badassmav
Well-Known Member
I am quickly learning that IRC tracking is not a reliable tool to use to monitor the competition. Despite the image of our car and rolling stock, most of the logistical costs of racing are not covered by outside sponsorship. Lack of hands is always a challenge to us at each race except Mexico, where we are pretty well connected. We rarely have the man power to delegate a specific task such as time tracking to a single individual.Good Morning all,
So I thought I would check out the Mint Thread to see some great race reports and instead I come on to find a competitor bashing our team , So My first response was also WOW!.
I have read some of the BAM posts in the past and have just thought Huh.... this guy has a lot of time on his hands.
I do not spend too much time posting here but I feel compelled to respond to these comments that question the integrity of our team.
First to address the tracking issue: We checked in with IRC on Friday morning to pick up our trackers and IRC told us that they did not have trackers for our cars They did not have enough trackers but were working on the problem. We were told to check back with them later in the day. We communicated with IRC all day long and at the end of contingency they still did not have trackers for us. We were told that Casey would make an announcement at the drivers meeting to address this. At the end of the drivers meeting we went to Casey and told him that in fact we still did not have a trackers for either of our cars. Casey's comment was " that's not my problem" At that point we took it upon ourselves to track down IRC and finally at about 9:00 PM they got trackers in our cars. The 1931 tracker linked up immediately but the 1919 tracker did not. We were told (as we have been told in the past) " it will link it just takes a while" Wel it never did link up. At the starting line we again found the IRC People and they worked on our tracker right up to the start of the race. I hate the IRC system! When it works it's cool but unfortunately it is not reliable and has a long way to go. The Whole IRC debate has been covered many times over on many levels and forums so I won't go any further into that, " get used to it"
We do not even attempt to use the IRC system as any sort of tool in our race strategy and I would recommend the same to any team. So If the lack of IRC tracking cost you race then call them, don't bash us.
As for any un official comments for the SF-250, the only comments that I heard multiple times was "where did the 1905 car come" from because no one saw them all day long and no one saw the car pass the 1932 "X" car but They were on the podium 20 minutes before us. Anyway that's okay and we are very happy with a podium finish after having a late mechanical issue that could have very well taken us out of the race. And I also recall reading a congratulation go out to both the Winner and the second place finishers from Team JX.
Indeed we are going to need to "do our homework" for Baja Apparently a creative strategy is very helpful. BTW I heard that Marc is close friends with Roger Norman and gets to help mark the course for the Baja races?. If that's true please give us a call next time we would love to help. I think that could really be helpful when planning our strategy.
As for the Awards, Sorry if our team did not "acknowledge" your presence but the fact is that until then I have never really even formally met Marc Burnett. We had a brief and very cordial conversation and mutual accolades were exchanged. Sorry if this was not acceptable.
I'm really not sure how the Jagged X team managed to "get under your skin" so deeply but if you feel that any of our team has disrespected you or your team in the past I apologize. In fact we are all too well aware of the Bullseye that we carry with us.
We have had great success in UTV racing over the past 7 years. And I know that there are many teams gunning for us at every race. We simply try to bring our best game to every race our whole team works very hard to insure our success.
We try to present a professional and competitive team at every race. We hope that no one could ever question the integrity or sportsmanship of our team.
BS JX
I'm not sure though how IRC couldn't provide you with a tracker all day Friday, when when I just drove up, along with 3 other vehicles around 4 p.m. or so Friday, and they had a tracker for each of us. I find it hard to believe that you didn't refer even once to the tracking data available to you throughout the race, but if you say it is so, then that is that, and I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps the fee's were not paid far enough in advance.
You said that you have read some of my past posts, all you could think of was that "I have a lot of time on my hands". Really? Please understand Bill, that this is the mentality that I am referring to, and as you say "bashing" your team about. Instead of acknowledging the majority of the content of what I post, which is directly related to the technology, tricks, design choices, etc. of what went into properly designing and building our car, you minimize my efforts by saying that I must have a lot of time on my hands. How about thinking that this guy sure is open about the hard work he put into designing and building his car and is kind to share it? We both know how secretive race teams can be.
Regarding Marc and Roger's relationship, I have no idea how close they may or may not be, but I do know this: From what Marc tells me, anyone can help mark the race course if they are willing to put in their own time and money to do so. I don't think it is an event that is formally offered to the gheneral public, but if you PM me your number, I'll forward it on to Marc, and let him know that you would like to be involved in marking this years course(s). Cory kind of made a similar statement regarding us assisting in marking the race courses, and any advantages it may have. Marc's response to him was to come on out and help us mark the next one. I think he is helping mark the Imperial Valley course in April. It is a long and drawn out process to accomplish, and any organized help I 'm sure is appreciated. Marc's doesn't benefit as much from marking the course as he does from his experience racing there. He's won on bikes and trucks, all of the Mexico SCORE races including the Baja 500 and 1000. He's consistently raced out there for 25 years, and is well versed on the terrain.
As far as the SF comments go that "nobody saw us all day long", that would be the case for the front runners. we were not running in front until the final miles of the race. The leading teams I assume logistically place their crews to serve their car, and are not staying behind once their car passes only to keep track of back markers, unless they are place there for that purpose. I'm sure the back markers will attest to our presence, as we had belt problems early on (Marc actually had you in his sights around mile 30 when he lost a belt), and passed many of them twice from the back of the pack.
In closing, I will admit that my insecurities may cloud my judgement at times of others as it relates to them saying or not saying something about us or my posts.
I only try to use facts or details that I believe to be true when commenting here, although my wordsmithing can at times be manipulating. But I can say wih certainty that your table had to know it was us standing in front of you at the awards banquet, and prior meetings with Marc or our team have no bearing on the fact that the group of people standing before you were the same ones racing against you for the win. It was at least a minute, or maybe two until Marc turned around and extended his hand.