Primm Race Recap

[AdminTazz]

I would like to start off by thanking everyone that came down to help with the Primm race, even though you all knew that it was more of a shake down of the racer, than us going into it to be competitive. It still takes the same effort and I appreciate everything you guys did. I also would like to thank my sponsors Wild Horses, AA Fab, BC Broncos, and westcoastbroncos.com for the help they have given.

The last push effort to make this race all started last Monday when Daniel took my truck and the racer back to Idaho for the crew up there. The Idaho crew spent all of Tuesday and Wednesday doing quite a bit to get it ready for this race. When it left Idaho there was still a few last minute things to be done prior to the race. Mike and Jason left Klamath Falls Wednesday morning to be to Primm by Wednesday night. They would need to be rested come Thursday morning when the racer was scheduled to get there to have the cage inspected at 8:00 am. Daniel and Brian left Weiser late Wednesday evening and hauled the racer to Primm by driving all night and making it there by 5:00 am Thursday morning. I'm not sure if it was a blessing or just karma to put me thorough more stress, but Score tech decided they wouldn't be doing cage inspection on Thursday and would wait for Friday morning. This gave the crew time to get a few more things done prior to inspection and me more time to sweat.

Thursday the crew of Mike, Jason and a very tired Daniel and Brian, went shopping in Vegas for a few last minute things and painted the entire racer with spray cans of gray primer (Krylon my paint of choice) to the delight of on lookers in the pit area. They even got all of the sponsor stickers applied by the time I arrived via the Las Vegas airport Thursday night. As Thursday came to a close Jeremy had made it in from Moab and Jerry from San Jose.

Friday morning was a flurry of activity, we needed to get the racer over to Score Tech for it's cage inspection, pre run as much of the course as we could and still button up a few things. Marty had arrived by driving all night from Idaho Thursday night so we were almost a complete team, Jack would be arriving Friday afternoon. Jeremy and Daniel were sent with our prerun vehicle (another story never to be put in print), while Mike (Crew Chief) and the rest of us took the racer over to tech. At tech we found out that they would need us to remove all of the body panels in order to do the cage inspection. The team jumped in and had the rig disassembled in about 30 minutes. About the same amount of time it took cage inspector to magna flux and visually inspect every weld in the entire cage. All I know is I put way to much effort in stressing over this inspection after it was done. We passed the cage inspection and they teched the racer for the race at the same time. This was an added bonus as it meant we wouldn't have to go back for tech later that afternoon.

With this part past us we were on to our pit, where we would spend the next hour listening to tales of the prerun crew of Jeremy and Daniel. How they had, to the delight of many, tried their best to take on the race course in our prerun vehicle . They made about 40 miles of the race course before succumbing to a broken radiator after a class 1 car ran them off the road. They limped it back to our pit and I think from the permanent grim on both their faces, their weekend would be a success no matter what the out come of the race. We divided the tasks left to be done up and Mike and Jeremy headed to Vegas to pick Jack up at the airport and get a few more things while the rest of the crew stayed to register, and complete a few last minute adjustments as we tested the suspension of the racer on the pit road. The guys arrived back form Vegas in time to take over wiring the lights and sanitizing things on the racer as the race crew headed to the drivers meeting. After the drivers meeting we had a team dinner, Don Moss and one of his guys joined us for dinner and a bs session.

Saturday started early, wake up at 3:30 am get crew together and down to our pit by 4:45. We did some last minute radio checks, Mike, Jason and Brian headed out to man pit C, with the rest of us getting the main pit ready. I had decided that we would start the race with Daniel driving and Marty as Co-driver for the first lap with Jeremy and me taking the second lap. With Daniel and Marty in the racer they headed for the staging area. We would be off 6th out of the 7 vehicles in our class. Jack and Jerry followed them down to see them off while Jeremy and my self stayed at the pit to monitor the radio. We received the call that they were away and to our delight the racer survived Daniel trying to catch everyone in the infield. He proved that it flies well and the front skid plate is at the right angle to bring it back down on it's wheels if you stand it on it's nose. Our race was not to be that long, but very eventful in what time we were on the course. Daniel evaded a pile up, at race mile 2.5 that did take one of our competitors 304 out of the race. He also passed 305 at the same pile up. With the racer handling the course well we received a radio call that they had a fire. Daniel and Marty got the racer shut down and the fire out. They then surveyed the damage, a tansmittion line had come loose and fell down on the exhaust and burnt through causing the fire. Jack immediately started making repair parts for a care package while the guys at the vehicle put a field fix in place and started limping it to pit B. We had not stationed any one there so Mike and his crew headed from pit C back to Pit B. The racer had been running lean and was heating up, with the added stress of the fire and such we decided to call it prior to making it to Pit B.

Mike radioed Score to let them know we were out of the race, they would send a recovery rig in to tow out the racer. We headed out to Pit C to recover the racer after we were informed by Score this is where they would take the racer to. With the racer loaded on the trailer we all headed back to the main pit. One small fire later in Mike's chase bronco on the way back to the main pit and we were loaded up and finished for the day. With a long drive a head of everyone on Sunday to get back to their homes and reality, different paths were chose on how to finish up the day. Some headed to Vegas for the evening, other to enjoy Primm.

I chose to reflect on this week activities and the last 7 months of time put into getting to this point. Milestones are there to be achieved, chalk ones progress to a final destination. Everyone has their own way of looking at success and failure. For me this was a success. The last 7 months have been a challenge, to build an entire vehicle totally in house is an accomplishment. This was a milestone that I promised everyone, I wouldn't take a racer to Baja unless we managed to get it in a race prior. To at least shake it down and see what worked and what didn't. We did it. A lot of valuable information was gleaned from what took place. The suspension, though I will still tweak it a bit, worked great. Steering was good. We also know now that we need to fix. We had the best radio coverage we have ever had, Pit C could here the racer from the start line, that's 25 miles of coverage. We have never had that type of communication. I think that it was great for the team to work together. They all know now that it is real and we are going to make it.

60 days from today we'll be at the start line for the 2007 Baja 1000. I will be getting info out over the next couple of weeks as we start the final planning for this years Baja 1000.

The next few weeks will be hectic again, I will get everything done here I'm going to do done over the next 2 weeks, then it heads to Idaho to get rewired, the motor pulled down, EFI tweaked, final paint and few other things. Back to me here in Cal around 3rd week in October.

Thanks again

Dan

[AdminTazz]

Congrats to Don for winning the Primm 300.

Dan

[chuck]

As you know just getting to the start line is a major feat. Congratulations!

[Tyler]

Good to hear you made primm and besides a couple speed bumps. Things are looking up for the 1000. I hope next year to have things in order. To make the race