2018 Silver State 300 DBS Racing 1906 Race Report
We finished prepping the car on Monday night and left for Vegas Thursday morning. We stopped in Barstow to put 30 miles on the car and hopefully get an accurate miles per gallon number to finish up our pit strategy. Testing went great, everything felt great on the car and we get our number. We decided we don’t need to pit for fuel before our first drivers change at pit 3. It will be close we think but we should have some room to spare.
Race Day: Start To Pit 3
I’m (Derek Holland) starting this race with Dan Kaatz. We drew 9th after the DNF at the UTV World Championships. It was a nice day, a little warm while waiting to get started but there was a nice breeze, so hopefully the dust won’t be so bad. Green light and we are off the line. I check the RPM on the first straight and they are a little high at 8900 and almost hitting the rev limiter. I back the throttle off a little and the RPM come down to 8500 and Dan says we are picking up a couple miles per hour. We are catching the 1921 that started in front of us and by about mile 3 we are in his dust. I’m thinking okay, once we turn the wind should help the dust. We turn and its white out dust, so I back off to keep us on the road since we couldn’t see anything. It clears up and we catch back and white out again. It went like this for the first 10 or 11 miles. We get to the downhill where the course merges with the finish section and we are running 83mph down the hill and we are able to get within a couple hundred feet of the car in front making the 90-degree right turn which I blow, and we go right over the berm with the left tires. The Dust isn’t as bad this direction and Dan hits the push to pass and we wait with no response. We are right on them at this point and Dan hits it again with no response. There wasn’t quite enough room to get by so I pull up to give them a bump and just as we are about to bump, they start to pull right to let us by. As they do our tires touch and Dan and I shot straight right with a tree directly in front of us and I am thinking holy crap we just yardsaled this car.
Dan: “Let off…”
We blow through the tree with my foot still in it, through the bushes at least one other tree and we are pointing toward the course again, huge rock that we squared up and bounce back on the course.
Me: “We’re okay holy crap” I shake the wheel a little and the car feels okay. We catch back up within a ½ mile to mile and finally get by the 1921. About ½ a mile later we get to within about 50 feet of the car who started 7th. Just as Dan is about to hit the Siren a trophy lite pulls out from the side of the course directly in front of us doing about 20mph. He immediately starts waving to let us know he sees us, however it takes him about a mile to let us by, at this point in time the 1921 and 1807 are directly behind us. We quickly put a gap on them to where I can’t see them in the mirror anymore. The car is all over the place in the turns. I tell Dan it feels like we have no front brakes or we have no front wheel drive. The car is sideways and sliding through the turns sideways. Getting off the turns it is pulling so I know we have four-wheel drive. We decide it is our tire pressures that are too high (we have broken 3 wheels this year so we ran higher pressures than usual). We Catch back up to the 1957 but we are in the white out dust again so I back it down and try and take it easy, we have 270 miles left. We are still following the 1957 after pit one and we are catching him on the graded road and I try to pull to the left side of the road to get out of some dust and boom there is a lake in the middle of the road that we hit at about 65 and we are hydroplaning looking left and right and I finally get us out of the water and back on the course. We cruise at the back of the dust and keep having to slow to let it clear for the next little while until we start getting into the forest. I can’t push the car too hard in the forest because it is sliding all over the place under braking getting into the turns with the high pressures. We are caught by two cars and I let them go and quickly get back in line. Dan and I talk about how hard they are pressing and decide we can’t run that pace without risking wrecking the car. We ended up catching and passing the 1957 a little while later. We get out of the forest and through pit 2 all good. We run down the 1947 and run behind them for a little while and they let us by. From that point on we had some clean air for a while and started running a good pace and making up some time while also trying to really save fuel in the washes because we still weren’t sure. We made the hard right up near mile 93 and start running down the hill towards Pit 3. We start calling our pit on the radio at mile 98 with no response. Mile 99 no response. I say what the hell Dan where are they! Race 1906 mile 100 we are going to be to you guys in a minute. Finally around mile 101 we get out of the hills enough to hear “1906 pit 3 we are set up at the very end of the pit.” I pull in get out and help Scott in the car. I look at the amount of gas we took and figure we had plenty of gas remaining.
Pit 3 to Pit 6: Scott Baker and Robert Enloe
I call the car to let them know what to expect handling wise and that they don’t need to stop for fuel at pit 4. “10-4” While we were changing drivers the 1957 got back by us but Scott was able to get by him immediately after leaving the speed zone. Scott followed the 2939 and watched him go through the water crossing and he followed with speed after saying it didn’t look bad. Scott said a huge wave came up over the hood and over their heads and they were soaked. The car was still running good after the bath so Scott and Rob kept pushing. We have been having some electrical issues the last couple of races and the iPad wasn’t charging so it died somewhere between pit 3 and 4, so they were going to have to run their section old school with no gps. Scott came up on the silt bed around mile 140 where there were 4 or 5 vehicles stuck. We were third in a line of cars and a trophy lite went left, a RZR went right, and when Scott and Rob came out of the dust they were in the middle of the track with the trophy lite and RZR closing back in from their left and right. Scott stayed on the throttle and split right between them and made the passes.
The radio coverage was still not working too good, so we heard no calls from the race car as we waited at pit 4. We saw them start down the hill into pit 4 with no radio calls so we assume they are all good, then after they get into the pit at 25 mph I hear Rob:
“Where are you guys we can’t see you!”
I run back to the radio in the truck from the race course, “Do you need something Rob?”
“We can’t see you, where are you guys?”
“Rob, is something wrong?”
At this point Dan has the windmill going waving them past like he’s sending a runner home from 3rd base.
Scott: “What kind of gas mileage are we getting?”
Me: “Really good, you are good to go to pit 6 without stopping”
Scott: “10-4”
The rest of the stint for Scott and Rob went well, they ran fast even without GPS, they only got passed by the 1907 in the pine forest.
Pit 6 to the Finish: Brayden Baker and Eddie Frisk
As we are waiting for the car to get to pit 6, we decide to grab Scotts iPad which also had the course on it and change it out since it had a fresh battery. The plan was to swap it out while we change drivers and fill the car. It is dusk at this point and we check to make sure the lights are still working and they are. Brayden and Eddie are off into the night. Soon after they start their stint the bottom lights stop working and they are only left with the top light bar, but they have some clean air at this point so not a big problem. They hit a silt bed and power through it. As they are getting to the end of it the car gets hot and the power drops but they are able to get through. They pull over and let the car cool down for a minute and then get going again, however by this time Quintero gets by and they are in the sitting dust of the Nevada desert. The next little while went fine and they just back down a little to save the car and navigate the dust with just the blinding upper light bar working. They come through pit 7 and are off toward the finish line. In the last stretch they said they hit a bunch of jack rabbits and birds. With about 17 miles to go Brayden couldn’t avoid a helmet sized boulder in a turn and put a hole in the sidewall of the right rear. Eddie and Brayden got out and changed the flat in the dust and dark in 5 minutes and were back on the road to the finish. The car had no issues the final 15 miles and they were able to bring it home 7th in class. I am super relieved that we finished without any issues after the early tree and rock excursion Dan and I had.
We want to thank everybody who made this finish possible:
Stefanie and Carson Holland
Tammy and Bree Baker
Chrisa and Parker Enloe
Andrea and Deven Kaatz
Eddie Frisk
Doc Ramo
Mike Deley and Chris Navarro
Our Sponsors and Products on the car that get it to the finish:
Jason and Tate Gorsuch and Rivershore Resources
UTV Belts
Polaris RZR
Benchmark Performance
RCV Axles
Method Race Wheels
Tensor Tires
Fox
LeadNav Systems
Baja Designs
Sign Pros
CryoHeat
Steel It Coatings
We finished prepping the car on Monday night and left for Vegas Thursday morning. We stopped in Barstow to put 30 miles on the car and hopefully get an accurate miles per gallon number to finish up our pit strategy. Testing went great, everything felt great on the car and we get our number. We decided we don’t need to pit for fuel before our first drivers change at pit 3. It will be close we think but we should have some room to spare.
Race Day: Start To Pit 3
I’m (Derek Holland) starting this race with Dan Kaatz. We drew 9th after the DNF at the UTV World Championships. It was a nice day, a little warm while waiting to get started but there was a nice breeze, so hopefully the dust won’t be so bad. Green light and we are off the line. I check the RPM on the first straight and they are a little high at 8900 and almost hitting the rev limiter. I back the throttle off a little and the RPM come down to 8500 and Dan says we are picking up a couple miles per hour. We are catching the 1921 that started in front of us and by about mile 3 we are in his dust. I’m thinking okay, once we turn the wind should help the dust. We turn and its white out dust, so I back off to keep us on the road since we couldn’t see anything. It clears up and we catch back and white out again. It went like this for the first 10 or 11 miles. We get to the downhill where the course merges with the finish section and we are running 83mph down the hill and we are able to get within a couple hundred feet of the car in front making the 90-degree right turn which I blow, and we go right over the berm with the left tires. The Dust isn’t as bad this direction and Dan hits the push to pass and we wait with no response. We are right on them at this point and Dan hits it again with no response. There wasn’t quite enough room to get by so I pull up to give them a bump and just as we are about to bump, they start to pull right to let us by. As they do our tires touch and Dan and I shot straight right with a tree directly in front of us and I am thinking holy crap we just yardsaled this car.
Dan: “Let off…”
We blow through the tree with my foot still in it, through the bushes at least one other tree and we are pointing toward the course again, huge rock that we squared up and bounce back on the course.
Me: “We’re okay holy crap” I shake the wheel a little and the car feels okay. We catch back up within a ½ mile to mile and finally get by the 1921. About ½ a mile later we get to within about 50 feet of the car who started 7th. Just as Dan is about to hit the Siren a trophy lite pulls out from the side of the course directly in front of us doing about 20mph. He immediately starts waving to let us know he sees us, however it takes him about a mile to let us by, at this point in time the 1921 and 1807 are directly behind us. We quickly put a gap on them to where I can’t see them in the mirror anymore. The car is all over the place in the turns. I tell Dan it feels like we have no front brakes or we have no front wheel drive. The car is sideways and sliding through the turns sideways. Getting off the turns it is pulling so I know we have four-wheel drive. We decide it is our tire pressures that are too high (we have broken 3 wheels this year so we ran higher pressures than usual). We Catch back up to the 1957 but we are in the white out dust again so I back it down and try and take it easy, we have 270 miles left. We are still following the 1957 after pit one and we are catching him on the graded road and I try to pull to the left side of the road to get out of some dust and boom there is a lake in the middle of the road that we hit at about 65 and we are hydroplaning looking left and right and I finally get us out of the water and back on the course. We cruise at the back of the dust and keep having to slow to let it clear for the next little while until we start getting into the forest. I can’t push the car too hard in the forest because it is sliding all over the place under braking getting into the turns with the high pressures. We are caught by two cars and I let them go and quickly get back in line. Dan and I talk about how hard they are pressing and decide we can’t run that pace without risking wrecking the car. We ended up catching and passing the 1957 a little while later. We get out of the forest and through pit 2 all good. We run down the 1947 and run behind them for a little while and they let us by. From that point on we had some clean air for a while and started running a good pace and making up some time while also trying to really save fuel in the washes because we still weren’t sure. We made the hard right up near mile 93 and start running down the hill towards Pit 3. We start calling our pit on the radio at mile 98 with no response. Mile 99 no response. I say what the hell Dan where are they! Race 1906 mile 100 we are going to be to you guys in a minute. Finally around mile 101 we get out of the hills enough to hear “1906 pit 3 we are set up at the very end of the pit.” I pull in get out and help Scott in the car. I look at the amount of gas we took and figure we had plenty of gas remaining.
Pit 3 to Pit 6: Scott Baker and Robert Enloe
I call the car to let them know what to expect handling wise and that they don’t need to stop for fuel at pit 4. “10-4” While we were changing drivers the 1957 got back by us but Scott was able to get by him immediately after leaving the speed zone. Scott followed the 2939 and watched him go through the water crossing and he followed with speed after saying it didn’t look bad. Scott said a huge wave came up over the hood and over their heads and they were soaked. The car was still running good after the bath so Scott and Rob kept pushing. We have been having some electrical issues the last couple of races and the iPad wasn’t charging so it died somewhere between pit 3 and 4, so they were going to have to run their section old school with no gps. Scott came up on the silt bed around mile 140 where there were 4 or 5 vehicles stuck. We were third in a line of cars and a trophy lite went left, a RZR went right, and when Scott and Rob came out of the dust they were in the middle of the track with the trophy lite and RZR closing back in from their left and right. Scott stayed on the throttle and split right between them and made the passes.
The radio coverage was still not working too good, so we heard no calls from the race car as we waited at pit 4. We saw them start down the hill into pit 4 with no radio calls so we assume they are all good, then after they get into the pit at 25 mph I hear Rob:
“Where are you guys we can’t see you!”
I run back to the radio in the truck from the race course, “Do you need something Rob?”
“We can’t see you, where are you guys?”
“Rob, is something wrong?”
At this point Dan has the windmill going waving them past like he’s sending a runner home from 3rd base.
Scott: “What kind of gas mileage are we getting?”
Me: “Really good, you are good to go to pit 6 without stopping”
Scott: “10-4”
The rest of the stint for Scott and Rob went well, they ran fast even without GPS, they only got passed by the 1907 in the pine forest.
Pit 6 to the Finish: Brayden Baker and Eddie Frisk
As we are waiting for the car to get to pit 6, we decide to grab Scotts iPad which also had the course on it and change it out since it had a fresh battery. The plan was to swap it out while we change drivers and fill the car. It is dusk at this point and we check to make sure the lights are still working and they are. Brayden and Eddie are off into the night. Soon after they start their stint the bottom lights stop working and they are only left with the top light bar, but they have some clean air at this point so not a big problem. They hit a silt bed and power through it. As they are getting to the end of it the car gets hot and the power drops but they are able to get through. They pull over and let the car cool down for a minute and then get going again, however by this time Quintero gets by and they are in the sitting dust of the Nevada desert. The next little while went fine and they just back down a little to save the car and navigate the dust with just the blinding upper light bar working. They come through pit 7 and are off toward the finish line. In the last stretch they said they hit a bunch of jack rabbits and birds. With about 17 miles to go Brayden couldn’t avoid a helmet sized boulder in a turn and put a hole in the sidewall of the right rear. Eddie and Brayden got out and changed the flat in the dust and dark in 5 minutes and were back on the road to the finish. The car had no issues the final 15 miles and they were able to bring it home 7th in class. I am super relieved that we finished without any issues after the early tree and rock excursion Dan and I had.
We want to thank everybody who made this finish possible:
Stefanie and Carson Holland
Tammy and Bree Baker
Chrisa and Parker Enloe
Andrea and Deven Kaatz
Eddie Frisk
Doc Ramo
Mike Deley and Chris Navarro
Our Sponsors and Products on the car that get it to the finish:
Jason and Tate Gorsuch and Rivershore Resources
UTV Belts
Polaris RZR
Benchmark Performance
RCV Axles
Method Race Wheels
Tensor Tires
Fox
LeadNav Systems
Baja Designs
Sign Pros
CryoHeat
Steel It Coatings