Thanks to Daryl and Carmmal for driving all the way out to Redmond, Oregon to support our first Short Course Desert Racing "effort".
The only things we had to add to pass tech was a drivers side window net and a cable keeper for our fuel cell cap. We were woefully underdogged in the suspension travel department, but we had a great time and were happy to be able to show up and suppport this event.
Due to the low turnout of racers they only ran 4 classes: UTV's, Buggies, Mini Unlimited and Full-Size Unlimited.
The PNW4WDA racers got lumped in with the full-size trophy trucks. The track design and our lack of suspension travel resulted in some minor engine damage -so we opted out of the rest of the heats. This is the first heat Darel competed in - he was the only entry without coil over suspension - both Darel and the race truck took some pretty serious physical abuse but stuck it out to finish the heat for 4th place out of 5 entries.
I have to admit is was kind of fun to watch the mid-budget PNW4WDA Jeeps with coil overs "own" the high-dollar trophy trucks.
At the end of the day, after two heats of 5 laps each and a final heat of 8 laps, Brad Schwartz (PNW4WDA)won the full-size unlimited class in the white Jeep. He actually won all three heats...
Danny Simonson (co-pilot son Chase) in the JeepSpeed XJ took a pretty nasty tumble in the first lap of the final heat that compromised the cage & Steering - so that took him out of the running.
This is what Brad's rig looked like after 18 laps of thrashing his Jeep. Way to represent the PNW4WDA, Brad!
I think those liquid lines on the ground leading up to the Jeep are of various substances - ie, more than one type of Jeep blood.
I think Brad blew this tire at either lap 6 or 7 and still managed to finish first in his class. Beadlocks - who knew?
The event coordinators offered to let the PNW4WDA ladies run at the end of the day, but the guys had run all of the Jeeps into the ground - I don't believe there was a Jeep left that could complete a lap under it's own power without imminent failure.
Darel busted a rocker stud at the end of the 4th lap in the heat he competed in - our trusty little Ford kept digging it out to get him to the finish line. This is what we found after opening up the left side valve cover.
We will be pulling the engine this week to send off to Archie Somers for a refresh (I don't think we did any major damage). We planned on this refresh for next winter - but we need to make certain we didn't damage anything else anyway - so might as well pull it and make sure it's 100% before the next race.
The Wild Hare will be down for about 4 weeks. We probably won't be ready in time to race at the June 8-9th PNW4WDA event in Ethel, but we plan to be ready to race at the FreeWheelers / 4 at A time Event in Ethel on July 7-8th.
Life is so much better with horsepower!
;D