Desert Racer vs. Rock Racer @ KOH

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[Rock Donkey]

Funny to see the desert racing skills and parts trickle down to rock crawlers. Rock guys are now starting to use bypass shocks, heat treated parts, go-fast steering parts, additional coolers, 6 point harnesses with neck restraints. The speeds are getting much faster! This year's event saw four new IFS cars, five if you count RG's TTB car.....but there is still room for major improvement. Overall, Rock Racers are still learning how to prep a car, accurately pre-run a course, and organize pit strategies. I think a true Desert Racer would laugh at the differences between the pit set-ups. Desert Racers have the pits down to a science, Rock guys I see are still fumbling with how to quickly fuel and change out tires. Radios and comm towers are still being learned and there is generally a lack of organization and safety practices in the pits that I see. Obviously, nicer pit set-ups require deeper pockets and more experience...which the desert racers seems to have more of. Having well organized teams like Roger Norman, Rob Mac, and Robby Gordon enter KOH is just going to raise everyone's game....if they take it as seriously as racing in the desert. I still think the guys that are comfortable in the rocks are going to succeed...even with lesser equipment and smaller budgets.

RG might have had the best showing for a desert racer this year, qualifying in 5th place in a brand new-to-him car with very little seat time. In the grand scheme of trails, the qualifying course was not that difficult, which worked to his advantage. RG had plenty of practice and had a experienced co-driver to show him the 'fast' lines (the course was 20% semi-easy rocks and 80% desert/sand). Anyone who thought the qualifying course was hard probably didn't finish lap one of the race.

Another point to consider is physical demands on the racers. I think it would be safe to say the KOH occupants are more depleated afterwards than occupants racing the B1K. Maybe the guys iron-manning the B1K are on the same level of exhaustion. Hard to say for sure....just my opinion

[KOH427]

This is what I built for Ultra 4 type racing. It has a LS7 with 475 rear wheel hp, IFS with seris 30 cvs and is made intirely of tig welded 4130.
The fabrication would rival many of the featured builds on this site IMO
Works really well in the rocks and does at least 120mph. It was the owner's and car's first race and did 14th for KOH 2012.
With the right driver, it's definately ready to win in Ultra 4 and be competitive in class 1.
http://www.race-dezert.com/forum/sho....php/81534-Ufo here is the build thread.

[SuperRanger]

Come to think of it, short course guys have faired far better than desert racers. Currie has two 2nd's and a top ten. Adler had a top 5 his first year and came within a mile of 2nd place this year.

JR that is a beautiful car!

[sirhk100]

Adler had a top 5 his first year and came within a mile of 2nd place this year.

I was wondering if he ever got across the finish line. We were at the waterfall where he broke his rear links and the driveshaft! Hard luck for sure! See anything wrong here?






The one area I had concern with was the course workers and the navigator/spotters!!! You couldn't have paid me enough to have been down in the mix of chocolate thunder when it was backed up and the racers were aggressively looking for lines thru and past others! I saw numerous times where from our point of view it looked like people were on the verge of getting run over. Their back would be to the other cars while they were trying to extract another vehicle or their own and the next driver would almost drive right up on them. I remember 3 times specifically that looked really close! One had a course working diving out of the way and landing in the dirt action movie style to avoid getting hit. The other two had guys turn around to be staring a 40" tire in their face and their reaction clearly was that of shock and oh crap run!

[az_amsoil]

I have never understood why off-roaders can't respect and co-exist with each other...why does one "discipline " have to be better than another? I love flying across the desert at 100+ and also love going 5mph up a 20ft rock face. To me, KOH is a unique race that requires a unique skill and tool set, does that make it better than say dirt track sprint cars; or Baja; or Pikes Peak? It crazy! Enjoy the sport and repect, that, while you may have a preference towards one niche, it doesn't make it any better, or the drivers any better.

BTW...King of the Motos was off the hook! If you can't respect what those guys are doing on a bike, then go home! Madness!!!

[SuperRanger]

I have never understood why off-roads can't respect and co-exist with each other...why does one "discipline " have to be better than another? I love flying across the desert at 100+ and also love going 5mph up a 20ft rock face. To me, KOH is a unique race that requires a unique skill and tool set, does that make it better than say dirt track sprint cars; or Baja; or Pikes Peak? It crazy! Enjoy the sport and repect, that, while you may have a preference towards one niche, it doesn't make it any better, or the drivers any better.

BTW...King of the Motos was off the hook! If you can't respect what those guys are doing on a bike, then go home! Madness!!!

Amen! High end racing gets pushed to the limit no matter what it is.

As far as the motos - we met a guy on Wrecking Ball literally pre-running the course. The dude was running! Worst part is, he was keeping up with us! I don't know how they got a bike through some of that stuff.

[sirhk100]

Destry's post race writeup for KOM is a great read!!! And the nutty part is on top of that him and Cassellli and probably some of the others raced a national Hare & Hound on Sunday too!

[Rock Donkey]

I have never understood why off-roaders can't respect and co-exist with each other...why does one "discipline " have to be better than another? I love flying across the desert at 100+ and also love going 5mph up a 20ft rock face. To me, KOH is a unique race that requires a unique skill and tool set, does that make it better than say dirt track sprint cars; or Baja; or Pikes Peak? It crazy! Enjoy the sport and repect, that, while you may have a preference towards one niche, it doesn't make it any better, or the drivers any better.

BTW...King of the Motos was off the hook! If you can't respect what those guys are doing on a bike, then go home! Madness!!!

The cool thing about KOH is it forces the two disciplines to combine and shows who is best at both! Respect is earned afterwards.

I also agree on the King of the MOTOS! Those riders are skilled! I think next year will be even better....Maybe we can get the promoters to cancel the UTV race for more MOTO action! I'll have that JoeyD guy look into this. :P

[Rock Donkey]

Destry's post race writeup for KOM is a great read!!! And the nutty part is on top of that him and Cassellli and probably some of the others raced a national Hare & Hound on Sunday too!

Where is the write-up at? I heard Destry also got 3rd in the following H&H race. Incredible...