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<blockquote data-quote="FCORR" data-source="post: 892436" data-attributes="member: 2771"><p>Here is our race report:</p><p></p><p>TSU Motorsports #1495, 2009 MDR California 200 Night Race Report</p><p>August 15th 2009 Lucerne Valley, CA</p><p></p><p>The MDR Night Race is the “Superbowl” of 1450 racing. Traditionally there have always been a large number of entries in the 1400 and 1450 classes, as well as huge crowds of spectators, mainly surrounding the infamous Rockpile area. This year’s race was no exception with 48 entries in 1450 and thousands of people lined up at the Rockpile jump. Our goal for the race was a top 10 finish as we needed to maintain our 1450-ORG points lead, survival of this race would be crucial to our Championship hunt.</p><p></p><p>Prerunning and prep for this race went very smooth, instead of getting into much detail, here are a few videos:</p><p></p><p>August 1st Prerun:</p><p><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/5904351">http://www.vimeo.com/5904351</a></p><p></p><p>Prep at DMZ Fab and Race Prep in Norco:</p><p><a href="http://www.vimeo.com/6077626">http://www.vimeo.com/6077626</a></p><p></p><p>As for the race itself, we drew the first starting position and knew every other 1450 truck was behind us and would be coming! When the green flag dropped we put the pedal to the floor and didn’t lift for the first 3 miles as we approached the Rockpile. We rounded the corner and caught our first glimpse of the several thousand people that lined the course; we could hear the crowd cheer over the noise of the engine, radio, and Parker Pumper. We ran a good hard pace for the first 10 miles, as we approached Pit A we noticed Brad Hemphill coming up on our right side; I kept the pedal to the floor and tried as hard as I could to beat him to the soft, silty corner. As we approached the corner he leaned into his supercharged V-6 and dove in front us creating a dust cloud that left us with no visibility, I kept pushing through the dust in fear that another vehicle would plow into the rear of our truck without being able to see. When we regained our bearings and realized how far off the course we were I was worried that we actually drove around check point 1, luckily MDR had moved the check point down course in comparison to years passed. We jumped back on the course and through the check point without major incident, 2 miles later Brad was on the side of the course with a blown up rearend. One mile after that, Steve Herrera, who was second in points coming into the race, motored by like he was on a mission, and he was. The rest of the first lap flew by with zero issues, the truck felt and handled great. We made a quick pit stop to top off on fuel and check the truck over, everything looked good and we sped off into the night. Only a few turns later, running in a section that I have ran hundreds of times, we hit the lip of a wash hard and kicked the rear of the truck several feet in the air, all we saw was dirt as we flew, finally the truck landed again but hit another lip launched the truck into the air again, luckily level this time and we were able to pull out of it, we finished the lap in one piece. Lap 2, was very similar to the first lap, the truck felt great, no problems, we had less dust and less traffic, the second lap was easier than the first. We flew by our pits honking and radioing in that the truck still felt great. We started the 3rd and final lap feeling good about ourselves, just 50 more miles to go! We flew over the Rockpile one last time, the large crowd still there cheering, my codriver Brad and I began to have casual conversation as we raced on. At one point we talked about one of our teammates who was unable to make the race because he was sick, we realized at the end of the conversation we had talked about his sickness for over 3 miles! The rest of the lap continued as smooth as the first 2, there was still no sign of Herrera as he was most likely still flying around the course. With 8 miles to go we hit a flat down hill section and had the truck pinned, we nearly reached 76 miles an hour on the GPS when we started losing speed downhill, I asked Brad, “What is that about?” He laughed and said, “It must be GPS error,” both of us knowing that the 75 horsepower engine wouldn’t push the truck any faster. We flew by our pits one more time, honking and waving and finished the lap with no issues, sliding sideways into the finish line with checkered flags waving. TSU Motorsports had completed another problem free race!</p><p></p><p>Solid prep and prerunning really paid off this time, we met our goal of a top 10 finish by finishing 9th out of 38 starters overall in 1450. Of the 9 1450-ORG members we finished 2nd to Steve Herrera. Not only did Steve win 1450 for the ORG, but also won 1450 in MDR. Steve had accomplished his mission making the points battle a tight one! He is only 10 points back through 4 races and if you factor in the 1 throwout race he is only a single point behind us! It all comes down to Glen Helen in December, where winner takes all!</p><p></p><p>TSU Motorsports receives a huge amount of support in order to keep the race efforts alive, we wouldn’t be out there racing if it weren’t for these companies and individuals, thank you to:</p><p></p><p>DMZ Fab and Race Prep, for building and prepping one of the most reliable vehicles racing in the desert today. If it weren’t for Tim and the rest of the crew at DMZ we never would have racked up all the solid finishes that we have to date.</p><p></p><p>A huge thanks also goes out to SUD Productions, Desertfreedom.com, Copasetic Designs, Offset Photography, The Axe Shock Tuning, Lucas Oil, Trailglow Lights, Shells Shapes and Steel, RPC Commercial Inc., and Vista Paint. </p><p></p><p>Lastly thanks to everyone that helped us on the track, in the pits, or in the garage. Tim Duncan, Brad Lindseth, Dave Plueger, Adam Carter, Kristina Steavens, Pat Kapko, Joe for the help in the pits all weekend, Chaz and Chad for taking Brad and I prerunning, the entire 1446 team for running incredible radio relays for us (Ryan, Ryan, Landon and crew, thank you again!), Sean @ Norco Tires, my parents John and Michele, MDR Racing and all the contingency companies that support the racers, and finally all the friends, family, and racing fans who have supported me from the beginning. Thank you all!</p><p></p><p>-A.J. Steeber #1495</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FCORR, post: 892436, member: 2771"] Here is our race report: TSU Motorsports #1495, 2009 MDR California 200 Night Race Report August 15th 2009 Lucerne Valley, CA The MDR Night Race is the “Superbowl” of 1450 racing. Traditionally there have always been a large number of entries in the 1400 and 1450 classes, as well as huge crowds of spectators, mainly surrounding the infamous Rockpile area. This year’s race was no exception with 48 entries in 1450 and thousands of people lined up at the Rockpile jump. Our goal for the race was a top 10 finish as we needed to maintain our 1450-ORG points lead, survival of this race would be crucial to our Championship hunt. Prerunning and prep for this race went very smooth, instead of getting into much detail, here are a few videos: August 1st Prerun: [url]http://www.vimeo.com/5904351[/url] Prep at DMZ Fab and Race Prep in Norco: [url]http://www.vimeo.com/6077626[/url] As for the race itself, we drew the first starting position and knew every other 1450 truck was behind us and would be coming! When the green flag dropped we put the pedal to the floor and didn’t lift for the first 3 miles as we approached the Rockpile. We rounded the corner and caught our first glimpse of the several thousand people that lined the course; we could hear the crowd cheer over the noise of the engine, radio, and Parker Pumper. We ran a good hard pace for the first 10 miles, as we approached Pit A we noticed Brad Hemphill coming up on our right side; I kept the pedal to the floor and tried as hard as I could to beat him to the soft, silty corner. As we approached the corner he leaned into his supercharged V-6 and dove in front us creating a dust cloud that left us with no visibility, I kept pushing through the dust in fear that another vehicle would plow into the rear of our truck without being able to see. When we regained our bearings and realized how far off the course we were I was worried that we actually drove around check point 1, luckily MDR had moved the check point down course in comparison to years passed. We jumped back on the course and through the check point without major incident, 2 miles later Brad was on the side of the course with a blown up rearend. One mile after that, Steve Herrera, who was second in points coming into the race, motored by like he was on a mission, and he was. The rest of the first lap flew by with zero issues, the truck felt and handled great. We made a quick pit stop to top off on fuel and check the truck over, everything looked good and we sped off into the night. Only a few turns later, running in a section that I have ran hundreds of times, we hit the lip of a wash hard and kicked the rear of the truck several feet in the air, all we saw was dirt as we flew, finally the truck landed again but hit another lip launched the truck into the air again, luckily level this time and we were able to pull out of it, we finished the lap in one piece. Lap 2, was very similar to the first lap, the truck felt great, no problems, we had less dust and less traffic, the second lap was easier than the first. We flew by our pits honking and radioing in that the truck still felt great. We started the 3rd and final lap feeling good about ourselves, just 50 more miles to go! We flew over the Rockpile one last time, the large crowd still there cheering, my codriver Brad and I began to have casual conversation as we raced on. At one point we talked about one of our teammates who was unable to make the race because he was sick, we realized at the end of the conversation we had talked about his sickness for over 3 miles! The rest of the lap continued as smooth as the first 2, there was still no sign of Herrera as he was most likely still flying around the course. With 8 miles to go we hit a flat down hill section and had the truck pinned, we nearly reached 76 miles an hour on the GPS when we started losing speed downhill, I asked Brad, “What is that about?” He laughed and said, “It must be GPS error,” both of us knowing that the 75 horsepower engine wouldn’t push the truck any faster. We flew by our pits one more time, honking and waving and finished the lap with no issues, sliding sideways into the finish line with checkered flags waving. TSU Motorsports had completed another problem free race! Solid prep and prerunning really paid off this time, we met our goal of a top 10 finish by finishing 9th out of 38 starters overall in 1450. Of the 9 1450-ORG members we finished 2nd to Steve Herrera. Not only did Steve win 1450 for the ORG, but also won 1450 in MDR. Steve had accomplished his mission making the points battle a tight one! He is only 10 points back through 4 races and if you factor in the 1 throwout race he is only a single point behind us! It all comes down to Glen Helen in December, where winner takes all! TSU Motorsports receives a huge amount of support in order to keep the race efforts alive, we wouldn’t be out there racing if it weren’t for these companies and individuals, thank you to: DMZ Fab and Race Prep, for building and prepping one of the most reliable vehicles racing in the desert today. If it weren’t for Tim and the rest of the crew at DMZ we never would have racked up all the solid finishes that we have to date. A huge thanks also goes out to SUD Productions, Desertfreedom.com, Copasetic Designs, Offset Photography, The Axe Shock Tuning, Lucas Oil, Trailglow Lights, Shells Shapes and Steel, RPC Commercial Inc., and Vista Paint. Lastly thanks to everyone that helped us on the track, in the pits, or in the garage. Tim Duncan, Brad Lindseth, Dave Plueger, Adam Carter, Kristina Steavens, Pat Kapko, Joe for the help in the pits all weekend, Chaz and Chad for taking Brad and I prerunning, the entire 1446 team for running incredible radio relays for us (Ryan, Ryan, Landon and crew, thank you again!), Sean @ Norco Tires, my parents John and Michele, MDR Racing and all the contingency companies that support the racers, and finally all the friends, family, and racing fans who have supported me from the beginning. Thank you all! -A.J. Steeber #1495 [/QUOTE]
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