May 7th KOH RCQ Team 571 recap

[smichaelR22]

KOH RCQ Trip Report
 
GameDay Racing team 571


This event was probably the hardest mentally and physically challenging thing Mike and I have done in a long time.



Our challenges began even before getting 10 miles away from my driveway.  My cummins truck decided to hesitate badly and pop 3 tps codes and a low voltage system error code, which allowed it to barely roll into the dodge dealership at the avon exit off 390.  We ended up getting a source for a TPS module from Arie at Nuway and headed to Syracuse to pick up the part ASAP.  at this point I knew we would not make tech Wednesday night as we had planned.  After returning the part the the wounded towrig, no change occurred.  the truck limped home and made it back idling into the lot across from my driveway.  that ordeal burned about 8 hours.  our departure time moved from 2pm to 10pm.  it was decided that my trailer with the buggy and race gear would be pulled down by mikes dullie and his trailer loaded with the dakota and Aarons TJ would be left behind.  we rolled in at 3am, set camp and headed to bed.


Thursday morning, the buggy was ready, ambition was high and we set out to do some pre runing before the noon drivers meeting for the Pre Qualification race at 1PM  10 minutes in to prequal coming into trail 13, we noticed a driver front tire thumping on the runflat.  it was chewed up pretty good and flat.  I saw a camera guy at the head of the trail, and reversed out back to trail 11 where he was parked.  he was very helpful and had a CO2 tank that with 5 or 8 plugs the tire held air to get us back to pit.  

It held and we made it back in time to prequal.  We were told all of the hard lines and roll lines were taken out of the prequal, and everyone that decided to run it did a low pace parade lap around the short course that was estimated to be about a 1 minute lap time.  this was an optional prequal race against the clock to set your start position for the race the next day.  we drew 11th start.  pulled strong out of the hole banged two gears and hit the first climb cautiously.  made to through holding good speed, no mistakes to the last water hole at the bottom of what is called hands climb a spray crete mess where you needed to get 3 tires on the inside of a cone.  at the parade lab i noticed we bottomed out and had to back up and hit it a bit harder to clear, which i was not going to let happen this time.  i lined up and hit the gas, before i knew what happend we smacked really hard and lay in a water hole one our side, partially upside.  this was my first hard roll, i panicked a little, and shut down the buggy with the master disconnect.  i didn\'t try to drive out of it or right it.  Lucky 4 or 5 rigs did exactly the same thing i did and they had a winch ready, we restarted and finished with out DQ to get the 21st starting spot for the race the next day.  

limping the buggy back to the pits, little did i know that the force of the impact from the roll, broke both my motor mounts and my engine was sitting on the headers between the frame rail on the passenger side.  on of the power wires for the starter melted and exploded the terminal as it welded it self to ground.  i hit the master cut off switch, it did nothing, the supply and cut side of the switch wires melted and welded them selves together, making the switch bi-passed and useless.  the entire high current system of the buggy began to smoke and melt away as the seconds passed.  No one in sight mike and I still strapped up and race geared up jumped out in a panic, he grabbed an extinguisher i opened the hood and decided to cut which wire i thought was best glowing orange with mikes pocket cutters.  it stopped, full tradegy  averted.  Mike went and got the dullie and pulled me back to pit.

I called paul with an electrical parts list and he was able to get new heavy gages wires and a disconnect switch and on his way shortly.  Ryan was soon after bringing a generator and more supplies.  Mike, Arron and I had alot of prep work to do with little day light left before reinforcements came.  we fabbed new motor mounts and stripped as much of the burnt electrical system as we could.  Paul, Keith and Nick came about 11pm that night, and couldnt have come sooner as i was running out of energy already on no sleep.  Nick took charge and immediately started to dismount and swap 2 tires for race day tomorrow.  the pluged spare just wasnt going to do it, my new spare didnt have a beadlock runflat in it, so it needed to be swapped to the other rim.  with supplies from paul the electrical system was replaced, and mounts were ready for welding.  Ryans generator couldn\'t run my welder, but the air and impact was greatly appreciated.  finally at 4am, we dragged the buggy and welder down to the old park office and stole some power from the box.  fixed the passenger window net and was race ready. we all were beat and in bed by 4:30am.

7:30 race day my body was killing, but soon the adrenalin kicked in.  we finished up a few last details, noticed a tranny line was crushed and swapped in a piece of flex hose.  strapped on the N2 tank because of the problems the day before, suited back up, and made it to race line by 9am.  Pre qual set me at starting 11th with Bigelow.  Awesome guy, and i knew i wouldnt see much more than his dust for a few minutes :)  

we started out strong, first lap winched right side of trail 5, passed 3 guys on jotters taking the harder left side that they had be clustered on the right side, and continued on.  we winched 3 times on crawl daddy (got used as traction and hosed a window net) at the end and also pulled cable after i miss-judged a bad line and got pined on a tree at CV.  that was the only part of the race i wasnt formiliar with.  we pitted after 1.5 laps, changed a tank and got back on our way supper fast.  popped a hole in a tire on the go fast section across the street.  mike pulled a chunk of metal out, plugged it and filled it within minutes and we again were on our way.  we used less fuel the 2nd lab and decided not to pit.  lap 3 we hit a rock hard on the front driver tire and bent the rim allowing lots of air to blast out.  all we had in the buggy tool bag was a 2 ton bottle jack to beat the rim with.  Mike and I took turns both exhausted and couldn\'t get it to stop with what we had.  luckly the team pitted next to us was broke down the course about 50 yards.  mike ran down, and borrowed a hammer.  we beat it back in, and i ran it back to them as he aired up and packed up.  suited in, we took off again.  our last pit, the guys noticed my passenger king pin bolts were loose, this alone would have cost us the race if they hadn\'t gotten tightened.  about half way through lap 4 i knew it was going to make it.  started pushing it harder and harder not slowing down for anything.   every obstacle we hit, all i could think was last time, last time, almost there....   at this point we new we had to be careful, yet push the buggy as hard as possible to keep our pace up.  we realized we might actually have a chance at finishing this thing.


We got through the gate at 4hours and 50 minutes, finished the 80mile race course with an average speed of 15mph, and a top speed of 53 mph.  we placed 14th out of 32 starters and missed the qualification by two trucks and 40 minutes.


it was crazy, so much fun, so much work and so rewarding to do so well and to finish our first race.  we will be back, better, faster, stronger, and harder for the RCrocks race series this summer.  

Saturday Ryan and I took the buggies out did some fun rec wheeling, he ended up blowing a hub on rock creek, then blowing a rear drive shaft trying to get out.  i dragged him in 1 wheel drive back to camp, we ate, and loaded up for a windy yet uneventful ride home.

Thanks again for all the support on the forums throughout the race, i cant wait to go trough and read all your guys support throughout the day.  Thanks again to Mike, i couldn\'t have done it without him.  he pulled through for race prep the weeks before the race, the decals for the side tins the day before, safety gear and last minute wrenching, enormous amounts of work.  awesome job.   i really need to rethink my plan for going single seater, i dont think i could do it alone.    Awesome pit crew, was great to have the support, you guys got me in, got me out, and fixed me up as needed, couldn\'t have finished the race with out you.


We will be back-  look out for 571 on the boards....



- smike

[Wingman]

Super job, smike and team!  I\'m very proud of all of you!

[ollllllo]

Congrats to the whole Team! What an awesome accomplishment!
Im proud to say that Fingerlakes 4x4 now has a KOH race team!

Great job guys!

[etk300ex]

nice job guys!  

[smichaelR22]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRr0oukFdlw#t=2m45s

[MrMindless]

Thanks again from me to our pit crew especially, and all the rest who have lendt and given hands, space, parts, tools, time, expertise, and anything else.

Maybe we could have done it without you.  maybe. but it sure wouldn\'t have been easy :-D  You\'re all the best, and I don\'t ever want to try to do it without you!

Can\'t wait for next race,
Mike

[fedrusion]

Great job guys

[gCracker]

video from jotters(not sure which lap)
http://homepage.mac.com/aarongraham/Jotters.mp4

[gCracker]

you and Brett on Trail 5 Hillclimb
http://homepage.mac.com/aarongraham/trail5.mp4

[gCracker]

also uploaded to youtube
Trail5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgWom5X9goc
Jotters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD-sIcom_dk

[gCracker]

posted another video on youtube:
 Rausch Creek KOH Qualifier 2010 team 17 Fred Hill climbs over 55-Adam, Nazir to pass at the beginning of race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ci9Zok72Yg

[gCracker]

my view of the pre-qualifier flop http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvtBXyEDANI

[smichaelR22]

and still trying to get my dodge together....