I had the good fortune of co-driving in the #488 Degenerate Racing Diamond Axle blue Toyota pickup, and I had an absolute blast at Glen Helen! ...Yeah, we broke the truck... in the prelim... again - this time on the last lap. Catastrophic failure due to a bit too much enthusiasm (read speed) going into the downhill jump after the Talladega turn. But I thought the race was a raging success as an event attended as co-driver, pit crew member, and spectator at different times throughout the weekend.
Due to a flop in practice, a fuel issue on the short course, and then complete front end destruction by the bridge, we needed recovery from the racecourse three times this weekend, :shaking: and each time the volunteers were super nice guys who did their best to help us out, and I've got nothing but good things to say about them! The older guy with the blue 4Runner with red fender was cool as hell, had a great attitude and was super helpful... he even had a couple of wrenches in-hand to pass down to me when we broke our front driveshaft and I went under the truck to see what was left and if we had to pull it so it wouldn't flop around driving back to pit. Super cool! I didn't even have to unstrap our tool bag. Guy just handed me 2, 14mm wrenches like a boss! Said he'd been supporting U4 for a number of years and just loved being a part of the race. That guy was awesome. Also the guy in the black Jeep who was working the short course and towed us to move us off the course near the end of qualifying... he was great too. They were both scrambling to keep up and could clearly have used some more help. But they had just the right attitudes, and I made sure to shake the hands of both of those guys and thank them for their assistance. Badass fellas! :beer::beer: THANK YOU to the volunteers!
It was hot out there and humid on the watered racecourse and you volunteer course workers scrambled all weekend. Dave Cole himself has been there orchestrating recoveries a few times for us - both at Stampede up in NorCal, and here at GH! Dave always thinks like a racer in those situations, super sharp and on-point... gives us every chance to keep racing, asks us only the important questions quick and to the point, always offers a quick word of encouragement, and just gets it done. That guy is pretty great at what he does too!
With all of that said... Understaffed for flaggers? Uh, yes, clearly this race was that. At one point when I was in spectator mode watching from the top of the stands I thought I was going to have to run down and grab the yellow flag from one of the course workers and fly it myself because a car went down right in front of him and he just sat there while several cars in rapid succession blew past him and the spectators closer to the course ahead of the incident were flagging down the cars with empty hands. Eventually he got the memo and flipped out the yellow. So not all of the response to events happening on course were immediate... Always room for improvement, but overall I had a blast at an incredible event that I look forward to attending again in any capacity!
Having vehicles cross a hot racecourse to get to pits/parking? ...yeah, that one was a bit of a head-scratcher in terms of overall logistical event planning, safety, liability. I know from pitting within view of the crossover and overhearing many conversations about it that it was resulting in a WTF response from a lot of folks out there this weekend. The course workers got it done there though, too! I saw a few close calls, but no accidents at the crossover. Yeah, room for improvement but I'd call it an overall success, and I can't wait to go back and do it again. Fantastic times were had by all as far as I could tell.
Tbars4... BWR and Degen teams would love to see any pics you snapped of the #911 Widia unlimited car and the blue #488 Stock Yota. Liked your FB. Cheers!
