Coming into this race third in points we were determined to do well in Imperial Valley but not destroy the car before the Baja 1000. We arrived early to prerun the course because we have never raced in Imperial Valley. Looking at the course map we figured that we could prerun quick and get back to our hotel to rest from our long drive from Moab, UT. The 1900 class would run 2 laps on the 96 mile loop. Day one of prerunning went well until at mile 40 the snap ring in our prerunner driven clutch failed. With limited field tools Scott and I made a repair and decided to limp the prerunner back to main pit since we did not have any pit help for the prerun. This repair lasted five miles at a time before failing again and again. We muddled our way around the track at a painfully slow pace before retiring at the hotel around midnight.
The next morning, after changing the driven clutch out for a spare, we set off to prerun a second time. We stopped for fuel and talked with Marc Burnet, who was also on his way out to prerun-broken foot and all. We told him about our misfortune the day before and he, true to good form he offered his help and any spare parts that we might need. It was terrible to hear of Marc’s misfortune, but we are glad that everyone on his team is ok.
The day two prerun went much better. Carrying a much better pace, we planned out how to hit the virtual checkpoints, where to push the RZR and where to hold back. Both our prerunner and our race RZR are both stock width 2 seat RZR 1000s. On courses that are super rough, like Imperial Valley, we find ourselves getting beat up by the monster whoops that our wheelbase will not let us get on top of. Our plan quickly became to just survive Imperial Valley. We would push harder than we should across the sand dunes demanding the limit out of our Gates belt and we would punch through the rocky rough areas where our tough Pit Bull Tires could take the punishment. The rest of the course was squared off monster whoops where we would have to take it slower than the 4 seat RZRs. On the west side of the loop our prerunner started running hot and we had to take a break to let the motor cool off. We realized what a factor the heat of midday was going to be. We were happy to be running Mystik Lubricants as it can handle those extreme conditions.
The morning of the race we woke up at 2:30am to get to the start line on time. Having only a skeleton crew, we dropped off a chase van at the remote pit and I put the keys in my fire-suit knowing that if we had any issues on the west side of the course we would have spare parts but no help.
Scott and I pulled the RZR up to the start line and right away noticed how well our KC Hilites Flex lights lit up the track. The flag dropped and everything hooked up. Our Addict Racing Engine pulled us ahead of the guy next to us, and then we left him behind as we went through the man-made whoops. The first section was a rough and rocky track. Then, at mile 15 we went out across the sand dune pushing our Gates Belt way past the breaking point of the OEM belts, and it held up great. Moving into second place with Matlock ahead, we maintained a decent pace, concentrating on hitting the checkpoints and not getting caught off guard by the many hazards in the terrain. Our race pace through the rough was still twice as fast as we could pull off in the stock prerunner. Even with the same wheelbase our sponsor’s products simply increase our capability that much.
As we pulled across the sand dune on lap two, the air temp had increased to over 100 degrees and we decided to push our belt even harder than on lap one to make up time on Matlock. We pushed it harder than we knew we should and it failed. During our belt change the Murray brothers passed us. As we continued the rest of the race we settled back into a conservative race pace.
Scott and I crossed the finish line third just behind Murray. We left to start the long drive home satisfied with third place. As it turns out we had no time penalties and others did, bumping us into a second place finish. Now we have shifted gears into to full prep for the Baja 1000.
Congratulations to Wayne on his win, and to everyone that finished this very tough race.
-Nick Oldham
The next morning, after changing the driven clutch out for a spare, we set off to prerun a second time. We stopped for fuel and talked with Marc Burnet, who was also on his way out to prerun-broken foot and all. We told him about our misfortune the day before and he, true to good form he offered his help and any spare parts that we might need. It was terrible to hear of Marc’s misfortune, but we are glad that everyone on his team is ok.
The day two prerun went much better. Carrying a much better pace, we planned out how to hit the virtual checkpoints, where to push the RZR and where to hold back. Both our prerunner and our race RZR are both stock width 2 seat RZR 1000s. On courses that are super rough, like Imperial Valley, we find ourselves getting beat up by the monster whoops that our wheelbase will not let us get on top of. Our plan quickly became to just survive Imperial Valley. We would push harder than we should across the sand dunes demanding the limit out of our Gates belt and we would punch through the rocky rough areas where our tough Pit Bull Tires could take the punishment. The rest of the course was squared off monster whoops where we would have to take it slower than the 4 seat RZRs. On the west side of the loop our prerunner started running hot and we had to take a break to let the motor cool off. We realized what a factor the heat of midday was going to be. We were happy to be running Mystik Lubricants as it can handle those extreme conditions.
The morning of the race we woke up at 2:30am to get to the start line on time. Having only a skeleton crew, we dropped off a chase van at the remote pit and I put the keys in my fire-suit knowing that if we had any issues on the west side of the course we would have spare parts but no help.
Scott and I pulled the RZR up to the start line and right away noticed how well our KC Hilites Flex lights lit up the track. The flag dropped and everything hooked up. Our Addict Racing Engine pulled us ahead of the guy next to us, and then we left him behind as we went through the man-made whoops. The first section was a rough and rocky track. Then, at mile 15 we went out across the sand dune pushing our Gates Belt way past the breaking point of the OEM belts, and it held up great. Moving into second place with Matlock ahead, we maintained a decent pace, concentrating on hitting the checkpoints and not getting caught off guard by the many hazards in the terrain. Our race pace through the rough was still twice as fast as we could pull off in the stock prerunner. Even with the same wheelbase our sponsor’s products simply increase our capability that much.
As we pulled across the sand dune on lap two, the air temp had increased to over 100 degrees and we decided to push our belt even harder than on lap one to make up time on Matlock. We pushed it harder than we knew we should and it failed. During our belt change the Murray brothers passed us. As we continued the rest of the race we settled back into a conservative race pace.
Scott and I crossed the finish line third just behind Murray. We left to start the long drive home satisfied with third place. As it turns out we had no time penalties and others did, bumping us into a second place finish. Now we have shifted gears into to full prep for the Baja 1000.
Congratulations to Wayne on his win, and to everyone that finished this very tough race.
-Nick Oldham
