Motorsports

A smooth border run

A closer look at getting to Mexico with all the NASCAR necessities.

By BRANT JAMES
Published March 3, 2007

NASCAR will have moved 130 semitrailer trucks, more than 60 race cars, 1,300 crew members and thousands of pounds of parts and sophisticated equipment to Mexico City by the time the green flag waves on the third Busch Series race at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday. And all with nary a hitch, if the process is as smooth as the past two years, when NASCAR held points races in Mexico. Getting a family of four across the border can be a challenge, so how did NASCAR manage it? Planning, coordination with several layers of American and Mexican government, detailed manifests and a well-armed federali in a chase car doesn't hurt, NASCAR director of security Gary Gardner said.

The logistics

- Most teams returning from the Busch race Feb. 24 in Fontana, Calif., met a second team hauler from Charlotte carrying a road course car. Generally, the meeting takes place in Las Vegas. The road course car is loaded into the primary hauler.

- The primary hauler joins a flotilla of NASCAR haulers at the border at Laredo, Texas. It's a 20-hour drive from Fontana.

- After NASCAR addresses any passport, paperwork or mechanical issues, it distributes cell phones that will work in Mexico, and haulers cross the border in convoys of 12 to 13 trucks.

- One or two transporters are given a cursory inspection, whereupon any washer, widget or wheel must be accounted for on a manifest.

The home stretch

Each convoy is escorted by a Federal Mexican police officer for the final 15 hours. A new car takes over each time the convoy passes into a new state.

The need for armed convoys will likely not be needed for the Aug. 4 Busch race in Canada, Gardner said, in part because Montreal is close to the U.S. border and because security is less of an issue.

"It's not like you have truck hijackings and stuff like that, but all of our trucks are like moving billboards, so that's why we take the precaution," Gardner said. "Any time you move that many vehicles, you run into problems with breakdowns and stuff, so if you have security teams and someone can stay with the broken down truck and there are no issues and they have to go into town somewhere to get something repaired, you have someone with them that speaks the language."

The compound

Security details meet two chartered flights of crew members at Mexico City's main airport and at a strip south of the city that is used by the smaller jets of team owners.

Most of this comforts Zephyrhills' Shawn Reutimann. The spotter for cousin David, a Nextel Cup and Busch driver, said there is a glaring hole in the security web.

"They fly us down there on a commercial jet," he said. "They put us on buses with armed guards from the airport to the hotel. We can't leave the hotel compound. They take us to the track and bring us back. ...

"And they told me the spotters go up in the stands with the fans. I'm like, 'Hold on. You transport us everywhere with an armed guard, but we don't have one when we go in the stands?' "

But if there's trouble, at least he can call for help on his radio.

"Exactly, as I'm getting toted away," he said.

[Last modified March 3, 2007, 00:54:44]