Mockett’s Chihuahua Express

May 2, 2007 (www.mockett.com)
Chihuahua, Mexico – Read Team USA Scholarship prime mover and shaker Doug Mockett’s personal account of his impressive victory in the recent Chihuahua Express, a Mexican road race held in the tradition of La Carrera Panamericana, which Mockett himself won a few years ago. Enjoy:

Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you …

Just had a racing weekend kinda like that, and it was a delicious experience. And when you have been racing cars as long as I have, you are thankful, as these things just do not come along that often … if ever.

Annually we run the 1954 Oldsmobile stock car, “Olds en Nombre Solamente” (Olds in Name Only) in the week long, 2,400-mile La Carrera Panamericana , from the bottom of Mexico to the U.S. Border. Then it sits for 11 months (well, actually, 10 of the 11 months are used slapping it back into shape).

Last weekend was run a new event, the “Chihuahua Express” – a three-day rally in/around Chihuahua. Day One it went NW, Day 2 West to the Copper Canyon area, and Day 3 East to the U.S. border. Nightly it ended back in Chihuahua so we had the luxury of every night in the same hotel room. Which also made it easier on the crew.

It was billed as a “New vs. Old” event, with a bunch of our old Carrera cars against new sports cars like Vipers, Corvettes and fully rally-prepped Subaru WRX’s and Mitsubishi EVO’s. The smart money was on the new cars …

We had the advantage of fabulous preparation by Phil Denney of PRD Engineering at Sears Point who does a brilliant job and had fitted a new rear suspension since last Fall’s Carrera. Otherwise same car, even same motor. Phil labored hard during the Carrera, changing motors and keeping the beast alive to finish seventh overall and sixth in class after my “off” in stage one on day one … not one of my prouder moments, especially after qualifying first of 92 cars.

We had old hand Oscar Carrillo as Team Manger who knows what to do and does it.

Plus we had a secret weapon. For the first time ever we had a pro navigator, Angelica Fuentes. Ms. Fuentes is Mexican, several times Mexican national rally champ, now married to a Scot and living in London (who appeared at their wedding in Mexico City in full kilts, leading to a bit of cultural disconcert, but that is another very long story) and she was a whiz.

She insisted we arrive a few days early and pre-run the course. Never have done so in the past. So we did, driving a poor rental car 750 miles in two days and pre-running days one and two. She wrote a zillion notes, filling two spiral bound books. So we knew the pavement condition, the entry, exit, cambers, and could drive those days very, very confidently. Actually, we could drive slower but with much more confidence, thus go faster.

As we both had won the Carrera, she last year navigating for Gabriel Perez and me in 2002, we were seeded second behind a Viper and ahead of a Corvette and some seriously rally-prepped WRX’s and EVO’s.

A rally is a race held in two ways: first is a transit stage where you drive at highway speeds and have to arrive at a checkpoint at a very specific time; a minute early or late and you incur a penalty. At the checkpoint the roads are closed and cars run one at a time against a clock. More transit, more speed stages, and at the end of the day the car with the lowest stage times and the fewest (or no) penalties wins. Add the days together and you have an overall winner.

The speeds are serious, with 100mph stage averages common and top speeds of 170 – 190. On public two-lane roads. Best to stay off the sides of the roads! And yes, a crash here and there does occur. At this event I think there were two or three totals, with no injuries, just a lot of car damage. And a few blown motors, par for the course.

Our first stage was 40 km (25 miles) through the mountains. I was sure we would be eaten alive from behind by the rally cars. And would never see the Viper. Off he went. 60 seconds later off we went. About 1/3 the way through I caught glimpses of the Viper. Algelica exhorted me to concentrate on our drive, not him. Right she was. The lady has done this before! About 1/2 way through we caught the Viper and a glimpse in the rear view mirror showed two dropped jaws from a very surprised Viper crew as we blew by! The stage ended, no rally cars in sight on our tail, no Viper … we cleaned it.

Long story short, the rally consisted of three days, 1,050 miles and 355 miles of 26 special speed stages. We won them all. Amazing. We won Day One by 5:30, Days Two and Three by the same, and won the event by 17+ minutes, an unheard of margin.

Honestly, Angelica made all the difference. A real pro and it showed and we reaped the benefit. She’s been doing this for 20+ years and has the route down and you cannot get her scared. At worst she said softly “mind the corner” (in a Mexican/British./Scottish accent), and after a particularly lurid moment when we nearly missed the exit of a turn at 120+mph, potentially dropping off a 10′ embankment and trashing us and the car (there were perhaps two lurid moments in three days) a soft “Oh dear …” a very cool, very hip, very professional rally navigator and it was a pleasure to have her guiding the navigating. Do not know that Keith, her husband, would agree …

Clearly it was our event.

Plus, it was a very, very good feelling to have an old 1954 Oldsmobile, albeit somewhat modified, well, maybe “highly modified” is a better term, like “wolf in sheep’s clothing” modified, embarrass all the modern sports cars … actually, a delicious feeling.

We won our class, we won first overall, I won best driver, and Oscar won best sportsman asward for his helping others cross the border in Laredo.

We will savor this victory for a long, long time … and be back next April to defend it.

Sorry for going on and on, but these deals just do not come along, so maybe we’re entitled to crow a little …