Tale of Two Bobs – Never Say Never!

In the months leading up to La Carrera Panamericana, Bob and I repeatedly stated our goals – to have fun and finish.  We were pretty sure we would have fun, but we had heard of high levels of attrition in past events due to mechanical failure or accidents.  KTR, the shop that built our Alfa Romeo, had orders to build a bullet-proof car.  We also decided to carry as many spare parts in the support truck as possible, and brought Andrew Funk, KTR’s GM, to support us.  We also hired Rubin, a Mexican mechanic, who got us out of a lot of jams.

Our last email to you was after Day 6.  We had one more day to go.  Day 7 was the longest day, over 425 miles, from Zacatecas to Nuevo Laredo. We had made it through 6 difficult days and felt achieving our goal of finishing was in our sights.

The day started with a speed stage followed by a long 150 mile transit stage to a service stop.  During the speed stage we noticed smoke coming out of the gearbox tunnel, but the car was running fine.  About 25 miles into the transit, the car developed a bad vibration in 5th gear.  We kept it in 4th gear and continued. 

We would soon have other problems, too.  We pre-identified a gas station in the route book down the road that, after filling up, would allow us to make it to the scheduled service stop.  When we arrived at the gas station we were surprised to find it was closed.  We now had a predicament.  We didn’t have enough fuel to make the next gas station, and we did have enough fuel to get to the previous station we passed.  Besides, going back would cause us to be late for the next stage.

We knew that our support truck was behind us and that it had a jug of fuel, enough to get us to the next gas station.  We thought the truck was about 10 minutes behind us.  However, we were shocked when it went zooming by us.  They didn’t see us sitting at the closed gas station.

We had no cell phone service there and the sat phones were not working.  There was, however, a Federal Policeman at the station.  Right after our truck flew by, I asked him if he would take me to go after the truck and get it to stop.  Amazingly he said yes. 

I jumped in his cruiser and we took off after our truck.  With the lights and siren blazing away, we finally chased the truck down and got Andrew to pull over.  The road was too narrow to turn the truck and trailer around, so I put the gas jug in the cruiser and we went back to the station.  The plan was to drive the car back to the truck’s location, return the jug, and also change the jetting, since we were at much lower altitude and we would not have time at the scheduled service stop.

After thanking the Federale and putting the gas in the car, we headed down the road and stopped at the truck.  While Andrew was changing the jetting, I mentioned the vibration problem. I also asked why the welder was sitting behind the truck and Andrew told me while they were waiting for us, they discovered the trailer hitch was about to fall off (imagine it breaking lose while they were traveling at high speed).

 We’ve lost about a half hour so far with the fuel problem, but we still had a chance to get to the next stage if we skipped the service stop.  Remember, you have to be at the next stage within 1 minute of the prescribed time, or you will be penalized.  Furthermore, the stage control is removed 10 minutes after the last car goes off, so we could miss the stage completely.

Then Andrew broke the news that the driveshaft and transmission were badly damaged (thus explaining the vibration and smoke).  Fatal failure.  Not only were we going to miss the rest of the day’s stages, but suddenly, we were looking at not finishing.

Andrew had a spare driveshaft and transmission in the truck, but it would be very difficult to install them on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere.   Regardless, Andrew and Rubin got to work and got the new driveshaft and transmission into the car.  It took 4 hours.  I’ve seen Andrew work miracles at the race track in the past, but this was unbelievable.  We took off, leaving Andrew to now deal with the damaged trailer hitch.  We said goodbye thinking we were not going to see them the rest of the trip.  They had to get the trailer fixed.

We had about 350 miles to get to the finish in Nuevo Laredo.  It is now around 3:30.  We jumped in the car and took off; the new transmission and driveshaft were working fine.  As dusk rolled in, we remembered something the experienced teams told us – don’t drive in Mexico at night.  And we were heading into one of the most dangerous regions.  As we approached Monterey, the last city before the long stretch to Nuevo Laredo, we discussed our choices – be cautious, spend the night in Monterey, drive the rest of the way in daylight the next day, but officially not finish, or keep driving until we get there and finish.  We chose the later.

It was spooky out there in the dark, especially with a car with no top or windows, but we made it.  We hit Nuevo Laredo around 9:00 pm and drove straight to the awards ceremony, turned in our Time Card and drank a couple of tequilas. We were exhausted but thrilled. 

On top of that, we won 2nd place in our class and finished 47th (out of 100 cars) overall.  We were 42nd overall before the disastrous final day. Considering we missed 10 sections due to a few problems along the way, that is pretty amazing result, especially for our first time.  We are very pleased.  We had accomplished our goals, drove well, and enjoyed an experience of a lifetime.  We could not have done it without Andrew and Rubin.

PS:  Getting back to Andrew and Rubin – they pushed on with the damaged trailer hitch.  Sure enough, on the next speed bump, the hitch broke off.  Luckily, it didn’t happen when they were at speed.  They dragged the trailer off the road, drove the truck to the nearest town, found a welder to fix the hitch, picked up the trailer and got back on the road.  They made it to Nuevo Laredo around midnight and can also say that they finished.
 

The website has been updated with pictures for Day 7, professional pictures of the speed sections, a few new pictures in other sections, and a couple of short videos.    Go to:  http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/xlEN7w7g/6341727/2894483  for photos.

Thanks to our family and friends for supporting us on this awesome adventure.

The Two Bobs  -- Bob Paltrow (l) and Bob Gett (r)