450grl
The First Lady of SXS - UTVUnderground Approved
Well - we just got back from the MORE PowderPuff Race for a Cure, and we had a grea time again this year! We made it out there at about 1am Saturday morning, which meant a 6am registration/tech inspection to be ready by 7:30am!
We figured this race would be another great test for the SR1 - if anyone has been to this course in Barstow, you know it's probably the roughest course of them all - endless whoops and rocks!
Well, we were lucky enough to have been drawn to start first in our class, and the plan was to see how much gas I used on one lap.....I only have a little 4-gallon cell (you know, short course stuff lol!). About mile 20, I felt my backend start to get really sloppy....radio'd in for my crew to check it out. We made good time on lap one, just getting to know the course again and feel things out. Came into the pits in first still, and found out I had a completely blown rear shock! What is it with Barstow and my shocks?? Last year I lost first place due to breaking a rear shock shaft in half.....this year, here we go again!
The 22 miles I put my daughter (my co-driver) through last year came back vividly, and we didn't have a spare.....so.....I had to decide if we were going to try to finish out the race on 3 shocks. There was no point in putting my daughter or my car through that course with only one rear shock, so I made the choice to call it a day. It was fun while it lasted.....we got out, started wrapping things up...when Cory S. from Dezert Toyz came up with his spare Elka for his wife's Rhino. Would it fit?? It would be crazy if it did, and even if it fit, would it be valved OK for my car?
Well.....the guys swapped it out and sure enough....it would work! SO - 20 minutes later, apparently we were back in the race! "Get in and buckle up!" I told my daughter, and we got all harnessed in as fast as we could. My whole field was long gone, but I had a rocket of a motor and 4 working shocks....so....it was ON!
We headed out on lap two, feeling out the valving on our borrowed shock - it felt fine!! A little soft, but I could deal with that! We hauled a$$ to make up as much time as we could in the next two laps, being careful to save our tires (no, I don't even own a spare!) and keep from bottoming out too much! Line choice is so important in this race, and when I would try a line and it would suck, I'd try to remember to try a different one the next time!
DUST is something I hate, and there was plenty of it as we started coming up through the field. To me, if I'm behind someone for more than 20 seconds, I need to find/create a line around them - none of this "choo choo train" B.S.!
We used our horn to TELL people we were passing, and it worked pretty well! As we came around to start our third lap, my husband told me on the radio that I was about 6 minutes behind the first place UTV. I had 3 in front of me.....my goal that lap was to pass them all.
Around mile 7, I spotted the first of the three.....and then another one not to far ahead. I passed quickly in the wash, and then again up on the powerline ridge road. Only one more to find, so I had my daughter keep an eye out. We passed buggies and trucks, and finally - spotted the final UTV ahead of us. We were over half of a lap by that time and my suspension was fading.....making everything feel like I was riding on rims - my daughter was probably wishing her mom wasn't so dang competitive by about mile 15 on that third lap! We caught and passed the third UTV, and that put me in first place physically - from there, with the end of the race coming up soon, I just wanted to make it across the finishline without doing anything stupid.
Around mile 24, my husband radio'd and said we might go a 4th lap - no checker yet! My daughter wasn't sure she could do another lap (yes, it's rough in my Rhino - short course valving and tires aren't easy in this rough desert stuff!), and was relieved when we heard that the checkers had just been thrown.....we barely missed the 4th lap!
After time adjustment, we saw we had actually placed second in the UTV class, but I was happy just being able to go from being a half lap down to being a contender again for the win. A big congrats to the ladies in our class - it's a rough race on a short little wheelbase, and everyone did a great job, for an amazing cause!!!
Also, a big thank you to my hubby who got my Rhino (SR1) ready for this race, for driving most of the way to Barstow in the middle of the night, and for being there for us in the pits! Huge thanks to my daughter for putting herself through another race at Barstow to be my co-driver!! Thanks to everyone in the Lucas Oil pits for helping us with the shock change, etc...and thanks to Cory and Jeanette for letting us borrow that shock!!
It was great seeing so many people out there as well! Jesse, sucks about your motor, but you guys were hauling out there before that happened! It was greet meeting Family Wagon and Jeff in person, and we got to talk to Mike Lasher for a bit too!(thanks for the PowderPuff coverage on your website!!). Cory S. had us park with them, which saved us having to wander around in the dark trying to find a good pit stop! Was good seeing the Lucas Oil crew, and my buddies from M4SX as well! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to talk to us and shoot the sh*t - that is one of the fun things about events like this!
Can't wait to do it again next year!!!
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We figured this race would be another great test for the SR1 - if anyone has been to this course in Barstow, you know it's probably the roughest course of them all - endless whoops and rocks!
Well, we were lucky enough to have been drawn to start first in our class, and the plan was to see how much gas I used on one lap.....I only have a little 4-gallon cell (you know, short course stuff lol!). About mile 20, I felt my backend start to get really sloppy....radio'd in for my crew to check it out. We made good time on lap one, just getting to know the course again and feel things out. Came into the pits in first still, and found out I had a completely blown rear shock! What is it with Barstow and my shocks?? Last year I lost first place due to breaking a rear shock shaft in half.....this year, here we go again!
The 22 miles I put my daughter (my co-driver) through last year came back vividly, and we didn't have a spare.....so.....I had to decide if we were going to try to finish out the race on 3 shocks. There was no point in putting my daughter or my car through that course with only one rear shock, so I made the choice to call it a day. It was fun while it lasted.....we got out, started wrapping things up...when Cory S. from Dezert Toyz came up with his spare Elka for his wife's Rhino. Would it fit?? It would be crazy if it did, and even if it fit, would it be valved OK for my car?
Well.....the guys swapped it out and sure enough....it would work! SO - 20 minutes later, apparently we were back in the race! "Get in and buckle up!" I told my daughter, and we got all harnessed in as fast as we could. My whole field was long gone, but I had a rocket of a motor and 4 working shocks....so....it was ON!
We headed out on lap two, feeling out the valving on our borrowed shock - it felt fine!! A little soft, but I could deal with that! We hauled a$$ to make up as much time as we could in the next two laps, being careful to save our tires (no, I don't even own a spare!) and keep from bottoming out too much! Line choice is so important in this race, and when I would try a line and it would suck, I'd try to remember to try a different one the next time!
DUST is something I hate, and there was plenty of it as we started coming up through the field. To me, if I'm behind someone for more than 20 seconds, I need to find/create a line around them - none of this "choo choo train" B.S.!
Around mile 7, I spotted the first of the three.....and then another one not to far ahead. I passed quickly in the wash, and then again up on the powerline ridge road. Only one more to find, so I had my daughter keep an eye out. We passed buggies and trucks, and finally - spotted the final UTV ahead of us. We were over half of a lap by that time and my suspension was fading.....making everything feel like I was riding on rims - my daughter was probably wishing her mom wasn't so dang competitive by about mile 15 on that third lap! We caught and passed the third UTV, and that put me in first place physically - from there, with the end of the race coming up soon, I just wanted to make it across the finishline without doing anything stupid.
Around mile 24, my husband radio'd and said we might go a 4th lap - no checker yet! My daughter wasn't sure she could do another lap (yes, it's rough in my Rhino - short course valving and tires aren't easy in this rough desert stuff!), and was relieved when we heard that the checkers had just been thrown.....we barely missed the 4th lap!
After time adjustment, we saw we had actually placed second in the UTV class, but I was happy just being able to go from being a half lap down to being a contender again for the win. A big congrats to the ladies in our class - it's a rough race on a short little wheelbase, and everyone did a great job, for an amazing cause!!!
Also, a big thank you to my hubby who got my Rhino (SR1) ready for this race, for driving most of the way to Barstow in the middle of the night, and for being there for us in the pits! Huge thanks to my daughter for putting herself through another race at Barstow to be my co-driver!! Thanks to everyone in the Lucas Oil pits for helping us with the shock change, etc...and thanks to Cory and Jeanette for letting us borrow that shock!!
It was great seeing so many people out there as well! Jesse, sucks about your motor, but you guys were hauling out there before that happened! It was greet meeting Family Wagon and Jeff in person, and we got to talk to Mike Lasher for a bit too!(thanks for the PowderPuff coverage on your website!!). Cory S. had us park with them, which saved us having to wander around in the dark trying to find a good pit stop! Was good seeing the Lucas Oil crew, and my buddies from M4SX as well! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to talk to us and shoot the sh*t - that is one of the fun things about events like this!
Can't wait to do it again next year!!!
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