Rate this article:
Speed Addicts: Grand Prix Racing
Speed Addicts is the complete and definitive illustrated book of grand prix motor racing, told in the form of a human story.
Our Price: $34.99 ON SALE!
Mickey Thompson: The Fast Life and Tragic Death of a Racing Legend
The complete story of this true American legend is one worth slowing down for.
Our Price: $25.00
Victory By Design: Ferrari DVD
Alain de Cadenet, a long-time Ferrari enthusiast and aficionado, drives some of the great sports racers and sports cars.
Our Price: $24.95
Written by:
SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com
SPEEDtv.com
02/23/2008 - 05:00 PM
Hi folks, Kevin Necessary here, captain of the good ship Team Necessary. I’m coming to you from the island nation of New Zealand, which is off the east coast of Australia. What am I (and, for that matter, my merry band of goofballs) doing on the other side of the world? Glad you asked, Grasshopper.
We’re here to compete in the Taupo 1000, New Zealand’s biggest and baddest off-road race. But as much as we love the adventure aspect of taking on another rough terrain race in our race-prepped Toyota FJ Cruiser (Our first outing in it, the Baja 1000, was beyond epic), this race is a whole different animal.
The biggest change from Baja is that we’re going into this event pretty blind. We didn’t have any idea what the course down here would be like when were putting the truck together in our shop back in SoCal, and since we knew we’d have limited resources down here, we’re pretty much forced to guesstimate on setup and come up with the best options as we thrashed to get the truck ready and on the boat a month ahead of the event.
And now that I’ve seen the course and had a chance to do a little pre-running, I can confidently say that the course for Baja and the course for Taupo could not
be more different. It’s completely different from what we were expecting. We thought it would be a lot rockier, rugged terrain, but it’s actually a lot soupier, with sections of pumice-like gravel. Plus, it’s so cold; when we were packing and doing other preparations we didn’t have any idea temperatures could get that low.
On the flipside, one of the advantages of the Taupo course compared to Baja is that it’s relatively short and run in laps. With Baja, a stupid-long point-to-point affair, you can pre-run all you want but you still won’t be able to memorize all 1000 miles of it. In fact, we were able to map and memorize this Taupo course after just one recon lap – all 35 miles of it. But this doesn’t mean we plan on going all-out both days: Our plan for the first day is to kind of nurse it along and keep the gear together while a lot of the competitors drop out and crash out and break out, and then get our race on during the second and final day.
So…will our cunning strategy pay off? Will we meet our numero uno goal, which is to just finish this amazing race? And exactly how many boxes of firecrackers will we consume? I guess you’ll just have to tune into SPEED to find out.
We’re here to compete in the Taupo 1000, New Zealand’s biggest and baddest off-road race. But as much as we love the adventure aspect of taking on another rough terrain race in our race-prepped Toyota FJ Cruiser (Our first outing in it, the Baja 1000, was beyond epic), this race is a whole different animal.
The biggest change from Baja is that we’re going into this event pretty blind. We didn’t have any idea what the course down here would be like when were putting the truck together in our shop back in SoCal, and since we knew we’d have limited resources down here, we’re pretty much forced to guesstimate on setup and come up with the best options as we thrashed to get the truck ready and on the boat a month ahead of the event.
And now that I’ve seen the course and had a chance to do a little pre-running, I can confidently say that the course for Baja and the course for Taupo could not
On the flipside, one of the advantages of the Taupo course compared to Baja is that it’s relatively short and run in laps. With Baja, a stupid-long point-to-point affair, you can pre-run all you want but you still won’t be able to memorize all 1000 miles of it. In fact, we were able to map and memorize this Taupo course after just one recon lap – all 35 miles of it. But this doesn’t mean we plan on going all-out both days: Our plan for the first day is to kind of nurse it along and keep the gear together while a lot of the competitors drop out and crash out and break out, and then get our race on during the second and final day.
So…will our cunning strategy pay off? Will we meet our numero uno goal, which is to just finish this amazing race? And exactly how many boxes of firecrackers will we consume? I guess you’ll just have to tune into SPEED to find out.
Click here for more on the Two Roads to the Taupo 1000 on SPEED!
Commenting is not allowed in this article.
- Press Releases | Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | FOXReality | National Geographic - © Copyright 2008 Speed Channel, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
