What an amazing race!! Gotta throw out mad props to Jacob and the whole Soboba Crew. It was a great weekend full of plenty of excitement, and by far, the largest UTV race of the year with 41 entries! Joey, Rusty and Brian do a hell of a job covering all the action, and that deserves huge credit for bringing all this action to the masses that couldn't be there!
After getting drawn in the 3rd row, i knew i had my work cut out for me. There was going to be tons of chaos during the first few minutes with 41 cars all trying to get up front through the MX style course section. I was directly behind Mark Turner, and i remember using him to stop as the log jam in turn 1 unfolded. My bumper got caught underneath his rear, and he towed me around the 1st corner and unlatched over the 1st jump. After seeing my rear onboard footage, and some video of the start from Dirty, I was surprised to see myself in 2nd to last place with only the trophy cart with a 1000 engine (that wasn't even in it for the money) being the only car behind me! I knew i was at pretty big disadvantage not having the luxury of reverse, and really high gearing to make it through some of the unbelievable tight sections this course had to offer. I gotta throw out a huge thanks to Brian B, my boss Dan, and Bobby V for bringing me out Brian's shocks, as i had zero chance running my short course shocks. I went through hell for the 1 hr prerun on friday getting passed by bone stock rhinos. So i wasn't even going to attempt racing sunday without some major changes.
Talk about dust and traffic jams. I think this is probably one of the only races where you have to stop and wait for cars to make it through sections. It reminded me of being on the freeway in rush hour traffic! haha. I was just praying that i wouldn't fly off a cliff as i was blinded by the dust on the ridge sections. My goal was to play it smart, and just start picking off cars as fast as i could. Towards the end of the 1st lap I could feel, and see out of the corner of my eye, my engine moving around already. I thought for sure there was no way it would make it 2 hrs with this kind of abuse. So I drove as delicate as i could over all the jumps to keep from shocking the drivetrain, and rendering the car undrivable. It took a lot of self control, as i knew i could go twice as fast flying over most of the jumps instead of rolling them, but i knew it would spell disaster. And there is no chance of a win if the car breaks. As the race went on, I could feel it getting worse, and my throttle pedal getting closer to the floor, as the engine moved further away from the proper mounting location. But i kept plugging away and passing cars. It wasn't until lap 3 that i finally got a little breath of fresh air and could open the car up. It was a rush flying down the back lower canyon stretch at the top of 3rd gear going somewhere around 80 mph. There was soo much sandy mud packed into my wheels from the creek, and sandy canyons, that I thought my wheels were going to fly off as the steering wheel was almost vibrating out of my hands! What a rush!
With about 2 laps to go, i kept wondering how much time we had, and if i could make it to the end. Coming down the canyon my engine started to sputter as i was getting low on fuel. With the pickup at the back of the tank, and heading down those steep trails, i knew it should keep going once i got to the flat areas. The ruts down in the creek areas were getting so deep, there was a perfectly groomed flat top from all the skid plates dragging across. It was like driving a slot car, just holding on to the wheel hoping it wouldn't catch and jerk out of my hands any more than a couple times. It felt like i had blown shocks because the a-arms and chassis were dragging so bad. I don't think we could have done one more lap without cars getting high centered! haha. Finally, the checkered flag. I had never been so relieved to see it! Not having a clue where i finished, i found Jacob, and they said i finished 5th unofficially. I was shocked i was able to move up so far especially with a group of so many talented UTV racers. After seeing the official results, i finished 6th behind the group that was previously mentioned. You were all really lucky I got such a terrible start! haha
Only 20 cars out of the 41 finished! Huge congrats to all the racers that even finished, let alone towards the front of the pack! That's an amazing accomplishment! I can't wait for next year! I am glad I could be apart of it. I am also glad that there were no serious injurys! Glad Mark, RJ and Code are all ok, and to the others that were flipped over on the side of the track. I got close to that situation a few times in the dust!
After getting drawn in the 3rd row, i knew i had my work cut out for me. There was going to be tons of chaos during the first few minutes with 41 cars all trying to get up front through the MX style course section. I was directly behind Mark Turner, and i remember using him to stop as the log jam in turn 1 unfolded. My bumper got caught underneath his rear, and he towed me around the 1st corner and unlatched over the 1st jump. After seeing my rear onboard footage, and some video of the start from Dirty, I was surprised to see myself in 2nd to last place with only the trophy cart with a 1000 engine (that wasn't even in it for the money) being the only car behind me! I knew i was at pretty big disadvantage not having the luxury of reverse, and really high gearing to make it through some of the unbelievable tight sections this course had to offer. I gotta throw out a huge thanks to Brian B, my boss Dan, and Bobby V for bringing me out Brian's shocks, as i had zero chance running my short course shocks. I went through hell for the 1 hr prerun on friday getting passed by bone stock rhinos. So i wasn't even going to attempt racing sunday without some major changes.
Talk about dust and traffic jams. I think this is probably one of the only races where you have to stop and wait for cars to make it through sections. It reminded me of being on the freeway in rush hour traffic! haha. I was just praying that i wouldn't fly off a cliff as i was blinded by the dust on the ridge sections. My goal was to play it smart, and just start picking off cars as fast as i could. Towards the end of the 1st lap I could feel, and see out of the corner of my eye, my engine moving around already. I thought for sure there was no way it would make it 2 hrs with this kind of abuse. So I drove as delicate as i could over all the jumps to keep from shocking the drivetrain, and rendering the car undrivable. It took a lot of self control, as i knew i could go twice as fast flying over most of the jumps instead of rolling them, but i knew it would spell disaster. And there is no chance of a win if the car breaks. As the race went on, I could feel it getting worse, and my throttle pedal getting closer to the floor, as the engine moved further away from the proper mounting location. But i kept plugging away and passing cars. It wasn't until lap 3 that i finally got a little breath of fresh air and could open the car up. It was a rush flying down the back lower canyon stretch at the top of 3rd gear going somewhere around 80 mph. There was soo much sandy mud packed into my wheels from the creek, and sandy canyons, that I thought my wheels were going to fly off as the steering wheel was almost vibrating out of my hands! What a rush!
With about 2 laps to go, i kept wondering how much time we had, and if i could make it to the end. Coming down the canyon my engine started to sputter as i was getting low on fuel. With the pickup at the back of the tank, and heading down those steep trails, i knew it should keep going once i got to the flat areas. The ruts down in the creek areas were getting so deep, there was a perfectly groomed flat top from all the skid plates dragging across. It was like driving a slot car, just holding on to the wheel hoping it wouldn't catch and jerk out of my hands any more than a couple times. It felt like i had blown shocks because the a-arms and chassis were dragging so bad. I don't think we could have done one more lap without cars getting high centered! haha. Finally, the checkered flag. I had never been so relieved to see it! Not having a clue where i finished, i found Jacob, and they said i finished 5th unofficially. I was shocked i was able to move up so far especially with a group of so many talented UTV racers. After seeing the official results, i finished 6th behind the group that was previously mentioned. You were all really lucky I got such a terrible start! haha
Only 20 cars out of the 41 finished! Huge congrats to all the racers that even finished, let alone towards the front of the pack! That's an amazing accomplishment! I can't wait for next year! I am glad I could be apart of it. I am also glad that there were no serious injurys! Glad Mark, RJ and Code are all ok, and to the others that were flipped over on the side of the track. I got close to that situation a few times in the dust!
