KOH 2015 Race Report
This year was the year I was going out to the Hammers to win that trophy, as we know I head to each race with the mentality that I am going for the win. This race was no different and being friends with the Guthrie's they knew I was going to be a serious competitor.... This would be the first race that I arrived early enough to do any pre running so I took advantage of the time I had before the race. We ran the entire first lap and felt extremely confident in the way the car handled and the purpose build that I did on the RZR.
Race day came and we were 11th off the line of a very stacked field. I had Erik Miller starting the row behind me, and Guthrie a few rows behind him. Looking at the field I knew it was going to be a battle with me, Miller, Guthrie, and if Van De Loo could make it from the back of the pack up front he would be a force as well.
The green flagged dropped and I wanted to gain as many positions as possible before the first rock trail which was 28ish miles in where I knew the first bottleneck would begin. We made it up to 3rd place physically at the beginning of the first trail (Crowbar) and halfway through the trail found the 1st place car and 2nd place car blocking the trail with broken axles. As I sat there helplessly awaiting for them to winch themselves out of the way seconds felt like minutes and i could begin to see the flow of cars pull up behind me. As I suspected it was Erik Miller right behind me, and Guthrie right behind him. I thought to myself this will be interesting when the bottleneck opens up. Once the trail cleared i led the pack out of Crowbar and into the desert again. I pushed the car as hard as possible through the desert to try and put distance between Miller, Guthrie, and me. The next obstacle was Sand Hill and we were able to tackle it without any issues. As we continued past Sand Hill and had Hammer town in sight I radioed to my crew fuel only. We pulled into main pit and to my surprise didn't see anyone behind me. As we finished fueling and checking over the car we pulled out of pits and at that point saw Guthrie pulling in. We took back off into the desert knowing that we had a day full of battling in the front with the "King" ahead of us. As we reached the first rock trails of the second lap we were feeling very confidant and all the equipment was working flawlessly. We made it through "Aftershock" without any issues and scaled “Hwy 19 & 20” without any issues as well. After making it through that trail we had a scheduled pit stop at remote pit 2 for a fuel only stop. We entered that pit topped the tank off and left the pit in first place physically. I looked back after leaving that pit and Guthrie had pulled up within 100 yards of my rear bumper. We battled through the top of the ridges in the Hammers where I missed a shorter route that Guthrie knew about and lost my 1st place position on the track. We stayed on Guthrie’s bumper for miles and attempted to pass multiple times without success. I followed Guthrie down “Sledgehammer” and we pulled up to “Jackhammer” with me on his bumper. This would be the first trail that my co-driver would have to exit the car. We followed Guthrie up to the main obstacle of “Jackhammer” where Guthrie Jr. exited their car and pulled their winch line. They tried a line that wasn’t working for them and went for another route. At that point I had my co-driver hop out of the car to pull winch for the first time. I told him that we were going to try the line that didn’t work for Guthrie. Once the winch was hooked up we found a line that worked great and we were able to squeeze behind Guthrie. We winched up and pulled out in front of Guthrie wen the trail merged back together. Back in 1st place physically I was feeling good again. We entered “Jack North” and went down the trail flawlessly. At the bottom of “Jack North” i accelerated towards the desert again and all the sudden the rear end jumped sideways and we could hear air rush out of the right rear tire. We hopped out of the car and found a wheel that was destroyed from a rock. As we started jacking up the car Guthrie cruised on past us as we waved and told him to, “wait for us”. We changed the tire in what felt like record time and jumped back into the car. Back in the car we headed through the desert on our way to “Chocolate Thunder”. We pulled into the gatekeeper at “Chocolate Thunder” and began to accelerate. To my surprise there was no front drive, it acted like the 4x4 switch was turned off. I checked the switch and everything seemed fine. We winched through the gatekeeper and still couldn’t get 4x4 to work. I climbed out of the car to find transmission fluid leaking out of the front of the transmission and no forward drive coming out of the front of the transmission to drive the front driveshaft. At that point we decided that without 4x4 we could not finish the rest of the trails and didn’t want to block the coarse for other racers. We winched out of the trail and called it quits at that point. The only thing I can contribute to my transmission failure is the rock that damaged my rim a mile before “Chocolate Thunder” had shock loaded my transmission and caused the output shaft inside the transmission to fail.
I want to thank everyone that helped me get here: Polaris RZR, Lonestar Racing, Fox shocks, ITP tires, Method race wheels, Factory UTV skids, Rugged Radios, UtvUnderground, Queen Racing, KC HiLITES
This year was the year I was going out to the Hammers to win that trophy, as we know I head to each race with the mentality that I am going for the win. This race was no different and being friends with the Guthrie's they knew I was going to be a serious competitor.... This would be the first race that I arrived early enough to do any pre running so I took advantage of the time I had before the race. We ran the entire first lap and felt extremely confident in the way the car handled and the purpose build that I did on the RZR.
Race day came and we were 11th off the line of a very stacked field. I had Erik Miller starting the row behind me, and Guthrie a few rows behind him. Looking at the field I knew it was going to be a battle with me, Miller, Guthrie, and if Van De Loo could make it from the back of the pack up front he would be a force as well.
The green flagged dropped and I wanted to gain as many positions as possible before the first rock trail which was 28ish miles in where I knew the first bottleneck would begin. We made it up to 3rd place physically at the beginning of the first trail (Crowbar) and halfway through the trail found the 1st place car and 2nd place car blocking the trail with broken axles. As I sat there helplessly awaiting for them to winch themselves out of the way seconds felt like minutes and i could begin to see the flow of cars pull up behind me. As I suspected it was Erik Miller right behind me, and Guthrie right behind him. I thought to myself this will be interesting when the bottleneck opens up. Once the trail cleared i led the pack out of Crowbar and into the desert again. I pushed the car as hard as possible through the desert to try and put distance between Miller, Guthrie, and me. The next obstacle was Sand Hill and we were able to tackle it without any issues. As we continued past Sand Hill and had Hammer town in sight I radioed to my crew fuel only. We pulled into main pit and to my surprise didn't see anyone behind me. As we finished fueling and checking over the car we pulled out of pits and at that point saw Guthrie pulling in. We took back off into the desert knowing that we had a day full of battling in the front with the "King" ahead of us. As we reached the first rock trails of the second lap we were feeling very confidant and all the equipment was working flawlessly. We made it through "Aftershock" without any issues and scaled “Hwy 19 & 20” without any issues as well. After making it through that trail we had a scheduled pit stop at remote pit 2 for a fuel only stop. We entered that pit topped the tank off and left the pit in first place physically. I looked back after leaving that pit and Guthrie had pulled up within 100 yards of my rear bumper. We battled through the top of the ridges in the Hammers where I missed a shorter route that Guthrie knew about and lost my 1st place position on the track. We stayed on Guthrie’s bumper for miles and attempted to pass multiple times without success. I followed Guthrie down “Sledgehammer” and we pulled up to “Jackhammer” with me on his bumper. This would be the first trail that my co-driver would have to exit the car. We followed Guthrie up to the main obstacle of “Jackhammer” where Guthrie Jr. exited their car and pulled their winch line. They tried a line that wasn’t working for them and went for another route. At that point I had my co-driver hop out of the car to pull winch for the first time. I told him that we were going to try the line that didn’t work for Guthrie. Once the winch was hooked up we found a line that worked great and we were able to squeeze behind Guthrie. We winched up and pulled out in front of Guthrie wen the trail merged back together. Back in 1st place physically I was feeling good again. We entered “Jack North” and went down the trail flawlessly. At the bottom of “Jack North” i accelerated towards the desert again and all the sudden the rear end jumped sideways and we could hear air rush out of the right rear tire. We hopped out of the car and found a wheel that was destroyed from a rock. As we started jacking up the car Guthrie cruised on past us as we waved and told him to, “wait for us”. We changed the tire in what felt like record time and jumped back into the car. Back in the car we headed through the desert on our way to “Chocolate Thunder”. We pulled into the gatekeeper at “Chocolate Thunder” and began to accelerate. To my surprise there was no front drive, it acted like the 4x4 switch was turned off. I checked the switch and everything seemed fine. We winched through the gatekeeper and still couldn’t get 4x4 to work. I climbed out of the car to find transmission fluid leaking out of the front of the transmission and no forward drive coming out of the front of the transmission to drive the front driveshaft. At that point we decided that without 4x4 we could not finish the rest of the trails and didn’t want to block the coarse for other racers. We winched out of the trail and called it quits at that point. The only thing I can contribute to my transmission failure is the rock that damaged my rim a mile before “Chocolate Thunder” had shock loaded my transmission and caused the output shaft inside the transmission to fail.
I want to thank everyone that helped me get here: Polaris RZR, Lonestar Racing, Fox shocks, ITP tires, Method race wheels, Factory UTV skids, Rugged Radios, UtvUnderground, Queen Racing, KC HiLITES
