In
early 2000, when Nick Woodhouse asked if I
would be interested in going with him to Mexico
to run La Carrera Panamericana 2000, there
was not a moment of hesitation to shout out
a resounding "Yes!" My
head was still filled with memories of 1995
Panamericana adventures in my Volvo PV444 and
I have longed to return for more of the same. This
time, the race car would be Nick's newly prepared
1965 Ford Anglia 1200 Super with a 1600 plus
cc push rod engine. Since the car is
nimble and considerably less than a tonne,
it will be fast on the twisty Panamericana
pavement but will it stand up to the pounding
of 7 days and 3200 kilometers of high speed
driving?
La Carrera Panamericana is a recreation
of the original races of the same name which took
place between 1950 and 1955 to celebrate the opening
of the Panamerican Highway in Mexico. The
original races traversed the full length of Mexico
mainly starting near the Guatemala border and they
attracted international attention becoming historically
famous motorsports events. The Mexican Automobile
Sport Federation has successfully run the retro
Panamericana events since 1988 also mainly traversing
the 3200 kilometer length of Mexico from Tuxtla
Gutierrez in Chiapas province to Nuevo Laredo on
the Texas border. This year's event started
from Tuxtla on October 27 and finished in Nuevo
Laredo on November 2.
A total of 88 cars started this year in eight
classes broken into two age categories. Pre-1955
has five classes: for sedans, Tourismo
Mayor and Tourismo Produccion; for sports and
GT cars, Sport Mayor and Sport Menor; and
a class for Original Panam cars. The
1955 to 1965 cars have three classes: Historic "C" for
eight or more cylinder engines; Historic "B" for
six cylinders; and Historic "A" for
four cylinders.
Entries came from Europe (20),
Mexico (22), USA (44) and Canada (2). The
other Canadian entry was a Porsche 904 replica
also from Vancouver. Our 1965 Ford Anglia
1200 Super was in Historic "A with two
Porsche 356, one Porsche 912, two Alfa Romeo,
one MGB, one Karmann Ghia and three Volvos.
The overall first to third placing cars at
the finish line were 1954 Studebaker (Tourismo
Mayor) driven by the French team of deThoisy/Tropenat;
1954 Oldsmobile (Tourismo Mayor) driven by
Mockett (USA) and Bailie (UK); and 1949 Oldsmobile
(Tourismo Mayor) driven by the USA team of
O'dell and Dunaway. In Historic "A",
the MGB from Mexico City placed first in class
just 3 seconds ahead of the Porsche 912 of
famous rally driver Scott Harvey of California. The
following narrative offers a snapshot of adventures
with the Woodhouse/Stuart entry in La Carrera
Panamericana 2000:
Last minute preparations included
installing rally equipment in the Ford Anglia
race car and a steering dampener to fix the "death
wobble" experienced by Nick during pre-race
testing. On October 16, after loading up, Charlie
Teetzel and I left Vancouver and drove Nick's
Dodge Ram cargo van, trailer and Anglia race
car to Laredo, Texas where we picked Nick up
at the airport on October 20. It took
five frustrating hours on October 21 to get
temporary vehicle import permits, but once
obtained, the three of us headed south into
the heart of Mexico. First night was
spent in Matehuala; second night in Oaxaca;
third night in destination Tuxtla Gutierrez
(October 23) – locate these places on
your Mexico map if you are not familiar with
them. The driving was trouble free (since
Nick's van was fairly new and up to the task)
except for the $US100 ticket in Mexico City
for pulling a trailer on a banned road or something.
Tech inspection and display of the cars was
at Tuxtla Gutierrez fair grounds where the
locals look forward to the Panamericana cars
coming each year and the people turned out
by the thousands. We had printed up 500
post cards showing the car and could have given
out many more at Tuxtla alone. Nick's
wife Olga and daughter Natasha arrived by plane
and the chase crew was complete.
Race start was from the central
plaza on October 27 and probably 10000 people
were there at 7 am to watch the cars leave. This
was a thrilling sight for everyone. On
the road, race cars are separated at 30 second
intervals per performance rally format. Because
the Anglia was in the slowest class, we were
among the last to leave and, as it turns out,
we never got to see the cars at the front. On
the first day, the first three performance
stages went well but the car just quit on the
transit between stages 3 and 4. The
electrical wiring failure took 15 minutes to
find and fix and we never caught up to the
rally for the rest of the day. On the second
day, we
started at the rear once more because of the
lost time on day one. All five stages went
well and the car was really flying except for
another wiring failure on stage 3 during which
we lost about three minutes. The wiring
failure, in fact, involved a failed distributor
which meant the car ran on the battery all
day. Only 20 kilometers from the finish
in decreasing daylight, the battery gave up
and we stopped at the side of the road. To
get credit for the day's performance stages,
the car has to reach the finish under its own
power, so there I was out on the road flagging
down passers by and trying to buy a battery. Eventually,
a young fellow stopped and took me into the
nearest town where I bought a battery, returned,
installed it and made the finish before the
maximum time limit. A new alternator was installed
ready for day three. The first two stages
were perfect and we were moving up the field
but on stage 3, the transmission failed
leaving only first and third gears. We
finished the stage without much loss of time
but had to start stage 4 with only third gear. About
half way through the 20 kilometer stage 4,
all drive stopped and the left rear wheel and
axle departed the car disappearing over a cliff
narrowly missing a Mexican family spectating
in a small car. After skidding to a stop,
our day done, we found the wheel and axle in
a pine tree, jacked up the car and put the
axle back in place. About that time,
the service crew for a USA based Alfa Romeo
sedan came by with a trailer and offered to
take us to the finish about 50 kilometers away. We had a spare axle so
repairs to the axle were easy at a small local
shop but the gear box was toast. Arrangements
were made for another gearbox to be flown
down from Oregon; and 3 frustrating days were
spent trying to get it out of Mexican customs
which never happened. The gearbox is
still in Mexico. The bottom line: the car lasted
three days. We followed the rally the
remainder of the way back to Texas at a leisurely
pace and were at the finish line to watch the
cars come in on November 2. The Woodhouse
family flew back to Vancouver from Laredo to
attend to business; and Charlie and I drove
the rig back to Vancouver at a leisurely pace
through California and up Interstate 5 arriving
in Vancouver on November 7. Total distance
traveled was 14200 kilometers in 22 days.
The trip was a lot of fun but
tiring due to the long distances involved. I
don't know whether or not Nick would do
it again but I wouldn't hesitate except for
the cost. We all got back safely and
the car is relatively intact. Driving
across the finish line with the race car was
our objective but such was not to be – perhaps
next time."
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