07-10-2011, 01:49 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-10-2011, 01:52 PM by broncosbybart.)
Woke up early the next morning, as the driverâs meeting was at 7:30. We had to get gas, fill the Bronco, check it over, and get ready to go! On the way back, the roads got worse and worse. We reached a point where a sign actually stated that state maintenance to the road ended!! The GPS told us to press on. I told Clay to get out his 9 and shoot at anything that moved 
We passed a handful of beer joints and abandoned buildings before getting to the track again. I canât imagine taking a family to the fair down there!!
Overnight it had rained a bunch, which was awesome. The UTVâs ran their heat laps. We started 4th out of 6 for our heat race. The track was slick! We had to run 4wd. I couldnât make one hairpin turn right at the start and got nerfed in the quarter panel by a passing Heep! At least it was the quarter that was already damaged...
I eventually got the hang of driving on the slick track. Clay shifted the front axle in and out, at my command. It is hard to hear through helmets and the sound of the screaming 302! That thing sounded awesome! The Bronco just wouldnât turn. It went straight like a bullet, but tight turns were out of the question. We finished where we started, 4th out of 6. It wasnât going to be a good day.
The main event wasnât going to be until about 3pm. We had the Bronco parked under the easy up next to the trailer. A lot of people came over to talk about their Broncos, or Broncos they used to have, and to look at ours. We got a lot of compliments and swapped war stories. After a bit, we checked it over and I moved the steering stop bolts in the knuckles further in, to allow for more steering while Clay tightened up the twin stick shifter bolts, as they had loosened up some.
It got really hot. We were sweating just standing still in the shade. A small amount of rain fell before the UTVâs ran. It wasnât near enough. The dust was awful. We were next and slated to run 20 laps. We started 10th out of 13. The track changed dramatically. A lot of silt had built up. It was dry and hard in some places, soft and silty in others. We ended up running 2wd, except at the start/finish where we had to stop at each lap to get our lap recorded by the scorers.
Each time we got to the hairpin 180, we had to do a 3 point turn. It cost us a lot of time. Others were making it in 1 pass. It really hurt us. About half way through the race the steering got harder. A few laps later it quit altogether. I stopped and we opened the hood. There was PS fluid everywhere!!! Something had majorly failed but we couldnât tell what. Nothing was visibly wrong, but our PS was done. We limped it in for a finish. Both Clay and I were black. The dust was so bad that our faces were reddish black, even through the enclosed helmets.
We donât know where we finished yet. The scoring was not done even by the time we left. I think we finished mid pack somewhere, as a lot of people didnât finish at all due to mechanical problems or crash damage.
My favorite part of the day was seeing Will in his Jeep TJ. He was right in front of us one lap. He hit a jump, and his hood flew straight up, like something out of the movies. Must have made it hard to see, as he had to quick stop and re-latch itâ¦
Here are some pics of the track and of some class C rigs. I didn't get to take any other pics.
We passed a handful of beer joints and abandoned buildings before getting to the track again. I canât imagine taking a family to the fair down there!!
Overnight it had rained a bunch, which was awesome. The UTVâs ran their heat laps. We started 4th out of 6 for our heat race. The track was slick! We had to run 4wd. I couldnât make one hairpin turn right at the start and got nerfed in the quarter panel by a passing Heep! At least it was the quarter that was already damaged...
I eventually got the hang of driving on the slick track. Clay shifted the front axle in and out, at my command. It is hard to hear through helmets and the sound of the screaming 302! That thing sounded awesome! The Bronco just wouldnât turn. It went straight like a bullet, but tight turns were out of the question. We finished where we started, 4th out of 6. It wasnât going to be a good day.
The main event wasnât going to be until about 3pm. We had the Bronco parked under the easy up next to the trailer. A lot of people came over to talk about their Broncos, or Broncos they used to have, and to look at ours. We got a lot of compliments and swapped war stories. After a bit, we checked it over and I moved the steering stop bolts in the knuckles further in, to allow for more steering while Clay tightened up the twin stick shifter bolts, as they had loosened up some.
It got really hot. We were sweating just standing still in the shade. A small amount of rain fell before the UTVâs ran. It wasnât near enough. The dust was awful. We were next and slated to run 20 laps. We started 10th out of 13. The track changed dramatically. A lot of silt had built up. It was dry and hard in some places, soft and silty in others. We ended up running 2wd, except at the start/finish where we had to stop at each lap to get our lap recorded by the scorers.
Each time we got to the hairpin 180, we had to do a 3 point turn. It cost us a lot of time. Others were making it in 1 pass. It really hurt us. About half way through the race the steering got harder. A few laps later it quit altogether. I stopped and we opened the hood. There was PS fluid everywhere!!! Something had majorly failed but we couldnât tell what. Nothing was visibly wrong, but our PS was done. We limped it in for a finish. Both Clay and I were black. The dust was so bad that our faces were reddish black, even through the enclosed helmets.
We donât know where we finished yet. The scoring was not done even by the time we left. I think we finished mid pack somewhere, as a lot of people didnât finish at all due to mechanical problems or crash damage.
My favorite part of the day was seeing Will in his Jeep TJ. He was right in front of us one lap. He hit a jump, and his hood flew straight up, like something out of the movies. Must have made it hard to see, as he had to quick stop and re-latch itâ¦
Here are some pics of the track and of some class C rigs. I didn't get to take any other pics.