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Sand Hollow / Mint 400 / Sand Hollow / Moab 2017 trip

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Offline smichaelR22

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Sand Hollow / Mint 400 / Sand Hollow / Moab 2017 trip
« on: April 26, 2017, 02:10:13 PM »
Feb/March/April West Trip Recap 2017.
Looking back, this trip was great.  Went about as well as it could for us and we had a great time with some awesome memories and learning. 
We committing to running Matts car in the Mint 400 and eagerly awaited entry confirmation.  The car was fully race prepped minus a tired 5.3 ls engine.  Once entry was confirmed, we planned our trip which included a logistical nightmare of interim return flights, rental cars, RVs, food, fuel, weather conditions, BITD safety gear, race support, storage, and much more.  We would plan to drive out west in February to test at sand hallow in St George UT, shock tune in APEX NV with FOX, run the mint400 in Prim NV, and then leave everything in St George at the Life time LED warehouse for 6 weeks with plane rides in-between back.  We would return to St George in April for a few days at Sand Hollow then hit Moab after EJS wound down before heading back East home.     
We swapped in a fresh 6.0 into matts car newly badged as 4454 and gave 572 a once over on the lift for wreck wheeling and support.  We had our usual winter shop sendoff party with over 100 visitors of colleagues, friends, and family.   The trailer was packed, prepped and loaded.    Mike M. joined us for the drive out to help with driving.  We made good time with no issues.
St George we arrived at Ryan’s place and he joined us for a few days of wheeling and testing around Sand Hollow.  Really cool place.  Completely set up for off roaders with nice full hookup or primitive camp sites.  Beach, sand dunes, rock crawling, reservoir for swimming, fishing, boating.  Close to town with everything you need within 10 minutes.  We spent a few days there and then headed to Vegas!  Vegas week was nuts having pits 45min from where all the drivers meetings and parade was held.  Definitely a learning experience as was our first KOH year.  We pulled in to Circus Circus for a few days to set up camp.  Troy joined us for help!  Erik and Alex with the newly built Torq masters UTV joined us for the race.  They had some last minute work on the UTV that was assisted with as best we could.  Wednesday was the parade which involved making two trips with the RAM converted into a crawler hauler with ramps to shuttle 4454 and the UTV to town.  The parade ended at the end of the strip.  Good day, good party.  Alex and I headed to the local canam dealer to get a failed power steering unit flashed after we swapped it in.  Success and loaded up.  I then picked up Matt at the end of the parade and headed back to camp.  Thursday morning we headed to Apex to shock tune with Fox.  Limited time, but good help.   Matt headed to the Drivers meeting Thursday night and the rest of the crew relocated to Main pits in Prim.  Alex and Eric arrived first and thankfully reserved 3 spots for our teams.  The FKF car also joined forces as an east coast team.   Early Friday morning we headed to registration and tech/contingency.  We waited in line with the cars while the drivers waited in line for registration.  Very slow, wasted many hours of the day.  Finally by about 2pm we got rolling though the line.  Pushing the car down the strip we made a few stops and got radios adjusted, met some sponsors and got some beverages, passed tech.   We did get hassled for fuel system issues, but were signed off. 
We returned back to Prim Pit and continued on last minute prep.  Pretty late night for all three of the drivers teams.  We were in and ready by 1:30am.   The drivers were back in the cars by 5:30am to line  up to race. 
With live tracking we could watch progress and had pretty good pit communication.  Unfortunately our radio channel was getting walked on and we couldn't do anything about it.  Mike and Troy were at the remote pit with the rest of us as main pit.  We had some good fuel stops and caught some loose lug nuts on Matts car.  He changed a tire on course and finished the race 4th in class out of 6 and around 70th overall I believe.  Alex got into a collision on lap one and the car was disabled.  The FKF car experienced engine failure and fire, disabled.    We congratulated drivers and cooked a big spaghetti dinner for everyone.   
Loaded up the trailer that night, and for some loaded up in a sand storm next morning.  I left for St George Sunday morning and the rest of the crew headed back to Vegas before flying out Tuesday.  My flight from St George Monday morning ended up getting canceled and changed 3 times so I called Mike who still had his rental in Vegas to come get me so I could get on a plane to go home later that night.  We met up for dinner in Vegas with the crew still present, and then I finally got on a plane headed east.  Everyone else flights were made and we returned back to Rochester- and back to work.
My truck, trailer, and the cars with race gear took a nap in the sun for 6 weeks…..
April 13th came and we hoped back on planes eager to relax.  Erik and Cora had driven there RV and Jeep back again out for EJS.  We flew back and re grouped up with the cars in St George.  Matt and Gillian arrived with a Vegas RV and we set up camp at sand hollow for a few days again.  Matts car got a new sway bar and arm from race damage in March and we fueled the cars.  On our own, we enjoyed the great weather and ran some run rock trails / scenery Friday-Sunday morning.  Highlight was running Maze trail, leveled an 8/10.  Most notable was a climb called “you gota be nuts” that I completed in my car.  Self-explanatory and 100% accurate.   The beach was busy and great that afternoon! Sunday we loaded up after breakfast and headed to Moab.
A quick 5-6 hour drive the trailer Landed in Moab Sunday night!  We camped at the old abandoned airport which is open for free the week before and week after Easter.   Trails we ran during the week- Cliff Hanger, pickle, 3D, mash Potato, steel bender, and Hells revenge!  Great trails and awesome scenery.   Can’t wait to go back.   We met up with some of the liquid iron guys and also stopped at the Moab diner for ice cream!  Bumped in to JT and Stef from Nemesis and met some other great people on the trail!
Wed afternoon after breaking a 205 yoke in my car on “the big hot tub” we loaded up and headed to Denver.  Weather was very sketchy with snow, ice, rain but we made it to a Walmart and set up for the night.  Dropped Gillian off at the airport in the morning, dropped Matt’s RV off, then headed east.  Matt and I made it to Missouri that night for some rest at 1am.  The next day we made it home by 3am to Rochester.  No truck or trailer issues, smooth ride.   

This trip took a lot of planning really worked out awesome.  We had a great race experience and also enjoyed the vacation with a lot of miles on the cars at Sand Hollow and Moab.  Can’t wait to go back!
572 single seat race buggy
573 Brolite '97 Ranger, '96 backup ranger
1997 ZJ 35's
2014 Ram 4500 Cummins 6 speed 4x4
48' enclosed trailer

Offline smichaelR22

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572 single seat race buggy
573 Brolite '97 Ranger, '96 backup ranger
1997 ZJ 35's
2014 Ram 4500 Cummins 6 speed 4x4
48' enclosed trailer

Offline smichaelR22

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572 single seat race buggy
573 Brolite '97 Ranger, '96 backup ranger
1997 ZJ 35's
2014 Ram 4500 Cummins 6 speed 4x4
48' enclosed trailer

Offline MrMindless

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Michael Maskalans
#571 Last Minute Motorsports
High Miler: 07.5 Ram 6.7 6sp 4x2, ARB, 19.5s
2003 R'Audi Allroad 6sp
Road Block: 98 Dakota 203/205 triple stick, 42" SXs
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Offline s0l0ithz

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Re: Sand Hollow / Mint 400 / Sand Hollow / Moab 2017 trip
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2017, 06:18:16 AM »
This trip sounds like it was a great time. It is definitely on my bucket list.

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Offline smichaelR22

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Re: Sand Hollow / Mint 400 / Sand Hollow / Moab 2017 trip
« Reply #5 on: May 22, 2017, 01:22:21 PM »
October 2017 west trip planned- stay tuned! 
572 single seat race buggy
573 Brolite '97 Ranger, '96 backup ranger
1997 ZJ 35's
2014 Ram 4500 Cummins 6 speed 4x4
48' enclosed trailer

 

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