Well its finally over. Probably the biggest challenge we've been involved in the 3 plus years of desert racing.
On Saturday mourning(race day) it started raining pretty hard and never let up the whole day. We started out really good as we drew the second starting position in our class. Within the first mile we took the lead and were off an running. Then the coil burned up. We were down for about 5 minutes while we diagnosed the problem and fixed it. Then we were off again.
About 100 miles later we broke a lower shock mount which knocked the brakes out as well. We limped into the pits and were able to weld it back up and repaired the brakes the best we could. In all it was about a 45 minute delay. Once again we were off an runnin.
As we finished our first 143 mile lap it was quickly turning into a mud bog. Brutal absolutely brutal. There were sections of 3 feet up just filthy slop. Trophy trucks, class 1 cars, pro trucks just stuck all over the course. And we still had another lap to complete. Thankfully this is the only race of our season were we run 4wheel drive. We were able to run 4wheel all around the course with no major problems whatsover on the second and final lap crossing the finish line 5th in class(23 entries).
All in all it was a very successful day as we overcame all the setbacks and down time for a respectfull finish. Best of all a finish. This race had the lowest % of finishers ever for a best in the desert sanctioned event at 27%(411 entries all together). I have to applaud our crew and most importantly our driver for stickin it out. When he crossed the finish line he was blue in the face from the cold and had to be phisically removed from the car as was unable to climb out on his own. His hands had to pried off the steering wheel.
What he learned this race more than anything is that you have to take the good with the bad. He didn't want to let his crew or his supporters down as he knew he was representing all of us out there. And with that I leave you and look forward to the next race in Primm Nevada in April.
P.S. Ray Griffith you rock dude!!!!!!!!! Shake-n-bake
