A race report from the drivers seat of car #1021... We were excited to be making another one of these great events put on by Lou and Lois!!! I had been accumulating parts for months feeling that they would help me get onto the podium. The draw was posted on thursday night, and I'd be starting 6th!!! A blessing to be out in front of the other cars on this gnarly fast and silty course... I knew starting out front would be an advantage for us as it's awfully hard to run down cars in their dust. The pre-run went well on friday and another lap that night to test out the new leds proved to be helpful. The clutch setup I went with was not quite right, so some adjustments were made and we felt better about our car. Saturday afternoon came around and after the drivers meeting, we rushed back to get our suits on and into the car. I'm glad we made the decision to get in and get up there, because as we arrived we were told to go ahead and line up, 2 cars ahead of us weren't ready and we'd be starting 4th!!!!
YES, an even better start!!! We had great cars and drivers in front of us and right behind us, so we knew the 1st lap was going to separate the men from the boys so to speak. The green flag waves and we begin our ascent over the crest into the 1st 90 degree turn, we were a little excited and saw our camera crew eagerly waiting so we took it a little hard and got up on two wheels
"hope he got that shot" Anyways, through the tight twisty turns and couple gotcha's we took it easy, "to finish 1st, you must first finish" I knew (smead) would be hot on our tail to I upped the pace and caught the car in front (westling) as I was trying to make the pass my co-dawg alerts me to (smead) hot on our tail, we take the next turn wide to let him pass safely.. Smead is fast and a clean racer, he's won the first 2 races this year and I knew now was not the time to make it difficult for him... Soon after we were able to pass (westling) and feeling good about our pace as Smead was well ahead of us. This is when our problems started to arise for the #1021 car. I looked at our gauges for a quick assessment on a long straight and notice the water temp rising
have to back it down... we are close to the main pits, so, we back it way down and limp her into the pits. We had a small crew of 1 who was trying to help 2 cars, not ideal, but better than nothing. This is where the crew from (BECKER MOTORSPORTS) jumped in and offered to help in any way they can. HUGE PROPS to these guys, because 1 lap later they would become our lifeline!!! Back onto the course after a few cars had passed us in the pits and away we went. We began to pick up the pace and felt that either the clutch or belt was starting to go
we eased it down a little and tried to keep a steady pace as we talked about our next step. As the clutch setup was starting to fail we decided to swap the primary out for a stock unit, we could try and make up the time in the following laps. As we pulled in our crew was setting up to help change the clutch out and the "Becker" crew jumped right in!!! Even as their own car was coming through they helped us out and had the entire primary ready to go in less than 10 mins. Without their help, I'm sure we would have been there a lot longer. Back onto the course and pressing forward we realized we are catching a car, it was a 1000 and pretty sure it was "ironworks" as we caught him in some of the gnarly twisty silt he allowed us to pass, big thanks for pulling over, and we were on our way to a podium, so we thought..... Seems the belt had another plan for us and quickly changed our fate
should have put on a new belt
Anyways, gave "ironworks" the thumbs up as they passed us back and we went to work on the belt... Our never give up attitude got our belt changed quickly and we were back on our way. We again tried to set a good pace, but realize our clutch setup has us regulated to about 60mph, which we know isn't going to win, but maybe get a decent finish.... we have a monotonous lap before the suns sets and the CRAZY begins!!! About 5 miles in we see head lights coming our way, WTF??? they veer off course and turn off, we think ok, they saw us and got off course, they had other plans as we got closer they turned their lights on and pointed their vehicle right at us
through the bush on 2 wheels we go and don't look back... But then again 3 miles later we come over a crest and there are cinder blocks and buckets of rocks on course, pray we don't hit them and squeeze through... Our light bar has stopped working at this point and we decide to slow it down and keep an eye out for more boobie traps
We push for another lap and Lou advises us to be careful, we come across a mattress and giant log on course that weren't there the first 5 laps and we began to honestly ask ourselves if it is worth it. We push on and across our radio we get word that the race is being shut down, it's been decided it is in our best interest to stop the race and get everyone back safely. We totally respect Lou's decision and am thankful he cares as much as he does. We finish our lap, defeated yes, but winners in our minds. We proved we can hang with the fast guys when we keep the car together, we proved that the offroad community does care about each other and not only tells you they will help, but goes out of their way to help, and we still have the biggest grins on our faces
Sneed Motorsports car #1021 would like to thank numerous people for helping make this race happen, My wife 1st, without her I couldn't do this great sport, My co-dawg "simi dude" for keeping me calm and on path, (right hander coming up... I mean left)
My cousin for giving me his rzr when I blew my motor up shortly before the season
Govacho for a great tire and wheel setup, also for having the best pizza on the west coast over at "GRAND SLAM PIZZERIA" Justin and Jim at Cognito Motorsports for help with my shock package and sway bar, Aaron at PRP seats for a great setup on seats, seat belts, window nets, and tool bag, Randy at Rugged Radios for the great communications and navigation!!! "Slacker" for help on the wiring, J's Racing for pit support and maintenance, BECKER MOTORSPORTS for throwing down on an awesome clutch swap and just being great peeps, Thad at Fabwerx for a great cage, Art at Bert's Mega Mall and lastly STUMPY, Truckndave, and Sand Shark form "STUMPWORKS" for coming out and getting some great video!!!! He'll be dropping the video shortly