Big Bend Open Road Race - 2007

[ Up ] [ BBORR Pre-race/Show ] [ BBORR Race Day ] [ BBORR 2007 Video ]

No race enjoys the success of the Big Bend Open Road Race unless the communities get behind the event, support it and welcome the drivers.  Fort Stockton and Sanderson go beyond normal expectations and truly turn this into a class event which most racers will quickly tell you is the best race of the year!  Having experienced the hospitality first hand, I can tell you these fellow Texans make me proud.  There is not a better bunch of folks to be found anywhere!  For more info go to the BBORR Website

Our experiences at Big Bend Open Road Race 2007:

What can you say about this race as it celebrates its' 10th anniversary this year?

Bigger? They increased the entries to 150 cars this year and still had a waiting list.

Better? The people of Ft Stockton and Sanderson make this race what it is! I didn't drive the car one mile down the streets after unloading until people were waving and giving me the thumbs up. Walking through the parking lot at Wal-mart, local residents struck up a conversation. If you have never been to an event where the entire population embraces you, you are really missing something.

Challenging? Try 118 miles on a Texas State Highway with 120 turns, speeds (in my case) up to 168mph. Add in road kill, buzzards, deer and javelinas to dodge.


We arrived at the south end of the race in Sanderson Tuesday and stayed in the RV park that one of the long time course workers owns. While nothing in Sanderson is 5 star fancy, Dorothy went out of her way to make us feel at home. Full hookups and cable cost $12/night and we shared the park with mostly oil field workers in their trailers. I think we met everyone in the park the first night.

Wednesday was check in and Tech and it was good to see old friends as the cars went through a thorough tech inspection in the courthouse parking lot. My navigator was new and we were anxious to get out on the 8 mile practice course as she had never been in the car at speed. The car ran well and my guesses on the setup were pretty much on the money. The increased height of the wickerbill helped engine compartment temps with outside temps near 90 degrees. The front air dam is 2" off the ground and scrapes maddeningly on every high spot in the road tooling around town. However, at race speeds, it does not scrape AT ALL. I also added a wire screen over the mouth of the radiator intake. Good thing I did as the air dam tends to pick up rocks and road kill easily. Radar was set in the middle of a two mile straight between two curves and I saw consistent speeds around 150mph. My navigator managed several EEKS! and one Holy Cow! before the day was over.

Thursday dawned with my Navi under the weather and i went out to the practice course anyway. I wanted to adjust on the rear spoiler to get it just right with the gusting winds. With no one in the car to worry about, I pushed alot harder. Radar speeds were all between 160-166mph and the GPS showed a max speed of 170.7 when I pushed it past the radar and well into the curve. I had no problems with the knock retard issue that plagued me before departure and thank goodness for EFI. The highest octane gas available at the pumps is 92 and the car never missed a beat. Thursday night, the Sanderson Chamber of Commerce treated all the racers to an authentic Mexican dinner and it sure was tasty.


Friday saw us packing up and moving the 65 miles north to Fort Stockton. Mandatory drivers meetings, a car show and the parade down Main Street. I did get a panic call from GuySS on Friday. He was driving a C6 for a handicapped friend who they were allowing to navigate. The alternator had gone out and they could not find a replacement anywhere with only 12 hours to go before the race. I wish I could have helped out more than I did.

Saturday - Race Day. Up at 430am and to the pre-grid before 6am. All the cars arrive at the park before daylight and park in numbered spots. Around 730, we all head out in order and park in 2 long lines before the sart on Highway 285. Fastest cars go first and we are 32 on the grid. The race is supposed to start at 8am but it never has. They have to run sweeps to make sure the entire highway is clear, they have to make sure they have communication end to end and the 2 spotter planes and all the EMS and Fire has to be in place. Life Force helo is grounded due to the weather.

The Unlimited cars finally leave around 930 or so and I follow their progress as the different gates check in. Their is some persistent fog the last 20 miles and the Race Director is concerned about that. We finally inch up to second in line and the Tech guys open both doors and check out our gear. Man, do they ever tug the shoulder straps down tight! Then we wait.... some delay or something on the course. All of a sudden, the Deputy at the start line hauls ass down the course and returns in about 10 minutes with 2 passengers. It seems a camera crew from the local news station had been at gate 1 filming and then decided they were just going to walk town the shoulder back to the start line. 

The tree is set at one minute intervals and once we get staged there is a flurry of activity to reset the 2 GPS's to zero and get the multiple stopwatches in hand. We count down from 5 to zero, verify the watches are good and we are away. The first part of the course is very fast and at the drivers meeting we were told where one of the radars with the display was positioned. It was at 4.4 miles out and we rocketed past at 158mph. They had 11 other hidden radars on course to discourage people from busting their Tech speed. My navi and I were experiencing communication issues. it is overwhelming to try and keep up with course notes, track position, moving speed and time checks when you are blasting along at those speeds. At the half way point, we were starting to get it ironed out. I wanted to be some haead of my time going into the technical part of the course which is the last 10 miles or so. We were 34 seconds ahead of time with an average of 152mph at one point. At the finish in Sanderson, we had managed to bleed off all but 3 seconds of the time.

We longed in the grass at the Courthouse and ate Barbacoa while we waited for the other 120 cars to show up. At around 2pm we headed back out in order to the start line to finish the second leg of 59 miles northbound this time. It was hotter but the race jitters my navi had in the morning were mostly gone. I told her I wanted specific turn instruction for the first 15 miles so we could get through the technical part ASAP. One of the memorable lines of that leg as I was really bending it through the S curves:

navi: I smell tire rubber.
me: Smells good, don't it?


We topped one of the blind rises at 155mph plus and a big buck ran across the road 100 yds in front of me and I had just a minute to reflect on the fact there were probably a few more that were going to cross right behind him before we flashed past and were gone. The Cup car of Mike Borders collected a buzzard through the passengers side at speed and they still finished the race with a new Unlimited record of 172mph avg I think. I was able to see several cars pulled off at various gates with mechanical problems but there were no off course events at all. We punched the clocks at the finish and they showed .76 seconds fast.

At the banquet that night we learned our time was actually .9 seconds fast which was good enough for a 4th place finish in the Grand Sport 140mph division. Think about it, we ran 118 miles and averaged 140mph for the whole thing and were less than 1 second away from a perfect time -- and there were three people who bested that!