Well went and ran the AVE race over the weekend.. was a little sick with the flu.. bummer and had been working 12 hour shifts at work.. dang.. So man talk about just not feeling it.. But a bad day racing is still better then my best day at work.. so off I went.
The course was their most technical course of the year.. Very low turn out came out as the course had 6 hill climbs and rocks, washes, etc. The valley floors we ran through were not much more then trails to take us to our next hill climb and what not.
We had again only two of us show.
A modified RZR newer one. Seemed really fast actually.
He started first and hit the first hill climb stopped put it in low lock and shot up it in front of me.. as I waited my 30 seconds to start I saw him in the distance go up.
I hit the hill and a flag man pointed me to the left up a really rutted out trail with steep rocks and dug out holes from jeeps etc. churning their tires etc. you could see the rubber burn marks on the rocks.. to say the least I was not prepaired for this and did not have enough speed and traction to make the hill.. I had to back down and try again.. again I did not make it.
The rocks were big enough to scrap the bottom of my car, tires bounced up and over the huge holes and steps going up the trail... again I backed down and got a run at it.. I hit it second gear flying over and shooting for the top.... again I did not make it.
I thought this is crazy.. I backed all the way down and looked to my right and saw a small trail with just bushes etc. and went around the flag man at the hill and drove over to this long straight shot up the hill but no rocks, ditches etc. where no rock crawlers had been.. took off shot for the top and went over pretty good.
Dang.. should have just chose my own line earlier and not followed the flag guys directions but I was trying to follow the rules more or less.
So that wasted 20 minutes.. so off I went to chase down the RZR and as I came to the next hill climb I was like you got to be kidding me! It was worse. Seriously I had to go right, then left, then right and then at the top there was a flag man telling me to turn hard right that there was a drop off but I guess he forgot I was a buggy and had me turn sharp that my rear tire went over a 3 foot bolder rolling me over the cliff onto nearly my side bad enough that another boulder crushed into my side panel and then when the back of my car dropped about 5 feet down the bank I was still on the gas from climbing the hill and popped my chains master link when my car hit the ground.
Dang.. rolled to the bottom of the hill.. got out.. yep no chain.. it was at the top of the hill laying up there looking like a rolled up snake mocking me.
So I ran up the hill pulled a spare master link out of my tool kit and put chain and link back on.. dang.. another 20 minutes.. sheesh this is getting ridiculous at this point.
So I noticed that do to some last minute motor pulling and new motor mounts I did not get my chain tight enough and tensioner in place so I had a lot of slack in my chain. Do to this slack and me running 14,000 rpm to make these hill climbs and nearly over heating they were so big.. my wheels hoping and bouncing over the rocks and then that final drop must have caused the chains master link to let go.
So new link, down a lap and the RZR out in the lead I pulled into pits and had my crew check everything.. Chain was loose.. tensioner was as tight as it could go and so being down this far I couldn't win.. so thought well let me see if I can at least catch the RZR.. so I did.
That was all the time I had.. I caught him and stuck to him.. running in his dust was pretty bad.. I didn't want to pass him in some dangerous area as there wasn't much in the way of room and I didn't want to pass unless I could win.. and I was down a lap so that wouldn't happen so I chased him and we had fun racing in on the final lap.
I have a couple hours of gopro video... here is a 15 minute raw video of me chasing down and catching the RZR and finishing in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFldWSLnp2s&feature=relmfu(you can see or not see by how dusty my gopro is and how hard it is seeing the rocks and trail.. heck I blew at least 4 corners and hit stuff in all that dust..... dang)
This race was a 2 hour time limit, 13 mile loops with very technical sections, tight 3 to 4 point turns.. serious hill climbs and I never went over 4th gear...
I tried out my new gear shifter.. ya it's cheap and would work for fun but you can trip it up.
For example if you miss shift from first into neutral trying to go for second gear it will register second but click just back into neutral.. so you will rev up and be in neutral. Because it reads magnets you can trip it up.. so then when you do put it in 2nd it goes up into 3rd on the digital display.
It is cheap and bright works good easy to read It was super sunny and I was in a helmet, dust and had sunglasses on and read it great. But it is not always accurate and can be thrown off.
Setting it back and bumping first a few times will reset you and make you right.. but you have to wait tell you go back into first.
Well do cover lets see a stick the size of my finger using 4 plugs to plug my tire.
6 bent rims, one rim had 3 bent sections and one piece of bead missing, 3 other rims just bent.. hammered them pretty straight with the sledge.
Broken master link, need to reset my chain adjuster and slack.. my fault.. and worse my side body panel and bent tube damage.. dang.
New rectifier also did not work from the store.. put it on and lost almost all power but I could idle and rev it up but put it in gear and put a load on it and it would die.. what the heck is going on with rectifiers... sheesh..
(I think a few bent rims was chasing down and catching the RZR in his dust I went to pass or look for other trails and well hit rocks instead.. doh.. my bad)
Changes... going to lower my sprocket just a couple teeth.. as I have not been able to even use 6th gear in a race yet this will help me be able to drive slower in first gear when going through the more technical courses and will allow me to hill climb a bit better.
Going to order some better master links.. these are just some I bought on ebay.. ya time to find some good ones.
Fix the slack on my chain and set my tensioner.. having slack is bad I found out the hard way.. last race I had none and ran hard this race I had some and snapped a master link off. (The hill climbs didn't help im sure.)
Other then that.. prep better not the day before and hopefully feel better next race. Other then that racing is a blast and I had so much fun.
What a great day over all. so cool. It was great to get fixed and be running careful with the slack in the chain and what not and still catch and then chase and race the RZR.. he was fast two by the way.. faster then that last guy I raced.
Here is my plaque from last race
They had a cool idea and trailer set up at the race where they could take a picture of you at the race then at the end they could print you a t shirt of your pick.. pretty cool.
And they also used the pic for your plaque.. nice idea..
Very cool organization.. Very fun.
Great afternoon of racing it started at 10 and was over at noon.
Nice and easy.... perfect...
I still took 1st place for my class.. but Second over all for the UTV/Mini Buggies.
Thanks.
2nd Race 2nd Place
