Day 1 • Oaxaca to El Camarón

To be held Friday, November 10th, 2006

The day started out with Kevin and I getting stressed out. On the way to Stage one, there were two topes (speed bumps) that were just BAD. Standing around these topes were some guys with machine guns. Welcome to Mexican Military checkpoints! The Military does not play around with their topes. In fact, we joked that they should make this place a tourist destination for having “the world’s largest topes”. Having the largest topes in Mexico has got to be worth something!

Luckily for the Unlimited Class and La Carrera Panamericana, the race is fully sanctioned by the government. La Carrera is like Mexico’s Tour de France. Three million people show up and line the streets … schools let out early … bands play in the courtyards … and the Military is willing to move their checkpoint so that we can drive around the topes!!! We LOVE MEXICO!

Moving past the topes and into the speed sections, we were like kids in a candy store. The asphalt is perfect. The banking of the turns is like skiing mogels. The scenery is breathtaking, with huge mountains and endless giant cactus lined hills. Each and every turn received new “ooohs” and “ahhhhs” from us. This is going to be some great racing!

The day of the race, we will be racing the three sections in the videos below, taking a break, and then racing these three sections in the other direction back to Oaxaca, for a total of six race sections.

Velocity section 1 (and 6 on the return trip):

Velocity section 2 (and 5 on the return trip):

Velocity section 3 (and 4 on the return trip):

- Bret Haller

Qualifying Stage • To be held Thursday, November 9th, 2006

The qualifying stage is going to be 5 kms from our hotel and down town Oaxaca, so you can easily pre-run it a few times the day before. This is where you will get your first taste of La Carrera Panamericana and The Unlimited Class, and find out where you will place in The Unlimited Class starting grid on Day One of the race.

The qualifying stage is predominantly an uphill section, winding through the hills that surround Oaxaca.

Of special note to all new La Carrera Panamericana drivers: The return trip of the qualifying stage, done at transit speeds, is a place that you should pay special attention to downhill conditions.

Downhill turns can close in on you, and the extra downhill force will change the characteristics of your brakes and effect your driving ability. Day one of racing will have many downhill sections that you will be challenged with.

After the brief qualifying stage, we will all go back to the hotel to work on cars or socialize, depending on your predicament! See you by the pool!

Here is the first of many videos that we will be uploading and linking to at this blog. Within a few weeks, we will upload video of every velocity section of La Carrera Panamericana 2006. Please note that these videos were taken while the velocity sections were open to the public. Come race day, these roads will be clear of traffic, people and other obstacles!

Qualifying stage video:

Oaxaca • Our home for 3 days during La Carrera Panamericana

In the morning, we met up with our guide (and soon to be good friend) Bruno Cerrillo and drove four hours to Oaxaca city, in the state of Oaxaca.

Here is our pre-run crew. From left to right: Kevin Ward, Paul Humble, Bret Haller and Bruno Cerrillo.

At this point, the blog here will become partially our notes of pre-running the La Carrera Panamericana route, and partially an impartial travel guide letting our drivers know what to expect where they are going.

Oaxaca has all of the amenities of a major city. If you have forgotten something at home, like we did, you should be able to find it at Office Depot or Sam’s Club. We drove past Audi, VW, Ford, Mercedes, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Dodge, and Peugeot dealers. Ferrari, Lambo, and other exotic vehicle parts can be sourced from Mexico City.

Our Hotel, The Hotel Mision de los Angeles is a four-star luxury resort with extensive grounds. For La Carrera, we have requested the northern section of the hotel for the Unlimited Class. We will all be here for at least three nights, which is a great opportunity to get to know one another. (The night before qualifying stage, the night of the qualifying stage and the night of day 1.) There will be plenty of time to cut loose and have some fun with your new driving friends here.

Oaxaca is also very close to the home of mescal tequila, and we are planning a tequila sampling bus trip for two nights before the qualifying stage for those who are interested and have arrived in time for it. (You will see many miles of agave fields during the velocity and travel sections near Oaxaca.)

We stopped in to a few of the roadside tequila stands (there are 50-100 of them!) and sampled some of their wares. We bought a few bottles that we brought home with us and are still enjoying! GOOD stuff, but we will have to tell those tales in person!

- Bret Haller

Topes (speed bumps) and required clearance to run the route

Establishing required ground clearance of vehicles for The Unlimited Class.

Topes, or speed bumps, are scattered along the route of La Carrera Panamericana. NONE of them are in the velocity sections. Velocity sections are full race sections, blocked off from traffic by the Federal Mexican Highway Patrol. Topes will be found during transit sections. They are unpleasant, but taken at 45 degree angles, are manageable. Topes are usually marked by road signs, or will be found in your route book. Topes are used to regulate speed in cities and “bookend” towns in the countryside to slow traffic before populated areas.

One of the reasons to pre-run the route this year was to check what the required ground clearance of participating vehicles needs to be. When Kevin won La Carrera Panamericana overall in 1995, the clearance on his Studebaker was 4.5 inches, and he had a skid plate.

The Unlimited Class cars will be a bit lower than that, so we decided on a test height of four inches, which is the height of the Enzo Ferrari (3.9 inches.) We created a front splitter and sides with thick black plastic to pre-run the route with.

While I was certain we should use sheet metal screws to fasten the plastic to the rental (We DID get full insurance!), Kevin was the voice of reason and convinced me we could accomplish the feat with double sided tape and duct tape.

The only two topes that were unmanageable were in the transit section of day 1, outside of Oaxaca. These topes were at a military checkpoint, and the military has agreed to move their checkpoint booths so that our cars will be able to drive around them. We have run the entire route of La Carrera Panamericana, and can tell you that it is our opinion it can be run with a minimum of 4 inches (relying on a skid plate), but 5 inches or more is recommended. Feel free to call or email Kevin or myself about sugestions. Remember to slow down and take them at a 45 degree angle!!!

Arriving in Mexico

Kevin Ward, Paul Humble and I flew from Los Angeles to Mexico City with what we thought were bags full of things that were going to get us interrogated. 5 cameras, massive amounts of cabling, 3 rolls of duct tape, plastic bags, bags of sheet metal screws, 8 sections of heavy black plastic, a matte knife, screwdrivers, and a fully charged cordless drill.

WE thought that airport security would think we were heading south to kidnap someone … but … no problems, we were welcomed to Mexico!

The first thing that we found out in Mexico City, at the airport, was that Bank of America is more than willing to give you counterfit 100 dollar bills to travel with. At the money exchange, Paul was told one of his 100’s was bogus. Sure enough, after we all looked at it .. it was! No watermark, the paper felt funny, etc. Thanks B of A!

After a bit of walking around to find an open car rental place (the one we had a reservation with was open, but in a different wing of the airport, and we didn’t feel like walking over there at midnight) we landed a brand new Passat for around 750 US for the week with unlimited milage and full insurance. We’d be needing both, for what we were up to!

We had an early morning meeting with Eduardo Leon, so after a bit of getting lost (no nav or map in the car) we pulled over, gave a taxi driver five dollars, and were at our hotel in no time at all.

-Bret Haller

Welcome to The Unlimited Class at La Carrera Panamericana Blog

Welcome to The Unlimited Class at La Carrera Panamericana Blog, where we are going to keep you up to date with what is new with the rally/race.

Bret Haller and Kevin Ward have returned from pre-running the 2006 La Carrera Panamericana route, and will begin sharing their experience here in the days to come.

If you would like to jump ahead and see full size pictures of the entire route, you may do so here: www.theunlimitedclass.smugmug.com

If you would like to jump ahead and see all of the videos that we have uploaded so far, you may do so here: http://tinyurl.com/h5yvr