Post by racincowboy on Jun 16, 2009 11:23:40 GMT -8
Well as most of you had heard at the meeting myself and Margaret made the 3.5 hour journey south to beautiful Lookinglass Or. For those of you that have never been down that way Lookinglass is 7 miles west of Roseburg Or.
We ended up getting a late start out of town as we both had to work on friday. Which actually turned out to be kind of a blessing in disquise. Apprently there was a severe thunder and lightning storm that dumped a few inches of rain in short order from 8-10 pm.
We rolled into the track at midnight to see 4-5 inch deep ruts and more then one motorhome and trailer detained by the wet and gooey clay. I put my truck in 4 wheel drive and had no trouble getting in and parked.
We got up Saturday morning and the track looked as if someone had left the water on all night long. It was upwards of 18 inches deep in some spots. Needless to say the drag races saturday morning were all out mud drags. It was great to leave the line and be able to see nothing at half track because of the mud and water flying. I have never had to use tear-offs drag racing before this was a first.
Needless to say horsepower was not your friend this weekend. There was more then once that the finish line lights were taken out and rigs crossing the center berm spinning out and even a couple totally backwards because of the ice like conditions.
Team relay was run after the drags. My team was in the first heat and we ended up 3rd so we did not transfer to the finals but we had a great time slopping around in the mud. Our team relay gate was at one of the worst spots on the track. As you came into your gate you were literally hydroplaning sliding sideways on the verge of wrecking.
This year Ruff Country (the host club) had added in side by side racing as part of the program to fill in while the men and women 4x4 racers changed drivers or cooled off hot motors. This was a blast to watch these guys running a team relay and later on in the weekend we were treated to a side by side wheel to wheel event.
Next event for the 4x4's on saturday was the men's barrel racing in more then a foot of water. It was very interesting watching how some people ran barrels like they normally do and others would take it somewhat easy to get a time in the book for their first pass then they would go for broke so to speak on the second run. Several men did not even run the barrels due to all the mud and standing water on the track. With men's barrels completed it got to be 8pm and we were out of time for the day.
Kids courses were run at 8am Sunday morning with a handful of kids running the OB course in the slop. These kids were really impressive to watch as they didnt have near the trouble the adults did staying on the course and pointed the right way.
Women's barrels was the next event after the kids OB.
Women's barrels was also still sloppy wet and muddy with standing water just not as much as when the men ran.
Very very few women actually ran the barrels due to the standing water.
Next event on sunday was Men's and Women's OB course racing for time. A road grader was brought in to try and scrape off some of the slime in select parts of the track for safety reasons. 95% of the course was still wet and sloppy with standing water in some of the corners and straights.
This is what happens when you go from a wet spot to a dry spot trying to set fast time on the OB course.
Between the mens and womens OB they ran another side by side relay race to fill time. We put a stopwatch on the fastest side by side out there and he was running 1:47:00 lap times which is very fast for a little side by side. Everyone was very evenly matched and drove hard there was a little trading paint but no damage was incurred.
After the OB course racing it was time for the main event of the weekend the Men and Women's wheel to wheel events. For those of you who do not know what this is it is basically a nascar two by two start when the green flag flys its a free for all with everyone trying to get to the front.
There was 4 women that ran wheel to wheel for 4 laps. Margaret started 4th and ended up 4th but was never even close to being lapped.
The Men's wheel to wheel consisted of 11 drivers of which I started 11th. We ran 10 laps I ran 10.5 laps because I did not see the checkered flag come out. I actually couldnt see much of anything with all the mud on the visor of my helmet I used up 6 tear offs in the race and only had one left with I think 2 laps to go so I had to lift the visor down the straights and put it down through the slop. I ended up finishing 4th and wish we would have had to run 5 more laps as I would have been in the top 3 for sure.
We had a great weekend and I only broke one bump stop for such a rough and sloppy wet track it sure showed who could drive and who couldn't. All the big horsepower rigs had trouble spinning out and off course most of the weekend. My brother on the other hand cracked his transfer case in half over one of the jumps in the back. So we will have some work to do on both our rigs before the next race.
This is what happens when you make a bet with your wife that you will beat her barrels time. For the purposes of identification I will not divuldge my new friends name. The pic should speak for itself and yes he lost the bet. He wore this fancy get up almost all day long.
A good time was had by all. I did not have my helmet camera in operation at this event as all you would have gotten to see is a black screen from all the mud and water. I have never gone through a whole bag of tear offs in one weekend it was that bad.
Hope everyone had a good weekend at the Desert race in Goldendale I am looking forward to Pics Pics and Pics.
Lance
We ended up getting a late start out of town as we both had to work on friday. Which actually turned out to be kind of a blessing in disquise. Apprently there was a severe thunder and lightning storm that dumped a few inches of rain in short order from 8-10 pm.
We rolled into the track at midnight to see 4-5 inch deep ruts and more then one motorhome and trailer detained by the wet and gooey clay. I put my truck in 4 wheel drive and had no trouble getting in and parked.
We got up Saturday morning and the track looked as if someone had left the water on all night long. It was upwards of 18 inches deep in some spots. Needless to say the drag races saturday morning were all out mud drags. It was great to leave the line and be able to see nothing at half track because of the mud and water flying. I have never had to use tear-offs drag racing before this was a first.
Needless to say horsepower was not your friend this weekend. There was more then once that the finish line lights were taken out and rigs crossing the center berm spinning out and even a couple totally backwards because of the ice like conditions.
Team relay was run after the drags. My team was in the first heat and we ended up 3rd so we did not transfer to the finals but we had a great time slopping around in the mud. Our team relay gate was at one of the worst spots on the track. As you came into your gate you were literally hydroplaning sliding sideways on the verge of wrecking.
This year Ruff Country (the host club) had added in side by side racing as part of the program to fill in while the men and women 4x4 racers changed drivers or cooled off hot motors. This was a blast to watch these guys running a team relay and later on in the weekend we were treated to a side by side wheel to wheel event.
Next event for the 4x4's on saturday was the men's barrel racing in more then a foot of water. It was very interesting watching how some people ran barrels like they normally do and others would take it somewhat easy to get a time in the book for their first pass then they would go for broke so to speak on the second run. Several men did not even run the barrels due to all the mud and standing water on the track. With men's barrels completed it got to be 8pm and we were out of time for the day.
Kids courses were run at 8am Sunday morning with a handful of kids running the OB course in the slop. These kids were really impressive to watch as they didnt have near the trouble the adults did staying on the course and pointed the right way.
Women's barrels was the next event after the kids OB.
Women's barrels was also still sloppy wet and muddy with standing water just not as much as when the men ran.
Very very few women actually ran the barrels due to the standing water.
Next event on sunday was Men's and Women's OB course racing for time. A road grader was brought in to try and scrape off some of the slime in select parts of the track for safety reasons. 95% of the course was still wet and sloppy with standing water in some of the corners and straights.
This is what happens when you go from a wet spot to a dry spot trying to set fast time on the OB course.
Between the mens and womens OB they ran another side by side relay race to fill time. We put a stopwatch on the fastest side by side out there and he was running 1:47:00 lap times which is very fast for a little side by side. Everyone was very evenly matched and drove hard there was a little trading paint but no damage was incurred.
After the OB course racing it was time for the main event of the weekend the Men and Women's wheel to wheel events. For those of you who do not know what this is it is basically a nascar two by two start when the green flag flys its a free for all with everyone trying to get to the front.
There was 4 women that ran wheel to wheel for 4 laps. Margaret started 4th and ended up 4th but was never even close to being lapped.
The Men's wheel to wheel consisted of 11 drivers of which I started 11th. We ran 10 laps I ran 10.5 laps because I did not see the checkered flag come out. I actually couldnt see much of anything with all the mud on the visor of my helmet I used up 6 tear offs in the race and only had one left with I think 2 laps to go so I had to lift the visor down the straights and put it down through the slop. I ended up finishing 4th and wish we would have had to run 5 more laps as I would have been in the top 3 for sure.
We had a great weekend and I only broke one bump stop for such a rough and sloppy wet track it sure showed who could drive and who couldn't. All the big horsepower rigs had trouble spinning out and off course most of the weekend. My brother on the other hand cracked his transfer case in half over one of the jumps in the back. So we will have some work to do on both our rigs before the next race.
This is what happens when you make a bet with your wife that you will beat her barrels time. For the purposes of identification I will not divuldge my new friends name. The pic should speak for itself and yes he lost the bet. He wore this fancy get up almost all day long.
A good time was had by all. I did not have my helmet camera in operation at this event as all you would have gotten to see is a black screen from all the mud and water. I have never gone through a whole bag of tear offs in one weekend it was that bad.
Hope everyone had a good weekend at the Desert race in Goldendale I am looking forward to Pics Pics and Pics.
Lance