Lucha Libre Racing returns to Mexico to race and deliver school supplies

September 27, 2008 by tom5436

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Artist and sculptor, Joe Brubaker and photographer Michael Emery team up to form Lucha Libre Racing. The SF Bay Area duo will venture to Mexico this October to race La Carrera Panamericana. The Carrera is the last great high speed, amateur race run on public roads in the world. It is pedal to the metal for 2000 miles over 6 days, from the bottom of the country to the top, straight through the heart of Colonial Mexico.

The race will start in the sweltering jungles of Tuxla Gutierrez, Chiapas on October 24th. They continue to Oaxaca, Mexico City, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, and Aguascalientes. Day 5 begins at 8300 feet in thebeautiful Silver mining city of Zacatecas. The racing here is fast and treacherous. Many race-ending mistakes happen on “La Bufa” the spectacular bluff where Pancho Villa had his first victory. October 30th the final grueling day brings 325 miles of flat-out-engine-wrecking-straight-a-ways and fast sweeping turns, down through the cacti, to the border in Nuevo Laredo.

100 vintage racecars from Europe and the Americas will take on the 2008 Mexican Road Race. The fastest teams will drive 50+ year-old American Iron at speeds up to 180 mph. The Lucha Libre Racing 1967 Datsun Roadster will humbly do a little over half that speed. In 2006 Lucha Libre Racing was the first team to contest La Carrera in a Datsun, they had the least amount of experience, the least amount of horsepower and finished in dead last. In consolation, they did beat 19 cars that crashed or blew up.

This year, in addition to the challenge of finishing the race, the Lucha team will deliver school supplies to rural Mexican children. They will focus their efforts on outfitting two schools along the raceroute. The first school will be in Chiapas where the race begins and the second in Zacatecas, where Emery lived with his family in 2001.

The team will make two stops in enroute for car shows. October 12th they will be in Irvine, CA for the largest “Old School” Japanese car show in the USA. October 18th they will be in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico for a charity car show and fundraiser that benefits: Feed the Children, a charity that provides daily hot meals for local children. To help the effort or make a donation please contact the Lucha Libre Team.