Sorry for the delay. This was originally published on 0-60.com as a five part series. There were some delays in getting it posted so I was just waiting for it to run in full. Photos can be found on Bret’s photo blog. Ignore any unflattering pictures. It was hot as hell and I think tired doesn’t even begin to express how I felt at the end of most days.

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My journey began by driving my race ready 2006 Lotus Elise from Detroit to Chicago to get my truck and trailer. From there I drove to Emory, Texas to pick up crew member Cade Wilson, and then on to San Antonio to pick up my navigator Steve Warwick. Next was Laredo to meet up with the convoy — we hadn’t even entered the country the race was being held in and had already driven 1,773 miles. Although the race is officially seven days, the endurance aspect starts well before you cross the starting arch.

Gerie Bledsoe, the US contact for the La Carrera Panamericana and our trusty guide to the start of the race was waiting with about twenty other trucks and trailers ready to cross into Mexico — in our case using a forged registration. Because one person can only import one vehicle at a time and I own both the truck and the Lotus, Cade soon found himself the proud but temporary owner of a well worn Dodge Ram. Two hours of sleep, import permits in order, tourist visas stamped, and we hit the road.

From Laredo Nuevo we drove almost seven hundred miles that day to San Miguel de Allende where we were welcomed with an escort to our hotel and a charity dinner. The next morning the cars were set up in the Jardin (town square) to benefit Feed the Hungry which builds kitchens onto schools in Mexico. After spending hours posing for photos and giving autographs we made our way to Puebla, passing through Mexico City on the way. What most people don’t know is that you’re never allowed to drive a truck and trailer through the city, and the closed circuit monitored highways that dissect the city are only about three Beetles wide. Within minutes we were swarmed with “killer bees” — the tiny black and yellow striped cars that the Mexican highway patrol uses. While we had special permission to use the highways, that never seemed to make its way down to the killer bees. After some negotiations we were back our way to Puebla, and then the next morning finished the last two hundred miles into Veracruz.

It was still two days before the race and we’d already driven three thousand miles — fifty percent more than the race length itself — and that doesn’t count all the U-turns, bad directions, and detours around raw sewage floods. But who cares about minor details! So far it felt like an exotic road trip, but the moment we were handed our stickers and car number it started to sink in that I was about to race. Sure, I’ve put in plenty of hours at the track, I’ve been to Skip Barber Racing School, and had my fair share of fast rides, but this was my first race. This was the first time I could officially say, “I am a race car driver.”

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Qualifying
Peligroso! Chica Loca!
In Veracruz the Lotus was hand painted to give it some old fashioned charm. I’d originally planned on painting “Caution: Female Driver” across the back, but everyone began referring to me as “Chica Loca” (”Crazy Girl”) so we went with that instead, as well as adding our names, blood type, and the traditional Mexican and American flags. After a few more last minute decorations thanks to Coop, my crew and I headed to the pool to relax. The next morning was qualifying and we needed some rest.

Qualifying started out in a small town in the mountains where we lined up along a cobblestone road surrounded by small Mexican homes. Children and grandmothers lined the streets watching the cars launch from the starting line, beginning what we’d been told was going to be a very dangerous race. We didn’t want to wipe out before it even began, but unfortunately a few cars disagreed — first Carlos Castillo and Carlos Ramierez’s Studebaker went out of the race, and then a vintage Mini rolled as well… We were definitely spooked when we saw those totaled cars on the side of the road — it felt like running the Gauntlet!

I was ecstatic to find the results placed us sixteenth overall.

* * *

Day 1: Veracruz - Veracruz

Novices like me mixed in with former F1 drivers and pro-rally champions from around the world, and I shook hands with the Governor of Veracruz before climbing into the drivers seat. With navigator Steve at my side, we made our way back to the mountains to race, although some stages had been canceled due to poor road condition… I would definitely consider three foot wide, half foot deep potholes a poor choice of road for speeds over a hundred miles an hour! Even transiting them at sixty miles an hour was nearly impossible so we took our time through what proved to be our second most difficult day. We ran three speed sections in each direction, and the second speed stage had been freshly patched with loose asphalt. It’s true that Lotus’s lightweight philosophy is almost always a good thing, but here it became a severe disadvantage. Normal gravel would have been fine, but every time we hit the loose asphalt we lost steering and braking capabilities — it felt like we were flying. After coming across Jerry Churchill’s car pointed the wrong way out of the weeds, we decided there was no reason to lose on the first day of the race. Unfortunately Rusty Ward didn’t agree, taking his Police Car Studebaker off of a bridge to go fishing instead. Sadly, by the end of day several other cars also bit the dust, and we were barely in the top twenty-five.

Day 2: Veracruz - Puebla
From sea level to lush foggy mountains.

The trip to Puebla was amazing — some of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever seen, with wonderful views topped only by the celebrations at every city we stopped at. Today’s stages included an insane eight mile hill climb that left the Lotus’s engine control unit aching for a proper tune. While the ECU learns and makes adjustments, it was certainly taking its sweet time as we crawled up the hill, switching back and forth between first and second as we listened to the engine screaming. The sounds of tires squealing through tight hairpin after hairpin — so tight that some of the larger cars had to reverse through them to make it around — was thoroughly enjoyable. By the end of the day we’d crept up a few spots and had nearly made it back into the top twenty.

Day 3: Puebla - Querétaro
The need for speed.

Before the day’s Champ Car races we ran an exhibition race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguezin Mexico City, a track that’s also seen F1 drivers such as Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher and the NASCAR Busch Series. When we got there, twenty cars were already on the track, and it was pouring rain.

Others stayed out on the track enjoying it (and numerous penalties), and we launched into action. We entered at a different position than planned, so our route book no longer matched the upcoming corners, the first being a right sweeper. On the straight a Studebaker blew past us at over a hundred and fifty miles per hour, but we easily out-braked him into the next turn and left him behind in a hurricane of rain. Watching one car after another unable to hold a proper line, we squeezed past each onto the straight. Those 3.8 laps felt more like an obstacle course because the poor weather made it very difficult for the heavy high horsepower cars to perform well through all the tight curves, giving us the advantage — by day’s end we’d made our way into the top twenty.

Although we suffered from four yellow flags during this short experience, the track was so amazing that when the final lap came around, we wondered if we should just keep going and enjoy a few more laps… After all, when’s the next time we’d be on an F1 track?

Day 4: Querétaro - Morelia
The dangers of Mil Cumbres.

I woke up this morning feeling incredibly nervous as we were about to enter the most talked about section of the race. The “old timers” all had the same warning — “Go slow and BE CAREFUL!” I don’t know if they were trying to psyche me out, or if I was psyching myself out, but by the time it was our turn to run, I was definitely psyched out. However, once we sped off into the lush forest, I immediately felt a sense of calm come over me and we got into our rhythm. Steve began calling out, “Left 2 into Right 3”, and we were well on our way into Mil Cumbres when it started to rain again. When I flicked on the wipers, oil that had been sprayed on the windshield in an earlier transit section smeared across my view, slowing us to about sixty-five through the wet, windy, mountain roads.

Once the rain began to clear we nailed the gas, passing both the Triumph and a Porsche 356 — which had somehow managed to break down next to the only restaurant in the area. After some hairy debating on how to pass the big wide Quaker Oats Hudson on a road with no straights, we went for the inside line in a Left 2 and made it. Not long after, I heard Steve yell “STAY RIGHT!” at the top of his lungs — the entire left lane and then some had washed down the mountain, and we squeezed along the mountain face hoping it wouldn’t get worse or collapse beneath us. The right lane reappeared, but as we tore around the next corner we were immediately faced with a cow in each lane. The last thing we needed was livestock taking the Lotus out of the race early, and I managed to swerve between them without scrubbing off too much speed.

The warnings of the more experienced drivers had been heeded throughout the day, but three cars were ultimately retired from the race on this day, sadly one of which saw its drivers sent to the ICU. Today the Lotus’s weight and handling had been an advantage, making up huge time on the other competitors, and we climbed into the top fifteen.

Day 5: Morelia - Aguascalientes
More danger and the looming threat of Pierre de Thoisy.

On day five we repeated the previous day’s course, but in the opposite, downhill direction. The past six year’s overall champion, Pierre de Thoisy, was in position behind us due to some clutch problems outside Morelia that had penalized him — and there is nothing more frightening than knowing Pierre is behind you on Mil Cumbres! The threat of being passed is worse than having to pass a slower car, so we were constantly checking our mirrors. The last thing I wanted to see was Pierre’s Studebaker bearing down on us, but something about Mil Cumbres must have been keeping an eye on us. We passed a Corvette in two of the speed stages, but never saw Pierre in our rear view mirror. By the end of the day we were approaching the top ten.

Day 6: Aguascalientes - Zacatecas
Treacherous, unpredictable, and fast.

Most of day six saw the pedal floored, with Steve yelling in the background to “Mat it!”, only to have me reply that it already was. This section was known as La Bufa, a treacherous high speed route which favored the faster cars. The Lotus Elise just isn’t any fun over 130 miles an hour, and doesn’t give the smooth ride you’d prefer on rough pavement. I could feel the car tracking along the grooves in the road, and even if you’re not a religious person, you hope that some magical force will keep you out of a dip that could easily toss you off the side of the road.

We had some more problems with the ECU adjusting for the altitude which kept us to not much over 110 miles an hour, forcing us to drop into third gear at the slightest incline. I think if we weren’t belted into our seats so tightly we’d have been rocking back and forth to get the car going! But, even though it felt like we’d just been crawling along, we managed to squeeze into tenth place.

Day 7: Zacatecas - Monterrey
Starting to smell bad.

I woke to the last day of racing with both excitement and sadness. While I never wanted to wear the same racing suit for seven days straight in hundred degree weather again, I was sad knowing that this would probably be the last time for at least a year before I could (legally) drive four to ten times the speed limit. The race back through La Bufa was the scene of a major accident a few years before (which can be seen in the French Documentary). The high speed cars were at an advantage again, and we watched our place in the top ten fade away.

But, after coming over a hill we spotted a car that had been seventy seconds ahead of us — as it turns out, their co-pilot had knocked a switch which had disabled the car for about ninety seconds, allowing us to recoup a lot of the time we’d lost due to our lack of horsepower. The ECU recovered through the lower altitude speed sections, and we average about 120 miles an hour most of the way, and regularly managed 135. The word “DIP!!!” has never been as frightening as it was today — our rear end came loose, and we thought we’d just eliminated ourselves from the race right before the end. Luckily, a smooth recovery, and we dashed across the finish line thanking our lucky stars.

We headed to the final speed section of the day, a race track in Monterrey that the Lotus would perform well on. Unfortunately, after crossing the toll booth we saw a line of cars on the side of the road. The last segment of the race had been canceled, and a police escort was going to take us to the finish line… A bit anti-climactic for what had been such an amazing adventure.

* * *

Even though we lost the opportunity to shave off a few more seconds off our overall time, we’d still made up time on the last day and ultimately placed eighth — more than I’d ever expected, since the average first time driver doesn’t even finish the race due to error or mechanical failure. A few of the cars didn’t even make it to the starting line. So when we broke top twenty in the first day’s starting order, we were enthusiastic to say the least, and when we finished in the top ten, we were ecstatic.

This was one of the most exciting events of my entire live, albeit drama filled at times — being a twenty-six year old woman breaking in a new class of racing in a largely male dominated event ruffled some feathers. I hope to race again in Mexico, as well as in the many European rallies that my fellow drivers and I talked about well into the night.

If you told me six months ago that I would enter a 3,050 kilometer seven day endurance race across Mexico, I would have laughed. If you told me I would spend seven days in a car with less interior space than a vintage Mini sweating alongside my brave co-pilot, I would have probably stopped laughing and walked away. Nowhere in my wildest dreams would I have imagined myself sitting in front of my fireplace reminiscing about this incredible experience.

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I’ve run out of time almost every night. Even a sentence or maybe just a word would have been nice but between sweating my ass off for 8 or more hours a day to rushing to the hotel to try and get dinner before it’s time to go to bed, I never had a chance to write about my adventure. I’m going to start going through the photos and video and hopefully it will jog my memory.

I’m hoping to have all of the video put together by middle of December. We’ll see how it goes!

First, let me apologize for not posting. I’ve been swamped this entire week. The only downside of the entire event is that it seems like there isn’t any time to catch up. We barely have enough time to eat or sleep but I guess the upside to that is that this is the most fun I have ever had.

I’m going to recount as much as I can in this short post but it will definitely be SHORT as I have 10 minutes before I need to go to sleep.

I qualified 16th on the first day out of either 103 or 93 cars. I’ve heard both and I’m not sure which is right. We dropped to 24th for the  next day due to two speed sections that were covered with gravel. We just lost too much time. The next day we moved up to 21st and now we have today. I have no idea where I am in the daily standings as the time sheets weren’t printed until now. Overall, I am very pleased with how we’re doing and I am having a great time.

In the meantime, check out Bret’s blog since he’s doing a better job of keeping up than I am. Running on 4 hours of sleep a night will do that to you!

I’ve been taking lots of pictures and videos that I will post as soon as I get a chance, but I just wanted to mention that you can also follow the race over at the Unlimited Class Blog.

Earlier this year I had participated in the Player’s Run. When it was over I began to look for something else to do.

I happened to met a fellow named Bret Haller, who was starting a new Unlimited Class at La Carrera Panamericana. After a little research, I decided that I was definitely interested.

It’s easy to agree to enter a race like this. The panic and doubt comes into play once you recieve your rule book. After looking through the required modifications to make a street car into a full race car, my biggest concern was the roll cage. I made phone calls for several weeks and just as I was about to give up all hopes of finding a shop that could do it in time, I was directed towards BSM Technologies in Michigan. We had everything set to have the cage installed. I was going to drop the car off on a Monday 3 weeks before the race. That would give plenty of time to do all the work that was required. That was 2 days after the unthinkable happened. My Elise was in an accident. From the pictures it’s hard to tell how severe the damage was but let’s just say that everything was bent except from the frame. The control arms bent into the shock, the real panel was crumpled and the clam was cracked right through.

The entire rear end of the car was replaced. AutoEurope put everything back together in record time. This delayed the installation of the roll cage by about 3 weeks giving us essentially a weekend to put in the roll cage. BSM put in 79 hours over a weekend to get the car out and back into my hands. Larry from FAS did a great job redoing the leather for my doors to accomadate the cut outs that had to be done. Brian took out the stereo for me and managed to salvage all the good bits to go into my G500.

I was ready to leave Detroit for Chicago to pick up my truck and trailer when suddenly a flood of coolant sprayed onto the windshield. I had just been warned by the Elise that the radiator had cracked. Luckily for me it happened 20 minutes from AutoEurope and not after I’d trailered the Elise 3000 miles to the start point of the race. A few hours later and the new radiator was installed.I left Detroit on Halloween to drive the 330 miles to Chicago. I should have arrived early enough to pick up my truck and trailer and hit the road but with the radiator blowing and traffic totally sucking, I made it into Chicago around 11pm. The next morning I went to R.A. Adams Trailers to pick up the new trailer only to find we couldn’t get the Elise into it. 6 foot ramp extensions, some custom ramp lifts, a little elbow grease and a few hours later, I was ready to begin the drive to Laredo, Texas.

To shorten this section, I’ll just let you know I drove from Chicago to St. Louis, stayed over night and then to Emory, Texas where I picked up co-pilot Cade Wilson. Cade and I headed out from Emory and drove a couple hundred miles until we decided to sleep around 2am. In the morning we drove for a few more hours to get to the San Antonio airport. There we picked up Steve Warwick, our crew chief and additional co-pilot. At the airport we ran into a couple other drivers after we noticed their rig. They’d purchased a Lincoln (if I’m remembering correctly) which had run previously in this race.

The drive from San Antonio to Laredo wasn’t bad. It seemed to pass by much quicker than the previous 1400 miles I had done solo. We headed to the La Quinta Inn to meet up with the others from the Coyote Convoy. We got directions from some of the group on where to go to get our temporary car import permits. We headed out towards the border but first we needed to find a kinko’s so that we could create a registration document for my Mom’s truck. There is nothing like forging a title on a truck you already own. I think the people at Office Max, who let us use their typewriter for free, got a big giggle out of it. I doubt we’re the first people who needed to do something like that.

From there we headed to the border. We paid our 50 cent toll to walk across and get our stickers only to be denied entry to Mexico. I guess we looked lost and it was fairly late so the border guards sent us back. After feeling defeated and a little freaked out that we’d driven so far only to be turned away, we headed back to the hotel. We explained our situation and got better directions on where to go. This time we had a larger group consisting of the British team of Adrian and Conrad who are driving the 356 Porsche with the blue flames. They will now be referred to as The Cheeky Brits. After about an hour in line, lots of photo copies and any number of forms stamped, we were on our way back to the hotel. By the time we went to sleep it was just after 2am. Our alarm was set for 4:45am. Just enough time to wake up throw on our shoes and get hit the road with the convoy at 5am. I took a bowl of lucky charms with me while I was running from gas station to gas station looking for a working ATM.

I then fell asleep in the back seat of the truck. I have no idea what happened from 5am until about 10am. It was a complete white out from the fog until a few minutes after we passed a toll booth. We came out of the fog into a pristine mountain view into the surrounding valley. I had neither my camera or my video camera in the truck. Most of the photo ops from first few days have suffered from a camera being out of reach.

We drove approximately 689 miles to San Miguel de Allende for a charity event held in our honor. The charity builds kitchens on to local schools. It’s a great concept and I hope the convoy continues to participate in the fundraising efforts in the future as this was the first year that the convoy had any involvement in it. The next morning We brought the cars out to the Jardin Square and had a great time with the locals. The Lotus was a big hit. The shocking thing is that MORE people know what it is here in Mexico than in the United States. It really shows that the Lotus marketing effort is crap at best in the US.

We left San Miguel around 7pm, drove on to Mexico City, got lost in Mexico City, got pulled over and then finally escorted through streets that were flooded with 2 feet of raw sewage and finally on our way to Puebla. We made it there around 2am. After sleeping in until 9:50am (you’ll notice our team sleeps until the last possible minute) we were able to grab a bite to eat at the free breakfast buffet and hit the road to Veracruz.

We happened upon the Cheeky Brits, yet again, as they were having their morning coffee. We lost them for a bit only to see them again, on the side of the road, having coffee! I see a pattern developing here.

We joined them for coffee for about an hour and then hit the road again. Once we got about 45 minutes outside of town, we unloaded the Porsche and the Lotus to have a little fun. Driving in a truck and trailer is only so amusing. Adrian took off and I quickly followed him. We played around at 100mph for a bit when the Porsche backed off rather quickly. I pulled to the side of the road and flagged them down when they caught up. Something was definitely wrong. Luckily they have both a support crew driver and a mechanic so they are well on their way to being sorted out.

I left them to tend to their vehicle and went on my way to catch up to my trailer who I had flagged to go on ahead. After a good 30 minutes at speed, I finally caught up to them. We made our way through town, only to find ourselves headed in the wrong direction. We were heading right into the heart of downtown instead of towards the beach. I asked a taxi driver who told me to turn right at the next big street. I turned only to have the 6 lane wide street turn into a 1 lane street market. The lotus was followed by the truck and trailer. I was sure we were going to take out someone’s tent. We made our way through the streets and markets to the beach with only 3 near miss collisions. There is a definite shortage of stop signs in Veracruz!

I’m glad to report that after a 3000 mile driver, my team and I have finally arrived to the start point of La Carrera Panamericana!

I want to thank the following people for helping me get here:
My Mom, although she would not help me fold my clothes after I did some laundry while passing through town.
Shannon Larratt
Bob, Ben, Charles and the rest of the crew at AutoEurope
Brian and Crew at FAS
BSM Technologies
Don from Competition Engineering
Bret Haller

More thanks are to come as they come into my updates!

Even if you don’t speak French, check out this documentary on La Carrera Panamericana (click the picture to watch the video).

Here are some links glorifying my entry into the La Carrera Panamericana — on Jalopnik and on GTspirit!!!

Everyone should check out Coop’s blog. He’s got a head start on me, I’m sure it’s because he doesn’t get car sick!

I’m going to try my best to cover the past 6 days of travels later tonight but now after a 3000 mile drive, I need to stretch my legs. I’ll have pictures and an update after tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll get some video of our tuning adventure and we’ll go from there!