The Rest Of The Story....

It is difficult to come up with the energy or desire to write this post but as I looked over all of your great comments this week I realized that many of you are relying solely on my blog for the results of this years race.

As you all know we were disqualified on day 5 for being out of fuel for the surprise weigh in. At first I wanted to be really mad at the race officials for singling us out.  Then Scott said something that made a lot of sense.  Rookie mistakes.  That's right, rookie mistakes is what beat us this year and as hard as that was to swallow at first, it is entirely true.  We led the whole field out of Oaxaca the first day and what a great feeling it was to be the first car through the starting arch. (although I cannot seem to find ONE picture of it on any of the Mexican websites including the official LaCarrera site)  The problem was we didn't know how to lead this race.  When you are behind another car it is easy to remember that you need to wait for the proper Z control time because they are waiting ahead of you.  We barged on through the checkpoint like we were going to get a reward for being there early.  Rookie. Then the weight thing. We were told that the car needed to make weight at any time during the race.  Proper interpretation of this should have told us that they were going to weigh us especially after kicking their can for four straight days.  Rookie again.  What we learned form all of this is the Carrera is certainly not only about speed.  You need reliability, strategy, luck and an inside connection to the race officials might be handy as well.  I am convinced that someone was watching us as we came into town each night to see if we stopped for fuel.  Water under the bridge now.

For those of you who don't know, we decided to finish the race in the exhibition class and leave the car at full weight to see how it would have gone minus the DQ.  After the last two days, we were still the fastest car for most of the speed sections and when it was all said and done, won the race by 12 minutes and 22 seconds over the famed Frenchman Pierre de Thoisy.  He took home the trophy, but most of the competitors and officials know who really should have won the 2007 LaCarrera PanAmericana......Minus a few rookie mistakes.  I have accepted the fact that it was our actions or lack thereof, that cost us the race.  My plan for next year is to build my own Turismo Mayor car and leave dad's car set up as a Turismo Production racer like it is now with the little motor.  We can then go down and dominate both of the top classes and make sure they do not forget who we are. 
Thank you again for all of your support and comments.  It really feels good to have so many great people behind you when you're 4000 miles away from home and do not speak the language.  The preparation for the 2008 LaCarrera PanAmericana begins now.  I will start work on one of the Studebakers from out behind dad's barn (there are three to choose from) as soon as I catch up on my sleep and the honeydo list!  If you are interested in helping with this project and/or going to Mexico with us next year, send me a message and we can talk specifics. 

Saludos Amigos!