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Local team optimistic as international race begins
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Steve Dole and Bill Erickson
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Ventura mechanic Bill Erickson and his race partner, retired airline pilot Steve Dole, made a strong start on the first leg of the Peking to Paris Motor Challenge from Beijing to Paris.
After motoring their 1925 Buick Roadster away from the starting line at the Great Wall of China on Sunday morning, they were rated first for their division.
"That could change at any time," Erickson said during a satellite phone interview from the first destination on their 34-day race: Datong, China.
Theirs was among 134 vintage cars worldwide selected to race in the 100th anniversary rally to commemorate the first Peking-to-Paris race in 1907.
Now there are at most only 133: One of the entries from the Netherlands lost its motor on the first day, so it's out.
Erickson said the Roadster he and Dole worked on for nine months is "running perfectly," but, Dole added via e-mail, "Bill and I are not congratulating each other this early in the event."
The race began with a bang in Beijing, with fireworks, a dragon parade, colorful costumes, kids beating on drums and people on stilts.
The cars all stopped for lunch at the ancient hanging monastery at Mount Hengshan, Datong. "It's like a swallow's nest stuck on a hillside," Erickson said. "It's made out of wood, 200 or 300 feet up off the ground. You walk into this cement dragon's mouth."
On Sunday night, they pulled into Datong to a throng of thousands who had come out to see the vintage cars.
Monday and Tuesday were spent driving through China. Wednesday night, they were set to cross the border into Mongolia and the Gobi Desert.
For regular updates on their trek, visit www.VenturaCountyStar.com and search for "The Great Race."
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