This year I teamed up with Jon Crowley from UTVguide.net again.
What a whirlwind tour! Hiding in my garage, building my RZR 1000 non stop for the last 3 months. The only way it got finished was with the help of all my friends pulling together for a mad last minute thrash fest. Once the car got "finished" I put 4 miles on it and loaded up and headed to Hammer Town.
Brian from Walker met us out there for some shock tuning. They got them dialed in perfectly. The car was handling great. The Lone Star Racing arms, and Walker Evans Shocks. Were a perfect & bulletproof combination. (I heard there were going to be some bullets for Crowley)
Jon and I started the race in 10th. We drove conservatively for a while just feeling the car out. It didn't take to long to find out our GPS hated us. And would only work about 10% of the time. Some times showing we were moving but it had a mind of it's own on what direction. Then once we noticed it was messing up again. Jon would have to shut it down and power it back up. Then it would jump to our current location. This repeated itself about 200 times during the race.
About 1/2 way to pit 1 we caught up with Brandon Sims. We had a great battle going on. We must have traded positions 20 time. Then we catch up with Guthrie. All 3 of us were battling it out. That was the most fun I have had desert racing in a long time.
We leave pit 1 in 1st place. Only to have the driver run out of talent and plow through a creosote bush. Taking out our radiator. It took a while to get permission to drive back to pit 1, and to get a radiator delivered out to there. But the Jagged X crew got us up and going.
No problems till we get to the very beginning of Aftershock. I pop up a little ledge and hit a rock going about 2 mph. All metal. Jon jumps out. reaches down and picks up our axel. I think it was a straight rock to axel hit. Cause it knocked it clean out. So we get to do Aftershock and Hwy 19-20 in 3 wheel drive again.
The Jagged X crew gets us fixed up in no time at pit 2. We ran through the rest of the rock trails with out much problem. Only doing a quick winch on Wreaking ball where I messed up the beautiful paint job that I got from C.R. Designs. Finally getting back to pit 2A for a quick inspection.
After we left pit 2A, Jon and I were on a mission. Thankfully we had the extra horsepower the Muzzys exhaust was giving us. We beat on the 1919 car but she held together. The GBC Mongrel Tires, with Tire Blocks and OMF NXG wheels held up to some brutal hits. We finished with only 3 minutes to spare.
But we finished!
Just sorry I let everyone including my co-dawg down with a complete driver error.
I can't thank All my friends who help me out enough. Polaris for their support, and the fact that they build the best UTV's in the world. C.R. Designs, Walker Evans, Muzzys, GBC Tires, Lonestar Racing, High Lifter, OMF Wheels, Tire Blocks & VARTA power sport batteries. Never to be left out Joey D with UTV Underground and Mad Media for the great coverage. Special thanks to the entire Jagged X crew and my guys at Mountain States Contracting for all the help.
Disclaimer:
no creosote bushes were harmed during the racing of this race