The Sunnyvale Sun
Cover Story
Photograph courtesy Gary Faules
Driver Gary Faules, with co-driver/navigator Jon Emerson, motor through the Mexican desert during a nine-day road rally held Oct. 26 to Nov. 1.
Driving Ambition
Local driver races more than 2,000 miles in Mexico
By Cody Kraatz
"Try to imagine you have just been doing over 120 miles per hour on a twisty narrow road with a black and white [police car] all over your rear bumper with his lights flashing, siren blaring," writes Gary Faules, in a recent blog posting.
"And all the time while both of you are passing cars on the wrong side of the road...around what seems like blind corners [and] then right [through] the middle of town. But a traffic jam is blocking the road ahead. The officer pulls sharply alongside before turning on his siren and commanding the road clear over his PA.
"When you look over at him and make eye contact, you see...WHAT! One hell of a big smile," concludes Faules, 56, a Sunnyvale resident and owner of California's Best auto shop in Mountain View.
Faules isn't describing a scene from The Dukes of Hazzard. He's trying to explain what it feels like to push a 1965 Shelby GT350 clone--built on a Ford Mustang fastback frame--close to its high-performance limit straight through Mexico.
That's what Faules did when he participated Oct. 26 to Nov. 1 in the La Carrera Panamericana, a legendary 2,000-mile road rally along the Panamerican Highway from the Guatemalan border to Texas via open roads, remote hamlets and Mexico City. Blessed by the Mexican government, the invitation-only race revives a publicity stunt Mexico put on from 1950 to 1955 to celebrate the completion of its section of the highway, a collection of roads that informally runs from Alaska to the tip of Argentina. It's drawn some of the biggest names in racing--Carroll Shelby, Phil Hill, Juan Manuel Fangio--and a lot of hot rods.
Teamwork
Faules' team--California's Best Racing--took third in its class, which includes other Mustangs and Corvettes, and ninth overall. The team is experienced and highly successful in races such as this.
"It far exceeded my expectations, but that doesn't surprise me," says co-pilot and navigator Jon Emerson, 42, a Mountain View resident and CEO of local web development company Siris Media. Faules' son Will, 22, served as the one-man pit crew.
The team never got lost and had no problems in a race that can leave cars twisted and smoking in ravines off the side of country roads and bridges.
Maybe that was due, in part, to the Rev. Peter Seimas from St. Joseph of Cupertino Catholic parish. He blessed the car--nicknamed "Lucky"--and prayed that "they may arrive safely at their destination, hopefully in first place."
Faules' wife, Maricris, wanted the blessing for her husband's safety. But he chalks up success and safety to obsessive preparation, teamwork and prudence on the gas pedal.
"We did what we do really well, and that's win endurance races. That's what we love to do," says Faules. "Some people push too hard and end up in a ditch.''
Avoiding major mechanical problems made life easier for Will, whose pre-race excitement dissolved in the face of grueling hours doing a job that four or five people did for other teams. Team CBR had a 24-foot trailer, while others had 48-foot trailers, big rigs and suburbans.
"I had a lot of expectations," says Will, a Foothill College student.
Once the race started, Will rose at 5 a.m. each day and, if there was nothing wrong with the car, hit the sack at midnight.
"[For] little over a week, we were running on four to five hours of sleep [a night]. I wasn't ready for that. It's the toughest race I've ever taken part in and I wasn't even driving," he says.
Racing is in Will's blood. He hopes to transfer to Chico State University soon, and work at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, near Chico.
Strategy
Emerson seemed bummed in October that he wouldn't be driving, and said the pull of the steering wheel was strong, despite his anxiety about his first multi-stage, rally-style race.
"I'm just not the best passenger in the world," he says. "I'm a driver.''
But Emerson's role was hardly a passive one. His job as co-pilot, riding shotgun in the two-seater, was to navigate and keep track of their location in a route book that indicates the maximum speed of every turn on the course.
"Left one, right two long, left one, right one, left zero," says Emerson, reading from the route book in an in-car video posted on YouTube. "Let off, don't stop, just let off and cool and we stop at the stop sign."
Emerson spent nights rehearsing and studying the book before he left.
"I was so busy focusing on what I had to do, which was making sure we got where we had to go, that any trepidation I had about not being at the wheel went away," says Emerson, proud of a performance that he calls "literally flawless."
Faules, who can't handle not being in control and has a tendency to dominate any conversation, was impressed.
"In the beginning there were days where you're going around a corner and you have Jon over there telling you, 'It's OK to go fast.' I was a little bit reluctant at first, but I was able to absorb his confidence."
The car
A lot of endurance racing is about strategy, says Gary. "You maintain a level at which you don't beat up the car so hard it won't finish."
But you still have to go fast. Really fast.
A steady 150 mph on the open road became the norm, and Faules jokes that he and Emerson got to the point where they could distinguish between bugs splattered at 90 mph and 120 mph.
Although Lucky was built at California's Best, not in Carroll Shelby's shop, it was built to be an exact clone of the legendary muscle car creator's souped-up aftermarket Mustangs, with all the same bells and whistles.
"It's very tricked out, literally a high-performance race car," said Faules, introducing the car in October. It delivers 515 horsepower from a small-block, 289-cubic-inch Ford V-8 engine, through a four-speed transmission, all capped with a light fiberglass hood.
"This car was literally a rusty junk heap 15 months ago," said Emerson at the time. They paid only $2,500 for the chassis, but it was worth about $50,000 before the race. Cars such as this actually become more valuable depending on their race record.
For safety, the car is encased in an eight-point roll cage. It has two of every critical part, such as the ignition and fuel pump. Its gas tank is heavily reinforced.
Two cameras in the cockpit recorded Faules and a front view of the road. There was also the in-car radio chatter. A high-tech device even allowed Faules and Emerson to make cell phone calls through the helmets.
Mexico
It's hard to see much of a country at 150 mph, but the team said it saw an interesting side of Mexico.
The team went to the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca for the start of the race. Its experience was somewhat insulated. Mexican federal police blocked off long stretches of highway, including a route through Mexico City. That would be akin to shutting down the 405 freeway through Los Angeles.
"All you're seeing is this scenery, and that's all. You're not talking to people or doing any tours," says Faules, who nonetheless fell in love with San Miguel de Allende, a colonial town east of Guadalajara. He plans to take his wife back there some day.
Will's only prior visits to Mexico were to Tijuana, Rosarito and Cabo San Lucas, and that's what he says he was expecting. He met a lot of fellow racers from around the world, and also got a unique taste of Mexico.
"That expectation was blown out of the water, how beautiful all the towns were that we stayed in," he says, also remarking on the respectfulness and warmth of Mexican race fans and children.
The racers were treated like celebrities, with people lining up along the road way outside of town to see the cars roar in. They asked for photos and autographs.
More celebrations could be on the way, as team CBR is ready to hit the track again next year in the National Auto Sport Association's endurance racing circuit. Lucky will be called upon again.
"It's not built to sit in a garage," says Emerson.
