April 28, 2012
Tech Inspection and Other Delights
We headed out in the morning, hoping to get to Mexicali’s
bull ring by noon. The 109 mile route
from Jamul to Mexicali was half twisty mountain road (which this Saturday was
clogged with a bicycle race) and the rest on the 8 (which was very very warm).
I’d gone over the rulebook and the one thing I was missing
was road flares. I couldn’t find them in
Santa Clarita and it seemed silly to order them on line. We checked gas stations and truck stops, no
flares. Finally while waiting in line at
the boarder Rhonda noticed an Autozone.
She hopped out of the car, ran over, no flares. Then she noticed a Carquest, no flares. They recommended the Pep Boys down the
street. After running up and down the
streets of Calexico, Rhonda returned to the car with six flares.
We got in line behind a Stroppe Bronco and crossed the
boarder.
And immediately got lost.
The main street, Blvd Adolfo Lopez Mateos, was under construction. Our three cars (mom and Patty came down for
the start of the race) separated, wandered around the city and then somehow
came together within a block of the hotel.
The local traffic made it obvious the race was nearby.
We checked into the Crowne Plaza (sort of) and Rhonda and I
headed over to bull ring for tech inspection.
I was a bit nervous, I’m not used to having my sculptures judged on
their safety standard and I really didn’t know what to expect.
Getting into line was a challenge. Driving a finicky old car through a dense
crowd can be a bit harrowing. We managed
to get the car in line right behind the Bronco from the boarder crossing and
pushed and cajoled the car through the crowd for the next hour.
Tech inspection was a breeze. They’d noticed we’d read the fine print with
proper numbers etc. and were more fascinated that we were running a forty eight
year old car with the Toyota straight six engine. Our flares were never checked.
Overall people were excited about the car. We finished up headed back to the hotel and
then back to the bull ring for the drivers meeting.
The meeting was interesting.
We got the low down on the dangerous bits of the course and that there
was going to be a documentary filmed during the race.
We headed to dinner, where we realized we were probably one
of the most sober teams around. Then it
was early to bed for the 6 a.m. line up.
the story continues here
the story continues here
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