WBlackie
02-29-2008, 08:37 PM
What can be said about this race that hasn’t already been said. I figured I would come on here and give my team’s story of what was the most amazing event we have ever competed in, despite us not even finishing. First off, I have to thank many, many people and companies that made it possible for us to even get there. First, Flatiron Fabrication in Boulder, CO. Wade Cameron and Travis “Lubes” Lubbers (my crew chief) gave up sleep, personal lives and other customer vehicles to get my racer ready for the race. These two guys were with me every step of the way and I am truly sorry that I couldn’t get the car that they prepped across the finish line. Next, Bryan Lynch at House of Kolor. I showed up on his door steps about a week before the event with bare panels, hood, grille and cowl and he pumped out one of the best paint jobs I have ever seen. If anyone got a close look at it at the race, the huge scarab (the Egyptian winged beetle) on my hood was hand drawn by him. Maxxis Tires, what can I say, not a single Trepador was lost in pre running or the miles that I completed in the race. 4x4oil.com really stepped it up for me for this event. All last season I was plagued with annoyingly slow steering and I knew a race like this would require fast steering. Dirk at 4x4oil.com told me about Amsoil’s hydraulic tractor fluid and how it had helped Dustin and Becca. I did a simple fluid change and yes it works! My steering is lightning quick, stays cool and finally works the way a steering system should. Give him a call! Do it!
Alright now I have the sponsorship thanks out of the way, now its on to the racing. We arrived Wednesday morning to high winds and dark clouds on the horizon. Perfect, rain. Lubes and I spent the day doing some final wiring on the buggy, mainly the GPS and rear facing amber lights. Once those were installed we drove to tech and received our GPS download. Lack of sleep and showers kept us from any pre running so we decided to head to our dry hotel room and get some real food in us (one cannot survive on fast food alone, ugh). When we arrived at the hotel we saw Larry Gipson and his crew. I had heard a lot about Larry through Pirate so I decided to poke my head in their trailer and introduce myself and my team. We ended up eating dinner with them at the Sizzler. So that was day one for us.
Day two: Dave DSI Schneider and Josh “Lunchbox” England arrived early in the morning. These two guys would be my co-drivers for the race. Josh would race the first half and DSI (yes, the Baja1000 champ) would jump in for the tough trails and the last bit of desert. Unfortunately, Dave would never see the passenger seat. Dave, however, pre ran the course with me on Thursday. With his expertise with the Lowrance GPS he was in charge of marking hazards, left turns, right turns, and start/end of each trail. This information was very useful to us come race day. Now some of you might have heard but Dave and I actually rolled on the second trail in, the name of the trail escapes me right now. It was all my fault, I just took a really bad line. Anyways, we were alright, although Dave did step on my head on the way out of the car (we were wearing helmets of course). We both get out, survey the damage (mostly just a dent in my House of Kolor paint job) and started to discuss how we will right the vehicle. Dave first suggests he and I push. Riiiiight Dave. A little background on this. Dave suffered from a back injury years ago and doesn’t have the best legs, or really any for that matter and me, well, if have ever met me you know I won’t be winning the Mr. Universe competition any time soon. So Dave + Me= a normal human being. Yeah pushing the Twisted Customs car isn’t going to happen. Well, we figured the winch would be a better approach and finally found a suitable rock and over the car went. Back on course, minimal fluid spillage which we cleaned up the best we could. We were unable to run the entire course because we had to be back at camp to see where we were in the starting order. Turns out we were starting in the back, 39th.
Race Day: I don’t think I have ever been more nervous then that Friday morning. So many unknowns, 50 miles is a long way in the rock crawler, well here we go. Josh England was in the car and ready to rock with his new best friend, Lowrance. I told him to just tell me left, right, hazard and my speed. We pull up to the start line…did I remember to fill up the cell? 30 second start interval…I gotta pee…15 seconds left…how fast can this car go…10 seconds…oh crap, we didn’t pre run the whole course…5…4…3…2…1…GO! Yeah I still have to pee…
So we are cruising along with a nice pace, and just when I start to get into the pack, my temp gauge spikes, crap. With my computer in limp mode I had to pull over and see what was going on. Nothing is out of the ordinary and finally realize I have been lugging the engine in 3rd gear, whoops! So back on course, way behind but making up time, we continue on. We start to pass a few vehicles in check points, have some high speed fun in the lakebed and really start to hit our rhythm in the whoops. Everything is looking perfect, that is until we hit the first trail, Aftershock. We shift into low range and start to creep down the big waterfall and then suddenly, no transmission, nothing, dead in the water. We were able to get the vehicle down the waterfall and out of the way for other team’s coming through and try to figure out what went wrong. My conclusion was the trans just got way too hot and cooked the fluid. Well this sucks, but I guess that’s racing. So Josh and I sit on Aftershock and finally get in touch with our chase crew and inform them of the situation. With CP3 closed I knew it would be some time before a recovery comes through, so I figured we should try and at least get to CP4. The trans still had some life to it but not much. Josh and I hop in and hope for the best. Come on buggy, just get to CP4. Well about half way down Aftershock, my transmission just comes back to life, yep cooling issues. On goes the gear, window nets up, we are back in the race! We arrive at CP4 just in time. They radio ahead to CP5 to let them know we are on our way. Josh is excited, I’m just wishing my trans holds to Pit 2 where we can add more fluid. But you know the saying, wish in one hand and well, you know the rest. The trans gave up again about a mile down the course. At this point I threw in the towel before any real damage is done. It was near CP4 that Lubes and DSI finally found us and gave us a tow back to camp.
Even though we didn’t finish or make it very far down the course, I still believe this was the most exciting race I have ever entered. Dave Cole and Jeff Knoll truly outdid themselves and I can only imagine the logistical nightmares they encountered. BlackStar Motor Sports will be back, if we are lucky enough to receive another invite.
Huge thanks to all of my sponsors! Maxxis Tires, House of Kolor, Driveshaft Specialists of Denver, Flatiron Fabrication, Trail-Gear Wheels, Spidertrax, 4x4oil.com and Jimmy’s 4x4
Sorry for the length of the post, but it was a long race!
Cliff notes: It was an epic race…
BTW-Have you called Dirk at 4x4oil.com yet?
Alright now I have the sponsorship thanks out of the way, now its on to the racing. We arrived Wednesday morning to high winds and dark clouds on the horizon. Perfect, rain. Lubes and I spent the day doing some final wiring on the buggy, mainly the GPS and rear facing amber lights. Once those were installed we drove to tech and received our GPS download. Lack of sleep and showers kept us from any pre running so we decided to head to our dry hotel room and get some real food in us (one cannot survive on fast food alone, ugh). When we arrived at the hotel we saw Larry Gipson and his crew. I had heard a lot about Larry through Pirate so I decided to poke my head in their trailer and introduce myself and my team. We ended up eating dinner with them at the Sizzler. So that was day one for us.
Day two: Dave DSI Schneider and Josh “Lunchbox” England arrived early in the morning. These two guys would be my co-drivers for the race. Josh would race the first half and DSI (yes, the Baja1000 champ) would jump in for the tough trails and the last bit of desert. Unfortunately, Dave would never see the passenger seat. Dave, however, pre ran the course with me on Thursday. With his expertise with the Lowrance GPS he was in charge of marking hazards, left turns, right turns, and start/end of each trail. This information was very useful to us come race day. Now some of you might have heard but Dave and I actually rolled on the second trail in, the name of the trail escapes me right now. It was all my fault, I just took a really bad line. Anyways, we were alright, although Dave did step on my head on the way out of the car (we were wearing helmets of course). We both get out, survey the damage (mostly just a dent in my House of Kolor paint job) and started to discuss how we will right the vehicle. Dave first suggests he and I push. Riiiiight Dave. A little background on this. Dave suffered from a back injury years ago and doesn’t have the best legs, or really any for that matter and me, well, if have ever met me you know I won’t be winning the Mr. Universe competition any time soon. So Dave + Me= a normal human being. Yeah pushing the Twisted Customs car isn’t going to happen. Well, we figured the winch would be a better approach and finally found a suitable rock and over the car went. Back on course, minimal fluid spillage which we cleaned up the best we could. We were unable to run the entire course because we had to be back at camp to see where we were in the starting order. Turns out we were starting in the back, 39th.
Race Day: I don’t think I have ever been more nervous then that Friday morning. So many unknowns, 50 miles is a long way in the rock crawler, well here we go. Josh England was in the car and ready to rock with his new best friend, Lowrance. I told him to just tell me left, right, hazard and my speed. We pull up to the start line…did I remember to fill up the cell? 30 second start interval…I gotta pee…15 seconds left…how fast can this car go…10 seconds…oh crap, we didn’t pre run the whole course…5…4…3…2…1…GO! Yeah I still have to pee…
So we are cruising along with a nice pace, and just when I start to get into the pack, my temp gauge spikes, crap. With my computer in limp mode I had to pull over and see what was going on. Nothing is out of the ordinary and finally realize I have been lugging the engine in 3rd gear, whoops! So back on course, way behind but making up time, we continue on. We start to pass a few vehicles in check points, have some high speed fun in the lakebed and really start to hit our rhythm in the whoops. Everything is looking perfect, that is until we hit the first trail, Aftershock. We shift into low range and start to creep down the big waterfall and then suddenly, no transmission, nothing, dead in the water. We were able to get the vehicle down the waterfall and out of the way for other team’s coming through and try to figure out what went wrong. My conclusion was the trans just got way too hot and cooked the fluid. Well this sucks, but I guess that’s racing. So Josh and I sit on Aftershock and finally get in touch with our chase crew and inform them of the situation. With CP3 closed I knew it would be some time before a recovery comes through, so I figured we should try and at least get to CP4. The trans still had some life to it but not much. Josh and I hop in and hope for the best. Come on buggy, just get to CP4. Well about half way down Aftershock, my transmission just comes back to life, yep cooling issues. On goes the gear, window nets up, we are back in the race! We arrive at CP4 just in time. They radio ahead to CP5 to let them know we are on our way. Josh is excited, I’m just wishing my trans holds to Pit 2 where we can add more fluid. But you know the saying, wish in one hand and well, you know the rest. The trans gave up again about a mile down the course. At this point I threw in the towel before any real damage is done. It was near CP4 that Lubes and DSI finally found us and gave us a tow back to camp.
Even though we didn’t finish or make it very far down the course, I still believe this was the most exciting race I have ever entered. Dave Cole and Jeff Knoll truly outdid themselves and I can only imagine the logistical nightmares they encountered. BlackStar Motor Sports will be back, if we are lucky enough to receive another invite.
Huge thanks to all of my sponsors! Maxxis Tires, House of Kolor, Driveshaft Specialists of Denver, Flatiron Fabrication, Trail-Gear Wheels, Spidertrax, 4x4oil.com and Jimmy’s 4x4
Sorry for the length of the post, but it was a long race!
Cliff notes: It was an epic race…
BTW-Have you called Dirk at 4x4oil.com yet?