Lance
03-17-2008, 01:24 PM
We started first off the line. That means there was 17 fire breathing trophy trucks, and 18 class one cars behind us that wanted to punt us off the course... I was a little nervous, as we would have to set the pace in the MASSIVE (and I mean MASSIVE) whoops in the first 35 miles. The nervousness was gone the second the green flag dropped, and we were off into the wild Mexican desert. Though this desert was far from deserted - there were thousands of spectators not only alongside the course, but in the middle of the course almost "daring" us to run them over as we came hurtling at them at 95+MPH through 3-4 foot deep whoops on the edge of control. I concentrated on my task at hand and tried to ignore the chaos outside of the vehicle, watching the GPS for hazards, calling out corners, and giving Pete constant speed updates. Even with our 10" GPS, it was difficult for me to read the GPS that sat 16" from my face, as the blistering pace we were setting was like sitting in a paint can shaker (reminded me of the Jeepspeed :D ).
All was well, and we had distanced ourselves from 2nd place Riviera Racing by 15 seconds when we hit a square edged whoop (with possibly a rock, I don't know, I never saw it if there was one) at RM12 so hard the front passenger tire went flat at 97mph. We drove on the flat tire for about a 1/2 mile and found a good place to pull over. We hopped out and changed the tire in about 3.5 minutes (the truck slid off the jack once because of the soft sand) and hopped back in. Pete took off, and it was a chore trying to buckle in going over the whoops. Finally we were fully buckled back in, and up to full speed again. We could notice the hood was beginning to float, as one of the latches must have somehow come loose from the violent bashing of the terrain. Seconds later the hood flew off in a flash of yellow, and all the was in front of us was tubing and a screaming 700hp small block Ford.
All was good as we mixed up up with Brain Collins in the Mopar Trophy Truck from about RM33 to 45 where we noticed we were beginning to get a spray of fuel on our visors. We drove passed Cameron Steele who was changing a tire, and went another few miles before deciding to pull over to check out the fuel problem. We got out, and found a broken fuel fitting. I thought we were done, but we were able to steal a fitting off of the return line, and make it work. After about 30-40 minutes of Jerry Rigging, we were back in business.
Pete drove down the power line road with a vengance, and the #2 Trophy Truck was running flawlessly skipping over the massive whoops that seemed to have doubled in size since our last pre run! We passed a few class one cars and even a 12 car and 10 car (no, we didn't nerf them :p ) and were making good time just hoping maybe we could get a top 5 if we drove hard, and didn't have anymore issues.
At RM85 we lost oil pressure, and pulled over. The oil pump had locked up solid. We had hit a tree branch earlier, and knocked our radio antenna right off of our truck, so we couldn't communicate with our chase crews. They could see us on Ion Earth however, and could see that we were not moving. We decided to tear apart the 4 port dry sump pump (which none of us had experience taking apart before) to see if we could free it up. After about 1.5 hours of wrenching and cussing, we had tore it apart, found hte foreign object (not really sure what it was, other than it was metal, and hard) removed, and the pump was back in and we were back on the course!
We rallied hard to our fuel stop @ RM 127 were the Mopar boys assisted our crew in getting us fueled up, and back on the course. We drove hard the rest of the race, passing countless 1600's, 7's, and sportsman trucks. At one point Pete asked me if we should slow down, and I of course said hell no, let's try for a top 10 so we can be in the drawing for the Baja 500. So that was that, and we drove it like we stole it all the way to the finish line for a respectable 10th place finish.
It was a fun, yet frustrating race. We had a great time, and it was awesome we were able to overcome the issues we had out in the field. Can't wait for the 500! :beer:
All was well, and we had distanced ourselves from 2nd place Riviera Racing by 15 seconds when we hit a square edged whoop (with possibly a rock, I don't know, I never saw it if there was one) at RM12 so hard the front passenger tire went flat at 97mph. We drove on the flat tire for about a 1/2 mile and found a good place to pull over. We hopped out and changed the tire in about 3.5 minutes (the truck slid off the jack once because of the soft sand) and hopped back in. Pete took off, and it was a chore trying to buckle in going over the whoops. Finally we were fully buckled back in, and up to full speed again. We could notice the hood was beginning to float, as one of the latches must have somehow come loose from the violent bashing of the terrain. Seconds later the hood flew off in a flash of yellow, and all the was in front of us was tubing and a screaming 700hp small block Ford.
All was good as we mixed up up with Brain Collins in the Mopar Trophy Truck from about RM33 to 45 where we noticed we were beginning to get a spray of fuel on our visors. We drove passed Cameron Steele who was changing a tire, and went another few miles before deciding to pull over to check out the fuel problem. We got out, and found a broken fuel fitting. I thought we were done, but we were able to steal a fitting off of the return line, and make it work. After about 30-40 minutes of Jerry Rigging, we were back in business.
Pete drove down the power line road with a vengance, and the #2 Trophy Truck was running flawlessly skipping over the massive whoops that seemed to have doubled in size since our last pre run! We passed a few class one cars and even a 12 car and 10 car (no, we didn't nerf them :p ) and were making good time just hoping maybe we could get a top 5 if we drove hard, and didn't have anymore issues.
At RM85 we lost oil pressure, and pulled over. The oil pump had locked up solid. We had hit a tree branch earlier, and knocked our radio antenna right off of our truck, so we couldn't communicate with our chase crews. They could see us on Ion Earth however, and could see that we were not moving. We decided to tear apart the 4 port dry sump pump (which none of us had experience taking apart before) to see if we could free it up. After about 1.5 hours of wrenching and cussing, we had tore it apart, found hte foreign object (not really sure what it was, other than it was metal, and hard) removed, and the pump was back in and we were back on the course!
We rallied hard to our fuel stop @ RM 127 were the Mopar boys assisted our crew in getting us fueled up, and back on the course. We drove hard the rest of the race, passing countless 1600's, 7's, and sportsman trucks. At one point Pete asked me if we should slow down, and I of course said hell no, let's try for a top 10 so we can be in the drawing for the Baja 500. So that was that, and we drove it like we stole it all the way to the finish line for a respectable 10th place finish.
It was a fun, yet frustrating race. We had a great time, and it was awesome we were able to overcome the issues we had out in the field. Can't wait for the 500! :beer: