The MORE Royal Purple/ORAF 500. May 21-23, 2010

[Fourstroker]

1297/1197 Race Report

My brother started towards the back of the pack and had great first lap. He only got passed by the MECO 12 car (they were absolutely flying) and passed about 6 other 12 cars plus some 10's and a couple 1's. At about MM35 on the 2nd lap the motor popped then quit. Initial diagnosis was a broken ignition rotor. Checker pit 2 ran us spare rotor as we had somehow left ours out of the tool bag. Thanks guys. After cracking 2 more rotors we thought we had a bad shaft on the distributor. After a long drive out with a spare distributor the motor fired right back up but we noticed that the belt was all over the place. Turns out we could move the pulley in and out about a 1/4 of an inch. So either the gland nut came loose or we shot a rear main bearing. Super bummed for sure. The car was faster and handled better than it ever has.

Great turnout at the race!

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[Baja503]

#503

This was my first race ever and I had a great time, awesome experience and meet some really good people. We finished in 8th place with 5 laps, didnt have enough time to go out for our 6th lap. We didnt have any big issues except for three flat tires, a lost fire extinguisher, and getting nerfed by two class 1's.....thanks for the narly dent in my new cage guys...haha . I also wanted to thank the pit crew from MM45 with WR racing. They really help us out out there, we only had one guy in our pit...lol i was jumping out the car at the pit to refuel myself. Thanks again WR racing(Mike, Tirsha, Vicki, Kenny, Mervin) And i want to thank the Checkers; we pulled into your pit once this race and we learned lot from you guys in that one pit. Thanks. We had alot of fun and are looking forward to the next one.

[fusionoffroad]

#3020
the Fusion Off-Road, CBR machine in class 3000 had a strong 2nd place finnish on our maiden race for the new designed C1 LITE fighting through front shock spring failure. Congrats to the green army team for their class 3000 win .

[M.Harvey1600]

#503

This was my first race ever and I had a great time, awesome experience and meet some really good people. We finished in 8th place with 5 laps, didnt have enough time to go out for our 6th lap. We didnt have any big issues except for three flat tires, a lost fire extinguisher, and getting nerfed by two class 1's.....thanks for the narly dent in my new cage guys...haha . I also wanted to thank the pit crew from MM45 with WR racing. They really help us out out there, we only had one guy in our pit...lol i was jumping out the car at the pit to refuel myself. Thanks again WR racing(Mike, Tirsha, Vicki, Kenny, Mervin) And i want to thank the Checkers; we pulled into your pit once this race and we learned lot from you guys in that one pit. Thanks. We had alot of fun and are looking forward to the next one.

good job Jeremy congrats... heres a pic from your 1st race!

[DanMcMillin]

Great Job what a race we had!!!

Yeah while it lasted lol, bummer on the broken shock tower, you were on a mission! The jack falling over 5 times on my tire change lap 5 made me nervous for time and I knew you'd be charging hard to catch up. Congrats on getting the finish though, See you in Baja!

[M.Harvey1600]

so are there any official FULL finishing results yet?

looking for class 1?
class 1600?
class 12?
and class 5?

thanks

[Bryan J]

so are there any official FULL finishing results yet?

looking for class 1?
class 1600?
class 12?
and class 5?

thanks

class 5 open for sure
5010-Anderson and (2nd overall??)
5011-Belk
502-Wagstaff
507-Antuna (co drove first 2 laps-had a blast)
514-Potts
541-Davis

thats as far as i can remember

[azjeepracer]

Well where to begin, we started the day in 3723 leaving the line first, and after lap 1 was done running 3rd in class,the truck felt good,we were behind 2nd place by 2 minutes.The new motor worked great and everything else felt pretty solid, i was scheduled to ride laps 1,2,and 4 and drive the 3rd.Then at mile marker 48 on lap 2 things took a distasterous turn for the worse, we snapped a steering nuckle on the left front. Well after welding up the spindle we attempted to limp it home via power line road and broke it again,cannot weld cast metal,and were stopped there for maybe another 2 hrs for a grand total on the day for around 7 hrs or more. Thanks to all the great guys at fair we were able to make it home with the truck getting on the trailer under its own power. So i want to give a big thank you to guys at main pit for getting us back safe, you guys are all life savers yet again. Best money we could ever spend for a race!!!!!!!!!

[Ol' Curmudgeon]

Team Coyote Racing thanks MORE, CHECKERS, LUKA Consulting, RaceShock.com, Bilstein, BFG, Schaeffers' Racing Lubricants, Bighorn Design and Development and especially THE FANS and SPECTATORS at RM 8 when "Iron Mike" Leseicki found the car had got a little ahead of his talent and overturned. (Be watching for the in-car, anybody get the shot from outside the car?)

In no time at all, the gang descended on the car, turned it right-side up, and sent our boys on their way. Mike had a pretty quick couple of laps, nevertheless, but when he came in after two and I climbed in, just as I was ready to go, Checker Delbert holds up that unavoidable STOP sign he'd been dragging into the desert since 1981, tells me to shut it down and tells me the engine cage and motor mounts have cracked. I hear a generator fire up, figure some Checker is making sparks, and as Gabe and I sit calmly, a bustle of activity swarms around us: broken lights removed, tabs straightened, wiring repaired, spare lights installed, etc. I would soon be wishing we'd pounded out the roof: bang, bang, bang, went my helmet on the new, radically lowered roof line. ( Later Lee Bob would comment, "Mike, you could make soup in that roof.")

Finally, we're off and I'm hoping to make up time. After denying to Bill that I was responsible for the stove-in roof, he flagged us off and I was on the gas hard, figuring if the weld and car were going to break, it might as well be sooner than later. But all was going well and we were up over 100 as we made that big sweeper right off the dry lake.

Ten miles out, though, the oil temp rose to 260, while the pressure and water temp stayed normal. I backed out of it, stopped at Checker pit #1, where Kraz said no leaks, all looked good, so we took off just cruising as the oil temp dropped back down. Shelby or one of her co-driver's caught us and gave us a gentle tap, though I wondered why, as there were two faster lines to my left. (?) Concerned and not real confident in the car, we motored on, way down on time and just cruising the rest of an uneventful lap. Fun catching, watching and then passing the 11's, trying to give them as wide a berth as possible and not interfere withe THEIR race. Easy in the Coyote, though I did do a little landscaping. Oil temp stayed normal, but I kept my right foot light.

Off the pace, I decided to turn the car over to Jesse Malinowski, who would be making his debut as a driver on the team (after co-driving for many years in father Jim's 9 car, and the team's 5 and 10 cars as well as the unlimited Coyote), so he could at least see some of the course. But the team had missed the Checker radio relay, and so Jesse was not ready to jump right in, not even suited up, in fact, figuring he had another hour as Gabe and I were slated to run two laps. So my lap will look extremely slow. No excuse, just fact. He went out as it was getting dark, ran out of daylight and car light with some mis-aimed HIDs, and still turned in a 51 MPH average on his first race lap ever! Congrats, Jesse! He commented that he scared himself on three turns, but his co-river Mike said he pulled off some smooth, slick passes of slower cars.

Coming in at the end of his fourth lap, we were a distant fourth, at least a lap and half-down from the top three, and we made the decision to withdraw rather than be the "nag" at a distant fourth. We drove it on the trailer (which is ALWAYS a win in my book) and headed home to lick our wounds.

But the team will be back for the Freedom 250 in July, a great time to visit sunny Barstow!

Thanks again to all who made for such a great race!

BTW, I thought it was pretty cold, enjoyed the sight of SNOW from just above Lucerne Valley to Big Bear, and ran into sleet and 33 degrees in Yucca Valley Sunday morn!

[Sparky]

We battled up to 4th place in our class of 15 entries, but our night ended at MM 8.5 on our 4th lap...