Desert Dingo Racing will be riding again throughout 2008 to raise awareness of diabetes and World Diabetes Day. The team consist of professionals based in Silicon Valley, California. They have come together to drive diabetes awareness by competing in desert racing in their World Diabetes Day branded Class 11 Volkswagen Beetle.

The WDD bug bravely entered the 40th edition of the gruelling Baja 1000 last November. On that occasion technical difficulties got the better of her just over 140 miles in. However, Desert Dingo's custom built World Diabetes Day bug didn't go unnoticed. She received local and national media coverage and attracted considerable interest wherever she appeared. The team described the response they received as "a truly inspirational experience in a breakthrough year for diabetes awareness."

Desert Dingo plans to enter the WDD bug in five races in 2008. The official World Diabetes Day race car starts its first race of the season on Saturday, March 15 on Mexico's eastern Baja Peninsula. Desert Dingo is live blogging and Twittering the race and you can track the team's progress in near-real time on the Web.

The race is the San Felipe 250 and Desert Dingo crosses the start line at approximately 10:40 a.m. Pacific Time (6:40 p.m. CET). The race will take about 10 hours to complete the 250 miles.

Here are some ways to track Desert Dingo's progress;

• On their blog, which they're already updating as the team prepares for the race: http://desertdingoracing.blogspot.com
• Via Twitter (for quick updates): http://twitter.com/desertdingo
• Live, Web-based race tracking (requires latest version of Flash plug-in): http://irctracking.com/2008/San-Felipe/, then select "Class 11" from the menu on the left and check the box next to "1101- Jim Graham"

You can contact the team by emailing co-owner Jim Graham at jim@desertdingo.com. Visit www.desertdingo.com for more information about the team.

Posted on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 16:45