HEADING NORTH
We woke up on the second day of the race as soon as the sun rose over the Gulf of California. We managed to sneak in about four hours of shuteye before the sun warmed up the Jeep so much that we had to fire up the 3.0L diesel just to get the A/C going.
Through the night, race vehicles blasted past us on their way to a glorious finish-or limped their way into the bfgoodrich pit we were camped at. A large percentage of the race vehicles didn't even make it to where we were. In order for us to head any further south on the racecourse, we needed visas to cross over the 28th parallel south of El Arco. We didn't have them, sowe had to turn around and head back north. That didn't mean our road trip was over though.
Our plan was to make it back across the border and home to L.A. that night. Our Lowrance GPS estimated that we would cross into the U.S. at around 5:00 p.m. That evening, and if the border traffic was light we could have been home by 9:00 p.m. At the latest.
As we picked our way back up Highway 1, we began running low on diesel and couldn't find a local Pemex fuel station that was open. We literally could have been dead on the side of the road if our co-driver, Warren Ellis, hadn't insisted on bringing the extra fuel. A lot of the chase teams bring extra race gas for the competitors, but not everyone has extra diesel on hand. We're guessing that's a trend that will change now that '07-and-newer diesel trucks need ultra-low-sulfur fuel.