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Yeah, better late then never. In the words of NiXit R. Murrow: "2003 Big Bend Open Road Race. Wednesday, April 22nd, 2003 Today was our travel day. After an unceremonious start (a day late), we filled up on gas and trucked our way out of Dallas and Fort Worth proper. We ran in to a short downpour or two, which was of little consequence. Once we cleared Fort Worth, the skies were blue and the wind at our fronts. 
When we arrived into our first gas stop, out side of Abilene Texas, we pulled in right behind a fresh 1968 mustang sitting on top a trailer, fully caged and raring to go. Sure enough, David Byrd and Andy Kier were heading off to play in the Big Bend Open Road Race. Their 68 mustangs motor was just assembled the night before and had only 75 miles on the odometer, which turns out was all they could get on the car and still get enough sleep for the long trip from East Texas. After a bit of chit chat, we finished filling up our respective tow vehicles and bid our new friends a safe trip. 
On the road in Texas, you can spot all kinds of suspicious people, but none more blatantly obvious then the cowboy, in full cowboy regalia, drinking a cold refreshing beer while driving his oversized pickup down the road, with out a care in the world. As the day is getting warmer, it’s been decided to turn on the A/C of our tow vehicle. To our amazement, it doesn’t work. Let the college road trip atmosphere begin. It began with a symphony of “what?” “huh?” “I can’t hear you” “what do you mean, you don’t like sitting in the sun?”, lol. I sat comfortably in the shade as passenger, playing with our loaner GPS system and video taping everything in sight on out loaner Digital Video Camera. It’s around this time that I informed Damon that we had averaged 80+ mph since leaving Dallas. Not bad. Especially with a 300ZX twin turbo backed up to the tailgate of our loaner truck. The rest of our trip was uneventful. It turns out that Texas can be flat in some places. South of Midland Odessa is one such place. But off in the distance in all southerly directions, you can see mountains. It is quite beautiful. As we head into our final destination of desert mountain town, Alpine Texas, we get pulled over by a wonderful Texas State Trooper. He claims that we had been doing 40 mph in a 35 mph zone. The only problem with his theory is that we were actually only doing 25mph in a 35mph zone. This was confirmed by our loaner GPS. After a brief conversation with the nice officer, he let us continue the extra half a mile to our final destination (base camp?) for the next 3 nights. We later came to the conclusion that anyone with a nice truck (loaner), a nice sports car, sitting on a nice trailer (loaner) all registered to people who are not us, and heading in the southerly direction of the border via back roads were certainly bandits making their way to Mexico to ‘export’ a hot truck and car. Once Damon explained the situation and showed the officer our big guns and permits for them, we got a smile, a nod, and a wave goodbye. I took this picture during the not so very hostile encounter. 
Thursday, April 23rd, 2003
After spending the evening in Alpine Texas, and doing last minute assembly/disassembly of our race cars systems, we loaded up the Z on the trailer and headed to Sanderson Texas. Sanderson is the southern town of the Big Bend Open Road Race. It is also our halfway turn around point during Saturday’s race. The towns of Fort Stockton and Sanderson get to share event exposure. On this day, Sanderson is hosting the second day of Registration, Technical Inspection, and Noobie School. We are here to attend all three events. As we arrive 10 miles outside of Sanderson, in the middle of nowhere, we are stopped at a freeway closing that says effectively “freeway closed for race”. Apparently, they are using the western side of the east to west freeway for practice and shake down. It is here that we spot a glimmer of hope, an early red twin turbo coupe making his practice round. “hmmm, I wonder who that is? Either way it’s a fellow Zer!” Registration was very smooth and very fast. Especially considering that we had not preregistered. We had simply shown up with a check book and our goofy grins (or just mine). After registration, we had to head off to our newbie class for drivers. The class was pretty much setup for those who have never driven a closed race track ever, whether a road race our a closed race circuit. The discussion was centered mainly on proper line through turns, being aware of your speed, and not lifting in turns. Pretty much the basics, but certainly a good refresher for the both of us. Once we completed class, it was off for lunch and technical inspection. Lunch was wonderful, inexpensive, and hosted by the local 4H club. The community really pulled together to support the entire event. Our technical inspection went flawlessly and we over prepared for our class requirements, our safety being our main concern. The race officials were glad to see an import at the event and seemed genuinely interested in the car. After lunch, our first ominous sign of things to come was seeing the red twin turbo coupe being brought in on the back of a flat bed wrecker, not much in a hurry. We never saw the owner that day, but we heard rumblings of “oh, another Z is here to blow up”. We also caught wind of the story. Apparently the owner of the Z was doing his instructor check off to ensure the car was capable. On their first leg of the 10 mile test circuit, they had no problems. Everything was smooth and normal. Once they made their turn around and started heading back, the engine internals decided to socialize amongst themselves. “cylinder 4, meet cylinder 3”. The owner of the Z, being a multi store Nissan Dealer called up his secretary in Texarkana Texas and had a brand new, zero mile, 350Z track model (in artic white) shipped down for his amusement. 
Now it’s time to shake down our Z on the test track. The purpose of the test session is to have the driver, Damon, take the car to it’s maximum approved tech speed and to ensure the car and the driver are both capable of the speeds, safely. In our case, our intended average speed is 120 mph, and our technical maximum speed is 140mph. Damon drew Kiwi Instructor and course official Craig. Craig gives Damon the check off and said effectively “yea, you’re not gonna have any problems at all”. Damon made the return trip solo. He had the biggest grin on his face that you could ever imagine. After shake down and technical sign off, they allow drivers and navigators to practice on the 10 mile stretch of road. We were both amazed to how extremely ‘purposeful’ the car felt at speed. Even in a 30mph headwind, never once did the car respond or do anything that was unexpected, although we did get stopped at our turn around at the end of the shake down road. It turns out that the fluid in the transmission was coming out the vent and running down our exhaust causing smoking. We slowly and carefully headed back towards Sanderson, recording our max speed of 141 mph this time. Wooops. We had absolutely perfect gauges all the way through both sessions today. Temps were dead on 180 / 185, oil pressure was an uneventful 60psi, boost never exceeded 12psi, and everything else was spot on. Other then the transmission venting fluid, we’ll have an easy night. I need to mention that so far in our two days of participating, the people who run the event are awesome. Our fellow racers? Awesome. The local authorities? Awesome. Everyone is absolutely the friendliest you could imagine, and the spirit in the air is of relaxation and fun in the sun. We are fitting in fabulously. On a single bad note, it appears that Bowling Green Kentucky has sent every make, model and color of corvette ever conceived. It’s overwhelming, all be it a little depressing. Not nearly the variety of cars we were hoping for. Maybe race day will bring out other cars we haven’t seen yet. Also to our surprise, the median age seems in the 40’s and 50’s. Very few people appear to be under 40 years old. Once back in base camp of Alpine, we had a great home cooked meal, added a vent tube to allow any fluids to drip free of the exhaust at least, washed the car, then added our sponsors stickers (all REAL sponsors this year!). Friday, April 25th, 2003. Today is our relaxed day. All we have to attend is the Navigators School in Fort Stockton Texas (60 miles north of Sanderson, and the larger of the two cities). There is also a carshow and drivers meeting later that afternoon. We uneventfully did an early check-in at our hotel. We unloaded the car, the truck and ourselves for a bit until navigator’s class at the Fort Stockton Civic Center at 1pm. We did a final prep on the car and checked all fluids in the parking lot of the hotel and met a few other racers (more corvettes). We exchanged pleasantries and everyone continued on their own agendas for the afternoon. At the Navigator’s school, it was quickly determined that we were screwed. Seriously screwed. Having never done any form of Open Road Racing or Rally Racing where meeting a certain time was the goal, we realized that we hadn’t done enough research. After all, if you want to average 120 mph, just get to 120 as fast as you can and roll with it. I really thought all that was necessary was to call out turns, check the GPS unit for our moving average, and call out to Damon “hey, we are a bit fast” or “a bit slow, need to compensate”. We were wrong. When the course is a predetermined 2 legs of 59 miles each leg (118 total miles), you can use time instead of mph to determine where you need to be at certain points of the track. The basic formula is ( Target_Distance X 60 / Target_Speed ). So, for the one leg of the track and our class (120mph average), the formula would look like; ( 59 x 60 / 120 = 29.5 minutes). Convert the decimal minutes to seconds (.5seconds x 60 = 30seconds). So, our target time to hit the finish line is 29 minutes 30 seconds. Cake. But boy, have we got some work to do. We decided to skip the car show to drive the course. We wanted to pick out landmarks to use as timing points along the course so we would know how far ahead or behind our times were. This turned out to be a very good idea. We got a first hand view of the course, which I had not had yet other then on video. We ran across several other racers doing the same thing. We spent the rest of the evening revising course notes and preparing for race day. Some car show pics:
 
Saturday, April 26th, 2003 Today is race day. We awake at the crack of dawn to get to pregrid back at the Civic Center in Fort Stockton. At pregrid, you line up by your class so when you get out on the course, there is very little confusion. Unfortunantly, it was still incredibly dark outside, and finding out spots painted in the parking lot was nearly impossible until first light. Damon chose to get some beauty sleep as we waited for more light and event officials to arrive. Occasionally you could hear random shouts of “WOOO HOOO! Found it!” This turns out to be the only real bit of ‘disorganization’ over the event weekend. The weather at 6am is rather cool, and most racers are tending to their vehicles or their sleep. After we got pregrid squared away, we followed a state trooper out past the closed road checkpoint and two miles down the road to the start finish. It took much longer to open the road course then previously anticipated, but everyone mingled about, checked out race cars and socialized. The road has to be swept of all road kill prior to running the event, and all gates/roads/properties must have a course worker onsite to prevent accidental locals getting on the closed hot race course. Apparently the night before, there were quite a few incidence of vehicular manslaughter of animals on the road, as the under-estimated the ‘sweeping’ of the course. It didn’t help that the Red Bull sponsor truck was doing the speed limit on its way up to the start finish line (a full hour away, lol). Eventually, the track was swept and clear for racing. 
They were taking bets on how much of the air damn would get scraped off...
They grid the cars by speed class, faster cars going first, slowest cars going last. The first two cars are in the unlimited class and require air support from two airplanes since they are too fast for one airplane to stay in contact. Seeing these two unlimited cars leave the line was awe inspiring. Knowing that they are a full 5 or 10 miles down the road, and still being able to hear them clearly is truely something that needs to be experienced. The Race is ON! Our time on track is about 10 minutes out. So we head back to our car to be near it, and watch as the faster classes take to the track. Then the worst thing possible happened. We heard over the course workers handheld radios “where is car 14?”. “has anyone seen car 14”. “car 14 has not passed checkpoint 22”. “what was the last known checkpoint that car 14 passed”. “send up the airplanes”. It was a very quiet 5 minutes until car 14 was found. He apparently had engine problems and was able to pull safely off course. The course workers in sight of that area had a radio fail on them and were unable to report car 14s status. Once that work station got a new radio, and the airplane returned to the airport, we were back in business. Our time to the line was eerily quiet. As we approached we were checked, and double checked for proper safety gear by course officials. They cinched us in tighter then I have ever been under belts. It was very uncomfortable, but I would soon forget about comfort. Damon and I went over our very short checklist. “gauges”, “visor”, “stop watches”, “radio check.. check/check”, “gps reset”, “avc-r peak hold”... two thumbs up and we rolled to the line. The starting lights are very reminiscent of drag racing. Four yellow lights then a green light. Once the light goes green, your time has started. You could sit on the line after the green light for a minute if you so wished, as it only affects you and your time at the first leg finish. We chose to book it. And boy, did we. We were bouncing off of the Pilot 3 stage shift light at 5700rpm at 137/138 mph in no time. Its really unbelievable to scream down the road at over double the speed limit without much of a care. Drive in the other lane? No problem. Cops? Don’t exist for the next 59 miles south. The road belongs to us. My head is quickly buried in course notes. This turns out to be my position for most of the ride. G forces pull to the left or right to tell me when we’re into and out of whatever corner I just called. Predriving was a very good idea (duh). After a few minutes of calling corners and briefly checking gauges in the car for Damon, we get settled into a rhythm of what info is really important and when it needs to be spoken into the helmet to helmet intercom (I don’t know how people communicate w/o one at speed, it’s noisy in the car). We have the windows up and the AC off. Sure it’s like 10am in south Texas in early spring, but I’ve got an engine hauling ass in front of me and the temp in the car is slowly rising. My gloves suck. I can’t write and flipping pages is a pain. It proves to almost screw us at one point in the track. I’m telling Damon the next corner goes to the right, he says it goes to the left. I’m glad he decided he was right after video and predriving. We probably would have bailed off the track in a not so pretty place. The second worse thing that can happen during a run is the driver loses confidence in the navigator. I quickly get my pages and corners under control. In the video, you can see us giving a ‘what’s up’ hand gesture at one of the peaks. That’s when it happens. Next time, I’m going to rearrange my course notes where there’s not a page turn in a critical place and have some worthwhile gloves. Before during and after this run, we learned a lot about how it’s really supposed to be done. There’s really no information out on the internet about it, and it seemed simple until we got into the Navigator’s meeting yesterday. Getting towards the end, Damon’s not letting up on the gas pedal in the twister sections. We get further and further off our average. So now Damon’s pissed at me because we’re 30 seconds ahead of schedule. He drives his car like he drives the truck with a trailer on it. I can’t even give a 10 second countdown to the finish line because we’ll be at the courthouse in Sanderson by the time it’s supposed to happen. Damon starts scrubbing speed and the finish line is in sight. Oh, well... Watch the video below to see what Damon got to do. Once we arrived at the courthouse, we were uncertain of our current status, as we didn’t know our minimum speeds. Our real error was trying to sand bag at the end. If you miss your time at the halfway point, you need to recalculate all of your timing marks for the return trip anyway. Our inexperience showed and we were rather stressed at the turn around. With the help of fellow racers, and citizens of Sanderson we made the best of a bad situation. We wouldn’t know if we were still in the race or not, until we got to pregrid. 
Part of the turn around point is having an hour or so for a car show around the courthouse, which is very reminiscent of 1900s small town layouts. A large central building surrounded by a ‘square’. We proceeded to park in our designated spots and enjoy the town and the towns folks.
After about one hour of free sandwiches and drinks, recalculating course notes, and talking with fellow racers, we got the call to pregrid and go back to the start finish line. 
Since we all came down in pregrid fashion anyway, we just had to head back to start finish. Enter, Drama. We knew we were either in, or out. And only one person was going to let us know. And that person certainly did. After handing out 3 or 4 disqualification slips, he headed for our car and handed us an unassuming piece of legal pad. “#19 Damon S. Disqualified. 84mph radar, 56mph under speed”. For clarification, they allow a window of speed on the track. Ours was 90 mph to 140 mph. Anything above or below was certain disqualification. We had both read and/or assumed very incorrectly that our low speed was 80mph prior to entering this event. We were both very wrong. Education 101. Unceremoniously, we are asked to pull out of line and head back to the town square. At this point, we are no longer a part of the race in any form. We can either wait until they open the road back up (a few hours), or drive one hour west, then one hour north to get back to Fort Stockton. We chose the latter. Bummed. Boy… just bummed. We didn’t speak too much on the outcome. At least there was air conditioning now. I knew saying anything wouldn’t help at all. After much inner reflection, we both realized, ‘dude, we just ran the Big Bend Open Road Race… the most challenging open road race in the world”. Spirits began to rise, and we proceeded to discuss everything we learned. Once back at the hotel, we proceeded to kick our shoes off, and relax. After all, we have the awards banquet and dinner in 3 hours. After an hour of napping, we went and washed the cars and ourselves. We also got some time to reflect with 130mph average solo racer Craig Loeck who drove a ZR1 corvette and 140mph average solo racer Paul Kraught and his 2003 C5 Corvette. Again, some of the nicest folks we have ever met. There has never been the sense of real competition amongst racers. They are all friendly, helpful, supportive, and always willing to share strategies. At the awards banquet, we realized something very interesting; we are damn near the youngest participants at this event. And we are in our 30’s. We were entertained by an open bar and a tex-mex guitarst. We socialized with the owner of the local newspaper, some guys from Nebraska, our friends from the race, our friends from the hotel... Hell, they were all our friends. 
Turkey Buzzard hit on a 125MPH class 'Vette.
After our Steak and Shrimp (!) dinner, they proceeded to hand out special awards and generic awards. Of noteworthy interest, there were two racers in their 80s, and they were recognized as such. 
Randy Archer was in charge of Race Operations
Somewhere in West Texas.
- Thom Vester, and Robert Roach, Studebaker no speedo, just tach, running the 100mph class, 1st place.
- Paul the mathmetician. Uses CD player for navigation, won 1st over all closest to target speed in the timed classes, 1st hand timers group, and 1st in his class 0.003 -mph (0:00.068 +t) under his target time.
- 165.229 new course record to Todd Carpenter in his 1996 Camaro SS. The license plate says ‘sleeper’ on it. ‘nuff said.
- What a long ass dinner.
- The car behind us on the grid was David and Pat bone from Denver got second overall for closest to average behind Paul. In conclusion: Driver; “Break out the whip”
Navigator; “4 telephone poles, 3 telephone poles, 2 telephone poles..." Here’s the list of people that helped make it possible, I apologize to anyone left out: Cash donations:
- Guapo
- Glenn (San Jose)
- Wui (Philly) Sponsors:
- Sport Z Magazine
- CourtesyParts.com
- 300 Degree
- SGP Racing
- ImportsExtreme.com
- TwinTurbo.NET
- DemonSpeed.com/Phoenix Autosports
- Visual Dynamics
- RMS Horsepower
- Ztoyz.net
- Visual Dynamics
- BaerTrax Parts:
- GPS, Jeff Park (Boris)
- Trailer, Russell Seibert (Russell (Dallas))
- CBs, Jeremy (Downshift)
- Gloves, Shoes, Hats Douglas @ demonspeed.com
- Racing Harness Spares, John Yim (John(Houston))
- Tow Vehicle, Scott Douglas Destructo
- D.Video Camera, Erick Chung (FLY 1 (Dallas))
- Radar Detector, Steve Simmons (Steve Simmons)
- Radiator, Wesley Strong (wesman)
- Race Seat(s), Wesley Strong (wesman)
- Race Seat, (nixit)
- Racing Harness (nixit)
- Autopower 5 point Roll bar, (nixit)
- Lower Radiator Hoses, Jaime Decure (aspendog)
- HIDs, Trevor, Visual Dynamics." Pics of my car: 
Videos of the Southbound run... pick what you want and right click and save as, please do not stream them from the server. Preview 14M X2 speed straights, full run 55M Full run 74M
Later
   "Never underestimate the power of a wheelie." - Jesse James on Monster Garage's BTS show. Couldn't agree with him more... still waiting to see NiXit's Joop do a reverse wheelie. When was the last time you *really* did something with your Z to call yourself a Z enthusiast? Member #1 PETZ
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BBORR writeup - 
