Goatman
02-28-2008, 09:04 PM
We had one hell of a time, and finishing in 7th place was awesome. We really didn’t know what to expect ahead of time, having never competed in anything, and driving an ex-XJ with a stock 6 cyl, we just didn't see ourselves competing for the win. I organize a bunch of events, but had never competed. Since we regularly race each other to the trails, and are used to running multiple trails a day, we did hope we could do well. When we got there and saw all of the well built and bad ass rigs we just hoped to finish the race clean and see where we ended up. To snag a top 10 finish is thrilling. Our whole team is really stoked.
We had a few pre-race issues to deal with, got it off the trailer and the trans wouldn't shift. We spent what seemed like hours on the phone talking to mechanic friends while they looked at AW4 shcematics and stuff, and even had a friend drive up a spare tranny. We spent Wed working on it all day in the nasty weather with wind, rain, and mud. We also had a front axle seal that started leaking so bad we felt we needed to fix it (it got crap in it when we changed the ball joints days before), so we pulled the axles and carrier out, then couldn't get a seal. Axlejack suggested we wrap duct tape around the axle, so we did and greased the seal up good, and it held. After messing with everything we could think of on the tranny, including changing out the solenoids, finally Thurs evening we replaced the TPS, which fixed it, probably wasted it steaming off the engine right before we left. We felt kind of stupid, waiting to do the simplest thing last, and lost out on being able to pre-run as much as we had wanted.
Race day morning we had to start lining up around 6:30, and it was breezy with a few sprinkles. Our borrowed race radios hadn't arrived yet, and we were nervous about our communications, but like he had promised Tony got there Fri morning and we were wiring up the radio and mounting the antenna while we were lining up for the start. I gotta say that it was an awesome feeling lined up with all of those rigs when they said to start your engines. After some light rain early on in the race the weather was pretty good. We drew 18th starting position, and the start was in 30 second intervals. We took off and the first few miles were really rough, we passed one rig but then got blown away in the sand by a rig or two, and Casey screamed past us as we got out onto the lakebed.
I heard an air line break, so knew we just lost one of the lockers. After a long run down the old SCORE track, with lots of vaious sized whoops, we turned up into a wash and got to pit one at mile 16. The crew fixed the rear air line and gave us a little gas, but we got passed by quite a few rigs while working on the air line. We took off and in a couple miles hit the first trail. We got passed by two rigs, one of them Shannon Campbell, but then got in a groove and started passing other rigs on the trail. We turned to go up Devil's Slide but got caught behind an F toy, ran down Hell's Gate and passed a few more rigs, then headed out into the desert for some more rough stuff and the biggest whoop section of the race. We had passed a good number of rigs, so thought we wouldn't push it too hard in the rough crossgrain, but then GOAT1 blew past us so we figured we better get after it. We passed Drew Goldie, but got passed by Drew Burroughs (GOAT1). We were staying with Drew through the big whoops, and he is really set up for the desert, so that got us kind of excited.
We headed up the out of Sledgehammer, not knowing what lockers we had since I had heard more air lines blow. While this hadn't been a problem with trail running, pushing the rig that hard was really heating up the exhaust and we kept melting the air lines. We caught and passed Drew right after we started down Sledge, then hauled ass and passed another rig after the mailbox right before starting down the lower section of Sledge. We figured out by now that we had lost both locker airlines, but figured we could get up Jackhammer and down Jack North without them, then get fixed at pit 2. Unfortunately, we couldn't get over a big assed rock in a narrow spot on the trail, and we broke the rear driveline trying to get through. We backed up trying to get out of the way, then didn't feel so bad when the next few rigs through had as much trouble as we did and they had lockers that worked. This created quite a bottleneck, with rigs stacking up behind the rigs trying to get through. Paul got a strap around a big rock up the side of the canyon and we winched ourselves out of the way, after getting on the radio to Tony and letting the crew know that we needed the spare driveline. Meanwhile, Drew got hung up in the same section and broke his rear driveline, so he backed up and used our strap to winch himself out of the way, so we were both up the side of the canyon replacing a rear driveline. The guys got there and put in the spare, and fixed both front and rear airlines, but we lost about an hour of time and got passed by a bunch of rigs. I don't know why, but the biggest crowd of spectators that we saw all day was right there where we broke, but it helped to keep it fun.
We got off the winch, got buckled back in, and headed up. A yellow D90 buggy was struggling getting through that same spot, and after he hesitated I gunned it and drove over his front tire, getting a cheer from the crowd. Just up the trail we passed Becca Webster again, then passed a couple more rigs going down Jack North. At pit 2 we were doing fine, but the crew stopped us to check the driveshaft u-bolts, then we were gone. We gained on another rig and caught it at one of the first obstacles in Wrecking Ball, he took a bad line, we darted behind him, and we were off. We had a clean, quick run up the trail, passed JT hooked to his winch, and then came to the crowd waiting at the waterfall at the top of Wrecking Ball, where we never hesitated and drove right up the waterfall and made a quick line through the last squeeze getting some good air under the left front tire but never slowing down. We later found that only a couple rigs even did the waterfall, most going around it. We ended up having the fastest split time up Wrecking Ball, so we're kinda proud of that.
We headed down Clawhammer, passing another couple of rigs, hit the check point and passed another rig on the way to Lower Big Johnson. We had a clean run up the Johnsons, never seeing another rig, and made it to pit 3 where we got 5 gals of gas. The crew told us we were doing good, in the front of the pack, since not that many rigs had come by and a couple of the leaders were broke. We headed out for Outer Limits and headed down, the only section of the course that we had never done before (going down), and made a clean run, passing JR broke halfway down. We hit the next to last check point with nothing but open desert left, the guys there gave us the thumbs up that we were doing well, so we put the hammer down for the last 18 mile run back to the finish line. Our crew had come out from pit 3 to see us go by, which was nice as they cheered as we flew past them. We saw dust way off in the distance, and as we made the sharp left turn to head out onto the lake bed we saw we had almost caught Dean Bullock. We followed him for the run across the lakebed and into the rough last few miles, and got a chance to pass him about 2 miles from the finish line. I said we better honk at him, and Paul cracked me up when he said "should we honk at Dean Bulloch?". We knew we were ahead of him, since he started ahead of us, but we could go faster so we did. Paul and I were both talking sweet to the rig by this time hoping she would hold together and bring us home. We crossed the finish line and found out that we were the 7th rig in, virtually guaranteeing us a top 10 finish. We ended up placing 7th.
Everyone was pretty stoked, and we were flying high and very excited. We visited with Shannon Campbell a little, as he thanked Andy in our crew for welding him up back at pit 2. Later, we had quite a party in Andy's toyhauler celebrating with our crew, some of the SoCal XJ gang, and the Blue 52 guys. What an experience!! If you're still reading this long post, I hope you've enjoyed one more tale of King of the Hammers from the drivers seat.
Thanks again to Paul Sinclair for partnering on this adventure and riding along, and to all the friends and sponsors who helped to make it happen.
We had a few pre-race issues to deal with, got it off the trailer and the trans wouldn't shift. We spent what seemed like hours on the phone talking to mechanic friends while they looked at AW4 shcematics and stuff, and even had a friend drive up a spare tranny. We spent Wed working on it all day in the nasty weather with wind, rain, and mud. We also had a front axle seal that started leaking so bad we felt we needed to fix it (it got crap in it when we changed the ball joints days before), so we pulled the axles and carrier out, then couldn't get a seal. Axlejack suggested we wrap duct tape around the axle, so we did and greased the seal up good, and it held. After messing with everything we could think of on the tranny, including changing out the solenoids, finally Thurs evening we replaced the TPS, which fixed it, probably wasted it steaming off the engine right before we left. We felt kind of stupid, waiting to do the simplest thing last, and lost out on being able to pre-run as much as we had wanted.
Race day morning we had to start lining up around 6:30, and it was breezy with a few sprinkles. Our borrowed race radios hadn't arrived yet, and we were nervous about our communications, but like he had promised Tony got there Fri morning and we were wiring up the radio and mounting the antenna while we were lining up for the start. I gotta say that it was an awesome feeling lined up with all of those rigs when they said to start your engines. After some light rain early on in the race the weather was pretty good. We drew 18th starting position, and the start was in 30 second intervals. We took off and the first few miles were really rough, we passed one rig but then got blown away in the sand by a rig or two, and Casey screamed past us as we got out onto the lakebed.
I heard an air line break, so knew we just lost one of the lockers. After a long run down the old SCORE track, with lots of vaious sized whoops, we turned up into a wash and got to pit one at mile 16. The crew fixed the rear air line and gave us a little gas, but we got passed by quite a few rigs while working on the air line. We took off and in a couple miles hit the first trail. We got passed by two rigs, one of them Shannon Campbell, but then got in a groove and started passing other rigs on the trail. We turned to go up Devil's Slide but got caught behind an F toy, ran down Hell's Gate and passed a few more rigs, then headed out into the desert for some more rough stuff and the biggest whoop section of the race. We had passed a good number of rigs, so thought we wouldn't push it too hard in the rough crossgrain, but then GOAT1 blew past us so we figured we better get after it. We passed Drew Goldie, but got passed by Drew Burroughs (GOAT1). We were staying with Drew through the big whoops, and he is really set up for the desert, so that got us kind of excited.
We headed up the out of Sledgehammer, not knowing what lockers we had since I had heard more air lines blow. While this hadn't been a problem with trail running, pushing the rig that hard was really heating up the exhaust and we kept melting the air lines. We caught and passed Drew right after we started down Sledge, then hauled ass and passed another rig after the mailbox right before starting down the lower section of Sledge. We figured out by now that we had lost both locker airlines, but figured we could get up Jackhammer and down Jack North without them, then get fixed at pit 2. Unfortunately, we couldn't get over a big assed rock in a narrow spot on the trail, and we broke the rear driveline trying to get through. We backed up trying to get out of the way, then didn't feel so bad when the next few rigs through had as much trouble as we did and they had lockers that worked. This created quite a bottleneck, with rigs stacking up behind the rigs trying to get through. Paul got a strap around a big rock up the side of the canyon and we winched ourselves out of the way, after getting on the radio to Tony and letting the crew know that we needed the spare driveline. Meanwhile, Drew got hung up in the same section and broke his rear driveline, so he backed up and used our strap to winch himself out of the way, so we were both up the side of the canyon replacing a rear driveline. The guys got there and put in the spare, and fixed both front and rear airlines, but we lost about an hour of time and got passed by a bunch of rigs. I don't know why, but the biggest crowd of spectators that we saw all day was right there where we broke, but it helped to keep it fun.
We got off the winch, got buckled back in, and headed up. A yellow D90 buggy was struggling getting through that same spot, and after he hesitated I gunned it and drove over his front tire, getting a cheer from the crowd. Just up the trail we passed Becca Webster again, then passed a couple more rigs going down Jack North. At pit 2 we were doing fine, but the crew stopped us to check the driveshaft u-bolts, then we were gone. We gained on another rig and caught it at one of the first obstacles in Wrecking Ball, he took a bad line, we darted behind him, and we were off. We had a clean, quick run up the trail, passed JT hooked to his winch, and then came to the crowd waiting at the waterfall at the top of Wrecking Ball, where we never hesitated and drove right up the waterfall and made a quick line through the last squeeze getting some good air under the left front tire but never slowing down. We later found that only a couple rigs even did the waterfall, most going around it. We ended up having the fastest split time up Wrecking Ball, so we're kinda proud of that.
We headed down Clawhammer, passing another couple of rigs, hit the check point and passed another rig on the way to Lower Big Johnson. We had a clean run up the Johnsons, never seeing another rig, and made it to pit 3 where we got 5 gals of gas. The crew told us we were doing good, in the front of the pack, since not that many rigs had come by and a couple of the leaders were broke. We headed out for Outer Limits and headed down, the only section of the course that we had never done before (going down), and made a clean run, passing JR broke halfway down. We hit the next to last check point with nothing but open desert left, the guys there gave us the thumbs up that we were doing well, so we put the hammer down for the last 18 mile run back to the finish line. Our crew had come out from pit 3 to see us go by, which was nice as they cheered as we flew past them. We saw dust way off in the distance, and as we made the sharp left turn to head out onto the lake bed we saw we had almost caught Dean Bullock. We followed him for the run across the lakebed and into the rough last few miles, and got a chance to pass him about 2 miles from the finish line. I said we better honk at him, and Paul cracked me up when he said "should we honk at Dean Bulloch?". We knew we were ahead of him, since he started ahead of us, but we could go faster so we did. Paul and I were both talking sweet to the rig by this time hoping she would hold together and bring us home. We crossed the finish line and found out that we were the 7th rig in, virtually guaranteeing us a top 10 finish. We ended up placing 7th.
Everyone was pretty stoked, and we were flying high and very excited. We visited with Shannon Campbell a little, as he thanked Andy in our crew for welding him up back at pit 2. Later, we had quite a party in Andy's toyhauler celebrating with our crew, some of the SoCal XJ gang, and the Blue 52 guys. What an experience!! If you're still reading this long post, I hope you've enjoyed one more tale of King of the Hammers from the drivers seat.
Thanks again to Paul Sinclair for partnering on this adventure and riding along, and to all the friends and sponsors who helped to make it happen.