Saturday, November 16, 2013

The hero

Cyrus told me to bring some food and water then led me to a Tacoma truck near two bro-ish Mexican guys in their late twenties/early thirties. We jumped in the back of their trick before I knew their names and we started off. 

The two guys were brothers. Leo, the driver, was the younger of the two and very intense with a passion for racing. His brother, Fernando, was laid back and happy.  Minutes after getting in the car I knew we either found the perfect couple of guys for this mission or we were taking a big risk . Little did I know it would be both. 

We tore out of the checkpoint and up highway 3 towards the 91 kilometer mark. Leo loved to race and was easily going 40 kph over the legal speed limit. While weaving around slower cars and oncoming traffic down the two lane highway, Leo said he had only been in two races but had come in third in his last one. 

Seeing the ease with which he raced along the highway while telling of his exploits, it was easy to see he was the real deal. His job is a project manager for a company that carves out paths for cars in the desert wilderness. This seems like an appropriate job for an off-road racer. He often gets asked why he spends his free time driving off-road when he drives off-road for a living. I think the answer is obvious: he was born to race off-road. 

Leo and Fernando had been driving all day and forgot to eat, so we stopped off and picked up hamburgers for everyone. Leo insisted on buying extra hotdogs and sodas for the guys we were rescuing, just "so we could see the look on their faces". 

After we resumed, Leo sped by a cop coming in the other direction at around 80 mph. The cop turned his lights on and made a u turn to come after us. Leo poured on the speed and we got to our turn off before the police caught up to us.  

Our plan was to take a dirt access road to the 91 mile marker of the race course, then drive 14 miles of the course to the stranded vehicle.  Leo had a GPS system witht the coordinates of the course already installed, so Cyrus and I monitored it to ensure we stayed on track. With Leo's fast off-roading, he was easily going 30-45 mph on sand and dirt on the narrow race course, it was hard to focus on anything. As we passed the 95 mile mark, the course got progressively more difficult and even Leo had to slow down to avoid breaking his truck. Rocks filled the narrow passageway between desert shrubs and cacti. It was difficult to imaging how the little buggy survived as far as it had when Leo's massive truck had such a hard time. 

It took us two hours to cover the 15 miles of race course to our companions. On the way we met a race car coming directly at us who had broken down. We asked if they had food and they said "yeah we are fine. We have crackers". Leo said "you guys want hot dogs?"  They said "are you serious?  ". We gave them two of the four hotdogs and they were really excited. 

When we reached the buggy, the guys were shining a light to signal to us. They had heard via radio that we were on our way. Leo had the idea that we should play a joke on them, so when we approached he kept riding past the buggy and around te corner. As we got further away the light gestures more frantically. After a moment we backed up to the buggy and got out. They were so cold that they were in shock. We invited them inside the warm truck and started harnessing the car to the truck with straps. 

The buggy was in the middle of a path that was 8 feet across with a rock wall on one side and a sheer cliff drop on the other.  There was just enough room for the truck to pass the buggy, and Rocks ranging in size from baseballs to bowling balls littered the path. The wind whipped wildly around the cliffs.  I was dressed in several layers of sweaters covered in a rain jacket which the cold air gusts pierced right through, and my jeans didnt offer any protection at all. 
 
Adam seemed not to mind the cold as much as Noah, as he ate his hot dog in the buggy while Noah jumped into the truck. We gave the guys time to eat and then had to decide on an exit path. Leo had raced this same route back in September, so he had a feel for the conditions ahead which we had not seen. The two options were to continue along the race course for three miles of rough terrain to the next access road, or head back the 15 miles back the way we came. Going forward would be easier, but the access road would take us hours away from where we wanted to be. The way back was far more treacherous but we would have a shorter drive afterwards. We ultimately decided to go back the way we came. 

Some deft maneuvering by Leo pulled the car to a point where the truck could tow the car and then get around him to tow in the other direction, like a K turn you might do on a driving test. 

We had the immobilized vehicle turned around and harnessed to continue back. The strap was a little long, being 20 feet, and with the sharp turns in the course it would be difficult to ensure that the direction the truck pulled coincided with the  direction the buggy should go. It's an obvious problem now, but with the dark desert cold weighing down on us and excitement of finding our friends, none of us were thinking clearly. 

As we rounded the first dipping turn, the problem became clear, the turning truck rounded the corner but pulled the buggy directly off the cliff. The buggy honked and radioed the truck only after it was too late, but luckily the buggy lodged 
Itself sideways between two rocks. At first we didn't know if the passengers should exit the vehicle or not, but Leo astutely determined we should tie a strap to the buggy to hold the vehicle from tumbling over while the drivers emerged. So Fernando, Cyrus and I held onto the strap while Noah and Adam climbed out. 

We kept holding on in an attempt to save the car. Noah and Adam moved the strap from the front to back and Leo towed the  buggy partially out. We had to fill the space under the buggy with rocks to support the wheel as the buggy was towed so that the body didn't get crushed against the cliff. Miraculously the buggy emerged, but the front left suspension was damaged and could no longer support the car weight. 

Cyrus and Adam surveyed the damage while Noah Leo and I sat in the truck. Cyrus was still determined to get the buggy back even though the wheel was barely attached. Leo mentioned "he's so optimistic" about Cyrus's determination. It was true, the three of us in the car were cold and despairing while Cyrus and Adam pursued a solution. That inspired the rest of us to rally and help out. Noah figured a way to jerry rig the suspension with straps and got the wheel back on, but the buggy could no longer turn. 

We spent six hours dragging the buggy at about one mile per hour when Leo got tired. He had been up since 8am the day before and needed to sleep before he could continue. Noah, Cyrus, and I crammed in the back of the truck but there was no room for Adam. He slept out in the buggy.  We all slept for about an hour or two before Leo woke up. I went outside to check on Adam, and after being exposed to the elements for six hours he was ready to switch with someone. 

Cyrus got in the buggy and we continued on. We soon cleared the rockiest part of the trail and now had just 30 miles of sandy trail to go. We were able to go about 10-20 mph now since the road was easier.  An hour or two later we arrived at the checkpoint where we met the chase vehicles as the sun rose over the desert mountains. 


Rescue!

We got a call on the satellite phone  when we were supposed to meet up with the car at mule 151. The race team got stuck on a hill. there was a problem with the engine and they couldn't get any power out of the car when they hit the accelerator. 

Dark had just arrived at around 6pm and the guys were in the most remote and most difficult part of the course. Every year this section of course disables many vehicles in every class, even the multimillion dollar trophy trucks. 

We set out to radio the various pits we have signed up with, including bfgoodrich and Baja pits, then went to the nearest checkpoint. There was no response from the pit on either radio or satellite phone, so Cyrus and I started asking around if anyone could help. Several teams were at the checkpoint either fixing cars or waiting around, so there were plenty of big trucks there who might be able to help. When we told people where they were, almost everybody told us that they were going to have to spend the night. Nobody wanted to go into that area, even locals who live on the mountain nearby the location of the car. One guy told us that they should "get comfortable" and when pressed on how to break the news to our friends, he said to tell them "they're fucked".  

Cy and I went to the nearby Baja pit stop to try and get help from them. We spoke to another class 11 team that was manned by teenagers who pointed is toward the man in charge. He was a short man with a backward baseball cap but he was busy with cars coming in. I noticed on his desk were a list of satellite phone numbers for Baja pits near the location of the car. I told Cyrus I would check those numbers while he looked for help. 

Sam was planning for a crew to return to the house and get a trailer for the car. That way we would have a vehicle to transport the car immediately when it was retrieved. I insisted we hold tight and try the phone numbers first and enlisted Sams help. 

Shortly after trying several the numbers in the area, Cyrus approached me and asked "are you ready for you Baja adventure?"

Caught off guard, i asked "what are you planning?" And he repeated "are you ready for your Baja adventure?"  

Knowing Cyrus, he was testing my resolve to venture into the unknown. He knew I was uneasy about going to Mexico to begin with and didn't want to pressure me into anything I was uncomfortable with.  I relented and said as enthusiastically as I could, "hells yeah". 


Breakdown

At race mile 105 the buggy broke down. We drove for 2 hours to get to the first checkpoint from the pit stop when we got a call on the satellite phone.  The race team couldn't get in touch with anyone via radio and were stranded halfway between our last location and our current one. 

The car lost all power and lights. The engine was running but they couldn't drive in the pitch black desert night. 

The desert

It's really amazing to see how deserted everything is here. It's literally a desert like you'd see in the cartoon with the coyote and the roadrunner

The roads have huge breaks in them so we need to drive through giant canyons of dirt and rocks until we get to the other piece of road

Put 3

It's been a long wait. The buggy is taking longer than expected. Were out of radio contact for about an hour. The guys showed up and the fender was coming loose. Headlight popping out. 

We duct taped the headlight and tightened the fender but part of the fender was broken. Can't reattach it. Cyrus was totally stoked and he and Sam had plenty of stories to share. 

A Mexican semi nearly took out our van as it was backing up. We were helping direct it backwards but he didn't stop when we said stop. Got inches away from the van where knuckles was sleeping. He woke to quote a start as everyone yelled. 

On way to dan Felipe 

Pit 2

Pit 2 was in a sandy cool area 15 km down the road. There was a military checkpoint on the road nearby which was no trouble getting through.  

Again we had some issues. Our throttle was stuck at full speed and the drivers were using only clutch the slow down. We changed drivers and set out for the first checkpoint. 

Pit 1

Both chase vehicles were at the starting line since we were trying to deal with the oil issue, so we had to struggle to reach the first checkpoint. 

It was exciting to see all the spectators camped out watching the cars speed by. It took us several minutes to fix up the buggy, take out a tire that was rubbing against a battery, and get the second set of divers in. We had only driven 20 miles but in order to give every driver a chance we stopped frequently. 

The mountains were beautiful. And the roads were scary.