08-26-2012, 07:26 PM
Don't ask....
Not super excited to write anything about this one. Nothing too much worth mentioning, but here goes.
We got the Bronco and everything loaded Thursday. That left Friday morning to load my camping gear, a few odds and ends, and go over lists to make sure everything was remembered. This was the first race where I had everything done in plenty of time without a mad scramble to the last second.
I left about 11am on Friday and made a few stops for food and fuel. Got to the track around 12:30 and began to setup and shoot the breeze with some fellow competitors. The course was different from last year in a few areas. Most of these areas were in the woods/rocks with some more challenging sections added.
Brad Carrier (races a Jeep YJ #69x) was nice enough to give me a tour for a few laps. He had just put a new 4.9L stroker in his rig and was trying to work some issues out of it. I can't tell you how many times we scraped or drug something through the rocks and stumps in the woods. Several racers seemed concerned about the difficulty of the track this year.
I waited for a while for Clay to arrive (he was in class). Finally at about 3:30 I decided to head out by myself just to prerun for a few laps and get a feel for the course. The Bronco ran well and handled everything in stride, which was a good feeling.
The format was a little different at this race. We would run qualifying laps from 5pm to 8pm. We were to run 2 laps but they couldn't be back to back. Our starting order would be based on qualifying time. I thought they'd run us only one at a time on the track, but they staggered starts so that 3 could be on the course at the same time. I started behind a few of the high dollar C class rigs. There wasn't any particular running order, just kind of first come first served thing. The C rig in front of me ended up flopping on it's side and giving us about a 6 minute 30 second lap. After everything was compiled for the first round, the leader was a solid minute faster, which worried me because we honestly didn't lose a lot of time going around the flopped rig.
I did run a second lap, which was right under a 6 minute lap. It was pretty much all out. At one point we got crossed up a bit and took a bit of a tour through the high jungles of the 'open' field. The fields haven't been mowed in who knows how long and the trees/growth is thick and probably about 10' tall. The race course kind of winds its way through the maze of growth. After slowing enough to regain it, we got back on course and all was well. There are allegedly a huge unknown number of potential hazards in those fields. Stumps, rocks, alligators, you name it...
That lap had us qualified 5th out of 16 running rigs in our class. Not too bad. Now we were only about 30 seconds off of the leader and I knew we weren't going to be that fast. The remainded of the night was spend amuzing myself with stories and the carrying on that accompanies these events. Our neighboring crew decided to cook enough tacos for the whole county, so we had some kind of beef that was cut thicker than a steak-um and marinated in some limes, oranges, cilantro, and a few other things. Good eating for sure and not what you'd find at your local taco bell.
Saturday came about without any hitch. I woke up and thought through what all needed to be checked and made ready. We got the pits prepped, tightened a few bolts on the racer, and then sat back and watched. Our race was scheduled to be the last race, running at 5:30 pm. I figured that by then the course would be pretty rutted out and would have changed a good bit from what we ran Friday night.
B and C classes put on a good show. It was the best C class race that I had ever seen. They only had about 10 rigs in it but the lap times were super fast and there was a ton of action- rolls, rubbing, carnage, and the like.
They ran so fast that we actually got pushed up to a 4pm start. I started on the inside of the 3rd row. The starts are 2 at a time, staggered every 30 seconds. The pole sitter was in a F-Toy buggy and decided to roll it over in the 2nd corner in plain view of all. Wahoo- we were going to be in 4th now! At our start, I beat the Cherokee lined up next to us. We passed the flopped rig and went over the big dirt pile and headed down into the woods. Everything was rutted up and there were all kinds of pretty big rocks strewn all over the place. There is a lot of difference between a 40" sticky tire and a 33" mud terrain.
We bounced our way through the woods. Coming out of the woods was a huge nasty crap smelling mud hole that we had to bust through. The ruts in it were so deep that the bumper on the Bronco dug into the bank while trying to exit the hole. I had to back up and stand on it to ram my way out of the hole. After that was another muddy section with some decent sized rocks in it. We picked our way through that and ran around the back field, managing to stay on course and not wander through the vegetation. The back field is pretty much a big hill that goes down, then up, runs along the top for a while, then goes back down again. The ruts were really deep but were no issue for the 302 to power through. After getting off the rock strewn and rutted 'field' was a section that isn't too bad, but is where Clay flopped his truck last year. It was muddy at the beginning of this slightly hilly section. It has some rocks on it and has a pretty good trench off to the right, which is how Clay flopped his when he got in that trench. I avoided the trench and we bounced our way up the wooded but rocky hill.
After that came a huge rock that we had to climb over or around (think about a rock the size of a regular house). That was no issue with both ARB's engaged. This led us down the finishing straight and to the start/finish line to complete lap 1. We were running 2nd or 3rd by now. We passed the 4th place starting rig in the one field, as he had some kind of issue and we knew that Brad in the 69x was still having issues with his rig as well, even though he qualified 3rd.
Pretty happy with that and with no one in sight behind us, I started to 'settle in' on a good tempo that would carry us through. We ran the woods and rocks with no issues other than a startle every now and again from the large numbers of 'probably' drunk spectators hooting and hollering at us. I got through the nasty mudhole this time without having to back up and costing us time. The back field went without issue and we worked our way around and down the hill to the base of Clay's gulley. The Bronco powered up it and bounced around on the rocks a bit. As I started to turn to line up with the big house sized rock, nothing happened. I was pointing straight toward the boundary tape marking the course. I backed up and turned the wheel but we went straight back. We weren't steering!
Since I have gone through a few 3/4" steering heims, I figured that to be the culprit. I went forward again and plowed the nose into the course tape to get as far out of the way as I could and hopped out. It was the lower track bar heim! The axle was just going side to side under the truck. I knew we were done at that point.
I ran about 1/2 mile up to the pits and got a 3/4 heim, but it wasn't the right thread. It was left hand. That is how my luck works. We found a guy selling some and got one. I ran it back down and Clay already had the old one off. It took probably 20 minutes to get installed and back on course. I was going to go to the pits and call it quits, but then thought- well, we only got 2 laps in and I paid for this race, so lets run it. We went back down through the woods and rocks again. No issues. I plowed through the mud hole and headed toward the muddy/rocky section. Apparently I went a little too fast and got a flat left front. Right after that I tagged something that I didn't see. POW! and then no steering again. We were now in the back field so I pointed it directly into the jungle and shut it down. Hopped out and discovered that I broke the upper heim on the track bar. What a day!
That is where we ended. We got it fixed after another 30 or more minutes and limped back to the trailer, tail between my legs. That is how it went. Hope you guys enjoy the pics though.
Not super excited to write anything about this one. Nothing too much worth mentioning, but here goes.
We got the Bronco and everything loaded Thursday. That left Friday morning to load my camping gear, a few odds and ends, and go over lists to make sure everything was remembered. This was the first race where I had everything done in plenty of time without a mad scramble to the last second.
I left about 11am on Friday and made a few stops for food and fuel. Got to the track around 12:30 and began to setup and shoot the breeze with some fellow competitors. The course was different from last year in a few areas. Most of these areas were in the woods/rocks with some more challenging sections added.
Brad Carrier (races a Jeep YJ #69x) was nice enough to give me a tour for a few laps. He had just put a new 4.9L stroker in his rig and was trying to work some issues out of it. I can't tell you how many times we scraped or drug something through the rocks and stumps in the woods. Several racers seemed concerned about the difficulty of the track this year.
I waited for a while for Clay to arrive (he was in class). Finally at about 3:30 I decided to head out by myself just to prerun for a few laps and get a feel for the course. The Bronco ran well and handled everything in stride, which was a good feeling.
The format was a little different at this race. We would run qualifying laps from 5pm to 8pm. We were to run 2 laps but they couldn't be back to back. Our starting order would be based on qualifying time. I thought they'd run us only one at a time on the track, but they staggered starts so that 3 could be on the course at the same time. I started behind a few of the high dollar C class rigs. There wasn't any particular running order, just kind of first come first served thing. The C rig in front of me ended up flopping on it's side and giving us about a 6 minute 30 second lap. After everything was compiled for the first round, the leader was a solid minute faster, which worried me because we honestly didn't lose a lot of time going around the flopped rig.
I did run a second lap, which was right under a 6 minute lap. It was pretty much all out. At one point we got crossed up a bit and took a bit of a tour through the high jungles of the 'open' field. The fields haven't been mowed in who knows how long and the trees/growth is thick and probably about 10' tall. The race course kind of winds its way through the maze of growth. After slowing enough to regain it, we got back on course and all was well. There are allegedly a huge unknown number of potential hazards in those fields. Stumps, rocks, alligators, you name it...
That lap had us qualified 5th out of 16 running rigs in our class. Not too bad. Now we were only about 30 seconds off of the leader and I knew we weren't going to be that fast. The remainded of the night was spend amuzing myself with stories and the carrying on that accompanies these events. Our neighboring crew decided to cook enough tacos for the whole county, so we had some kind of beef that was cut thicker than a steak-um and marinated in some limes, oranges, cilantro, and a few other things. Good eating for sure and not what you'd find at your local taco bell.
Saturday came about without any hitch. I woke up and thought through what all needed to be checked and made ready. We got the pits prepped, tightened a few bolts on the racer, and then sat back and watched. Our race was scheduled to be the last race, running at 5:30 pm. I figured that by then the course would be pretty rutted out and would have changed a good bit from what we ran Friday night.
B and C classes put on a good show. It was the best C class race that I had ever seen. They only had about 10 rigs in it but the lap times were super fast and there was a ton of action- rolls, rubbing, carnage, and the like.
They ran so fast that we actually got pushed up to a 4pm start. I started on the inside of the 3rd row. The starts are 2 at a time, staggered every 30 seconds. The pole sitter was in a F-Toy buggy and decided to roll it over in the 2nd corner in plain view of all. Wahoo- we were going to be in 4th now! At our start, I beat the Cherokee lined up next to us. We passed the flopped rig and went over the big dirt pile and headed down into the woods. Everything was rutted up and there were all kinds of pretty big rocks strewn all over the place. There is a lot of difference between a 40" sticky tire and a 33" mud terrain.
We bounced our way through the woods. Coming out of the woods was a huge nasty crap smelling mud hole that we had to bust through. The ruts in it were so deep that the bumper on the Bronco dug into the bank while trying to exit the hole. I had to back up and stand on it to ram my way out of the hole. After that was another muddy section with some decent sized rocks in it. We picked our way through that and ran around the back field, managing to stay on course and not wander through the vegetation. The back field is pretty much a big hill that goes down, then up, runs along the top for a while, then goes back down again. The ruts were really deep but were no issue for the 302 to power through. After getting off the rock strewn and rutted 'field' was a section that isn't too bad, but is where Clay flopped his truck last year. It was muddy at the beginning of this slightly hilly section. It has some rocks on it and has a pretty good trench off to the right, which is how Clay flopped his when he got in that trench. I avoided the trench and we bounced our way up the wooded but rocky hill.
After that came a huge rock that we had to climb over or around (think about a rock the size of a regular house). That was no issue with both ARB's engaged. This led us down the finishing straight and to the start/finish line to complete lap 1. We were running 2nd or 3rd by now. We passed the 4th place starting rig in the one field, as he had some kind of issue and we knew that Brad in the 69x was still having issues with his rig as well, even though he qualified 3rd.
Pretty happy with that and with no one in sight behind us, I started to 'settle in' on a good tempo that would carry us through. We ran the woods and rocks with no issues other than a startle every now and again from the large numbers of 'probably' drunk spectators hooting and hollering at us. I got through the nasty mudhole this time without having to back up and costing us time. The back field went without issue and we worked our way around and down the hill to the base of Clay's gulley. The Bronco powered up it and bounced around on the rocks a bit. As I started to turn to line up with the big house sized rock, nothing happened. I was pointing straight toward the boundary tape marking the course. I backed up and turned the wheel but we went straight back. We weren't steering!
Since I have gone through a few 3/4" steering heims, I figured that to be the culprit. I went forward again and plowed the nose into the course tape to get as far out of the way as I could and hopped out. It was the lower track bar heim! The axle was just going side to side under the truck. I knew we were done at that point.
I ran about 1/2 mile up to the pits and got a 3/4 heim, but it wasn't the right thread. It was left hand. That is how my luck works. We found a guy selling some and got one. I ran it back down and Clay already had the old one off. It took probably 20 minutes to get installed and back on course. I was going to go to the pits and call it quits, but then thought- well, we only got 2 laps in and I paid for this race, so lets run it. We went back down through the woods and rocks again. No issues. I plowed through the mud hole and headed toward the muddy/rocky section. Apparently I went a little too fast and got a flat left front. Right after that I tagged something that I didn't see. POW! and then no steering again. We were now in the back field so I pointed it directly into the jungle and shut it down. Hopped out and discovered that I broke the upper heim on the track bar. What a day!
That is where we ended. We got it fixed after another 30 or more minutes and limped back to the trailer, tail between my legs. That is how it went. Hope you guys enjoy the pics though.