RCROCS race 1 2012, GameDay Racing 571
The buggy was fully race prepped and in the trailer Tuesday night for the race Saturday with plenty of time to spare and many non critical comfort items were also completed. This was the best I have ever been prepared for an event and everything felt great.
I headed down to Rausch creek on my own Friday morning and made it to the pits by 3pm to pass tech before prerunning. No tech issues so I suited up. As soon as I clicked my belts in I heard the rear main fan shut down. Bah! I found a blow 30 amp fuse. I had fixed the wiring and changed the fan to High for this race. The buggy had been run for a while like this but for some reason didn’t like the 30 amp fuses I had. I stuffed a 30 and a 10 stacked in and it was good to go. Pre running everthing felt tight and good. I was keeping a hot 75% pace from full race speed when I felt some wrapping and clanking in the front end (so I thought) after a turn. Stopped, idled seemed ok. Continued and same noise at anything over idle. I unbuckle and pull my gear off and notice the rear driver wheel assembly had vacated from the truck and I had been three wheeling. I followed the drag marks back on retrieved my tire about 100yrds back. Changed the tire and finished the 10mile pre run lap. Only one stud was shot, and I borrowed 2 lugs from each other corner.
Back at pits, I called mike that was on his way to pick up another H2 wheel off CL somewhere so we could mount another spare tire for the race the next day. He also grabbed my spare set of tires I had back at the shop since the empty Ram was coming down regardless. I dismounted the tire and sat back for a relaxing night under clear sky. 4 hours later (awesome nap!) Ryan woke me up and he, liz and the new trailer pulled in. Mike was not far behind. We mounted the tire on the new wheel, and headed in for the night.
In the morning we swapped spares and did a last check on the truck. Hit the drivers meeting and drew first up for right lane on the course. Headed back, suited up and pulled the car up to the line. We lost the hole to a throaty Ford powered line mt car, but stayed on their dust most of the first lap. We ran a clean first lap of 32 min, less than a min off from the winner of the race. I did nail a 3’ boulder hard with the driver tire going about 30mph in a slide but the truck took it and kept going. Lap two we flatted that same tire, lap 3 we pitted to grab another spare, lap 4 we noticed cooling issues and began to reduce pace with no luck gaining back temp. About mile 7 of the 4th lap the truck shut down with total electrical system failure. The charge lug had broken on the alternator.
Mike and I tried several things including stealing a battery from a dead truck a couple hundred yards up course, pull starting from various synchronized attempts with what little voltage we had with no success. A few racers stop but no one had cables. We were DNF and got a jump from one of the park staff jeeps, finished the lap at race pace.
During the race we pushed hard even in the dust and blew off course blindly probably 3 times. We made several good clean passes that I think I even surprised Mike on a few. We also had to bush wack around a dead blocking truck, and also a buggy that was stuck trying to get around him. That was interesting but the buggy took the beating and plowed around.
Thanks to Profender suspensions for a sweet ride, Solid Knuckles for making up for my lack of talent, and everybody who helped prep the truck last week!
We will be back for more!
