High Desert Trails Rally Race Photos

Last weekend, @mattlovell took me along as he volunteered for radio duty at the High Desert Trails rally race in Jawbone Canyon.

The race cars staged at the base of the hillclimb. Our convoy of the radio team continued up and over to the beautiful ranching valley tucked inside the Southeastern Sierras.

Matt and I took our position at the first station of this second stage: Dearborn Road. I tried my hand at capturing each car come around the bend at the cattleguard, then hit the straightaway.

The cars disappeared into the hills while we awaited their return. Being part of the radio team really made the race more exciting to an outsider like me. I learned a lot about how the lines of communication are established, and how sweep cars clear the route of lookyloos and locals. It goes "Hot", and then cars are released one every minute to tear down the dusty forest roads.

Upon their return, racers approached our station at full speed for a flying finish.

After all the excitement, we were excused to go make our camp upon Piute Mountain. We drove to our position for the next morning, then continued up a tiny track where we found the perfect spot to pitch our tent and enjoy the evening.

Bright and early the next morning, we packed up and went to our spot to close the road to traffic exiting the campground road. A racecar coming around a blind corner at 80 mph and encountering a dirtbike rider could only end in tragedy. Fortunately, the campers respected our boundaries, and piled safely on a boulder outcropping alongside me as I snapped portraits of each racecar completing the stage.

It was so exciting to see each racecar wind its way up the mountain road, then whoosh back down! As soon as each one had completed the stage and the sweep cleared it for reopening, we quickly made our way back to Dearborn for our initial position radiocasting at Flying Finish. Here is a gif of the openers:

The rally once more took competitors winding up into Dearborn Mining Trail, then back to us for another album of stage finishers.

From here, rally participants cruised to the intersection to begin the final stage of the race down Jawbone Road to the finish line, where everything began. What a wild good time of dust and speed!

It feels good to support my spouse in his racing passion. Although our circumstances curtail his participation in actual racing and/or codriving, as he has been able to access in the past, joining the ham radio crew opened up our joint participation in the behind the scenes racecraft. I gained so much appreciation for rally racing on our public forest roads by becoming a part of this fun event.

I welcome @mattlovell to comment and/or link us to a future writeup giving names, racing numbers, and finishing stats for this event. For me, just witnessing and flexing my cellphone photog muscles proved enough for my first foray into motor sportscasting.

Creation of Care means bending my interest into avenues that light up my beloved. While racing and cars are not on my own chosen menu of interests, joining him in them gave us a partnership bonding experience like none other.

Love,Cat
@creationofcare

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