Snowflake 2009

[family wagon]

Congrats to everyone that were brave enough to run the race ! Congrats to Bobby I'm sure winning this race was a plus for him cause I heard that his wife was going to take him to town on this race hahaha

Hey Court did you race your ride ? Hopefully alil more details later about the track and what happ with everyone braking

 

[facteryfmf]

Bob flat out, out motored everyone on the track. Up hills down hills mud hills and mud puddles. His car hauls the mail. He passed us like we were standing still on the first lap.

My car ran flawlessly for the first lap and decided that the wheel spacer wheel studs couldn't take the sliding of the corners, so the wheel fell off, immedately broke the brake line all setting up into a hard right turn. Needless to say, I didn't make the turn and ended up quite a few feet in a very large tree. I'm sure pictures will be up here soon.

2. Redline
3. Prescor RZR from Prescott Valley, AZ

I have to thank everyone for helping me get my car back to camp. Especially Bronco Dan and good ole Shawn for having hillbilly skills. Court and also Danny using Scott from XMFs rhino.

Great job Bob. You hauled ass today.


Can't say thank you enough to Dave at 2X Motorsports, Scott and Jimmy at XMF, Court, Kelly at PDM and of course the bank (aka my Dad) for being a lender.

 

[facteryfmf]

Also I can't say thanks enough to Jimmy Castelli for letting me stay with him, Brent Perry and Rick Johnson of UTV Specialties for all the prerace help. It was a blast even with the mud. The track actually became blue grooved. Except Dans track. It was all prarie land the whole race, somehow!

 

[JoeyD23]

SO bummed to hear that Justin but glad your alright. How bad is the car?

I heard a good saying yesterday from an old time off road racer he said after all the years of racing he has learned one thing and that was to never let an off road race get in the way of a good time!!!

I am sure you all had a great time considering the weather and the carnage. There is always another race!!!

I cant wait to see the pics!

 

[facteryfmf]

I have believed that was the weak link in the car for some time now and it was. I'll have the Hipers off Monday and get the to XMF to be machined out to fit the Gear One hubs asap. I can't see any carnage of the car because it was such sticky mud and it's everywhere. It's like the clay type mud.

I'm thinking it's back to BITD sept 23 or so for the Silver State 300. Time to pop the long long race cherry. Also Ray Aycox. Was looking good today I wish. Would have got to talk to you today Ray but have no idea where you are camped since you got here at 1am last night!

 

[AZCourt]

Muddy mess. Normally we could go the entire 5 laps on the 12 gallon tank. It took 4 gallons the first lap (27 miles) in the mud!! The car was so heavy with mud it was bottoming terribly. Shaun jumped in and put 6 turns in the compression which helped out a bunch.

 

[AZCourt]

Hey Court did you race your ride ?

No i didn't. Didn't get it done, got stupid busy with work last week. I have some blow by issues pushing a lot of oil out the breather.

Carnage list:

Justin broke wheel studs off and the wheel tore the brake line off sending him into that tree.

Dustin had a clutch spider come apart.

Austin had throttle sticking issues and then overheating issues, but did finsih. Too bad as he was fast when he was going.

John (austins dad) had rear end problems, something in the rear hub/knuckle setup came apart i believe. They were just towing him in at 8:30 when I took off.

Bronco Dan broke something in the transmission.

Brandon from NAATV broke a belt but got it fixed and finished.

Jimmy Castelli lost passenger front bearings, Shaun (threshan crashem) got him going again in just a few minutes but only had 1 spare bearing. Jimmy made 2 more laps to finish with one bearing in that spindle and the brake caliper zip tied up to the frame. It looked pretty scary with only the left front brake working.

 

[hp771]

Great job to Shane at 2X. All three cars he prepped finished....Me not so much. The 800 motor is yet to be perfected yet,, The R1 will be bullet proof. Good job to everyone that raced. I did not have enuf tear offs. 100 tear offs was probably the number. Mud city......Thank Tilted Kilt sponsors for coming out and standing in the rain to support the Weller cars. The R1 hauled butt and had very minor problems. And Bobby, great job. You motor.........Brady

 

[odtodd1az]

I was glad to see 7 cars in the Baja Pro class. We left the line in 2nd, and about 15 miles in took over first. The ICP rzr was doin well. Then a little Red Line passed us (boy are they fast) then the Jagged X car came up on us we moved over and let em by, came into a hard left with a big puddle and that spun us full sideways and to a stop. We caught back up and somehow got past Jagged coming in to the infield. As we came through Danny saw Bronco Dan coming, and he moved over for him. Dan decided to take this oppurtunity to show us just how much he could roost us. We had to stop because he totally coated us. Got to the pits and found both innner rear cv's smoked. we are done lap one. SUCKS! We had a good time up till that point. I am soo done changing axles. Thats all we did at Vegas to Reno as well. I think the suspension kit has an issue.
I was glad to see Big Ray out there, glad he got his car together, but the Rhino front end looked funky!
I hope everyone got back safe and look to see everyone soon at the Firebird GP.

 

[BigDog_Arizona]

It was good to see so many UTV,s racing. We spent the better part of three weeks rebuilding this car. I would like to thank Mike Ziraldo for all the help, with out his help it would have never got done. We started off running really good the car was handling great and we caught quite a few cars on the first lap. Bobby past us on the first lap and was gone! On lap three the fuel pump took a crap about forty yards from the pits. They also noticed a hole in the fuel line. They finally got us up and running again. I guess we should have put more fuel in it at that point because we barley made it back to the pits on lap four only to find another hole in the fuel line. All in all it was a fun race.
I would also like to thank KMS Performance for building me a reliable power plant.


Photos of before and after

 

[450grl]

Snowflake didn't disappoint this year at all - I love it for it's fun course and crazy ass weather!!

Well, we got the Weller Racing SR1 buttoned up a 3:00 Saturday morning, took a nap, and got up to pack everything for the last minute decision to race. With no seat time or test time on my Rhino (no more 800 motor, 150 HP instead!), Jason and Jeff decided to use the Snowflake race to test out our new motor and drive kit. I would be in unfamiliar territory in the pits, as I would NOT be driving my car this time...(yes, I threw a fit....but Jason did all the work on it - I guess he should be allowed to have some fun )

We were curious to see how the two-wheel drive would do in the sloppy mud, and it turns out it did just fine! Halfway through the first lap, the shift cable broke, and Jason had to race the rest of the lap in 2nd gear! In the pits, we quickly robbed the shift lever off of my YFZ450R, and "fixed" the shifter.....sort of. The Co-driver would have to shift for the driver the rest of the race! So, that's how they drove the remainder of the race.....each lap they would come in and swap drivers, we would scrape some mud off, and off they would go!

They took the checkers with no other issues, and a couple of big smile on their faces! Thanks to everyone who helped in the pits, and congrats to Bobby for an awesome win! It was great watching the crews around me hustling and using their heads to fix things as quick as possible - I witnessed a lot of teamwork, and the commeraderie that is so prevelant in this sport!!

As for MY race.....I haven't ridden my quad in about 2 months, so I knew I was out of riding shape - I just wanted to go out and ride and have some fun on my favorite course!! I raced in the 30+ class just below expert, and figured I'd be happy to just finish. I hadn't been on the course in about two year, so my first lap I just took it easy to see what I was dealing with, and to get a feel for how my energy levels were (considering I was racing with one HELL of a hangover, I wasn't sure I was going to feel so good). Turns out I felt just fine, so I turned it up the second lap! I dealt with dust so thick I couldn't see in front me, witnessed rider after rider in the trees, off to the side, ambulances on the course, POURING rain, lightning and thunder, wind, SLIMY slippery roads/trails, ripped the skin off my hands.....and had a BLAST!!! Just me and my quad and the course for 120 miles.......I NEEDED that!!!

On my 3rd lap I thought for sure I'd see the checkers...came around to the finish line.....WHITE flag! OMG....I had to do another 30 miles on a course that was torn all to hell!! Getting Snowflake last, really sucks!! There was not a smooth spot on that course after all the other classes had run.....so....that last 30 miles was the roughest!! More rain, mud, dust, lighting....and I made it across the checkers!!

I was just happy to have ridden...happy to have finished. Figured since I had taken my time and been careful, I'd have gotten last in my class. Turns out I WON my class!!! Hmmmm....go figure!! I have never won a Whiplash race - so I was stoked!

Thanks to Jason for being my pit crew....for the clean goggles and dry gloves every lap! And for all the hard work on my Rhino make it even more badass than it was!

Congrats again to everyone who came up and raced this one....it wa great hanging out with you all and just having fun.....can't wait till next year!

 

[AzBdBy]

Congrats to all the winners and those who just finished. Our car was running pretty good power wise until we accumulated about 500lbs of mud and then it felt like a turtle. We started first in the Pro mod class right after the Baja Pros. By 1/2 lap in we had passed a couple cars in the Baja Pro class. We saw the orange tom car sitting in the corner with the buggy. Not sure what was up with that. Only a few minutes later he was on our bumper and we let him pass. I was surprised to see how fast he was moving. A few minutes after that we caught another car and were about to pass in the winding scrub tree section when we slowed for a corner and the Tom car was off the enbankment spinning his wheels trying to get back on the track. The mud in some of the sections was insane. I think the pits were the worst though. Passing in some spots was pretty difficult. As soon as you got close enough you would get pounded with mud and water and could not see to complete the pass. Only about a mile from the pits on the first lap we caught up with Danny Flower in his Rzr. Danny had the hammer down and went into a corner with us on his bumper. He hit the huge puddle in the corner and went into a nice drift and with us being so close we got nailed with the aftermath I Pulled another tear off and made another attempt. I am sure after he realized we were right behind him he let us by on that one. I know we could not tell when a lot of cars were behind us. The mirrors were covered in mud and between the clutch and exhaust just cannot hear anyone. We can hardly hear our own siren. We cuaght a redline entering the pits right after passing Danny and could hardly get around him as well. He was swapped so sideways with only two wheel drive he was just whipping back and forth. We caught up with my daughter and her Fiance in the 1902 SDHQ Rhino on the second lap. Again we made a couple attempts to pass and they had no idea we were behind them. Finally had to give them a tap to let them know we were there. Even though we did not finish we had a blast. We made it 2 1/2 laps before we broke the clutch on the long straight away. This is the first time my car has not been repairable on the track and got to watch the cars go by for about an hour. Watching the cars go by, I noticed there were quite a few stock Rzrs running at the end of the race and the Redlines are fast.

I had planned on running an in car cam this race, but there was so much mud that I figured it would be covered in a few minutes so didn't bother. I did get a few hot laps around the jetting loop the day before. Once I look at the footage I will see if I can scrape something together.

I would like to thank my family and friends for all the pit support this weekend. My sponsors for all their support. Without all these people I would not be racing. THANK YOU!

Lone Star Racing, Benchmark Performance, PDM, Graphic Details, Rhino Forums, HTM Arabians, FST

 

[JoeyD23]

AWESOME STORIES!!!! Thanks for taking the time to post this up guys and gals it really means a lot to see and read these great stories!! The cars look NASTY!!! LOL

 

[PJs performance]

Looks Like a Great Time, Wish i could have made it up there