Race Day Recap Part 3:
We jumped in the rental jeep with our wives and headed to Hammertown as fast as it would go. Our Crew Chief told us that he'd drop the 4602 car off at camp and told us to "Get to Justin".
When we arrived at Hammertown, he had just passed through Remote Pit 2 and we believed he was in either 1st or 2nd place. The rest of Rusty Nail Racing and Steel City Racing started showing up at the jumbotron. We were shocked when the commentators seemed to know nothing about Justin and kept talking about all the Jeeps. A member of our team eventually yelled out "Justin and that little Toyota are kicking all those Jeeps $^@'s". The commentators finally perked up and said "Ooh, Justin Reece seemed to be in the lead in 4600 now and we just heard he's in a Toyota...!" Finally, some Toyota Recognition.
The next hour or so passed quickly and Justin was clearly going to win as long at the 4619 held together. The whole crew was there when he finally came into sight and crossed the finish line. It was amazing!
For those of you who don't know, Justin has raced KOH ~10 times and has finished 2nd, 3rd, and beyond many times. He is genuine, kind, humble, and a joy to be around. For example, he and his crew finished the 4619 car a week early to come to Lucerne Valley early to spend 2-3 days in the shop helping us work on the 4602 car. He showed us the ropes, helped us not make rookie mistakes, and was just plain fun to hang out with in camp. He is as good of a person as there is.
Justin took the checkered flag and everyone went nuts. His interview was classic - thanking everyone, recapping how long he has been trying to get 1st place in 4600, and somehow seamlessly layering in a shout-out to Toyota asking for them to help him "get a real rig to race next year". It was classic!
The entire team celebrated hard that night. If we couldn't finish KOH, the second best thing was for our team mate Justin Reece and our amazing crew to Win KOH! It was awesome.
Thursday we took our wives to Palm Springs as a "Thank You" for allowing us to spend the past month working on a race car. On Friday we climbed a mountain that allowed us to see Wrecking Ball, Jack North, Jackhammer, and various desert sections of 4400. We were having a blast, but we were also exhausted.
So, why didn't we race 4400 on Fri? A few reasons:
1) A week or so before the race I had 3 of my largest sponsors beg us not to race 4400. They had put so much into the car and didn't want to see it destroyed in a day. They thought 4400 on 35's was a bad idea and would rather have a car capable of finishing and possibly winning EMC in 2020 and beyond than have the brief period of publicity of a car that is destroyed in 4400.
2) A few days before EMC I had received a call from Hobie saying that he had a conflict and couldn't make it to KOH this year. He had a few ideas for us to race, but it was a long shot.
3) Given our Steering and Lower A-Arm were shot and they were the only ones in existence, even a quick Ruff Stuff repair wouldn't get the car back running for 4400.
On Saturday morning, we packed up the RV and 4602 on the trailer and took off. It took us 10+ hours to return the RV, get a V8 Yukon, get a HD trailer, Unload and Reload the 4602 and the piles of stuff from the final month of the build, buy HD ratchet straps, get the right receiver/ball, put on the original 32's because the 35's were too wide for the trailer, etc. While we wanted to leave around 10am, we found ourselves leaving Otwell's at 5:30pm. We had to return the rental car 1.5 days later and had a 27+ hour drive ahead of us. It was going to be a long next two days!
At some point we lost our 2 empty dump cans in New Mexico... This was the only casualty of the trip.
We didn't have any real significant sleep until 32-hrs later Monday morning at 4:00am. Special thanks to my Co-Driver Matt for enduring this LONG TRIP back with me. It would have been impossible solo!
We were the most exhausted we've ever been. Just getting the 4602 off the trailer and into the garage with no steering was a nightmare. And then there were the 10 Tires and hundreds of pounds of tools and random stuff from the build.
Now, 2-days later, we're mostly recovered and able to write these posts.
Here's what I've learned:
1) KOH is awesome. Period. If you share this dream, chase it.
2) If you are decent at budgeting, don't let the cost scare you. We ended up 5% over our original budget.
3) The logistics are harder than you think, especially if you live on the East Coast. Flights, RVs, 2-3 Rental Cars, Trailers, Multiple trips from Shops to Hammertown, Pit/Camp Logistics, Food, Beverages, Fuel, Spares, etc. This is where the costs were much higher than I had expected.
4) You need a Team. Without BigMike at Marlin Crawler, Wyatt and Matt RockSolidToys, Luke and HD at 4x4Labs, Robert Otwell, Dylan and Adrian at Icon, Our Pit Crew, Justin Reece, Bird, Andrew, Josh, Brittain, and the rest of the team, this dream would have been dead long ago.
5) You need Sponsors. Without our sponsors, including Marlin Crawler, RockSolidToys, 4x4Labs, Icon Vehicle Dynamics, Otwell Fabrication, Warn, Advance Adapters, Cooper Tires, KMC Wheels, RCV, Factor55, Bubba Rope, PowerTank, Odyssey Battery, Dynatrac, Fiberwerx, Drivelines Inc., Syndicate Offroad, Pro Eagle Jacks, PRP Seats, Doug Thorley Headers, URD, Alltech, East Coast Gear Supply, Aeromotive, AFE Power, Rugged Radios, Magnaflow, and all of our other sponsors, this build would have been dead long ago.
We set out on this journey with 3 simple goals:
1) Have an amazing adventure - Check
2) Pass Ultra4 4600 Tech and Launch off the starting line at KOH EMC - Check
3) Finish KOH EMC - NOT Yet!
2/3 goals are now met. The race course for KOH EMC 2019 was setup really well for our car. A ton of desert with the hardest rock trails saved for the end. And no Backdoor! Let's hope 2020 is as kind to our type of build!
In order to meet Goal #3 in 2020, we need to make a few adjustments including:
1) Reinforce Front Suspension and Gain Downtravel: The protype performed extremely well given it's the only one in existence. Clearly we need to beef up our Steering to Spindle connection of course, Modify our Spindle for more Down Travel (it hits our coilover), and Beef up our Lower A-Arm to Spindle connection (where we bent the Lower A-Arm). Then reset Limit Straps and Air Bumps. We are at 21deg on our RCVs and they can take up to 28deg with the changes above. We can gain another 3-4" of Downtravel in the front here.
2) Gain Rear Suspension Uptravel: Bend some new upper links around our crossmember in the rear to gain another 3-4" of Uptravel. Then reset Limit Straps and Air Bumps. In reality, the Front Suspension performs so well that it outperforms the rear suspension today. These changes will level travel Front to Rear.
3) Improve Visibility: Cut out and lower our dash bar and cut out and raise our windshield bar to gain additional clearance. We simply cannot see as well as we need to for KOH level racing.
4) Shed Weight: Find ways to cut a few hundred pounds withnout compromising the vision of this build. Keeping the look/feel of a 4Runner while also allowing it to perform at KOH level.
5) Gain Experience: Find ways to get more quality seat time before KOH 2020.
Congratulations again to Justin Reece and our 4619 / 4602 Team! What an amazing culmination to 10-years of KOH racing for Justin! We hope we have the opportunity to team up with Justin and team again in 2020!
Now, I'm going to get the garage organized and the 4602 cleaned up and then take some time off to focus on my family and business. Looking back, if we had to break in KOH 2019, we were certainly fortunate that the break happened before any other damage could occur and it was isolated to one section of our build.
As of right now, our car is literally 95% ready to race for KOH 2020. With the 5 Enhancements above, we'll be at 100% and ready to go! This is a great feeling considering the long push we've had over the past 6-months. We didn't cut any corners and this dedication and approach will put us way ahead for 2020!
Thanks again to all of you for following our build. We hope you feel like you have been part of the adventure and I really appreciate all of your feedback and support. It was also great meeting so many of you on the lakebed! I'm sure I've left out a ton of details, but I hope you have enjoyed this build thread.
Thanks to Ultra4 for putting on an amazing KOH 2019!
