Originally Posted by
WickedGravityVideo
The raw GoPro video does tell the whole story --- approx. 11 minutes before this video, 8022 did come up once, within about 100 feet behind the BajaLite. It can be seen by the GoPro for less than ten seconds total. I would have to ask the BL drivers, but I honestly doubt they ever saw you or knew you were back there. Even with your LEDs on, you disappear into the dust in a split second. Perhaps they, too, were being held up by dust from someone in front of them. I could post this video, too, but, like I said earlier, there is NO interaction between both vehicles here - no attempt to pass, no contact or even near-contact. There was absolutely nothing else until you smashed them.
That's probably legit, except they were in clean air.
Also, someone mentioned that they were in a limited truck. Last I heard that truck is very light, has an unlimited chassis and V8. Our truck is a class 8 and has a stock frame, forward motor position - and it weighs 14,800 lbs without fuel. We have the "limited truck". The "unlimited" and "less limited" vehicles start in front of us; that's why he was in front of me.
I reviewed our tapes too - In the previous attempt we may have been closer than 100 ft. It's hard to tell because the lens on our camera was caked. Anyway, they may not have heard our siren. And the dust was so bad, they may not have seen us in their mirrors.
I meant to hit him without pausing, but I didn't mean to get tangled up. - So, my bad. Whatever. The sides of our bumper are angled back - slamming on the brakes makes a hook worse.
I probably smashed 10-12 cars in this race and got hit by 3. From people ramming us, our passenger bedside got torn off and one of our spare tire carrier's tube work got obliterated by a quartering hit. The entire assembly (with tire) is in the desert somewhere. Except for immediately after this incident when I was trying to get the hood to blow off, every time we got nerfed, it was in heavy, hanging silt.
I drive slowly in the silt clouds because I've seen other cars, stuck quads, bikes and dudes out of cars trying to extract appear out of nowhere in the middle of trail. If you haul ass blind, you can kill someone - so I don't do that. That's my choice - so, we get nerfed a lot in heavy dust by drivers who don't visualize the same consequences. It destroys our truck and we have to rebuild stuff every race.
The point is that you'll never hear me whine about damage to my truck, despite differing driver ethos. In fact, except for getting hit when we're all driving totally blind, I admire good competitive smashing - even at my expense.
Violent nerfing represents speed, initiative, and force of action - all characteristics I respect in competitors and is why I spend my time racing off road with men instead of collecting stamps or doing whatever normal folks do.
Later in this race we had fuel issues that stopped us for over an hour. A lot of the 10 cars and 7 trucks we nerfed drove past us while we were solving problems.
We never had to hit those guys or even use the siren again because they became magically vigilant with their mirrors.
Yes, I could have executed that particular nerf in the video with a little more finesse - to say the least. In our team debrief, I mentioned that I should have been more disciplined with the throttle on that hit - mainly because it messed up our hood, introducing more dirt into our air filter system, not because I'm concerned with another racer's feelings.
I view the unpredictable anarchy inherent in off road racing as part of the social contract we sign when we show up at the starting line - and this kind of thing is all part of it.
Nevertheless: To all internet rangers who are appalled by my behavior, I apologize - with sugar on top.
In the future I promise to be especially gentle, kind and sensitive when I nerf someone. I'll start slowly and touch them in all the right places. In fact, from now on, when anyone gets smashed by Kroeker, they'll want to light up a cigarette afterwords and quietly whisper about how emotionally validated they feel by my bumper...
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