Thank you all for the kind words and support. Rick and I were at mile 660 in the chase truck while all of you guys were rooting for us and the 1802 UTV to make it. I thought I would say thanks to all of you guys. The 1802 team are all from Canada and we spent some time with them waiting. Great people. Im glad I could be part of that whole deal. I have to take my hat off to Jim Riley and the whole Azunia Tequila team for the efforts. We all know that off-road racing is a big extended family for all of us. I thought some background on how all of this came together would be cool to share. Here is the short version of some of the events.
Rick Johnson started the TROPHYLITE R-8 truck as the last Trophy Truck in the back of the pack. He did a great job and by the time they hit Ojos he had already picked up a couple of spots. By the time the #7 hit race mile 70 (at HWY KM77) he had picked up about 2 more spots. We followed them in and waited as they went over the summitt. They picked up a few more spots as they cleared and let us know they were over the summit. Doing great to say the least. The R-8 is a little narrower and lighter then the bigger trucks so it gave Rick a little advantage in the tight stuff. When Rick and Shreck got the truck to about mile 125 something happened and the passenger side rear wheel started coming off. The nut that holds the bearings on to the rear end spindle came apart and the threads that held the nut in place actually broke off at the end of the snout. As many of you know this is almost impossible to fix correctly in the dirt. Rick and Shreck were able to get a quick tow into the locos mocos pit just about 1/2 mile down the road and we started talking on the sat phone about what to do. We didnt have any real spaare parts for the new truck yet so that left us in a bad spot. The hub had damage, the spindle was broken, and the drive flange was destroyed and all of the splines were gone. We worked with them and I talked to the crew at the pit. We convinced them that we were going to try and continue on and asked them to weld it back and and try to see if we could make it work. We called Jerry at Camburg and he had some drive flanges and bearings at his shop. he called one of his guys (I dont know who but thanks) and they grabbed parts in LA area and headed down south to meet up with Alex (one of our Azunia guys) to meet up and get the parts. Alex got them in San Diego and headed out to meet us in Mexicali. We drove up to meet him just outside of Mexicali. In the mean time the locos mocos dudes had it welded enough to get the truck moving and sent them down to race mile 150 where we were meeting them with parts to fix it. So far so good.
We met up at 150 and welded and ground and did all that we could to fix the spindle, Rebuilt the hub and installed new bearings and seals. Got it all back together so it would work and sent Rick and Shreck back out toward the pit at Borego. This whole part took us about 7 plus hours but they were back on the way and we were still in the race. We knew our hopes for a top finish position was gone now so it turned into a race of determination to finish. Rick got to the Borego area pit and Scott Steinberger was getting in to drive with Dave Sykes riding with him. We checked the hub again and had to tighten the nut and re-weld a little there as they got in and got ready. We buttoned it up and sent them running down south. after about an hour and a half we got a call on the radio that they were at mile 275 and the spindle started coming apart again. They managed to get to the Baja Pits there at 275 and Scott started working on it. Shreck and I jumped in Dave's pre-runner and headed down south to meet them with another drive flange and parts. We got there and made the repairs but the bearings felt like they had gravel in them and Scott did the only thing he could do. He weled the entier nut and all of the end of the spindle into a big blob of metal to keep it all together. Now there was no way we could change the bearings but we both knew that this would be our last chance to fix it. We buttoned it up again and sent them on their way. This time we burnt up another 6 or 7 hours getting it fixed.
Scott blazed out and we went back to borego area pit. They made it to about 312 and then had the bolts in the steering rack adapter come lose and break a couple of them. They stopped and had to get the left over threads out of the rack to put the new bolts in. This time the had the parts but had a hard time getting the broken bolts out. They did it and got buttoned up just as the check point was closing. We decided to keep going anyway and see what happened. This time we burnt another about 5 hours. Scott kept going and brought it back to us at mile 460 for Jim Riley to get in and take it to the finish. At the drivers change I checked the hub and the bearings now were spinning free and didnt feel like it had rocks but the hub had about an inch of side to side play since they were loosening up. With the welded stuff we had no way to fix it again or tighten it up. We decided to keep going.
Jim and Craig got in and blazed off. They clicked off the miles and we started praying that the bearings would live and we could make the finish. We pretty well knew that we were going to miss the finish closing time by now but we kept going. Jim made it through Valley T and headed across to the pacific side. They picked up our chase crew on that side and kept going. Jim got stuck in the silt for a while just after crossing over the highway and the crew went in to get them out. Burnt another hour or so. but they kept going. By now we heard about the two trucks off the side of the cliff by the beach. one of them happened to be Mike West in his Ford TROPHYLITE R-4 truck. We talked to Jim and Craig and the pacific chase crew and they all said that they would help them and try to pull them up the cliff. So they went on and did what they could. No one was hurt but Mikes truck lost all of the lights and body. Mikes team ellected to drive the truck back to Ensenada and call it. the truck was fine but they didnt feel that they could make it to the finish with no lights. Jim and Craig made it to Santo Thomas and were talking about what to do. The finish had closed already and we had about 90 miles to go. The thought was that the rear end was leaking again now and we didnt know if the hub and spindle would make it any further. Jim was worried about getting up into Uropan and getting stuck in there with a missing rear wheel. This was about when we started talking to the Weatherman about stopping. Weatherman was very encouraging and helped our team make the right decision and informed us of the 1802 team. With this information Jim and Craig decided that they would continue and try to make sure that the 1802 guys would get to the finish line. Their storry is awesome for sure. Living the dream after watching Dust to Glory and racing the Baja 1000.
Jim headed into the dark again and up thru uropan. The 1802 made it to us at 660 about 10 minutes before the #7 truck did and we check them both over and sent them on the way. We headed out and popped in to the race course about 20 miles from the finish to check on them both and watched them go by again. I said another prayer that the #7 truck reparis would hold up just a little longer. We headed to the now vacant finish line to find the 1802 crew there and Kent Kroeker with some of his team to cheer us all on. Both the 1802 and the #7 hit the last wash on the way in about the same time and they came into the finish line at the same time in escort of each other.
One of the 1802 guys found a checkered flag on a display booth next to the road and climbed up and tore it off the display so we could have a checkered flag for the guys. It was an awesome experience for sure. Thank God that we made it and everyone was safe and sound. Its a small miracle that our repairs held up for 600 miles for sure. And it was really cool that the 1802 guys pulled it off.
The #7 TROPHYLITE R-8 truck worked great and if we didnt have the rear spindle problem the truck was great. We ran the whole race on a single set of tires. The General Grabbers that we started on finished the race. Thats crazy too.
I guess we learned that you never quit no matter what. There may be some other reason that you are there and some other person to help live their dream. Again thanks to Jim Riley, Rick Johnson, Scott Steinberger, and all of our support guys for making this happen. And thanks to all of our great sponsors. Please think about those who support all of us in off-road racing when you consider purchasing anything. You can email me if you have any questions or thoughts....
gregf@TROPHYLITE.com