Brave Motorsports King Of The Hammers Race Recap

[BRAVE Motorsports]

Rusty from UTVUnderground/Fatography pulled together a great summary of the week for us.

LAKEBED
Means Dry lake is a desolate area 130 miles east of Los Angles Ca and 1500 miles from home for Brave. During the weeks leading up to the race this area transforms into Hammertown Ca. Hammer King erects a tent city for race ops. 40,000 people will gather here to camp and race. Brave would travel all day and through the night to make it to Hammertown around 3 am Sunday.
They crash for a few hours and then jump on setting up the booth in preperation for the crazy week ahead.

Sunday would be the first time Brave would get behind the wheel of their Wildcat X since it was built. A quick blast through the whoops would quicly expose an issue. The tie rod jams nuts had come loose. Back to camp to retoque the entire machine. Later that day Brave would tear off into the desert and push the car to 91mph throught the desert. Feeling really confident in the package they closed down shop for the night to get some well deserved rest.

Prerunning
By Monday morning Hammetown was in full swing. People crawling all over the place. Brave still had a small punch list to complete on the race car before our prerunning session with Fatography. Everything was torqued, zip tied and ready to go around 2:00pm. The team left Hammertown headed west to meet the photo crew at the Sand Hill around RM49. Brian made a few attempts at the sand side, its the fastest line to the top. On our third attempt they smoked a belt. They backed down and opted to drop into low range and attempt the rocky line. Much to my surprise the Wildcat X shot right up. The team discussed the different lined and decided to use the rock line on race day. With our work done for the day we could play around a little and see how the car acted in the whoops and sand. Monday night Brian ran out to Chocolate Thunder for a pass. During the climb the car kept dying. They were able to make it up without winching. A few tests and we figured the battery was junk. Easy fix the night before qualifying.

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[BRAVE Motorsports]

Qualifying
For the first time in KOH history the UTV's would qualify. With their plate full prepping Ultra4 car #486 and photoshoot with Crawl mag on a wild Brave Motorsports built FJ40. The crew opted to leave the damaged drive belt in the car. Rolling the dice it would hold up for 2 miles. At first it appeared the gamble payed off.

Then 200 yards from the finish and potential top 5 qualifying time the belt let go. All 4 wheels locked up from the belt becoming wedged between the case and clutch. Very disappointing seeing the pace they were running.

The team would recover the car and tear it down again. New belt, setting up IRC tracker and getting ready for tech inspection. New belts must be broken in correctly for maximum life and performance. The pit crew would spend much of Tuesday night breaking the belt in. It takes a great crew to race at this level.​

 

[BRAVE Motorsports]

Race Day
It all comes down to this. Countless sleepless nights, more money spent than anyone wants to admit. The co-driver Matt getting a tutorial on the GPS at the start line while Dean Bulloch stresses to Brian "Do not overheat the new belt" keep it around 65mph. Don't push it. 18th of the line due to a belt issue earlier in the week, Save the belt, save the belt is what everyone was saying. Soon Brave was at the start awaiting the green flag. The green dropped and Brave tore off into the desert. The first 49 miles is wide open desert racing. Brave kept a steady pace without loosing ground to the lead pack. They passed many teams that had been bit by the Hammers. A small fuel cell would force them to pit at RM 31. Transferring from the desert floor into rock trails and ridges they took a wrong turn and dropped down a sand hill. They struggled to climb the hill back onto the course and were forced to back track a few miles before getting back on track. By this time some bottleknecks had formed. Brave was able to pick some optional lines and navigate around the stuck teams.

ap 1 down and quick stop in the hot pits for air. Lap 2 is where the real rock trails come into play. Picking people off in the rocks until getting hung up just before Aftershock. For the first time the winch line would come out. Of course only 15 feet of the 50 available came out easy..... That was just enough. Pulling into Aftershock there were many cars broke or stuck. They worked through the pack. Crawling up to the last ledge in Aftershock and seeing all the media they figured the leaders were close. Brian and Co-driver Matt went for it. The Wildcat launched forward and dropped onto the belly pan. They reversed and Matt jumped out. "Driver..Driver... Roll into it and nail it". BANG!!! The rear driveshaft let go. At this point they were blocking the only way up Aftershock. Matt started pulling winch line a quickly remembered they only had 15 feet and needed 40 feet. Brian jumped out, they pulled the hood off and freed up the winch line. They winched out with only front wheel drive. The pits were a short 3 miles ahead. What seemed do able took nearly 2.5 hours. Having to winch 20 times they made it to their crew. They made quick work of the driveshaft change. Brian had put a huge slice in the driver side tire but the tire blocks kept them going in the rocks. The crew swapped it out quick.

By this point they were way behind. Brian poured it on. Coming down Jackhammer co-driver Matt sprained his ankle while spotting. Fighting through the pain he pushed on. At the bottom an official stopped them. "Finish line closes in 45 mins. You have 2 hours of rocks ahead of you." Between the Safety Crews packing up shop and Matt's ankle, Brave Motorsports decided to pull off and call it a day around RM85. Driving back to Hammertown they starting planning for 2015. Brave Motorsports has been bitten by the UTV bug.

 

[BRAVE Motorsports]

Thanks to all our sponsors for their support. Without Evolution Powersports, Baja Designs, C2G Fab, Honda of Houston, and the team at Brave Motorsports none of it would have been possible.

We are excited to get the cat back out for the 2013 Dirt Riot Central Series kickoff here on March 15th.

 

[JoeyD23]

Nice job guys!!!