Gordon/Arciero Take Overall

NORRA Mexican 1000
Gordon/Arciero Take
Overall
By Judy Smith
Photos: Trackside Photo
Tom and Darin Harris drove their Ford to the Category 10 win in the NORRA Mexican
1000, their total time was 12.99 hours for the event.
The Bob Gordon, Ryan Arciero buggy was first Overall, first in Category 4 with a total time of 664.33 minutes (11.07 hours).
Ben Abatti had a ball! He drove his absolutely beautiful truck to a third overall, first
place in Category 2, here at speed. Time 13.34 hours.
Tim Morton was the first motorcycle to finish the NORRA Mexican 1000 in Category
8A, Tim’s total time for the run was 13.40 hours.
La Paz, Baja California: In a
1989 Chenowth, powered by a
Toyota V6 motor, Bob Gordon,
Ryan Arciero, Frank Arciero,
Jr., and Tim Crabtree won the
nostalgic NORRA Mexican 1000
Rally.
There hasn’t been such a
gathering of the clan since the
Petersen Museum Off Road Exhibit in September of 2000. This
time the cars were part of the
allure, but the old timers who
were pushing them through the
contingency/tech inspection line
also grabbed the attention of the
bystanders.
The NORRA Mexican 1000
Rally had tried to happen in September of 2009, but a nasty hurricane that swamped the penin-
Roger Norman was the gold medal winner in the Category 11 contest, he completed
his run down the peninsula in 13.58 hours.
It was a great win for Mike Shatynski at the NORRA event, he took the gold medal in
Category 3, his winning time was 15.37 hours.
sula just before the planned race
date caused it to be postponed.
Then the Easter Sunday earthquake, centered as it was just
under the planned start line for
the event, made it look as if there
was a jinx on the Rally – but the
earthquake, damaging as it was,
didn’t upset the Rally plans.
Mike Pearlman, son of the
founder of NORRA, Ed Pearlman, didn’t really intend to put
on a race when he started up
the NORRA site on the internet
a couple of years ago. He had a
lot of the old start-line photos
and race photos, and thought
maybe some folks would like to
buy some. But as soon as the
site went up, people started talk-
ing “race”. Eventually he gave
in, gathered a bunch of people
around him to help, and they
pulled things together to make it
work. It was originally scheduled
to start in Ensenada, but that was
abruptly changed to Mexicali. It
may not have been where most
of the NORRA events started,
but in 1972 the very last of the
NORRA Mexican 1000s started
there, so the old racers felt right
at home.
The race was not presented in
its old format – which was just
a point-to-point event, with the
object being to get to La Paz as
quickly as possible. For this edition, the promoters made it into
a rally. There were Special Stages
and Transits, and it was just as
important to slow down in some
sections as it was to be quick in
others. Those who went too fast
on the transits, which were all
on pavement, would lose points.
Pearlman said that he thought
off roaders were “ready for something new”, and he was adamant
that it should be fun.
Pearlman hadn’t been involved in the off-road racing
scene since the early seventies.
He did remember, however, that
a lot of it was fun, and he hoped
to recapture that spirit. He was
just 17 or 18 when he last was
involved in the racing, and one
of his early memories involves
having his first margarita, (which
Andy McMillin drove “Beagle Two to the silver medal in Baja in Category Scott McMillin ran in Category 2, he drove his Ford to a second place It was a second place finish in Category 8A for Ruben Hale, he’s seen
4, Andy’s time for the event was 13.68 hours.
finish in class, his elapsed time was 13.94 hours for the run.
here headin’ down the peninsula. His time was 14.26 hours.
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July 2010
Dusty Times
It was a gold medal in the Category 5B fracas, Greg Adler took the win in his Jeep,
seen here ready to start the event. His time: 16.39 hours.
he said tasted like really good
lemonade) while waiting for the
finishers of the 1967 event to get
to the finish line. One margarita
led to another, and ultimately,
he reports that he missed seeing all but the last few finishers.
Nevertheless, the memory is a
fond one.
As he star ted getting into
the production of his rally, he
quickly discovered that it probably hadn’t been all fun. And
once the event was over, he said
“I have a lot more respect for
Dad and Sal (Fish, of SCORE).”
It was, he found, a tremendous
amount of work.
Not only was it more work
than he’d expected, but Pearlman had the added complication
of a couple of disasters. The first
was that early autumn hurricane
(Jimena) that created havoc on
the peninsula, tore up roads, isolated towns, and generally devas-
Dusty Times
tated the area. Up to his eyebrows
in pre-race planning, Pearlman
was suddenly confronted with
the fact that much of the area he
planned to travel through had
been seriously damaged. It was an
Chris Wilson drove the 1968 Ford Bronco to the win in the Category 5C division, seen
here in the outback. Chris’ time was 16.84 hours.
easy decision to make. NORRA
would postpone the rally, and in
the interim, would solicit donations, and help in getting it to the
isolated areas in need. Truckloads
of clothing and foodstuffs were
Pancho Bio ran the good ‘ol VW to the win in the Category 9 bunch, Pancho took the
win with a finishing time of 17.12 hours.
July 2010
taken in, and as the peninsula
healed, plans for the rescheduled
rally slowly came to fruition.
Now the rally was set for late
April, which should have nice
weather, no serious race con-
f licts, and allowed a bit more
time for Pearlman and his crew
to get organized. But, on Easter
Sunday the earthquake hit. Happily, although there was serious
damage in the outskirts, and brief
interruptions of water and power,
it appeared that Mexicali had
escaped without any horrendous
damage. There was some highway
destruction south of town, but
the citizens of Baja, as well as offroad racers, know how to find a
way around torn up pavement. It
presented no problem.
Pearlman and his par tner,
Mike Noval, and some family
members and a few friends laid
out the course and did all the
GPS notes themselves. They did
not actually mark the course,
because this was to be a rally, and
the racers would use Tulip Notes
in addition to the GPS map to
find their way. Each day had two
Continued on page 28
It was a nice win for Mark Haber in the Category 5E contest, Mark is seen here on his
way down south. His overall time was 17.21 hours.
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Chris Raffo drove his heavily stickered Ford to the win in Category 5D, Chris’ winning
time was 17.23 hours.
Joe Desrosiers was the winner in the Category 7A contest, Joe’s winning time for the
Category was 17.53 hours overall.
Ray and Tom Swift drove their 1958 Ford Edsel to the win in the Category 1 race,
Ray’s winning time was 18.59 hours.
clear that there were some who
fully intended to try to get there
first. It wasn’t going to be easy:
there were a total of 746.5 dirt
(Special Stage) miles and 325.9
pavement (Transit) miles, for a
total mileage of 1072.4. That’s
would be a lot of driving.
While the first NORRA race
had about four car classes and
only three or four bike classes,
these folks had many more by the
time they got to race day. They
had hoped to attract vintage offroad race cars and bikes, and they
did. But there were also some
folks with old Volkswagens, some
of which had never been race
cars, who wanted to be part of the
fun, and some who had middle-
or three “Special Stages”, which
were on dirt, and two or three
Transits, which were pavement
sections. The object was to get
through each Stage as quickly as
possible, but then the Transits
were to be completed in the “Target Time”, or penalties ensued.
Penalties were assessed for being
too early or too late, but there
was a generous cushion either
way. The chief object was to avoid
blatant and dangerous speeding
on the pavement.
The event was divided into
three sections: from Mexicali,
at the top of Laguna Salada, to
Bahia de Los Angeles was the Day
1 section. On the second day they
went from Bahia de Los Angeles
to Loreto, and on the third day
it was Loreto to La Paz. Most, if
not all, of the miles of dirt running were familiar to those who’d
raced in Baja in the past. Even
without a GPS a team could make
fairly safe assumptions about
where each day’s Special Stage
(dirt) sections would be going.
During the contingency/tech
inspection line-up out behind the
Hotel Colonial, which was headquarters this year as it has been
in the past a time or two, the talk
was mostly about having fun, enjoying being in Baja, taking care
of the precious old cars, and looking forward to getting to La Paz.
But there was a glint or two to
be seen in some eyes, and it was
aged race vehicles, and some with
vehicles that had never raced, but
seemed suited to this particular
venue. The resurrected NORRA
team welcomed them all, created classes and wrote rules. Ultimately, they had 80 starters in 12
classes. There were a lot of nonracing racers who came to see the
cars and the old racers, and a ton
of Baja citizens who came for the
same reason. There was a lot of
hugging and back-slapping going
on as old friends reconnected
for the first time in years. It was
terrific.
The cars went off the line one
at a time, heading out from a big
parking lot next to the headquarter hotel. They paraded to the top
of Laguna Salada, where they began the race officially. There were
no requirements for any GPS
tracking devices, though many
had them, and some were without GPS totally, and some were
without radios. NORRA had the
help of the Baja Bush pilots, a
group of Baja-loving Gringos with
their own planes and a couple of
helicopters. They got the officials
safely down course in time to
officiate as needed, and were, of
course available should there be
an emergency needing a plane.
There was some problem with
the landing strip at Bay of L.A.,
where the Eijido that owns the
strip hadn’t paid for their annual
permit. The Mexican government
had to issue some temporar y
permits so that the various planes
and helicopters could use the
strip during the race.
NORRA also had help from
the Mexican Cruz Roja, which
provided standby ambulances for
the duration. Pearlman found
that one of the more onerous
chores involved with putting on
a race was being certain that all
the various volunteers had rooms
each night. He found himself
serving as a sort of hotel middleman, trying to be sure there were
accommodations for ever yone
at the two overnight stops and
La Paz. Still, at the end of it all,
and in spite of the extra work it
required, he said that he liked
Jose Julio Santibanez drove the large vehicle to the Category 5A win in Baja, Jose
accumulated 19.20 hours on his way to the checkered flag.
Steve Krieger III drove his modified Ford Bronco to the Category 6 win, Steve spent
19.30 hours getting down the peninsula.
Chad Niernberg had a great time, he drove his 1968 Ford Bronco to the Category 5C
gold medal, Chad’s time for the event was 20.01 hours.
Lorenzo Pearson was the big winner in the Category 9 fracas, seen here in his VW
with Jeff Quinn aboard, running time was 21.77 hours.
David Sykes had a good time, he took the bronze medal in Category 2, It was a first out of the money finish for Walker Evans in Category 2, he’s Jonathan and Ryan Swift, 1973 VW Gator Bug, finished in third place
Dave is seen here at speed, his overall time was 14.66 hours.
seen here in that Dodge that won so many races. Finished in 14.69 hours. in Category 4, their overall time was 15.23 hours.
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July 2010
Dusty Times
the overnight format and would
choose it again.
Ultimately, the racers seemed
to have a good time. Pearlman
took to his bed to sleep for two
days once it was over, but even he
seemed to think it met his criteria
for fun.
The star studded overall winning team of Bob Gordon, Tim
Crabtree and Ryan and Frank
Arciero, in their 1989 V6 Toyota
powered Chenowth with a VW
beam front end, finished the
three days with a time of 664.33
minutes. Gordon said that originally they planned to cool it, so
the car would last and they’d get
to drive all three days. But old
habits die hard. By the third day
he said they “drove very hard”.
They stopped to put on two new
tires, but had no problems, not
even a flat. Said Gordon, “I can’t
remember not having one problem in a race.”
Ben Abatti, Sr. and his son,
Ben, Jr., teamed in the old Robby
Gordon Hay Hauler truck to win
George Pennington rode his Honda to victory in Category 8, his running time was a
lengthy 23.84 hours.
The big winner in Category 12 was Klaus Rash, he went down the peninsula in 21.97
hours, he’s seen here at speed.
Category 2, for pre ’89 Production 2WD utility vehicles. It must
have been quite an experience for
the Junior half of the team, because he’d never been even as far
as Laguna Salada into Baja before
this. He did a stellar job. Their
time was 800:46.
George Erl and Mike Shatyn-
A full listing of the teams and
their day by day times can be
found on the NORRA website.
All of the contest ants we
spoke to had a very good time.
All of them said they’d do it
again, and none even stopped to
think about it. Pearlman has also
said that he thinks he might do it
ski drove an old Class 9 T-Mag
car to victory in Category 3, for
Single Seat 2WD cars. Their biggest problem was that Erl had
a hard time watching his GPS
through his trifocals. He also said
it was kind of hard to adjust to
a course with no markers. Their
time was 9:22:24.
again. So those of our readers
who dilly-dallied too long and
couldn’t get the old cars ready in
time for the 2010 edition, better
start wrenching. If they do try it
again, it will be another rally,
with the overnight stops. Keep
checking the NORRA website for
updates. John Swift drove his 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass to a second place finish It was a second place finish in Category 11 for Scott Steinberger, he’s Rodd and Roy Frantelli collected the silver medal in the Category 10 battle,
in Category 3, John’s time at the finish was 15.82 hours.
seen here hustlin’ his Ford to the finish. His time: 16.18 hours.
they’re seen here in their Datsun 720. Finishing time was 18.87 hours.
Dusty Times
July 2010
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