Rally Chaser

Then I had to do some chores, before going to register my van as an assistance vehicle. To the mall, to get SIM cards. I hate to say it, but the European phone system sucks. Just dialing is confusing. There is no standard layout for numbers. You can't do certain things unless you are a local. The only good thing is that you can top off your prepaid at a certain bank's ATMs. The totally awesome James Home loaned me an unlocked RAZR. I also got an iPhone for Shawna, unlocked it, and needed a SIM. I bought them and then put them in. The RAZR one didn't work. Back home if that had happened I'd have been SOL and that would have been it. The fantastic and infinitely patient Attila Hosslu at the local Vodafone (Aréna Plaza) sorta walked away and came back with an old janky phone that worked and just gave it to me. Never would have happened at home. It was fantastic.

Leaving the mall i decided on a cab from the train station, and the cabbie tried to charge me 4000 HUF flat rate to take me two kilometers. That's $25. Even with the greenbhat being so lousy that was a scam. I told him to pound sand and hoofed it instead. Still, I was upbeat.

Registration and scrutineering was at the stadium, so I thought. That was actually where parking was. I was walking and didn't know how far I'd have to go, which turned out to be like three miles. I'd noticed one of the trucks parked and once it started rolling I put out my thumb. He stopped! It was Brazilian driver Andre De Azevedo, who placed fifth last year. He's been running the Dakar for 20 years and his best result has been second place. The Tatra is massive and I slipped trying to climb up the slick wheel hub and nearly took a faceplant. It was ugly, but I scrambled in, introduced myself, and took a bunch of photos and a video interview. I hope to find the time to process it. Anyway like any Brazilian, this guy is superbacana, totally happy, and really friendly. We were rolling down the street in this huge 1200 HP Petrobras/Lubrax truck that I've seen flinging across the desert on TV. This ain't NASCAR. We went right into scrutineering but I could have passengered in that thing all day long. I adore the Dakar trucks. There are more pictures and details in today's photo gallery. He'd met Charlie that day and my affiliation really helped get the conversation going. There are throngs of people all over the place for the event and I really was a visible part of it for that ride and it was just as cool as could be. Rally is easily the most up close and personal professional sport I can think of, even as a spectator who knows no one, as it was when I went to the WRC rally in Finland in 2004.

At registration I met Alexia, a French Dakar vet and her assistant Nickie, a local. Very cool chick and probably someone I'll run into on another Dakar event. Along the way one of the longtime Dakar honchos, Pierre Kistler, took a turn at wearing my leather cowboy hat. I tell ya, it helps in these situations to be noticeable. Alexia gave it a try, too.

After all this the Rally Pan Am guys did their scrutineering. It all went off without a hitch, as far as I could make it. Then the riders did a tiny 8 km special stage, just a ride around the city to get the public what they want and expand the presence of the Dakar here. We met them in parc firme afterward. Racing has lots of rules. In the Dakar, once you're in parc firme you can't even touch your vehicle. I think there are time limits about how much you can do before you have to be in there, too.

We all grabbed some food and found that we were seven people trying to go a few miles in the team's big Ford. If it wasn't full of roll bars and racing seats and equipment in the double-cab we could do it. To solve the problem, Niles, Charlie and I sat on the roof among the tires and rolled up, then back down, the festive streets of Budapest. People cheered, stared, took pictures, or various combinations thereof. Niles had 'em fire up the compressor for the three-trumpeted TRAIN HORNS on the front of the thing and that was amusing. No photos, but I did video. It was a total hoot.

Tomorrow - 7 AM the bikes start followed by cars and trucks. At a minute apart, the start should take a few hours. Tomorrow's stage is 60 km (I think) with like a 200 km liaison stage (just driving, not racing, on non-closed roads) before the event is suddenly set up somewhere else. We've yanked the seats out of my rental van and I'll be transporting one of the bikes, to save its rider from 200 km of rain and Hungarian driving. I probably have an hour of HTML foolery to make the gallery pages work right and have navigation. Look for more from me tomorrow night. Turns out there are extra rooms for the team (well, bed spaces) so I'm probably not going to be doing any camping or sleeping in the van. Kinda cool though I am totally prepped to sleep outside, in weather. Hmm, I have to pack, too... and I really should follow through on photocopying the road book since ASO ran out and we all need one (its the route, etc.).

Call time tomorrow is 6:30 AM. As it turns out, I'm transporting David's bike in my van. Rally isn't just about racing during the specials. Even in the liaison stages, the racer has to be at certain place at certain times, not too early, and not too late. When the bike is in my van, I'm in the race. 240 km or so and a stop for gas could mean we're cutting it close or even a time penalty. The times are of course calculated so that you need not break any road rules, and you can be penalized for doing that as well. Anyway, that's a preview for tomorrow. Should be fun.