Desert Dingo Racing team revives vintage VW Beetle
The Desert Dingo Racing team has approximately less than four months left to revitalize the old and beaten Volkswagen Beetle in time for the annual fast and furious war called Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 off-road this November.
About 1,300 miles of dusty and rocky adventure will be the main ingredients for the race that will run through the Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula. Desert Dingo’s vintage Volkswagen Beetle will be in for a hell of race treat for the first time. The 10-member Desert Dingo team, which will also put together the Bug’s engine, has to make the bug-like car to run as fast as possible in the race tagged as the “24-hour plane crash”.
In the Baja 1000, the Desert Dingo’s Volkswagen Beetle will be entering the lowest Class 11 category, which is for the stock Volkswagen cars. Although this category has been considered the cheapest of them all, it has rather the toughest and most hard-core underdog racers in the said event. Only the Volkswagen Beetles that had minimal modification and were released before 1982 will be allowed to enter the Class 11 category.
“I like the challenge,” said Charlie Reynolds, a driver with Class 11 experience and a mechanic for the Desert Dingo team. “It is more about figuring out problems and overcoming hurdles than it is about driving fast. You’re more interested in not getting stuck and defying the odds of making a little car go a thousand miles it’s not supposed to go.”
Aside from the promise of a thrilling race, the Desert Dingo team is in for a whole lot more as it has teamed up with the International Diabetes Federation. The cars of the team will be used to promote diabetes research and awareness. Desert Dingo grabbed this opportunity to do some community help at the side since a team member Mike “Skid” Aquino has type 2 diabetes.
About 3.8 million die because of the ravaging effects of diabetes, which has its World Diabetes Day celebration every November 14, according to the International Diabetes Federation. With this alarming demographic at hand, Desert Dingo’s founder Jim “RJ” Graham wants to use this event to spread the word about the disease and at the same time raise funds.
“I would love to set a goal of at least $100,000 or more,” said Graham.
Now on its 40th year, Baja 1000 has various vehicle classes such as motorcycles, stock Volkswagens, production cars, buggies, trucks and custom-fabricated race vehicles.