November 4th....9days

Rodney here.
My mentor in this logistical process has been a new friend named Phil. Phil has been in and around racing in Baja for 15 plus years. He keeps telling me to make a plan, but stay loose since plans change, often. I woke up yesterday to an email from Phil letting me know a serious back injury from the night before while working on his pre-runner would keep him from coming to Baja this year. I was not pleased, I mean plans can change, but not the plan that Phil goes with us...that was sort of a non-negotiable. Phil felt bad, but no way around it. I offered to hang an IV with morphine drip from the rear view mirror for him, but no, not this year. We scrambled to fill his shoes, and as usual with someone of his caliber, it took two folks. We landed Tom and Matt. Tom also is a Baja veteran, and Matt his young apprentice. We have scrambled for the last 7 months to build a rig worthy of this race, to build chase rigs worthy of the miles, and forged a team that has been through the fire again, again, and again....

Tomorrow morning at 9am, Paul, Ed, Nikki and I head to Los Angeles. Tuesday we collect Tony from John Wayne. The rest of the team rolls from Oregon on the 8th. We are 9 days from race start. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We really have no idea what to expect....