera - 10/28 report

[DBesic@domain.elided]

The team of Martin Hancock, Patrick Bowling, Mike Besic and Ken Smoot FINALLY
managed to get a report of race news to me.  Here ya go......

Mike writes:
"Around 1:00 Ken and I leave the service stop. On to Oaxaca 284 Km away and
today4s destination. 30 miles into the trip we pass through Tehuantepec.
Again, ALL the townspeople line the road whoopin it up. What a country!

Exiting the city we are now on very tight mountain roads again. The van tires
howl with disapproval in some fast corners and the brakes are getting a
workout. There are many semi trucks and vertical rock walls on one side and
sheer drop off on the other with no guardrails of course. Keeps us on our
toes. We are starting to see some race carnage now. We passed a 911 in  a
ditch that apparently lost it in a left hand sweeper. We saw a MGB pulled off
to the side with the driver sitting on the fender with a look of disgust on
his face. We found out later that a competitor had brake problems and  hit
him from behind. The driver was treated for mild whiplash. Bummer.  Lastly
today we saw a Studebaker that apparently overcooked a corner and slid into a
curb HARD. They were replacing both right side wheels.

Finally we made it to Oaxaca. Man what a busy town. Trying to navigate the
van and trailer through 2 lane one-way streets was a challenge. I did say...
2 lane... why is everyone 3 wide?  We found our later the boys had a brisk
motorcycle police escort thorough town to the town square where all  the race
cars corralled. Martin got the car sideways around a corner in town much to
the pleasure of the crowds. He even got a huge thumbs up from the cop...

The parking lot at the hotel, Mission de Los Angeles was a disaster. It was
small, circular, dirty- rock-broken brick, un-mowed grass. I don4t know how
they expected to cram 15-20 race cars (the race stays at 3-4 hotels in each
town) and support vehicles in there. Initially tempers flaired a bit but it
worked out. We met Martin and Patrick minutes later. Martin commented that
other than an erratic idle and still warm water temp in traffic, the car
performed perfectly. I gave everything a quick once over, relocated the
helmet communication box to make it easier to get to strapped in and devised
a coolant recovery system Junk Yard Wars style and called it good."

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