On race day dw were 53rd off the line, starting next to the 4777 car. When the green flag dropped, he beat us off the line and through the first couple turns, I was okay with this the recent rain had almost completely knocked the dust down. We settled in for the long race and quickly caught back up to the 4777 through the cross-grain whoops just outside of Hammer Town. The 4777 was slowing us down and the two times we attempted to pass him her would speed up and prevent us from going around safely. I backed off knowing that there will be other opportunities with multiple passing lanes just after Turkey Claw. When we got to Turkey Claw, he dove left of the Jumbotron we took a right like we had during pre-running, however there was a couple jeeps parked behind the Jumbotron blocking the lines, at this point the two cars that started behind us had caught up thanks to 4777 slow driving and while turning they went past us. I shifted into four low and dropped into Turkey Claw. We made our way up to the small traffic jam at the main obstacle in Turkey Claw. There was a line for the right line and a few cars bellied out in between the right and left lines. Luckily the line was still moving forward so we waited our turn and drove through once we could. Just after were the trial turns right up the wash, we passed one of the two cars that went by while we were turning to get into Turkey Claw. The rest of Turkey Claw was uneventful. Once out of Turkey Claw we shifted into four high and hit the gas. We chased down 4777 and went right past him on one the many lanes out in the desert. We then drove the first half of the desert lap with a couple passes and got passed a few times as well. At remote pit one we stopped for fuel and took on two full 7 gallon jugs (post-race I learned that we forgot to top the car off with gas before heading to the starting line!!). The remaining half of the Desert lap was great, the shock tuning changes, the front sway bar in a stiffer location, new driveshafts, and the rebuilt motor really let us pick the pace in the desert relative to last year. We got to Resolution descended in four high, since we were allowed to take the bypass around Back Door we elected to do so to minimize risk to the car. While going through the short course we pulled off the main pit. We only did this because we took on more fuel than we should have at remote pit 1. After fueling, a bolt check, and an engine oil level check we headed back out on the short course and started lap 2!
Lap 2 started great, with clean air and no one immediately in front of us we raced through the cross grain, Turkey Claw was clear, and we passed a couple cars on the desert section of lap 2. Compaction hill went smoothly, and we headed over to Aftershock. While on the way to Aftershock we had notes to shift to four low for a wash, in hindsight we probably didn’t need to and likely lost some time there. After Shock went relatively well with little delays and we caught up to a 4500 car and a few 4800 cars. We then entered Hwy 19 and 20 behind a big group of cars and followed them through the highways. At the top of Hwy 20 I did struggle with the last climb out as I was still in four high. I ended up bouncing my way through and ultimately cut a sidewall with some bad tire placement. We then limped into remote 2 with the intention of getting a new tire and fuel. However, as we pulled into the pit the crew noticed gear oil pouring out of the lowest bolt hole on the rear third member. We had noticed that this bolt was loose and had installed a HELICOIL after qualifying, but it had backed out. Fortunately, the team pitting next to us, Brown Motorsports, had a bolt that was almost the right size and a welder. I had jumped out of car to help diagnose the issue, so I pounded the bolt in and welded the bolt head to the third member (I am not looking forward to the post race teardown!). This somehow stopped the leak! We topped of the gear in the rear axle, I jumped back in the car and we headed out for the difficult leg of lap 2! We had a great pace after leaving the pit, although I did miss the entrance to Uptown while bombing along the fire road and I did receive the penalty for missing it. Fissure Mountain, Jack Hammer, Tumbleweed, Tac Hammer, Her Problem, Idle Issues, Chocolate Thunder all went great! We did hit some traffic in Jack North, and we had to watch a car try unsuccessfully multiple times to get up the obstacle, but we gave them the space they needed to work it and after a little bit and a horn blast they graciously let us give it go. Thankfully we made it on our first attempt. After that Wrecking Ball and Winners Choice went well. We did make a mistake going down Full of Hate and got the rear end hung up on a Boulder requiring a winch forward. My co-driver hopped out and found a good anchor rock and set up the line. While getting this figured out, we were passed a couple times by people taking the line we should have. After a short pull we got the winch line respooled and were on our way. While going down Thors Hammer the rear end started making a terrible noise. After a quick stop and reverse the noise went away, however once we started going forward again the brakes faded away to nothing!! We were at the bottom of the canyon, so we pulled off and got out of the car to look for issues. The noise that we had heard was the rear sway bar, it had sheared in the middle of the bar and the passenger side had backed all the out, fell into the wheel, got tangled and tore the brake caliper and e brake caliper off while punching a hole in the wheel. We dug the tool kit out of the car and got busy replacing the wheel.
The broken sway bar:
After the car was back on all four wheels, I went to work removing the mangled-up sway bar arm and placing some vice grips on the brake line to seal it off. My Codriver was busy tying up the e-brake cable to a control arm. We then tested that the vice grips were holding pressure, secured everything we hose clamps, then limped our way to remote 2 through Big Johnson.
At remote 2 the pit crew removed the other half of the sway bar, added some tape to hold the vice grips and checked rear gear oil, which was surprisingly full!! We then limped the car the rest of the way through lap 2, taking it easy through outer limits and spooners, practically idled through the remaining desert section, nursed the car through Resolution, bypassed Back Door, and drove the through short one last time to our first KOH finish!!
Race day photos:
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, the wheel came down hard at the shaft let go! In hindsight my rear end was too far to the right which probably prevented me from climbing the line....
Being late in the day we formulated a plan for the morning repair the chassis.
