OldGreen
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Our race started with me in the driver's seat and John from Auburn Car Repair and Off-Road (ACRO) in the co-dog seat. Off the line El Chivo ran strong. Our plan was to run a conservative pace, stop at all the pits and FINISH the race. Our 4x4 Ranger has a pretty big advantage in the deep silt so we thought that if we just put the blinders on and ran our race, we would do well. We also had a concern that the Ultra 4x4s that started behind us would be faster in certain section so we'd have to be very careful.
Before pit one, we were running fast and saw a lot of carnage. We were also able to get around the 7330 and the 7384 was in sight. The 7330 passed us back in pit one, but we reeled him back in maybe a mile out of the pit. We also passed a few other cars and were running strong. Pretty soon we found ourselves in a giant silt bed with several Ultra 4x4s, the 7384 and at least one Jeepspeed. It was brutal. Cars were 3 and 4 abreast trying to keep making headway and not get rearended in the process. Everyone was a class act and no one got stuck or hit us. Towards the end of the silt bed, we got around the 7384. We didn't even know it was him until we were right next to him. Visibility was ZERO. From there, we cruised into Pit 2 with no issues at all and a pretty good lead in our class.
Back out on the track we were flying along in the 100+ heat when our motor just stopped running. Out of gas? No. . .we were vapor locked. A radio call from the pits gave us some good advice: get out, pour some water on the fuel regulator, take a drink for yourself and enjoy the scenery for a few minutes. 5 minutes seemed like an hour. Both of the other trucks in our class got by us along with a sportsman or two and a Jeepspeed that we had passed earlier. A little further down the course, up the mountain pass, there were 4 late model Rangers stopped with the same problem (including us and the 7384) within 100 yards. Things cooled off a little and we were able to really make up some time. Coming down the hill to Cotton Tail, our GPS showed 94.7mph. El Chivo did end up vapor locking one more time as we entered pit row. The crew was at the other end so they moved everything down to us quickly so we could get fueled, cooled off and back on track. . without our hood.
Between Pit 3 and Pit 4, we had a couple of more fuel issues, but all other systems were good and we handed over a solid truck at the driver change to Jose (Driver) and Boyscout Steve Harrell. They managed to have a couple of vapor locks and they blew a tire coming into pit 5. Now we were cutting the pit times very close, but they made it through with only seconds to spare. From there, Jose was able to make up some time on the pit closings until El Chivo bent a steering knuckle badly between pit 6 and pit 7. The clock was ticking, but he and Steve made short work of the field repair and got back on course through pit 8 and the finish line. Day 1 was a success even though were were down on time.
In the work area, we buttoned everything up and put El Chivo to bed. We thought we were having an electrical problem because the starter was having a hard time getting the motor to turn over. More on that later. We finally crashed out around 2AM. Some slept on the trailer deck, some in the cabs of the trucks. Fozzie was on the roof of Chase 1.
Day 2: Fozzie was off the line with John in co-doggin'. They got tagged by a couple of unlimited cars in traffic before pit 1 and then cruised on it to pit 2. The morning was going very well so far. . .then we get the call. Fozzie put the truck on its side in a deep rut. Luckily, the truck was still drivable and the heroes driving the bright orange Woolworth Bronco righted the truck for us and we were off. . .with a busted steering rack and no power steering all the way to Pit 3. The boys jumped out of the truck for a well needed rest while Jose, Josh, KO, Jesse, and Brian thrashed on the truck to get the new rack installed. Once again, with less than a minute to spare, they beat the posted pit closing time and were back on the track and fully functional.
Fozzie said that the majority of the sections between pit 3 and pit 5 were a real pain in the kidneys, but he managed to make up a bunch of time on the pit closing and gain some time back on the 7384. At the driver's change at Pit 5, we took our time and gave the truck a good once over while I jumped in the driver's seat with Boyscout Steve in co-dog. While we were getting ready to go, a frantic crew member from the 1736 Jeepspeed car asked if he could strap on some fuel to El Chivo's bed cage to deliver to his stranded race car. Of course!!! Now let's get it on!!!
El Chivo performed almost flawlessly into the night section. The only issue was that he wouldn't idle so if we ever had to really get on the brakes, he would die. I figured out how to drive around it after a while and we kept on making up time. We knew that we were around 3.5 hours back on corrected time from the 7330 and maybe an hour off of the 7384 so our race strategy became "go as fast as you can without breaking the truck". That is exactly what we did. At around RM550, we found our fuelless friend in the 1736 and dropped off a few gallons to a shower of accolades and charged back into the high-speed rocky terrain ahead. Rocks, washes, silt. . .a few mountain roads. It was really varied, but almost always rough. We were moving fast enough that we were putting time on a couple of 7200 trucks and running in their dust. Using 4Lo, we were able to crawl around a few traffic jams in the silt and keep making up time on the other trucks in our class.
Toward the end of day 2, we came across a brutal rocky, silty hill-climb. The bottom looked like a race car junkyard. Trick Truck, C1, 7200, 2000, you name it. They were rolled, stuck and broke right there. We simply popped El Chivo into 4Lo and crawled it. No problemo. A couple of miles later we passed the 7330. Back up. . .did I mention that he accidentally took a 33 mile shortcut between pit 4 and pit 5? So, he got a big time penalty for that and we caught him anyway!!! Things were going GREAT!! Off to the finish and the free zone while the crew prepared for us.
Somewhere out on the course, we had bent another knuckle, so that was replaced while everything else was checked out. The starter was still dragging and the engine didn't want to run while it was cold, but we decided to soldier on. For the entire race, our water temp had been between 240 and 255. . but the oil temp was only in the 200 range so we kept pushing. . .
Day 3. After some well earned rest, the crew shook out the cobwebs while Jose and Boyscout Steve suited up for the first leg. The rest of us headed down the course to Pit 1 and waited. We waited until we heard the last thing we wanted to hear. "7302 Chase, this is Race. We're done. No power, no oil pressure at RM 706." Our motor had finally given in to the heat. In fact, it threw a rod through the bottom of the oil pan. But. . .wait. . .the rules for this race state that we can have one "DNF day" and still get the checkers!!! YES!!! We did it!! We got an official finish at V2R the long way!!! Not only that, we went over twice as far as we have ever gone in a race. We HAD to celebrate.
What else was there to do but head to Minah and have some "not fast food" at the burger stand and then head to Reno to join in the festivities. Because of 7330's penalty, they ended 2nd with 7384 (go Kellon and Quinn!!) in first and the RGR Army in 3rd place. 108th overall. Wow. Yeah. . .it is a little bittersweet, but this is only our 6th desert race EVER and we went 706 miles over the gnarliest terrain on the planet. Not too shabby.
Thanks to ACRO, the Boyscout Venture Crew, Ford Trucks, Goodyear Tires, Pasco Auto Wrecking, Radio Service Company (http://www.talktwoway.net), and the RGR Army along with our very understanding families for making this all possible. We could NOT have done it without you. Muchas Gracias. Muchas.
Viva El Chivo.
Before pit one, we were running fast and saw a lot of carnage. We were also able to get around the 7330 and the 7384 was in sight. The 7330 passed us back in pit one, but we reeled him back in maybe a mile out of the pit. We also passed a few other cars and were running strong. Pretty soon we found ourselves in a giant silt bed with several Ultra 4x4s, the 7384 and at least one Jeepspeed. It was brutal. Cars were 3 and 4 abreast trying to keep making headway and not get rearended in the process. Everyone was a class act and no one got stuck or hit us. Towards the end of the silt bed, we got around the 7384. We didn't even know it was him until we were right next to him. Visibility was ZERO. From there, we cruised into Pit 2 with no issues at all and a pretty good lead in our class.
Back out on the track we were flying along in the 100+ heat when our motor just stopped running. Out of gas? No. . .we were vapor locked. A radio call from the pits gave us some good advice: get out, pour some water on the fuel regulator, take a drink for yourself and enjoy the scenery for a few minutes. 5 minutes seemed like an hour. Both of the other trucks in our class got by us along with a sportsman or two and a Jeepspeed that we had passed earlier. A little further down the course, up the mountain pass, there were 4 late model Rangers stopped with the same problem (including us and the 7384) within 100 yards. Things cooled off a little and we were able to really make up some time. Coming down the hill to Cotton Tail, our GPS showed 94.7mph. El Chivo did end up vapor locking one more time as we entered pit row. The crew was at the other end so they moved everything down to us quickly so we could get fueled, cooled off and back on track. . without our hood.
Between Pit 3 and Pit 4, we had a couple of more fuel issues, but all other systems were good and we handed over a solid truck at the driver change to Jose (Driver) and Boyscout Steve Harrell. They managed to have a couple of vapor locks and they blew a tire coming into pit 5. Now we were cutting the pit times very close, but they made it through with only seconds to spare. From there, Jose was able to make up some time on the pit closings until El Chivo bent a steering knuckle badly between pit 6 and pit 7. The clock was ticking, but he and Steve made short work of the field repair and got back on course through pit 8 and the finish line. Day 1 was a success even though were were down on time.
In the work area, we buttoned everything up and put El Chivo to bed. We thought we were having an electrical problem because the starter was having a hard time getting the motor to turn over. More on that later. We finally crashed out around 2AM. Some slept on the trailer deck, some in the cabs of the trucks. Fozzie was on the roof of Chase 1.
Day 2: Fozzie was off the line with John in co-doggin'. They got tagged by a couple of unlimited cars in traffic before pit 1 and then cruised on it to pit 2. The morning was going very well so far. . .then we get the call. Fozzie put the truck on its side in a deep rut. Luckily, the truck was still drivable and the heroes driving the bright orange Woolworth Bronco righted the truck for us and we were off. . .with a busted steering rack and no power steering all the way to Pit 3. The boys jumped out of the truck for a well needed rest while Jose, Josh, KO, Jesse, and Brian thrashed on the truck to get the new rack installed. Once again, with less than a minute to spare, they beat the posted pit closing time and were back on the track and fully functional.
Fozzie said that the majority of the sections between pit 3 and pit 5 were a real pain in the kidneys, but he managed to make up a bunch of time on the pit closing and gain some time back on the 7384. At the driver's change at Pit 5, we took our time and gave the truck a good once over while I jumped in the driver's seat with Boyscout Steve in co-dog. While we were getting ready to go, a frantic crew member from the 1736 Jeepspeed car asked if he could strap on some fuel to El Chivo's bed cage to deliver to his stranded race car. Of course!!! Now let's get it on!!!
El Chivo performed almost flawlessly into the night section. The only issue was that he wouldn't idle so if we ever had to really get on the brakes, he would die. I figured out how to drive around it after a while and we kept on making up time. We knew that we were around 3.5 hours back on corrected time from the 7330 and maybe an hour off of the 7384 so our race strategy became "go as fast as you can without breaking the truck". That is exactly what we did. At around RM550, we found our fuelless friend in the 1736 and dropped off a few gallons to a shower of accolades and charged back into the high-speed rocky terrain ahead. Rocks, washes, silt. . .a few mountain roads. It was really varied, but almost always rough. We were moving fast enough that we were putting time on a couple of 7200 trucks and running in their dust. Using 4Lo, we were able to crawl around a few traffic jams in the silt and keep making up time on the other trucks in our class.
Toward the end of day 2, we came across a brutal rocky, silty hill-climb. The bottom looked like a race car junkyard. Trick Truck, C1, 7200, 2000, you name it. They were rolled, stuck and broke right there. We simply popped El Chivo into 4Lo and crawled it. No problemo. A couple of miles later we passed the 7330. Back up. . .did I mention that he accidentally took a 33 mile shortcut between pit 4 and pit 5? So, he got a big time penalty for that and we caught him anyway!!! Things were going GREAT!! Off to the finish and the free zone while the crew prepared for us.
Somewhere out on the course, we had bent another knuckle, so that was replaced while everything else was checked out. The starter was still dragging and the engine didn't want to run while it was cold, but we decided to soldier on. For the entire race, our water temp had been between 240 and 255. . but the oil temp was only in the 200 range so we kept pushing. . .
Day 3. After some well earned rest, the crew shook out the cobwebs while Jose and Boyscout Steve suited up for the first leg. The rest of us headed down the course to Pit 1 and waited. We waited until we heard the last thing we wanted to hear. "7302 Chase, this is Race. We're done. No power, no oil pressure at RM 706." Our motor had finally given in to the heat. In fact, it threw a rod through the bottom of the oil pan. But. . .wait. . .the rules for this race state that we can have one "DNF day" and still get the checkers!!! YES!!! We did it!! We got an official finish at V2R the long way!!! Not only that, we went over twice as far as we have ever gone in a race. We HAD to celebrate.
What else was there to do but head to Minah and have some "not fast food" at the burger stand and then head to Reno to join in the festivities. Because of 7330's penalty, they ended 2nd with 7384 (go Kellon and Quinn!!) in first and the RGR Army in 3rd place. 108th overall. Wow. Yeah. . .it is a little bittersweet, but this is only our 6th desert race EVER and we went 706 miles over the gnarliest terrain on the planet. Not too shabby.
Thanks to ACRO, the Boyscout Venture Crew, Ford Trucks, Goodyear Tires, Pasco Auto Wrecking, Radio Service Company (http://www.talktwoway.net), and the RGR Army along with our very understanding families for making this all possible. We could NOT have done it without you. Muchas Gracias. Muchas.
Viva El Chivo.
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