FAST Fabrication class 7 unlimited build

[F.A.S.T.clothing]

its just rustoleum smoke grey (all suspension) cage work is the flat black and bolt on parts is royal blue.... at end of season when we tear entire truck down were going to get stuff powdercoated.

[SPONSOR]

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[F.A.S.T.clothing]

We finished the trailer boxes.




Some new graphics going on the truck, most for gopro coverage





Got my custom gopro wrap, going to order a second. Also picked up another upr billet mount

[younggunracer]

Have you weighed your truck? What is it dry and on race day with all your spares, tools, drivers etc? I am almost finished with a Ranger 1450 build and trying to figure out where the truck is going to be. Great build and thanks for the detail I have follwed it alot been intresting and very helpful!

[dan200]

With all your logos, i hope you made small dash stickers etc that will be in the shot when you submit your go pro footy for the HDRA show.

[F.A.S.T.clothing]

With all your logos, i hope you made small dash stickers etc that will be in the shot when you submit your go pro footy for the HDRA show.

Yep we did all that for this race and from now on. There are logos on hood, inside cab and on rear cooler fins, inside of number plate and top of bedside.

[bigtex]

I know you are talking about trying the 6100 class. just a fyi the trucks being built right now for the class are tt's with a sealed engine. It may not be a good fit for your truck. Also a lot of experienced driver in the class. keep your truck the way it is and race it for a couple of years. Just my 2 cents. Good luck this weekend.

[_DFR_]

reno post race report?

[F.A.S.T.clothing]

reno post race report?

Up within 24 hours have a crap load of photos and video . I also was waiting on hdra response before publicly divulging what happen. Still waiting so I Wont be able to disclose it all

[F.A.S.T.clothing]

The HDRA Fireworks 500 in Reno, NV July 1-8 2012

F.A.S.T. Fabrication (me and my dad) work 12 days straight prior to leaving for the race to complete prep as well as repair damage from previous race and add upgrades to the truck. The truck was loaded on the trailer Monday July 2 and ready to leave.


We left Bullhead City, AZ just before 9pm on Monday. The F.A.S.T. Racing 1980’s motor home towing 7,000 lbs made it to Reno at 9am on Tuesday July 3rd. We had to stop and fill up at every little town but it was a fun and very costly (gas) journey. We stayed at the Grand Sierra Resort RV Park in a nice 60 ft pull through for just over $20 a day. It was going to be a mini vacation but from the time we got there until Sunday we were going non-stop. I do have to admit it was fun staying there and we had a nice little camp site set up with lots of chairs, two ez-ups, and an awning with access to river and resort pool. Greg Parker and Sam Berri were just a few spaces away from us.




On Wednesday the 4th and Thursday the 5th we went out to the Tahoe Reno Motorplex (Fireworks 500 track) and did some testing.



I let my cousin whose first time being in the vehicle get a little bit of driving and lots of shifting and co-pilot experience. We had planned on running the entire course and putting info in the GPS, but once we saw the course that plan had change. The course was mostly one lane and was very rocky and I had only 3 spares to last the race. We tested mostly on the qualifying track and my brother and friend took my cousins new dodge out from the end of pit road to pit B. We were out testing when they did this; they were the only ones that really got a good look at the course. We went home Wednesday and watch fireworks from our camp.


The next morning got a few hours of testing with my original co-pilot who got into town the night before. We noticed a bad power steering leak and opted out of running the qualifying, to keep truck fresh and ready and did not think it would matter on this course with so few entries. If I knew your results would be based on where you qualified I would have done this differently. I have lots of sequence photos from a DSLR as well as Go Pro footage from testing. Here are a couple pictures most from Thursday.










As I said we got lots of sequence shots ranging from 4-10 shots in a row. I am no photo editor or even video maker but I give it my best. I basically just crop and merge photos using scenery marks to line up the shots. I am sure this is not the correct way to do a stitching but I am like first grade level when it comes to photo and video editing. Just know the basics on Photoshop, Corel, and Sony Vegas. I plan to try and fit 1-2 classes in this subject into my schedule starting this fall at a community college.



Thursday night we got home and washed the truck to prepare it for tech on Friday.


The Lucas Oil/Deakenbuilt team and I had plans to cone off an area at 6 am and get our trucks over there by 7am; they had dropped their trailer off at my camp the night before. Well everything worked for about 30 minutes then we were told Cameron wanted the spot under the Reno sign, but think it was HDRA because they put the top 3 qualifiers right there.



It was cool though being next to them, even though seemed like the nice area to be at was under the bridge in the shade or by the stage. All in all it was a great day on Friday. There were lots of spectators walking by and checking out the trucks on display. News reporters and film crews, great bands and food, and tech came to us. Little disappointed we could not participate in the pit challenge but it was pretty cool driving our trucks through downtown Reno with a police escort. However getting your truck back on a trailer and to a new parking location and back to the Eldorado all within an hour and a half for the drivers meeting was a huge challenge. I owe a big thanks to my team member Chris Richards for doing us a solid and sitting alone by himself in the pavilion parking lot to guard the truck and trailer so we could disconnect and zoom over to the Eldorado casino. He sat for over an hour and I guess the shuttle bus we were originally going to wait for never came back, thanks a lot Chris.




Co-pilot to the left of me, my cousin who was a new co-pilot and alternate driver to the right of me. Chris Richards to the far left.


We got back to camp just before 8 pm, was hoping to be in bed by 9 pm originally and then we hope for 10 pm. Well that did not happen lol; we had to install the IRC tracking system, pull and move a radio to a chase vehicle, and fix/check a couple other things on truck. Then it was download all the files off all the SD cards to wipe them clean and get all the batteries on chargers. In the end went to bed at 12pm and got up at 5:30am. Got to get enough people that can do everything so I can just show-up and race after a good night’s rest lol. I enjoy being a part of it all, and will always be hands on. I think it is probably the same for most racers in our class. Here are some shots from race day, I have a handful more. For Go Pro footage I used up an entire 32 GB card on the in car camera, the front camera has a little over an hour of racing and the rear camera got like 2 hours of racing. The in car was hard wired but the other two had battery back packs yet one of the cameras only had one battery in it. Video footage won’t be ready until a few weeks from now.

[F.A.S.T.clothing]

An unofficial race report: This was a gnarly track, lots of rocks with steep hills and 90 degree turns going up these hills with mostly single lanes. I started last off the line in my class which was 7th. The last two races we had over 15 in our class, I think it was cause how far away it was which made the race cost a lot more which is hard for us sportsman racers. Some of the hills I barely made it up I’m talking like 6 mph right before I finally got over, you could not get momentum and you had to break for the turns on the hill cause of the cliff. I did not get passed and was stopped for 20 min before I got to pit road as we waited for vehicles to climb a hill. Then after pit road the hill where they added a switch back on it, 1454 was stuck when I got there. I tried to get up and around him a couple times but could not do it. He backed down to get out of the way, we let a UTV and a couple other vehicles give it a try. After 1454 made it over and the rest I let go in front of me I made it on my first try. Just could not make it the 10 feet higher or so on the steep part to get around 1454, but when I did not have to get around a truck it was no problem to make it up the switch back. That had me stopped for another good 20-30 minutes. From there on me and the two bro-dozers, El Mofles, and the two Class 2000 kind of stuck together. I got video of Chris flipping over a 3000 car right in front of me. Then there was another hill that 1454 and El Mofles were trying to get up, at this time Cameron came flying by on his second lap. El Mofles got stuck in middle of track so I made my own little track up and over the hill as did the bro-dozers. Next spot was mile 33.7 right before the “steep hill” which was backed up and vehicles were turned around. We got directed the wrong way and told to try and find a route up these ridges and around the “steep hill”. A few racers made it up by making their own path, the Lucas guys were one of them. I followed the black CMI class 8 truck and could not climb the hill he did, so I back track to were the bro-dozers and Ramey were at. They were all on a hill watching people attempt to find a route and figure out which way they were going. At this time the 2039 Tacoma was backing down from an attempt and got stuck real bad. The 8 of us grab waters and shovels and went down to try and get him unstuck. A recovery guys shows up a little later tells us to go backwards on course to a re-route around “steep hill”. Although he said he could not help the guy get unstuck. So instead of getting back in the race and leaving the team out there alone we decided to keep trying to get him out. It ran my go pros and SD cards out. We were out there for an hour and a half before another person showed up.

This person was from Baja pits which was now being moved due to the re route. Anyways the four of us make our way to the road that leads you to the original Baja pits. Nick has issues going up a hill on the way there, Ramey turns around, and Chris and I make it to Baja pits. Chris decides to go back for his brother, I talk to an official there that told me he was taking me on a re route back to pit. So did not bother strapping back up and getting all my gear back on and tightened. Took it easy as we followed him back, few miles later we learn were back on the original course and just cross over the re-route connection an and a class 1 was behind us. Took a hit off course, at that time we got our gear all back on and got back on course about 16 miles from pit B. Took it pretty easy to pit B getting off the course to wait for vehicles to pass by. At pit B pulled off and went to our main pit. After taking a break from standing out in the sun for two hours and assessing the damage on the truck decided was not worth welding and patching up damage to continue the race. We thought we were already out of it; there was no benefit for continuing. Our belly skid was taco from boulders, couple blown shocks, and serious damage on a poorly design rear cage (previous builder).

At that point my team and I gave our support and spare parts to the Lucas Oil team. We gave them gas, filled up their truck because there guys were not back from the other pit and went and filled their tanks. Also monitored the weather strip channel for them and prevented a problem that may have cost them a first place. At this time only the Lucas oil truck and Brandon were still running in our class. I had gone the farthest by 20+ miles for the other 5 of us on lap 1. If I knew they were going to place us by how we started I would have at least jump back in and completed lap 1. About an hour after I stopped Brandon was out of the race with a broken snout. A little later his team came up to me asking if they could take the snout off of my truck to originally get vehicle off course. But I told him I be here helping the Lucas team, so he could continue racing. I was hesitant because that meant the Lucas team was in first and could possibly loose first place by me getting Brandon back in the race. I said yes but relayed the info to the Lucas team and told them how long of head start they had. We were in the late afternoon at this time. At 1 am I am ready to go and Brandon’s team comes up to me (thinking they have my snout) they relay to us they broke another one and asked to take my second snout. At this time I was real reluctant because I had been ready to leave for an hour. At this time the Lucas team had already won and was there when Brandon’s team came up to me. Turns out he had spares in his trailer and gave Brandon’s team one so they could get off course/finish and me one so I could head back to the RV park instead of waiting another two hours. Brandon’s team returned my snout onto the Lucas Oil trailer and I will be picking it up this week.

Later that day on Sunday I went to the awards ceremony and was accepting the award for first place for the Lucas/Deakenbuilt team that had to head out. I thank who they told me to, and in his message he said congrats on plaque. Did not understand it at first but then realize he thought I was getting third place because they had said they were giving three trophies out. So I felt a little better after the bad day prior until my name was not called. Did not find out till a few days later that they put me in last place even though I was third by mileage on lap 1. I know on previous races it did not matter how far you got on your second or third lap it was by how fast you got to that lap. However I did not know that when you do not complete one lap it is figure out by your starting position not distance traveled. So my decision not to qualify cost me up to 5 points and a possible trophy.

All in all we had fun up leading up to the race. Race day turned out to be a bummer but I had fun helping out my competitors. As for our next race, I do not think we will be doing Primm. We might do the SNORE/MORE night race and will definitely be doing Laughlin. Wow its after 1am been doing this since 10 pm and heading back to CA tomorrow (I mean today).