PerkinsDirt AVE Night Race

Perkins1946

New Member
Dec 8, 2013
21
16
3
66
Bakersfield and Phoenix
Night races are a scary thing, it's really hard to feel totally confident that everything on the car is going to work the way you hope. Are my lights bright enough, will the batteries hold up, can we fix the car at night. Well, we found out the answers to all these questions.

Christina drew the poll and I drew the number 6 spot, at the end of the first lap Christina was in first and I was 3 minutes behind in second. The second lap was about the same except now it was totally dark. Now things started to get a little harder, dust at night is much thicker than during the day. The third lap is when things started to go bad for both of us, our radio went out and Christina hit a rock and blew the right rear tire. Like a good father, I just drove right on by, hey survival of the fittest right? Ok, I knew she was ok. Unfortunately Christina stopped in the worst spot, the ground was nothing but sand, every time they jacked the car up the jack would sink in the sand, so after an 8 minute tire change they were back on the course. We ended the third loop in first and Christina came in around 5th or so.

The 4th lap was going great, we had a nice lead and no dust then out of nowhere we hit a rock and blew the right front tire. Since we were only about 3 miles from the finish and we needed to get fuel anyway we just drove it in. Since my head pit mechanic was riding with me, once in the pits he jumped out fixed the flat jumped back in and off on the fifth lap we went. Christina's had a clean lap and was making time on us. On the 5th lap, our clutch fans and GPS went out, about 5 miles in, our top and main light bar went out, now we are driving with only the small lights on the push bar. At the 12 mile marker we exploded the belt, we pulled over and Abel jumped out and fought with the shredded belt for about 8 minutes or so. That really was an amazing belt change, pitch dark, belt strings everywhere and he did it in 8 minutes, great job Abel!!. First place went by closely followed by Christina, a few minutes later we were back in the race.

Starting the 6th lap we made some ground on Christina, around the 3 mile marker she got caught up behind a lapper and before they knew it they followed them down the wrong trail. Not only did it cost her a position, when I went by her, it also cost her a 30 second penalty for being off course. Don't agree with the penalty but that's not my call. Once past the lapper she pulled behind me. Around the 4 mile marker everything went out, no lights, GPS, radio or intercom. With no lights, we blew the next right left turns and headed straight across the desert. Lucky for us the small lights came back on about the same time we crossed the course about a half mile later. We were lucky to find the course this fast but it cost us 3 minutes in penalties (which I don't agree with) for being off course, plus now Christina was about 20 feet behind us. Let me tell you that was an E ticket ride across the desert with the lights off, thank God for a full moon.

Now the racing began, I have never been hounded that long, I could not shake her. Heading out on the final lap we had her by about 20 seconds, but around the 5 mile marker she was right on me again. We stayed that way until around the 15 mile marker, a lapper was making it almost impossible to pass, we got lucky and got around on the left, they were not moving over, but Christina was not that lucky. She did manage to get around a few miles later but just like us they refused to move over and she had to pass in the bushes. A few miles later both right side tires were flat, she did manage to get it to the finish, I bet that was a crazy ride, and stayed in the third position.

So we got a second and third finish and let me tell you that was like a win with all the issues and penalties we had. We headed back to the motorhome and bench raced until 3am. It was an awesome time and a fathers dream come true to race with their kid. I would like to thank Lou at AVE for laying out a super fun course. Also I would like to thank our sponsors, Sparks Racing, Monster Seal, Cognito, Pro Moto Tires and OMF.

Everyone should try the AVE series, there is a class for every type of UTV, The next race is Sept 9th, come on out.
 

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