Final prep and our first stage.

There was a pre-qualifying stage today, not mandatory, just outside of Chihuahua today. It was a portion of highway that was used on the original La Carrera Panamericana in the early 1950s. We decided it would be a good way to get used to the route book.

Ray gets Paul situated in the car. Paul gives thumbs up.

Ray got Paul situated with proper safety belt adjustment while Tim squeezed his self into the co-driver's seat. Then it was a parade to the start of the stage. The stage went pretty well, though Paul said he was driving well below his limits. A Mustang caught and passed us near the end.

After returning to the hotel and changing into street clothes again, both Tim and Paul went to the co-driver's meeting. There were a few notes added to the Route Book, mostly emphasizing the places already marked as very dangerous. A quick instruction on Control procedures, and the meeting was over.

Tim poses after the qualifying stage.

With the afternoon fairly open, Paul and Tim took a rental car up to the first stage to get used to the instructions in the Route Book. It is legal here to pre-run the entire rally course and some teams had arrived earlier in the week to do just that, but we did not have time to do all of the three-day route in one afternoon. The first stage is 35 km long and mostly tight turns and switchbacks. Found a few minor issues and overheated the brakes on the rental car.

There was a ceremonial start in downtown Chihuahua, but we missed it. I hope others will post photos.

Ray dealt with a few issues that Paul and Tim had in getting situated in the car. The Porsche is pretty small so ingress and egress is difficult, especially with the full roll cage and door bars. Once Tim is seated, he can't reach over his shoulder to grab the belts, so Ray devised a system to hang the belts forward on a small bungee cord. Likewise, it was impossible to reach the doors to close them once strapped into the car, so Ray added cords that were easily accessed. He also added heavy string attached to the roll cage in order to pull the doors closed once we are belted in.

Dinner was at another excellent restaurant, El Quintal.

We get our start order in the morning and leave for the first day's stages at 8:30 AM.