Toyo Desert Challenge Presented by Monster at KOH 2021 - More classes and settling some grudge matches

[sand shark]

Now that the UTV's got smoked by the 10 cars lets combine class 5 open and B3's for next years race. This will be a much more realistic grudge match. UTV's never had a chance in hell in lucerne against 10's. However it would be a very good race between the big money UTV's and Class 5 open cars.

And why the hell are we not calling a class 10 a class 10? and UTV's a UTV?

The action in the beginning was pretty good with the first UTV trying to hold off the class 10 cars. He put up a fight for a little bit, but the Class 10 cars just walked away in the faster rougher sections. If they do it next year maybe more of the bigger UTV race teams will show up. It was some good racing yesterday.

 

[Zac Reish]

The action in the beginning was pretty good with the first UTV trying to hold off the class 10 cars. He put up a fight for a little bit, but the Class 10 cars just walked away in the faster rougher sections. If they do it next year maybe more of the bigger UTV race teams will show up. It was some good racing yesterday.

I agree. 5 cars don't have long legs like the 10's do. short wheel base and beam front suspension keeps the speed down compared to class 10. I wouldnt be surprised if the UTV's beat all the 5 cars in a lucerne race. In baja 5 cars don't have a chance against the 4wd but in lucerne it would be a very even match. It would be awesoe to have that as the grudge match next year.

 

[ekozy39]

Because he had no shot at getting back before closure.

In the end, only Kyle Chaney did, Phil Blurtons finish of 4th loop is what got him 2nd, not finishing out of time.

Kaden had the option to go back but he all he would be doing is wearing out his body and his car. His finish position was already locked in.

Curious, how was it locked? If Blurton or Cheney break on last lap and Wells was allowed out and finishes that Lap he advances a position. Per the timing they were only 15min back.

 

[Zac Reish]

Why didnt
andy, luke dan mac
rob mc
josh daniels
race?!

missing alot of top teams.

 

[calstyl2]

I suspect more than a few were penciled in for the Mint in March, till that date went away

 

[JDDurfey]

I suspect more than a few were penciled in for the Mint in March, till that date went away

I agree. Once the Mint moved to December I was surprised more didn't enter. But then again with racing contracts and sponsors paying out for specific races I am not surprised either.

It was cool to see Todd Wylie bring out the old Chevy class 8. Isn't that the truck they raced in Dust to Glory back in 03?

 

[TRAVISD]

Curious, how was it locked? If Blurton or Cheney break on last lap and Wells was allowed out and finishes that Lap he advances a position. Per the timing they were only 15min back.

Cause the course closed at a certain time. There was no way for him to finish the last lap in the amount of time that was left. It’s not who has made it the farthest on the last lap, it’s the time thru the last check point or finish line. The only way he could have advanced his position was to pass those guys and finish before the course closes.

 

[ekozy39]

Cause the course closed at a certain time. There was no way for him to finish the last lap in the amount of time that was left. It’s not who has made it the farthest on the last lap, it’s the time thru the last check point or finish line. The only way he could have advanced his position was to pass those guys and finish before the course closes.

They were only 15min back so I guess we’ll never know but they should have had a chance, also thought cut off was 5p. And if they he would have passed them , cleared furthest check and none of the 3 remaining cars finish in allotted time. Then what? That 3rd car wins.
with 1 min start intervals, 40 cars, you have a bad qualifier and you’re almost guaranteed not to get a run your last lap. Doesn’t make sense

 

[Rcamp99]

Because he had no shot at getting back before closure.

In the end, only Kyle Chaney did, Phil Blurtons finish of 4th loop is what got him 2nd, not finishing out of time.

Kaden had the option to go back but he all he would be doing is wearing out his body and his car. His finish position was already locked in.

Makes sense!!!

 

[Rcamp99]

I agree. Once the Mint moved to December I was surprised more didn't enter. But then again with racing contracts and sponsors paying out for specific races I am not surprised either.

It was cool to see Todd Wylie bring out the old Chevy class 8. Isn't that the truck they raced in Dust to Glory back in 03?

Yes it is. That truck is awesome. Didn’t look like he had a good day today though.

 

[stephenrjking]

I agree. Once the Mint moved to December I was surprised more didn't enter. But then again with racing contracts and sponsors paying out for specific races I am not surprised either.

It was cool to see Todd Wylie bring out the old Chevy class 8. Isn't that the truck they raced in Dust to Glory back in 03?

The Mint's move was only announced, what, two weeks ago? If that?

That's a lot of heavy lifting with truck prep and team logistics on really short notice. I would think, anyway.

 

[alanzona]

 

[stephenrjking]

11th for the Pyle truck after a really rough start, good for them soldiering on and producing a good result, even being just 22 seconds out of tenth.

 

[MTPyle]

We did have a rough start. Flat on qualifying that put us way back. Then a flat at RM25. And our fuel pumps were a mess again. The fuel pumps where only holding 7-10 psi at full throttle. I think that cost us half hour or more. But the boys did great with only one flat and the truck looks the same as it did at the start of the race. Plus a air gun jam on a tire change in the pits that added a bunch of time. Lots of room for improvement, but still our best result so far. I don’t count the Honda truck in 6100 so we really got 10th in 6100. Haha

oh and we never planned to be racing at night as the race was supposed to start at 7am. Didn’t even
Think about our light bar and we never mounted our 20” bumper light bar. So the last 45 minutes was in the dark with very little lights. Not giving excuses just telling the story. I don’t think the lights made a huge difference. The biggest issue was visibility over the hood. Connor wanted to take the hood off but he thought I said we can’t do that. Which we should have as many teams did. Connors neck is a mess from stretching up to see over the hood

the overall event was legit for sure.

Mike

 

[E.Hagle]

This course was a lot to tackle and it eventually got the best of our car. We had a blast even though we didn’t end up finishing the race due to a brake line failure 20 miles after handing the car over to my brother Ben. Thanks Dave and everyone for putting on an awesome event. We had a blast for our first time out to the lakebed and it definitely lives up to the hype.

I guess the 10 car is in a different league compared to the UTV afterall, I figured the 4wd would have given them a bigger advantage. I’m a rookie and we passed some big names in UTVs like they were out sightseeing.

This course was really taxing and full of cross grain sharp hits as well as embedded rocks with no lack of quick elevation change. I’m not all that experienced yet but I felt like this course took a completely different skill set and I’m sure that’s what Dave was going for.

Is there going to be another grudge match for next year? Not sure who to put our class up against now that the dust has settled.

 

[OFFRD-JNKIE]

Awesome weekend of racing super stoked on how well the Honda Ridgeline did mixing it up with the 6100's!
I can't wait to get back out there on Wed for more and to help Bailey Cole and Jordan Pellegrino put those Honda Talon's on the box!

 

[swiftracing5]

It really was a celebration of desert racing. Primetime viewing, the best drivers in each of the classes rose to the top. All the drivers seemed genuinely stoked to be racing and a part of KOH. PABs Finishline interview was pure class as usual. He’s like desert racing’s Morgan Freeman.

Obviously/selfishly wish the TT field was more stacked at the top as it was cool to get lost in a weekend of racing and forget about the worlds issues, so it felt odd to be missing some of the legends. And I missed a Dan Finishline interview. But respect their decisions. Maybe next year we can squeeze class 5 coalition in there somewhere

 

[michael.gonzalez]

So how about a 525hp 2wd Spec TT being less than 10 minutes behind a 1000+hp AWD TT after a 5.5 hour race?
OR how about a 525hp 2wd Spec TT being less than 3 minutes behind a 1000+hp 2wd TT?
Big props to the Grabowski brothers for pulling that off!

The Whipple 6100 looked great from what I saw and holy hell can Josh drive a Class 11!

Thanks to Dave and everyone else for putting on a great event.
See you next weekend!

 

[T.martin]

I watched way too much of the coverage this weekend. It was awesome. I had the premium coverage, Bryce Menzies coverage and RacingTrax all up on the big screen. At one point, one of the drones landed next to Casey Currie changing a flat tire. One of the commentators said that they wouldn't be able to see them lift the large tire back in on to the truck. The drone repositioned a little to the right and got the shot. That was cool. The production quality got better on day 2. There were still too many times that the camera cut to lesser footage. Also, I felt at the end the podium coverage was a little clumsy and the T1s got more coverage than the T2s. Just my two cents. Best coverage by far for desert racing.

Any drama with post tech inspection of the T2s? Pretty amazing that a couple of 525hp T2s can beat most of the T1s. I'm sure the technical and rough course was part of that result.

 

[stephenrjking]

We did have a rough start. Flat on qualifying that put us way back. Then a flat at RM25. And our fuel pumps were a mess again. The fuel pumps where only holding 7-10 psi at full throttle. I think that cost us half hour or more. But the boys did great with only one flat and the truck looks the same as it did at the start of the race. Plus a air gun jam on a tire change in the pits that added a bunch of time. Lots of room for improvement, but still our best result so far. I don’t count the Honda truck in 6100 so we really got 10th in 6100. Haha

oh and we never planned to be racing at night as the race was supposed to start at 7am. Didn’t even
Think about our light bar and we never mounted our 20” bumper light bar. So the last 45 minutes was in the dark with very little lights. Not giving excuses just telling the story. I don’t think the lights made a huge difference. The biggest issue was visibility over the hood. Connor wanted to take the hood off but he thought I said we can’t do that. Which we should have as many teams did. Connors neck is a mess from stretching up to see over the hood

the overall event was legit for sure.

Mike

Seems like this is a great building block. I know you would probably rather things be fully built, but there were mechanical issues and there was bad luck and you drove clean. That's huge in your team.