Day 4 - The Horse with No Name

Today the cars raced from Queretaro to Morelia over 4 speed sections, including the dreaded Mil Cumbre mountain. Mil Cumbre is famous the world over for is difficult turns, hostile terrain, a local populous that finds it funny to through boulders and trees into the road during the race to see *big crashes* and several deaths. Last year a car went off the road and barrel rolled over 200 feet down the mountain. The Navigator suffered severe brain trauma and is never expected to recover. The 3rd speed section started with the course car taking off and shortly after the 1st driver leaving. Richard and Simon could hear the cars shifting around the corners and suddenly a huge dump truck with a snow plow on the front end came rolling down the race way around a blind corner. The 1st car avoided a collision and the Federalies move the truck to the side so the race could continue. Later in the section Simon was amazed to find a dead horse in the middle of the road, surprisingly it was not marked in the route book.

The Bag of Nails (Bolsa con Clauos in spanish) struggled with inigition problems all day which hurt his time a little bit. The crack service team has the problem fixed and tomorrow the car should be back on track. Today he finished in 5th place overall and 1st in Historic C. Evidently someone thinks we are cheating as the car was pulled aside at the final arch today for a surprise inspection. We have little doubt that if the car places in the top five or 1st in Historic C at least one driver will protest the results. If that happens they need to pay $1000 to the car owner and then the engine is completely disassembled to ensure that it meets specs. As the owner you end up with $1000, a box full of parts and hopefully your trophey.

The Gypsy Wind is running in 27th place overall and 5th in their class, Unlimited. Doug and Grady recovered nicely yesterday and today from the spinout they had in Day 2.

Tomorrow we race from Morelia to Aguascaliente. The day includes conquring Mil Cumbre a second time, 500 km in transit and several laps around the local race track. You can view the route here: http://www.lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx/ruta/nvo/6_MORELIA_AGUASCALIENTES.pdf

Tomorrow I will post a series of pictures from some of the more spectacular crashes to date.

There is a marachie band playing and free drinks so it is time to sign off for today.