RUSTFISH - San Felipe 250 PRO NA 1st Place

kornfed

Active Member
May 13, 2015
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Costa Mesa
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This is my first official race report so wanted to start off by saying that we won by miracle after miracle, but we will take it. :)

First miracle was actually getting a build to race. Our plan for 2016 was to run in the PRO UTV FI class. We have a monster build going on that fell behind and it was apparent that we were not going to make the race. We then decided we are going to make the race. With this, we took our fully caged prerunner that is a total frankenstein and gave it to Jerry Penhall with 12 days to race day. All it had was an NA motor swap, fuel cell and a cage. That is all. We had a lot of parts laying around from UTV Inc and Lonestar and Wolfpack and Long Travel and and and. We got the car to Jerry and started wrenching. Borrowing parts from Jason Merrill at Wolfpack and anyone that had builds that were in flight, we borrowed what we needed. We brought the car every night to Brandon the wire guy and then back to the shop in the AM. It was insanity.

We pulled out of Jerry's shop with a runner that needed radio and gps and intercom and tuning. This will come back to haunt us later. We get to San Felipe and start wrenching and wiring and barely make it to inspection. Art stayed a little late for us and we bought the team beers after. It was another miracle. After inspection Kent Pfeiffer (the other driver) and I took off to run the first 30 miles and get some help from KING at the testing site. The valving was all wrong and the spring rates were all wrong. We did what we could and started driving back down hwy 5. Kent and I both realized that we are smelling fuel and we jump out right away. Did not want to have a Marc deal happen after all this work. We figured out that our O rings on the billet fire proofing fuel rail were bad.

Next miracle is driving into town to try and find a Polaris team. During the day, these guys are everywhere. But now, no one in sight. We are freaking out when out of the mist and dust comes the Big White and Blue JaggedX Team Chase Truck. They jumped to action and got us what we needed. Never even blinked. They could tell by our rag tag look and our frankenstein car that we were scrambling. Thank you to those guys. Next day was contingency. All went smooth. Had the Monster girls on the car. Bucket list achieved.

Off to Race Day, we start the day in a panic. We had switched to cooler suits and didn't bother bringing the thick ones. Problem is that I never tried on the thin suit. For those of you that have met me. I am a big man. 6' 2" and 250. The suit was waaaaaay off on the short side. My co-driver Jason and I head into town looking for a big man. Calling around asking WHO IS A BIG RACER? We were in town for over an hour and nothing. I finally made the call to Kent telling him he is starting the race and I am out. I was crushed. There is a miracle here again. Jason looks over on the way out of town to our house and sees Pistol Pete. OMG what a sight for sore eyes. His Co-Driver Randy Bluth is exactly my size. He looks at me and says "I have my spare suit, take care of my baby". He hands it to me and it fits perfectly. Miracle achieved.

By this time Kent and Zach his co-driver are already at staging so they are starting the race. The original plan was for me to start, go 78 miles then give the car to Kent. Now I am going to take over and do the last 75 in the dark. Kent has 30 SCORE Races and 9 wins. This is my first race... Sh!t just got real. Kent takes off and we are in the race. We don't see him until RM 47 where we are doing a splash and go and he is pissed. The suspension is waaaay off. He is sharing first off and on with the Alba team and he is yelling to put every click into the suspension. Off he goes. He and Zach start making a serious lead on the others in NA and he is running well with the FI cars until he loses a bolt in the rear sway bar. He has a 13 mile lead coming into RM 175 where Jason and I are taking over.

Kent and Zach jump out and Jason and I jump in. We fix the bolt and off we go into the mountain with the sun in our eyes. RM 1 for us and we are off and running. We are pushing pretty hard. The suspension is bottoming out, but we are still pushing it. I am hitting every rock in sight. I could not figure out where the front right tire was located. I was always just a little off and BAM! I missed a large rock and Jason asked if I wanted to go back and hit it. We are keeping our lead and our pace is good. We pull over for a 10 car and a 16 and then we pass a Trophy Truck that looks to be out of gas. We also pass a 1 car. Those will come back to haunt us later.

Jason and I set in a grove and we are moving. Radio is totally useless, but we are on the gas. We get into a wash that has some small islands in it. I go to the right side of the wash and slip between a small island and the side. There was a large tree on the side of the area. I tried to turn but nothing happened. I think the bolts for the lower control arm had failed. We hit the tree at about 30 MPH right on the middle of the passenger front and flip up in the air. The tree keeps the front tire and we spin around and slam to the ground. It hurt. Not gunna lie. So we are on our sides. I kill the power and the darkness sets in. I yell to Jason to see if he is ok. He calls out he is ok. Then we are on the scramble to get out of the car ASAP. We are in a wash with our belly to the course with no lights. GOTTA GO! Problem is that my helmet is tapped to my hose and I am stuck. Jason goes head out and then head in to get me out of there. It was not fun, but we got out.

Another miracle, a family of Mexicans comes out of nowhere and helps us get the car on its feet, helps us jack up the car, gives us water and keeps the other cars from hitting us. The Trophy Truck goes by and we are relieved... Only the Class 1 left...

We get back on our feet, passenger wheel is shattered and the arm is out. The tire is actually fine, which is mind boggling after all the rocks and the tree. Shout out to STI on that one. We call on sat phone to Kent and let him know we flipped. He asked, are you OK. I said yes. He said then get back in the fucking car, you are still in the lead... Back to the mission. Car is a mess, we are a mess, but we are going to finish.

GPS is out, Radio is out and now the car is going pitch black every few miles. It is insanity, but we are racing. We limp along at around 23 MPG, any faster and we start to wobble. We then see some lights behind us. We are going so slow that we figure it could be anything. Locals, whatever. We pull over and they pull over behind us. Thinking that it was just locals, I put the nose back on the course and that Damn Class 1 goes by at 80 MPH. I just about shit myself. I don't care who you are, the scariest thing in the WORLD is a Class 1 or TT behind you. Dragon's, Vampires, Asteroids, nothing increases pucker factor more.

A short time later the Alba car passes us and we know our fate. I felt bad about hitting that tree, but it is racing and we did what we could. We pulled onto the platform and got notified we were in second unofficially. We congratulated to Alba team, class act all the way, and went to the bar. Had dinner and caught up with Marc Burnett. Congratulated him and passed out. Next morning we found out that we had 10 minutes and penalties and the Alba team had had 30. We won by 4 minutes. It was a good feeling to go through this and get the W.

Quick thanks to STI Wheel and Tire. 32" Chicane and HD was spot on. No flats and the tire was spot on. it is a perfect width and took a beating. We could take these tires to the 500 and just keep driving. Might ask for some new ones, but damn they are good. Jerry Penhall for getting us down the road. Brian Bennett and team for building our cage that took a hell of a whack. Jason Merrill and Wolfpack for the parts from his catalog and his car. Pistol Pete and Randy for the suit. JaggedX for the fuel rail parts. Also want to thank Alba. We had no time to do any performance stuff, but they quick shipped clutch and ecu and all kinds of little stuff to get us going.

So the big question is, are we going to stay NA or get the big turbo car out there. Still deciding. This NA car is a lot of fun. We will enjoy this one and figure out the 500 very soon.

Thanks to all guys on the boards also. I have asked a lot of stupid questions getting to this point and for the most part everyone has been cool. Johnny included. ;-)


www.rustfish.com

www.tetraracing.com
 
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tatum

Hans Solo - 2009 UTV Baja 500 & 1000 Winner - UTVU
Feb 10, 2009
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Great job on the race and thanks for sharing. Keep us up to date on your build.
 

jajl22

Active Member
Jun 5, 2015
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Thx for sharing, sounds like you got the whole enchilade your 1st race out.
 

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