TeamViking
09-06-2009, 08:59 PM
Day 3
We woke up.
Stuff happened.
We won.
The end.
:flipoff2::flipoff2:JUST KIDDING!!! :flipoff2::flipoff2:
Seriously, this day should be much less writing than the other 2 days. But after the other novels you didn't think you'd get off that easy did you?
When we got in our vehicle it was shocking to look around us. It seemed like we were down to a 1/3 of the vehicles that had started on day 1. I didn’t notice any other 4400s at first, so I wandered through impound looking for other members of our class. They were scattered amongst the vehicles but there seemed to be a good number of us left. It was cool to see how many remained after 700 miles of getting the shit kicked out of us. It was especially cool to see 4471 at the start line. Jeff on a rope isn’t a sight I’ll soon forget.
http://charlenebower.smugmug.com/photos/633302276_vr5cK-M-1.jpg
Start Day 3
As we got closer to the start line, we could see the massive dust cloud. More silt. Great.
I’m sure Doug was as happy as I was that this was our last day of fighting the silt. We started the day with our original fuel pumps, as none of the spares we obtained were a perfect match and it seemed as though the issue had more to do with hot fuel than anything else. Because of this, we made the decision to keep the cargo panel off which covered the fuel cell. This panel also helped support our spare tire. I wondered how secure the tire would be without that panel. Everything seemed to be OK at first, but somewhere before pit 1 we noticed our spare was gone. This was our last spare, so I radioed the crew to see what we could do about recovering it.
Looking back, there was a recurring theme. Every day, between start and pit 1 seemed to be when we’d have the most issues. The sway bar and link ends on Day 1, the front passenger tire on day 2, and now or spare on day 3. Hopefully this meant the rest of the day would be smooth sailing. We continued through pit 1.
In between pit 1 and pit 2. We realized we were in the mix with some bigger and faster rigs than we had been on previous days. The level of racing was kicked up a notch. These guys were fighting for position within their class as well as within the race as a whole. The level of competition was greater than it had been any other day. This was troublesome in the silt beds. There was a buggy behind us that every once in a while we could see trying to pass through the silt. But due to visibility there was no where for us or them to go, so he fell back behind us. A few minutes later, in a section where we had zero visibility, we slowed down, and got a love tap from someone behind. We don’t know who it was, but I can’t imagine nerfing a 5500 lb vehicle felt like a love tap to them. Regardless, we moved to the side and let them by. Again, the silt was so bad we had no idea who they were even as they passed.
We slowed down through pit 2 so our crew could make sure there was no critical damage from our collision. They said we were fine, so we didn’t stop. About 5 miles out of pit 2 we got the call that our crew had procured a spare from 4411 for the day. We wouldn’t be seeing these guys again until pit 4, so we hoped we had no tire issues between pits 2 and 4.
There were no issues between pits 2 and 3. We had to stop at pit 3 for fuel because we didn’t have enough the night before to top off. We stopped just long enough for fuel and to get some water and took back off to pit 4. We had a spare tire waiting for us at pit 4, but I made the decision not to stop. At that time, we were in a perfect position. We had no one in front of us, this meant, nobody to pass, nobody to slow us down and most of all, no one kicking up dust. Our tires had held up well the past 2 days so I took the risk to stay in the clear. It was basically the same scenario at pit 5. It was good knowing that we had a spare if we needed it, but I didn’t like the idea of losing someone else’s spare and I wasn’t confident we had a great way to secure the tire without the panel.
Just after pit 5, we were flying down a gravel road and I heard a rock get thrown up and hit something that sounded pretty hard. I did a brake check and I could tell immediately that the brakes were soft and we must have lost a brake line somewhere. We were coming up to a hill and I pulled up to the top of it to use the hill to slow us down and I pulled off at the top to inspect what had happened. I saw that the rock had punctured the line on the upper rear link. I clamped the line off by the master cylinder and used some electrical tape and wrapped the brake line around a piece of tube to keep the line from breaking off the master cylinder. Then scrambled back into the car as we could see competitors fast approaching and we didn’t want to eat their dust.
In my haste to take off, the lines for the air tube and intercom had fallen behind my seat. I had no way to communicate this to Doug other than smacking him and pointing at my helmet and behind me. After about a minute of this, he realized I couldn’t talk to him for a reason. He loosened his belts and reached behind me to lift the line up close enough for me to grab it and reconnect.
http://charlenebower.smugmug.com/photos/633391985_XdHWL-M-1.jpg
Coming into pit 6
We stopped again at pit 6. Our crew tried to see what could be done about the brakes. 4088 provided a lot of assistance at pit 6. They helped us fuel, they offered up some brake lines that unfortunately wouldn’t work. It wasn’t until later that I learned that the fuel we received at this pit was given to us by the wounded warrior project and by 7130. Our reserve fuel had been stuck back at pit 1 in the search for our spare.
http://charlenebower.smugmug.com/photos/633394040_k2RnC-M-1.jpg
Our crew getting some help from 4088
Pit 6 would be my last pit stop of the day. Our average speed was so much faster than the previous 2 days our pit crews were having a difficult time chasing us. We beat them to pit 7 but we were able to communicate via radio so they knew we weren’t planning on stopping. At pit 8, we were still about 5 minutes faster than they were making it to the pit. Fortunately, we didn’t need to stop. Though I hear my crew asked Team United to help us if we needed assistance, and they happily agreed. It was pretty cool driving through pit 8 and looking over and seeing Dave Cole cheering us on. Thanks Dave!
As we were going through pit 8 I caught sight of what appeared to be a large red vehicle behind us. It looked big, but I couldn’t identify it so I thought it might be a faster class vehicle trying to regain lost time. I really didn’t want to end up eating their dust so I picked up speed hoping to stay in front of it as long as possible. I didn’t catch sight of it again, but about 5-10 miles outside of pit 8 Doug told me to get over. As I did, 4488 cruised past us. At that point the race was on!
Until then, I hadn’t seen any other Ultra4s so it was exciting to know I would be neck and neck with one of my class to the finish line. We’d driven all day without a spare tire, we had no rear brakes and our fuel pump and clutch were still iffy. But seeing another 4400 brought out our competiveness and we knew it wasn’t going to be a cake walk to the finish. While we kept up with the Watsons they remained in front of us through this last leg. At one point, they passed a vehicle on a downhill rocky shelf road. As I came up behind the vehicle and realized it wasn’t them, I thought for sure, they had gotten away from us. There was no way without rear brakes that I could realistically try to pass this guy safely. I guess seeing the big ugly come up in his rear view was enough to scare him off the road. He drove up the wall and gave us enough room to slip by. 4488 crossed the finish 45 seconds ahead of us. I thought they had won the day until we caught up with them at the finish, and they told us that they started ahead of us so with corrected time we had the fastest time on day 3. We congratulated each other and made our way to the podium.
http://shanlw99.smugmug.com/photos/629431079_4qBAR-M.jpg
Team Viking after the finish: From left to right: (Shannon, Jason, Vicki, Sam, Kevin, Shelly & Doug Not pictured: Jon Jonsson, Mike K, Rodney W. & Bud)
It’s hard to find the right words to describe what finishing this race meant, let alone winning it. We knew the odds were stacked against us in bringing an untested rig and inexperienced crew to one of the biggest off-road races in the US. I am so lucky to have friends that are willing to give their all to support me on this crazy adventure. None of this would have been possible, without their help, as well as the help of so many other teams. I can’t thank everyone enough for such an amazing experience.
We woke up.
Stuff happened.
We won.
The end.
:flipoff2::flipoff2:JUST KIDDING!!! :flipoff2::flipoff2:
Seriously, this day should be much less writing than the other 2 days. But after the other novels you didn't think you'd get off that easy did you?
When we got in our vehicle it was shocking to look around us. It seemed like we were down to a 1/3 of the vehicles that had started on day 1. I didn’t notice any other 4400s at first, so I wandered through impound looking for other members of our class. They were scattered amongst the vehicles but there seemed to be a good number of us left. It was cool to see how many remained after 700 miles of getting the shit kicked out of us. It was especially cool to see 4471 at the start line. Jeff on a rope isn’t a sight I’ll soon forget.
http://charlenebower.smugmug.com/photos/633302276_vr5cK-M-1.jpg
Start Day 3
As we got closer to the start line, we could see the massive dust cloud. More silt. Great.
I’m sure Doug was as happy as I was that this was our last day of fighting the silt. We started the day with our original fuel pumps, as none of the spares we obtained were a perfect match and it seemed as though the issue had more to do with hot fuel than anything else. Because of this, we made the decision to keep the cargo panel off which covered the fuel cell. This panel also helped support our spare tire. I wondered how secure the tire would be without that panel. Everything seemed to be OK at first, but somewhere before pit 1 we noticed our spare was gone. This was our last spare, so I radioed the crew to see what we could do about recovering it.
Looking back, there was a recurring theme. Every day, between start and pit 1 seemed to be when we’d have the most issues. The sway bar and link ends on Day 1, the front passenger tire on day 2, and now or spare on day 3. Hopefully this meant the rest of the day would be smooth sailing. We continued through pit 1.
In between pit 1 and pit 2. We realized we were in the mix with some bigger and faster rigs than we had been on previous days. The level of racing was kicked up a notch. These guys were fighting for position within their class as well as within the race as a whole. The level of competition was greater than it had been any other day. This was troublesome in the silt beds. There was a buggy behind us that every once in a while we could see trying to pass through the silt. But due to visibility there was no where for us or them to go, so he fell back behind us. A few minutes later, in a section where we had zero visibility, we slowed down, and got a love tap from someone behind. We don’t know who it was, but I can’t imagine nerfing a 5500 lb vehicle felt like a love tap to them. Regardless, we moved to the side and let them by. Again, the silt was so bad we had no idea who they were even as they passed.
We slowed down through pit 2 so our crew could make sure there was no critical damage from our collision. They said we were fine, so we didn’t stop. About 5 miles out of pit 2 we got the call that our crew had procured a spare from 4411 for the day. We wouldn’t be seeing these guys again until pit 4, so we hoped we had no tire issues between pits 2 and 4.
There were no issues between pits 2 and 3. We had to stop at pit 3 for fuel because we didn’t have enough the night before to top off. We stopped just long enough for fuel and to get some water and took back off to pit 4. We had a spare tire waiting for us at pit 4, but I made the decision not to stop. At that time, we were in a perfect position. We had no one in front of us, this meant, nobody to pass, nobody to slow us down and most of all, no one kicking up dust. Our tires had held up well the past 2 days so I took the risk to stay in the clear. It was basically the same scenario at pit 5. It was good knowing that we had a spare if we needed it, but I didn’t like the idea of losing someone else’s spare and I wasn’t confident we had a great way to secure the tire without the panel.
Just after pit 5, we were flying down a gravel road and I heard a rock get thrown up and hit something that sounded pretty hard. I did a brake check and I could tell immediately that the brakes were soft and we must have lost a brake line somewhere. We were coming up to a hill and I pulled up to the top of it to use the hill to slow us down and I pulled off at the top to inspect what had happened. I saw that the rock had punctured the line on the upper rear link. I clamped the line off by the master cylinder and used some electrical tape and wrapped the brake line around a piece of tube to keep the line from breaking off the master cylinder. Then scrambled back into the car as we could see competitors fast approaching and we didn’t want to eat their dust.
In my haste to take off, the lines for the air tube and intercom had fallen behind my seat. I had no way to communicate this to Doug other than smacking him and pointing at my helmet and behind me. After about a minute of this, he realized I couldn’t talk to him for a reason. He loosened his belts and reached behind me to lift the line up close enough for me to grab it and reconnect.
http://charlenebower.smugmug.com/photos/633391985_XdHWL-M-1.jpg
Coming into pit 6
We stopped again at pit 6. Our crew tried to see what could be done about the brakes. 4088 provided a lot of assistance at pit 6. They helped us fuel, they offered up some brake lines that unfortunately wouldn’t work. It wasn’t until later that I learned that the fuel we received at this pit was given to us by the wounded warrior project and by 7130. Our reserve fuel had been stuck back at pit 1 in the search for our spare.
http://charlenebower.smugmug.com/photos/633394040_k2RnC-M-1.jpg
Our crew getting some help from 4088
Pit 6 would be my last pit stop of the day. Our average speed was so much faster than the previous 2 days our pit crews were having a difficult time chasing us. We beat them to pit 7 but we were able to communicate via radio so they knew we weren’t planning on stopping. At pit 8, we were still about 5 minutes faster than they were making it to the pit. Fortunately, we didn’t need to stop. Though I hear my crew asked Team United to help us if we needed assistance, and they happily agreed. It was pretty cool driving through pit 8 and looking over and seeing Dave Cole cheering us on. Thanks Dave!
As we were going through pit 8 I caught sight of what appeared to be a large red vehicle behind us. It looked big, but I couldn’t identify it so I thought it might be a faster class vehicle trying to regain lost time. I really didn’t want to end up eating their dust so I picked up speed hoping to stay in front of it as long as possible. I didn’t catch sight of it again, but about 5-10 miles outside of pit 8 Doug told me to get over. As I did, 4488 cruised past us. At that point the race was on!
Until then, I hadn’t seen any other Ultra4s so it was exciting to know I would be neck and neck with one of my class to the finish line. We’d driven all day without a spare tire, we had no rear brakes and our fuel pump and clutch were still iffy. But seeing another 4400 brought out our competiveness and we knew it wasn’t going to be a cake walk to the finish. While we kept up with the Watsons they remained in front of us through this last leg. At one point, they passed a vehicle on a downhill rocky shelf road. As I came up behind the vehicle and realized it wasn’t them, I thought for sure, they had gotten away from us. There was no way without rear brakes that I could realistically try to pass this guy safely. I guess seeing the big ugly come up in his rear view was enough to scare him off the road. He drove up the wall and gave us enough room to slip by. 4488 crossed the finish 45 seconds ahead of us. I thought they had won the day until we caught up with them at the finish, and they told us that they started ahead of us so with corrected time we had the fastest time on day 3. We congratulated each other and made our way to the podium.
http://shanlw99.smugmug.com/photos/629431079_4qBAR-M.jpg
Team Viking after the finish: From left to right: (Shannon, Jason, Vicki, Sam, Kevin, Shelly & Doug Not pictured: Jon Jonsson, Mike K, Rodney W. & Bud)
It’s hard to find the right words to describe what finishing this race meant, let alone winning it. We knew the odds were stacked against us in bringing an untested rig and inexperienced crew to one of the biggest off-road races in the US. I am so lucky to have friends that are willing to give their all to support me on this crazy adventure. None of this would have been possible, without their help, as well as the help of so many other teams. I can’t thank everyone enough for such an amazing experience.