klaus
June 24th, 2002, 12:20
Race Report by Tony Tellier of <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.elchineroconcepts.com>elchineroconcepts.com</A>. Also special thanks to George Thompson and Eric Record.
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Best In The Desert
Nevada 1000
June 18-23, 2000
Damen and Casey Jefferies took the Herman Ford to the OA win in the central Nevada “1000”. Doug Fortin was on the way to the win when the Scat tossed a rod early on Day 3 out of Tonopah. The word was was that his wife was on a plane to the finish. Kyle Taylor tossed a transmission on Day 1 and was never in the hunt.
The course ran counter-clockwise north of Las Vegas through the high country of the Great Basin with overnights at Ely and Tonopah. Contingency and Day 1 were clear and hot/warm; Day 2 was overcast and some competitors even felt rain. Day 3 was a repeat of the clear weather. All days had some, or a lot, of wind, making some pits a chore but clearing the course for the racers. The altitude was a moderating factor with a stated average of about 5,000 feet above MSL.
Day 1 – 339.9 miles
Day 2 – 297.0 miles
Day 3 – 286.4 miles
Total – 923.0 miles
All competitors had a free 70 minutes in the Repair Pits after each day’s Finish to prep and fiddle. Any time beyond that a penalty was assessed – minute for minute – added to the entry’s elapsed time.
The Nevada “1000” was perfectly-run. Every pit access was marked, the Pit Support Book was detailed and accurate, making chasing a breeze. There were few issues; that pesky, garrulous, irascible, irrepressible, redoubtable Mac Stein was assessed a one-hour penalty for ignoring the “NO WORK’ edict in the staging area. It was refueled —but “It wasn’t me! I didn’t do it! I wasn’t even there! OK, I was there. But it was someone else! It was an honest mistake!” Framed, I’d wager.
Injuries were limited to the motorcycle brigade and pit/chase infractions seemed to be thankfully missing. We never saw any NHP, either.
Best In The Desert Class Classifications and Cross-Reference Chart
Class 1000 / Class 10 Unlimited 1650 cc Open-Wheel
Class 1100 / Class 12 / SCORE Lites / a/k/a Beam “10”
Class 1200 / ProTruck
Class 1400 / Trick-Truck / Trophy-Truck
Class 1500 / Class 1 Unlimited Open-Wheel
Class 2000 / Class 1600 Restricted 1600 cc Open-Wheel
Class 3100 / Stock Mini SUV
Class 4100 / Stock Full SUV
Class 5000 / Class 5 Unlimited Baja Bug
· Class 7100 / Class 7 Mini PU
Class 7200 / Class 7S Mini PU
Class 7300 / Stock Mini PU
Class 8000 / Class 8 Full PU
Class 8100 / Stock Full PU
DAY 0 - WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 – SUNCOAST CASINO, SUMMERLIN
TECH & CONTINGENCY
· Weather: Hot & Sunny
· Mood: Festive
· All Ways Racing/Chuck Hovey uses a special aluminum stem in their high-lift – but the mount burred one of the ascending holes so that at the end of the 500 Chuck couldn’t ratchet “up”! Now they have the detent pins beveled to obviate any such snags. Hovey also has a fine heat shield over the intake tract. This is available frkm Wally Palmer @ ORW. They use HUGE rubber boots on the outward side: “The ‘normal’ boots’ bellows chafed on each other, tearing them.” The car as large-diameters axles (from Fortin) with leather boots on the inboard side – to prevent brush and foreign-object damage due to off-course excursions.
· Tim Scalzo will be driving with Casey Jones in the Aceco truggy, but has not steered it yet.
· Mark McMillin runs a RaceRunner shock upside-down as a jack.
· Bucky Strunk will be chasing sons Shiloh and Shane along with Quadster Skyler Stewart.
· Nils Castillo will be racing in ProTruck with Kevin McGillivary.
· Barry Beacham, on the “500” (he took over from Mike Groff after the driver got his wrist caught in the Momo: “I dropped a wheel off past Mike’s and then did what I always lecture my drivers about – I made it worse.”
· Kory Scheeler lamented their latest wiring woes: “(The main bus) wires went out! Now we have Tom Oliva – he does the Herbsts.” He then offered a “short funny story”: “Larry (Job) was in the car (one time) as it got dark and he said that the light bar blocked his view. So I got a phonebook and duct-taped it to a horse collar and put it in the seat. Don’t tell him I said this.” OK!
· “Wild Bill” Wiederhold will be riding shotgun in one of the Scaronimobiles. Since Bill has a BFG suit …could it be in the ProTruck?
· Matt Scaroni will race the SMD ProTruck with Scott Steinberger.
· Lucas Hand promises some historical off-road films transferred onto video in the (near) future. Luke said that his golf cart – fitted with a Rotax snowmobile engine blew its motor. Or, rather, Lucas did it: “We were drinking (Duh) and I turned it over (Duh duh) and some oil ran out (Duh^3) and that was stupid.”
· Kevin Colan’s old Bunderson is the Rudy Cortez / Dale Ebberts Laughlin rig
· Bob Shepard’s ProTruck arrived late after blowing a motor. “Bob will drive the entire race. The Ron Shaver $12K motor is gone; we will use the old reliable engine – the one that gave us all our wins and all our finished.” – Larry Foddrill. They had a Garmin GPS that was preprogrammed to sound an audible “squawk” when a trouble spot was approaching – or when they were approaching, actually.
· Tommy Koch’s ProTruck had all four corners intact – in Tech. What happened at the “500”? – “The whole corner.”
· Mark Beeler (AZ Class 8er) was up from Phoenix with LeeBob Finke. He is struggling through a tough period of surgery. He will have his last surgery at the Scottsdale Mayo Clinic in a month and “then go racing”. Mark suffers from colitis so severe that he had to have his colon removed – losing 45 pounds over the ordeal. He said that “When I wasn’t racing I found out that I didn’t need to work!”
· Ensenada is in the middle of completing the agreements with Shell Oil for a $500,000,00 oil off-loading facility. Bruce Conrad’s partner, Matais Arjona, is the City manager (a/k/a Vice Mayor”).
· Greg Foutz’ V10 SuperDuty F250 uses 0.250-wall tubing for the skid plate and the rear end.
· Jim Price is racing in his old “10” car with DoR Steve Strobel.
· Tim Lawrence is driving with Scott Douglas in the “4112” Bronco – “We built it in six weeks. It has 518 horsepower.” John Currier sold the black Truggy to an Aussie via Rich Minga. The blue Truggy is half-owned by Chuck “CNC” Neal and 25% each by Tim and Currier.
· The Groffs have a crew with two high-resolution cameras which will follow the people side, rather than the race, per se: planning, personnel, . support, e.g., 14 crews.
· Chase Troubles: Rob Reinertson 1234, Rich Johnson, 1243 with identical color schemes.
The Hot Site for fasteners in LV: McFadden-Dale Industrial, 4477 West Reno Ave: (702) 251-8059, South of Tropicana, west of Arville. They have everything, for example Grade 8 3/8-16 in quarter-inch increments, brass bolts, flat bastard, round sumbitches, Grade 5s, metric, 1-inch hex keys.
The Wilson 1020 has Steve Downing on the body panels.
Doc Glass: “We have the same team and we’re ready. But I’m pissed: I want to race all day, all night, three days, no fix-it time. Make it tough! We’ll change radius rod bushings on Day Two. We’ve had not flats in two-and-a-half years then two at Terrible’s Town! We used up the stock of spares for the 7/8-Kusters. Now we have new Kings. We moved the valving and hoses to the back side.”
· PARKER POOP:
Jimmy Beaver: “What you read on Desertracing.com is pretty much the way it is.”
John Calvin: “Big meeting on Wednesday in Parker. Whiplash will be out.”
· Jay Reichert’s “Auto Warranty America” Pony Express runs a Kawasaki ZX1000 with a 1 mm overbore. The normal countershaft sprocket spline drives a pulley to an auto alternator then to a normal power steering pump. The output goes to the reverse box, solenoid actuated. The body is carbon fiber ... a very slick car. With 33x10.5 15 A/T. The dif is a Toyota Supra with 4130 flanges and 930 CVs Danny der Fod made the rear arms and the spindles. The tubing IS light: .063, .085, .090 wall.
· The Feldkamp Wiks Scat car has Greg Woodington listed – a Syko guy!
· Dave Sykes has Mike Lesle signed on along with Duanne Hammes
· Foutz’ SuperDuty weighs 8,000 US pounds.
· Class 4100’s John Sunderland has to get their ’86 Bronco out of SUV Stock – “What sort of four-wheel drive SHOULD I use? Ask everyone!”
· The Mongos: “Hey! We’re set! We got a new 351W motor … since at Pahrump the air cleaner stud broke off and fell into the Secondaries.”
· Casey Jefferies said that they weren’t actually chased out of their shop by the Cajon Pass fire: “But we did get the race car out!”
· #2052 has a “jgtranswerk” sticker.
· Steve Wheeler said that “Me’ n' Foutz are going for it --- five guys plus BFG.”
· Foutz has the partially-completed “7” on the blocks. A fine piece.
· John Baker is on the Henn’s Hummer.
· Jeffro Lothringer is up to help the Hunters cars in “10”
· Wake-up call at 0400. See ya!
DAY 1 - THURSDAY, JUNE 19 – KANE SPRINGS START TO ELY
· Weather: Hot & Sunny
· Mood: Pensive
· Wake-up call @ 0400
· On the road @ 0440
THE START – KANE SPRINGS
· Jesse Jones was putting Jeff Darland in for the start: “At least I get some driving,” Jeff needled Jesse. They had had to send the twin-plug Porsche back to Fat after sanding the engine at Terrible’s Town. “Anyone following us didn’t have any dust – I the engine sucked it all in!” They said that they used a poor oil for the filter: “Let’s see, K&N oil is two bucks, the engine rebuild cost $13,000. See anything wrong here?”
· Darland was wearing “little ballerina slippers”, pointed out Jones. “I wear something that I can walk in!” Darland countered that maybe Jesse needed some shoes that would allow him to push down on the gas a little more.
· Mike Julson reported that the big “1” teams had lobbied Casey to have the Top Twenty of each day start in their elapsed time order – as opposed to the original plan of each group starting within their own class, e.g., the slowest, most-troubled Trick-Truck would start ahead of the fastest “1” buggy. Mike also agreed with Jesse that keeping a cool head through the rocks would guarantee a good finish; a flat would ruin the chances for being in that exclusive Top 20 – a position that would be well-worth the care required.
· Jesse said that at the “500” he ran anywhere from 60 on the highway – when they saw a radar gun – to 125 when Mark Miller caught up to him: “I wasn’t about to let Mark get by me!” At about 50 miles – nearing the Ojos fields -- a rear wheel came off and buggered up the studs, “so I left Travis with the car and walked out.” Darland came in on a borrowed XR650 and fixed it! Loose lugs nuts …”Now I’m having Barry Beacham do the car and the team.” He’s doing Scott’s Trophy-Truck and the Groff’s.”
· The Chad Hall Hummer had upper shock bolts from Cat heads. Brad: “Those ¾-inch-diameter bolts normally cost $25 each. We replace them if they are corroded and I can then use them.” In a Cat that are loaded axially but here they are in double shear so the loading is substantially less – and in a different plane.
· #1020 is Sammy Ehrenberg entered in “10” with only the restrictor plate removed on the “1600” single-seater. “We tried a ‘10’ engine but it was too tough on the bus box.”
· #1516 Tim Scalzo / Casey Jones Aceco truggy runs a remote Turbo 400 mounted at the diff via a long engine-speed drive shaft. Cliff Hagan was right seat with Tim. Cliff was once a Baja KTM teammate of El Gonster.
· #1220 Chet Huffman said that “We get way too many flats. I don’t come out here to change tires!”
· The McMillins bought Jesse’s ex-Rod Muller’s V6 Porter: “That car handled really bad. It went sideways a lot. They redid the rear.”
· #1517 Mike Julson: “I have the fastest car out here!” He runs 33s on the front. Weyhrich runs a different tread on his fronts.
· #1535 Jeff Darland was starting with an empty right seat.
· #1227 Scaroni’s ProTruck carries a rolled-up length of carpet – Berber, of course. Nothing’s too good for the Heber gang..
· #7303 Aaron Dixon said that they were pulling a Mike Doherty: “We didn’t test!” Then Aaron admitted that they forgot the toolbox back in Lompoc ... they discovered this at Baker.
Open-Face-Helmet Racers:
· Lloyd Ruby
· Ivan Stewart
· Ed Beard w/ red bandanna
and
· Rod Hall
· #4107 Eldon Coats’ Bronco has a manual floor shift. Steve Olliges: “That takes the cake … crazy!” And steel wheels. Must be an Oregon thing. Or a DNF deal.
PIT 1
DRY LAKE VALLEY
RM60
· Greg Foutz & Steve Wheeler stopped with hood up and on a jack.
· Manny Esquerra through, Greg Foutz follows @ 1036
· #1015 Terri Tavis
· #8103 Chad Hall @ 1045 – reports passing Greg Foutz (assumed down)
· #1112 Conrad
· #1020 Steve Downing / Sammy Ehrenberg
· Ace pit tootsie reports “personal” shave job to crew and bystanders – shows same.
· Hall reporting heating – needs RH hood strap re-fastened at Pit 2 Caliente (this is an item that Greg Foutz put his hands on before the start!!) and two turns out of the front shocks. Wants a different thermostat this evening.
PIT 2
CALIENTE
RM105
1. #1227 Scaroni – 1117
2. #1220 Chet Huffman –
· RJR #1243 Rick Johnson reported with fuel problems
3. #1299 Steve Barlow
· Kyle Taylor the 1st car
· Herbst 2nd
4. #1256 Kevin McGillivray
· “Darland stalled and hard to refire – electrical?” – Danny Foddrill. Rear cage off? Jesse in? Odd pit chatter.
· #1529 Groffs did not stop at BFG where they were sked 30 gallons
· #1243 long stop – fuel problems?
· Jeff Lothringer hangin’ @ Hunters wearing Roman Sandals
· 6. #1269
· #1016 Diz – 1128
· #1014 TSCO – 1130 – running hard!
· #8011 LeDuc – 1130
· #1011 Ashcraft – 1132
· #1013 Jason Hunter – 1133 @ in, out @ 1134
· #1013 Dennis Hunter single seater – in @ 1134, out @ 1135
· #1511 Danny Anderson
· Chad Hall called in a flat; did the hood strap; did the shocks in the field
· 7 #12xx Koch
· 8. #1226 Al Hogan – RR bed panel gone
· 9. #1243 Rick Johnson - out @ 1141
· Jason Jernigan – 1144
· #1020 Sammy – 1147
· #1004 Steve Strobel – 1147
· #1022 Cartlidge III “putt-putt”
· #7210 Shawn Wanzek – 1149
· #1015 Terri Tavis – 1150
· Fontana’s rough-sprung 8”
· #8104 Manny Esquerra in – 1152, 2 quarts of oil plus coolant, Out @ 1157
· Feldkamp had to change a CV boot at Pit 1
· #1120 Bruce Conrad out of BFG @ 1202
· 10. #12xx Tom Koch in -- no front fenders
· #2020
· #8009 Ortiz – adjusts rear bypass
· Dougie Brown: “Feldkamp on the wheels, looks OK, changing a tire?”
· #7101 Joe Custer into BFG pit, gets out, crew under truck
· #2052 – 1211
· #8103 Chad Hall – 1212, GRT does a hood hitch pin fix – out @ 1213, 16 minutes behind Manny
· #8102 Greg Foutz in 1214
PIT 3
CATHEDRAL GORGE
RM155
· #12xx Tom Koch said to have cartwheeled the ProTruck …. ergo, i.e., no front fenders, scraped hood.
· #8011 Curt LeDuc – 1254 w/ a strap a-`dragging
· Dodge ProTruck
· #1226 Hogan – 1257
· #1004 Steve Strobel
· “Herbst through Pit 4 @ 1258”
· #1243 RJ stops – 1301
· #2020 Steve Downing getting in for Sammy, the outerwrap-was silt-coated, they changed it, Wik motor spotless: “The shifter was hung up when I blasted a water crossing it freed up.” Steve WD-40-ed the assembly. “I was way out-horsepowered but when it got tight? I excelled! I caught and passed them back. And it is not a smooth course!”
· #7213 Jernigan – 1309; lost the antenna on low-hanging trees. Mike York got out. Low right rear tire discovered just when they were ready to go. Put on a different treaded-tire but checked the torque with a flex handle. “We had to bypass two stuck ‘1s” and tore off a fitting on a cooer and had to jumper it. Running strong.”
· #1022 – 1310
· #1411 Kyle Taylor seen putting up the asphalt
· Rumor – 1227 SMD “out”
· #1015 Terri Tavis – 1317
· #8005 Fontana – 1318
· #12xx Tom Koch – 1321
· #2020 changed crew – 1322, car hates to idle. Fuel crew forgot to pull the vent plug. Tsk tsk. Kevin Graves: “I was going slow through this water crossing and a ProTruck knocked me into it. I roosted him – but it feels good!”
· Manny Esquerra– 1332. Leading
· #1017 Hunter – in 1325, out 1330
· #1112 Conrad –1326
· #1256 Kevin McGillivray – 1327 … he and RJ still in the pits @ 1358
· #8102 Greg Foutz & Steve Wheeler -1334
· “Excursion stuck in silt beds”
· #8103 Chad Hall – 1334, stop for fuel
· #8009 Mike Ortiz – fuel and a left rear caliper
· Manny Esquerra vs. Chad Hall delta– 15 minutes
· #7101 Custer – 1338
· #1529 Brian Parkhouse fuel, rack looks galled, pushing metal: “It’s like [censored]; its skatey; the brakes feel like its locking up”
· #8009 Marc Stein: “Its great! It was a casual ride!” Mike McComas out at 1346
· #1529 Tom Ridings out in Parkhouse car – 1346 – car loading up BAD!
· #7105 Malcolm Vinje – 1348
· #1525 Groffs – 1350, lots of silt into the car.
· #4103 Rod Hall in 1353, out 1356
BRISTOL WELLS ROAD ENTRANCE
#7105 Malcolm: Vinje: “When I passed Rod he moved right over. He is a kind gentleman.”
PIT 4
BRISTOL WELLS
RM206
#1020 Steve Downing / Sammy Ehrenberg – 1433
#12xx Tom Koch - gassed up, spill up, in 1442, changed crew
Tom: “Well, after the roll-over it didn’t go that bad! It was at a little turn, a little uphill.”
Dougie Brown: “It’s so nice, like where I like to ride, up in the forest, just railing it There were dead soldiers everywhere. We were upside-down, jacking and building a rock pyramid. We were all bumming. We didn’t drop any water or any oil or any tranny fluid.” A sorry day in Checker history, perhaps?
Manny Esquerra– 1454
#1256 Kevin McGillivray – out 1458
Bruce Conrad: “The T(oil) went way up off the start. - It’s a new engine - 260 - so I backed it down to 3,500 – 4,000 revs. When I hit the water crossing the water cooled it off. I musta just been breaking it in. There was everything: silt like Punta Prieta and Santa Rita … lots of it and deep. Zero visibility. We saw Scaroni and Greg Foutz & Steve Wheeler stopped. And some cars laying over in the ditch. This was s great deal, high speed, pine trees, easily marked, never a doubt. Danger markers were by a bike guy, of course. So they were pretty much ON the danger.”
Chad Hall through 1505.
PIT 5
PONY SPRINGS
RM235
#1256 Kevin McGillivray– 1540
#8103 Chad Hall – 1545
#1227 Matt Scaroni drove off a big cliff. “A 100 mile-an-hour straight then a hard turn. Either roll or go off. I went off. I had a huge lead – that cost 45 minutes but didn’t hurt the truck. My Goodyears did not even get a flat after 150 hard miles … they looked like a BFG after 400. My Dad wouldn’t let me enter Trick-Truck.”
#8104 Manny Esquerra–1537 gas and a visual
· #1112 – 1539
#1017 Hunter – in 1540 out
PIT 6
GEYSER RANCH
RM285
Bypassed – heading toward Ely for the J & P NAPA auto parts store.
Major’s Junction – Home of The $9 six-pack of Bud.
FINISH
RM339
BFG RELAY “12” DNFS
#1004 Steve Strobel
#1011 Ashcraft
#1013 Jason Hunter
#1228 Dan Hunt
#1233 Greg Hansen
#1243 Rick Johnson
#1256 Kevin McGillivray
#1421 Roger Gray
#1521 Feldkamp on the trailer
#1537 Kory Scheeler
#4102 Sunderland out at RM155
#4112 Scott Douglas
#7210 Shawn Wanzek
#8107 Henns on BFG Relay traffic …
#1017 Scott Webster brought the Diz Jimco in the Top Twenty with nothing more than a flat tire.
Manny Esquerra complained of heating problems: “We took out the (cooling system) restrictor and I ran a little harder. And we have an oil leak that we haven’t found yet.”
The Wilson’s Scat car had two flats and were in the Top Twenty: “Where we need to be! I saw one of the McMillins and Scalzo’s Aceco Truggy but I don’t know what was up.”
#1256 Nils Castillo did not have a Nice Day: ;o(. The carb was acting up, boiling the fuel?
#11110 Matt Cullen also suffered the high T(oil) that Bruce Conrad experienced in the first art of the day’s race but only to 220F. “I cruised a bit but when we got to 7,200 feet I thought, ‘How can this be hot up here?’” Conrad refused to consider any evening maintenance: “This thing did the ‘2000’ without an evening’s ‘fix-it’ time!”
Scott McMillin lost all gears in the auto except top – so he legged it in that way.
#4102 Mike McComas said that the ACE Explorer was underpowered: “This has 220 hp and this is heavy. When we get into the silt it’s in First roaring but no going.” They had no trouble other than cleaning the mirrors.
#1013 Jason Hunter lost P(oil) way back and the event was over for him.
#1017 Dennis Hunter couldn’t get the car started at the finish. They were looking at P(fuel) and out-of-gas syndrome.
#7301 Ian Dixon said that the worst thing they had happen was loosing a hood pin. “The new 3” Fox shox really work, although they are kinda mushy. But way better.”
CONTROVERSY! The “Top Twenty” deal was not sitting well with those not in the “Top Twenty”.
DAY ONE PRE-IMPOUND
#7303 Aaron and Ian Dixon finished within ten minutes of Rob MacCachren and Steve Olliges. They changed the power steering pump before impound.
Syko only threw three belts! Still not amused. Syko was also unhappy with #1233 Greg Hansen: “This guy was holding up the show!” Dave had a lot to say: he stopped for Matt Scaroni’s down-slope excursion and even offered to pull him out. Psych said that Matt dithered so much that two buggies got by and then never actually hooked up the strap. Sykes split. Mike Lesle will start on Day 2.
Jim Dizney and Scott Webster were in the Top Ten
Dick Weyhrich and Jim Zupanovich were assessed a 15 minute penalty for a highway infraction – vague enough? Diz said that the TSCO car was pretty beat up from “trying to keep up with us!” Torn brake lines, banged A-arms. Diz n Scott had one dinged rim.
#1522 Randy Wilson had a Fortin go bad – Doug, Sr. got into pulling the nose cone in situ.
Pat Dean lost the auto in the Porsche car and had to take a full penalty two hours.
#7213 Jason Jernigan hit a tree – a BIG tree and lost most sheet “metal” on the right side.
Greg Foutz bent an I-beam
#1227 Scaroni got stuck then Foutz got him out. Then Foutz got stuck and #1227 got him out, so reported “Hired Gun” Scott Steinberger. “When I got in there was no power! I thought ‘Jeez, their engine guys hasn’t got it!’ Then we changed the air filter and ‘Wow”, some power.”
Marc Stein said that he helped Foutz get unstuck, too.
Strange alliances are formed and dissolved hour by hour.
Feldkamp had shock shaft woes and elected to trailer in and round up Brett King.
Sam Berri finished Third but then had to dig into the bowels of the engine: pushrods, lifters, rockers. And was rewarded with a time penalty.
The Mongoids started off tossing belts with in a few miles of the start and never stopped .. never stopped tossing belts. They cleaned out the Caliente NAPA. Misalignment. They shimmed it right but lost mucho time.
Ace 3101 Dave Turner underwent an extensive shock mod rework with cutoff wheel, wire welders and BIG hammers.
Mark McMillin’s engine had the valve cover off and an oiling question seemingly unresolved.
Jeff Darland got motion sickness (so sez owner Jesse Jones) and Jess took over unannounced. He was Ninth.
Brian Parkhouse was pulling the Jericho top-loader … looked like a difficult and time-consuming task.
Chad Hall changed the H20 pump on the Hummer -- which did not help matters. only resulting in a time penalty.
Seen: Bill “Memo” Rodriguez of VP race fuel fame. He was impressed by the huge effort of BitD and the late night thrashing of the teams.
DAY 2 - FRIDAY JUNE 21 – ELY TO TONOPAH
START - ELY
· Bob Shepard started Day 2 as the top ProTruck -- with two flats on Day 1.
· Dan Hunt was the tail-end ProTruck to finish … running their tow truck to the Impound on a shredded tire and the rim! Dan is famous for flipping at RaceMile 0.5 at the Baja 500 and at Laughlin. Great fun!
· Dennis Crowley said that the John Sunderland “4102” had a coil wire break inside the “harness” then Jr. bent a radius rod and broke a shock.
· Tim Scalzo broke a brake line in the Aceco Truggy – they pinched it.
· Chuck Hovey was running good but had flats and the aluminum jack acted up.
· Ben Schlimme and Danny Anderson lost a power steering pump at RM15 Day 1. They changed it at Pit 1 then played catch-up.
· Jesse Jones said that one of the McMillins blasted Jeff Darland and stove in the rear cage. He was no amused!
· Scott Webster said that Jim The Diz had a bellyache this morning and wanted Scott to run all of Day 2.
· Syko pulled his spark arrestors
· Dougie Brown said that he and Koch bicycled. “I had to be a motivator! Telling Tom how we can make it work; how the Egyptians built the pyramids. So well lugged rocks and built a pyramid to jack it back over. And there were plenty of rocks.”
· Steve Downing in Sammy’s #102 changed the rear hub bearings and the power steering pump: that went out 20 miles after I got in at Pit 4. 8005 drilled me five miles out so hard that my visor flew up!”
· Mike Julson said that Bobby Lofton had the OA until a flat. “But we have ‘em where we want ‘em!”
· The Mongo power steering belt alignment was not good enough – to these tired old eyes.
· Marc Stein’s #4101 had the rear bumper about torn off.
· The Groff / Fiolka “1” car was puking tranny fluid – “I love the smell of hypoid in the morning! I reminds me of, of … a DNF!”
PIT 1
RUBY LAKE NWR ROAD
RM42
This pit had a 15 mph speed limit, none of the competitors that I radared conformed: 30 was about it and that seemed way slow for the big buggies, anyway.
· Fortin
· Baldwin
· Herbst 4WD
· Damen
· Fontana’s 4WD “8”. What a tank.
· LeDuc stops, pulls hood, backs up, looks under, leaves
· Ortiz “8” passes
· Cartlidge 1002 by with loose outer left CV boot. Does not stop
· 1004 Jim Price in the Strobel car stops with a miss – shooting ducks at high revs. Changing distributor (carried in car). “Reverse (detent?) is not fully engaging.”
· Manny: 093713
· Foutz: 093744
· Chad: 093844
PIT 2
NEWARK VALLEY
RM72
PIT 3
DUCKWATER
RM116
Duckwater also had a 15 mph speed limit as the course ran on the road’s shoulder. Dave Sykes’ 1256 ProTruck – Goodyear-shod, of course, was at the BFG box van begging for welding assistance. Mike Lesle (Syko) had a bad propeller shaft vibration that limited the top speed to about 45 mph. Not good on the high-speed start road.
· Feldkamp had broken an A-arm pivot on Day 1 which, in turn, broke/bent the shock shaft. They had flipped heading toward Pit 3
· 1227 Scaroni – 1104
· 12xx Koch – in @ 1105 out @ 1107
ProTruck Order
1. 1234
2. 1282
3. 1226
4. 1299
5. 1220
6. 1243
7. 1227
8. 1256 Nils
9. 12xx Tommy
10. 1269 Syko – no bed, needed a welder
· Dougie Brown: “What a fun race course! Lotsa gotchas, just technical. We saw a Class 1 that biffed a ravine after a turn he missed – so did we but we saw him so we saved it.”
· 8009 Ortiz – 1123
· Manny – 1127
· LeDuc – 1127
· Downing – 1131
· Chad in @ 11440, out @ 1142. 175 psi N2 in Rt Ft shock – Poolman’s pit with huge pit dawg.
· Manny Delta = 1142 – 1127 = 15 minutes
· Conrad – 1146 strong
PIT 4
BLACK ROCK SUMMIT
RM162
· Silt
· Rocks
· Silt & Rocks
· Basalt
· Ruts
· Rocks & Silt
· Vehicles both ways
· Dodge “Infinity”
· Silt: “Good rocks, gone bad.”
PIT 5
HOT CREEK
RM162
· #8104 Manny – 1329
· #1014 TSCO
· #1269 Sykes
· Chad – 1340
· DPit 3: 15
· DPit 4: 15
· DPit 5: 11
PIT 6
STONE CABIN
RM238
· #8104 Manny – 1413, stops
· #1014 TSCO – 1410
· #1228 Dan Hunt out @ 1414
· #1269 Syko out @ 1416
· #8103 Chad – 1422 @ 72 mph
· #4106 Stein – 1931
· #4103 Rod – 1932 both @ 62 mph, Roy in
· #1020 Sammy – 1433 @ 53 mph
PIT 7
TONOPAH AIRPORT
RM288
· #8104 Manny – 1519
· #1020 Steve Downing: “After the start there was thirty-miles of graded road. They all blew by me. Then all the big cars were stuck in the silt. I cranked the wheel and jumped the ruts. Sweet. I don’t’ know how I did it! But before ‘Four” when Sammy was gona get it, the heim on the rack unscrewed out of the tie-rod. I fixed that for him. Then Weyhrich reeled him in.”
· #8103 Chad – 1526. He passed a REAL LATE bike rider and tossed up a HUGE cloud of heavy silt. The rider stopped. Then fell.
· Through “7”:
· #1509 Fortin
· #1401 Damen
· #1517 Lofton
· and
· #1466 Baldwin -- all within a minute
· #1407 Herbst eight back
· Before the race a “difficult” landowner changed his mind and BitD, plus the BLM, had to change the course. No harm, no foul.
· #4101 Stein – 1537
· #4103 Roy – 1538
· #1020 Sammy - 1539
· Rob MacCachren - 1529
FINISH
RM297
· #1112 Matt Cullen rolls at finish left-hander. Slid in gravel which transitioned to pavement – “Clank”. “Casey asked me how I liked that turn. I told him that I’d like to a lot better without the asphalt!”
· #1511 Ben Schlimme / Danny Anderson: The new power steering lost a belt but we made it to Pit 4 to get fixed. The course was a freeway with bad silt! We are the 15th car, made up ten spots.”
· #1016 Scott Webster: Issues? None whatsoever. We were first ‘Ten’ by over an hour.”
· #1016 Jim Dizney: “That fifteen minute penalty on Dick Weyhrich? It was reversed.”
· #1014 Dick Weyhrich: “We lost a battery, then it stalled. Rod Hall wouldn’t push start us! What goes around … paybacks are Hell.“
· #1014 Jim Zupanovich: “This happened 17 miles after Pit 4 (after” reeling in” Sammy Ehrenberg) at the road crossing; my foot slipped on the clutch. We started 15th and nobody passed me.”
· #1523 Jeff Darland – everybody was talking about Jeff not having his pit ready when he drove it. Danny Foddrill jumped in to save the day, pumping a JO pump from Bob Shepard’s drum. Jeff had to buy some Dramamine. Motion sickness? Morning sickness? “Jeff’s never been in that fast of a car before -- or for that long!”
· #1020 Sammy Ehrenberg: “Weyhrich? I let him go by then caught him. He said: ‘I couldn’t believe it when you caught me in that tight stuff!’” “Yeah, but you were vapor-trailing,” said Sammy.
· #1529 Brian Parkhouse rolled early when his steering wheel came off!
· #1227 Matt Scaroni wants it known that “the SMD semi had nothing to do with tearing down power lines” near Pit 4. Now you know. (Not that this has ever happened before, huh??)
· Brady Wisdom: “I can give you a list of the eye witnesses to the Scaroni tractor rig driving off with the antennae still up and downing the power line on Black Rock Summit in a hail of firework type sparks. Actually, I know who has the burned flag that normally flies at the top of their antenna. Hey, accidents happen, no use lying about it later.”
· #1227 Chris Bostic of SMD is going to school at Cal Poly SLO, working, and trying to play ; he had to pass on the first two to come help Scaroni.” SMD Credo: “We got two days done; this is like being at Mike’s at the ‘500’. Now we go for it!”
· #4103 Rod Hall was hot under his Reno collar: A competitor’s car had their crew come into the starting line and fuel the Ace car. Reliable personnel say that photos were taken. This was noted to be specifically “verboten” at the Drivers Meeting.
· Aaron Dixon has loose ball joints, now looser.
· #8106 Randy Merritt and the Mongoids got stuck at RM51.5: “Wanzak and Jernigan were there. I came around the corner and had to stop. We all agreed to help each other. We had to push and use a strap.” Temporary alliances are, indeed, made here.
· #7312 Mac Glass rolled the Ford and hit all corners, even bowing the top.
· #4102 John Sunderland was not amused after getting his rear bash bar stove in on the bucking Bronco: “It was that SMD chaser.” (And Doc Glass!) The SMD gang (apparently) entered a Ford in Sportsman 8000 as a legal chaser.
· #1111 Allan Cartlidge was reported to have rolled and had to be cut out of the Penhall. Condition unknown.
DAY 3 - SATURDAY, June 22 – TONOPAH TO ALAMO FINISH
Day 2 News
· Al Cartlidge unhurt after a serious flip – he was trapped in the “Penhall” for three (3) hours! The first helicopter was lost – needs one of those rare GPS systems -- and then the Jaws of Life were somewhere else. An interested bystander tried to cut the car open with a hacksaw. Zzzzz. Cartlidge was actually only bruised from his belts but the garbled radio Tx went from “Doom” to “Gloom” to “I need a beer!” He was released from the hospital after only thirty minutes.
· Marc Stein was assessed a one-hour time penalty for the refueling infraction at the “Entries Only” Start Line. Que lastima! They said that he was booed from the Meeting when he complained that everyone was breaking the 15 miles-an-hour speed limit in Pit 1 on Day 2.
· Jim Diz’ tranny cooler started whining – “so we keep it turned off until we need it”. (Too bad that Marc is not fitted with a similar switch!)
· According to independent on-course spies the Mongos blew the corner at Pit 6, dusting several Forest Strangers who were counting trampled pucker bushes.
· Harsh Environment: When there is only one predominant plant specie it suggests that the environment is way-severe, such that only one plant can survive – Sage.
PIT 1
TEST RANGE
RM28.0
PIT 2
WARM SPRINGS
RM69.0
Two chase trucks got together. A moronic move by the driver of motorcycle entry number “101” resulted in totaling the trucks, bringing out three ambulances, and clogging the access road: thanks, guys. Justin Wray’s idiotic “helper” had decided to cut a U-y in deep dust and was T-boned on the driver’s door by Scott Mitchell (#Q53)s big Ford (or maybe it was a GMC – I wasn’t THAT interested – I’ve seen car accidents before.). The driver got a broken bone. Top Tip: Next time get reliable help.
An accident that I DID see was between Rob Reinertson and Al Hogan’s ProTrucks. In another unwise move the RJR crew sent Rob’s truck out in front of a Max-AB Hogan who was coming down the pit straight heading into a sharp right-hander. The RJR truck was not up to speed and unable to “rail” the corner like Hogan had in mind. The Red truck was suddenly in the apex of the corner – right where Hogan planned on being. “BOOM!” Hogan’s driver’s door hit Rob’s right rear and the Montana truck flipped over, landing like a turtle. Crews rushed to turn #1226 back onto its feet; it then waddled to the pit for repairs and inspection. Shock and steering repairs commenced along with tying and stowing the fuel cell filler neck. Ivan came over and posed for a few “After” photos. The incident was all so totally unnecessary.
· 0902 - Damen
· 0906 - Julson
· 0911 – Weyhrich
· 0912 – Mark McMillin Auto
· 0913 - #1515
· 0914 - Baldwin, stops, get 2nd spare – puts it in gear with a guy still in the bed
· 0915 - Herbsts – stops, pulls front clip, splits
· 0916 - Danny Anderson (on to pop a motor under the control of Ben Schlimme)
· 0917 - Dale Ebberts
· 0918 - Scott McMillin
· 0921 – Jesse Jones
· 0921 – John Gaughan
· Sam Berri running pretty good in the Scat car
· Rob Reinertson out
· Al Hogan over
· Rob’s pit crew sends Rob out right in front of Hogan’s ProTruck and they get together in the 90-degree right-hander. Hogan contacts Reinertson’s tire and Hogan flips over the RJR truck, landing on its top.
· V6 Wilson
· Dave Westhem
· Chuck Hovey – that trick jack acting up again!
· Bob Shepard
· Kyle Taylor
· Casey Jones / Tim Scalzo
· Kevin Colan
· 0938 – Brian Parkhouse
· Rick D. Johnson
· Doug, Jr. out of race: tossed a rod. “He was running it way (too) hard on Day 2. 6.7K in top gear … (Lotsa) miles-an-hour”. The crank trigger was (mis-gapped? The crank was running eccentrically?) Pit chatter.
· 0940 – Koch
· Barlow
· SMD #1227
· 0944 - Syko
· 0947 – The Groffs – suffering a long-time spare replacement
· 0949 - Curt LeDuc: burp, fart, spit, pop, snort (Did I mention how many Class 8s there weren’t?)
· 0950 – Diz / Scott – smooth and LOUD!
· 0956 - Waznek had a buggered-up track rod uniball ... they were welding (on) it
· 0959 – Manny
· 1002 – Chad
· 1003 – Mongos
· 1003 - Foutz
· 1004 – Strobel’s troubled “10” in
· Ronny Wilson with a torn up spare and a frayed left front tire, which did not dismount nor did it damage the caliper
· 1008 – The Henns’ Hummer
· 1011 – #2052
· 1015 – Malcolm Vinje
· TSCO Ten - DNS/DNF – found a bad motor Evening 2
· #2020
· 1015 - Braden
· Adam Wik recommends 3-Bond “121” for engine case sealing. Adam and Bekki are building a new house out in the Blue Diamond area. Everyone is invited to the house warming! After the SF250 the car is being changed, e.g., spare of the back, rack supports beefed, etc.
· 1017 – Marc Stein
· 1018 – SMD 4111
· Custer
· Rob MacCachren
· Strobel changes a bad CV boot
· Steve Downing stopped after a long throttle cable repair in the field - the right stub axle bearing was checked, found to be loose, and he was “good to go” after R&R-ing the outer outerwrap
· 1034 - Aaron and Ian Dixon. Never had to get out of the car all event. “Did I mention we beat all the 7S and 7 Open trucks (and Macrae) with a STOCK MINI!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
· 1027 – Dave Turner #3101
· 1031 - Strobel’s “10”
· 1032 - #3103
· 1032 – Mac Glass #7312
· 1036 –Wavra #5015
· 1039 - in – Rodney #4103
· John Sunderland down “a few miles back from Pit 2”
· 1043 – Rodney put in lots of H2O, radiator cap loose at Staging! Used their drinking water.
· Chaser accident: “101” and “Q53” – 101 was doing a 180 and the Ford hit the 101 in the door! Morons.
· Bruce Conrad / Matt Cullen #1112 out of race somewhere in the hills
PIT 3
Twin Springs
RM97.5
The road into this pit was spotted with deep silt – the kind that flows over the hood and windshield like water. Vehicles passing the other way would throw up waves of silt.
· BFG Pit Poop per Poolman:
· Foutz stopped for a visual
· SMD Excursion had the hood up
· Herbsts stopped for a “… long time. Did they lose first gear?”
· 1229 – Rod dusts Wavra #5018
· That Dodge “Infinity” again
PIT 4
Rachel
RM147.2
A-lee Inn
Quik Pik
· Strobel – sounded flat
· 1209 - #3101
· 1209 - #1303
· 1218 – Rod Hall
PIT 5
Tikaboo Valley
RM170.2
Pit 6
Hiko Narrows
RM223.0
PIT 7
Pahroc Summit
RM242.8
· 1325 – LeDuc
· 1327 – Hogan
· 1337 - #1503
· McMillin broke a spindle just past Pit 7
· #1508 Mark McMillin on trailer
· 1339 – Mongo sounding very strong
· 1340 – Foutz tearing up the big Ford, hitting a large tree and peeling back the bed panel on Wheeler’s side.
· Wilson Scat #1524 playing catch-up
· 1350 – Chad
· 1353 – Manny
· 1357 – Casey Jones #1516
· 1400 - SMD #4111 Excursion very fast
· 1403 - Rob MacCachren
· 1402 - Stein #4101
· Groffs #1525 with huge oil stain on left isde
· 1404 - Casey Jones out
· 1413 – Byzrk #2020
· 1414 – Malcolm Vinje
· 1421 – Dixonian Institute #7303
· 1422 - Dave Turner
· 1424 - Sammy #1020
· 1426 - #3102
· 1432 – Rod #4103
FINISH
· Scott Webster: “We didn’t even dent a wheel today!”
· Tommy Koch – First ProTruck on Day 3. Westhem was hitting them. Big Marty asked Dave: “What’s the problem? “Oh, er, no problem, no problem, I didn’t have any brakes.”
· Dougie: “It was a very uneventful day. After a little battle with Barlow. He passed us in the pits, then Lee went out and caught him.” It was real fast today. The first hundred miles we musta averaged 70.”
· Marc Stein was crying tears as big as horse turds when Hot Rod Hall took the win on elapsed time. “Ace” even went so far as to “suggest” that Hall was a “cheater”. Somehow. As if cutting the course would be a) faster, or b) unseen in the dust. Their Ford, however, is extremely well-built and maintained – even so, Mike McComas lost a front half-shaft nearing the finish line. He pulled it and ran on 2WD. Hall later laughed, offering that a good rivalry was great for the sport: “Play it up!”
· “Wily Veteran Humbles Brash ‘New-Comer’!”
EL CHEEZE
ACCOMMODATIONS (sort of)
Anyone who was anyone stayed at the “Nevada Hotel’ in Ely, e.g., John and Judy, Diz, Scott, n Mike. The elevator was circa 1920 – you had to back into it – and the rooms were less than spacious. How small were the rooms? Well, the rooms were so small that the mice were hunch-backed! The rooms were so small that you couldn’t swing a cat by its tail! A single-bed room had barely enough space to allow luggage to be placed on the floor. Additional guests could be put up on a cot but that fold-out had to be placed in the entryway, blocking the route to the biffy. The lucky guest, however, might get to stay in the ”Hank Thompson Room.”
The world-famous “Clown Motel” in Tonopah was not that bad; certainly better than the “OK Corral” which was not.
FOOD FIGHT (sort of)
The Tonopah McDonald’s appeared to be unaware of the magnitude of the breakfast crowd on race morning.
We invaded the Ely MickeyD’s for 12 large fries, 12 Quarter-Pounders, 12 Big Macs -- and two Diet Cokes. They didn’t even bat an eye.
The food at the “Del Pueblo Truck Stop” in Alamo was better than OK.
KORY AND LARRY’S POSTMORTEM
Looks like Larry and I will have to make you eat those Top Tips another day ...
Thurs: I lost the power steering (later traced to a grenading rack & pinion) 30 miles into Day 1 and I had to drive on it (the parts were at Pit 3). Then a hole in the radiator (from a tree branch!) ground us to a halt at RM80. Trailered to Ely and replaced the power steering pump & servo and also put in a new radiator that our crew had to go back to Las Vegas to weld the necks onto (3:00 am completion time).
Fri: Same power steering problem right off the start (after the fluid warms up, turn the wheel and it kicks back quite violently in your hands, shoulda replaced the rack also?), then lost 1st and 2nd gear in the trans around RM100 (Fields auto). Handed the car over to Larry at Pit 4 (Heard over the radio after he got in: "How the f--- did you drive this thing!"). The rack and pinion finally locked up at RM260. Larry had to keep pulling it apart and unlock it to make it to the pit. We changed it, finished, and put it on the trailer.
(1) Was that you in 15 mph Pit 1 on Friday pointing a radar gun?
(2) WTF is that Pony truck thing doing running in Tricky-Truck? I followed that 'Burro' for five miles on Friday. Maybe he should change the name to ‘Makesalotof Dust Truck’. He must wear one of those NASCAR neck devices........
See you in Tonopah......
Kory
DIZ, SCOTT, AND MIKE’S POST-RACE REVIEW
After approx 1000 miles and three days of racing the Dizney Motorsports Class 10 car came home a winner. This is the 1st victory for Jim in this car. It was also the 1st clean run we have had. The only setback we had was one flat tire on Day 1. Scott had to get out of the car to change it, then stop to have a new spare put on the rack. No work was needed during our 70 minutes of " Free " time each day , beyond scheduled maintenance. We changed the engine and pumper filters, checked fluids, and other vital inspections that were done daily to insure a trouble-free run. Jimco built a bitchin’ car, Kenny Major / Steve Dose did a wonderful job on the engine / fuel injection, and Fortin gave a tranny that was trouble-free.
Once we learned that the Weyhrich car had withdrawn after Day 2 it took a little weight off of Jim and Scott's shoulders. They were giving us real run for our money. On Day 3 I spoke with Dick Weyhrich at Pit 2 and he offered his crew and any parts that we might need. What a awesome feeling that gave me.
Day 1: At our fuel pit Hovey’s crew helped us fuel the car and take care of a driver change; later in the day Jim was able to repay the favor by helping them change a flat.
Day 2: Weyhrich crew helped at the fuel pit/drivers change
Thank You very much to those who helped us achieve our goal.
Mike McClintock
-------
Best In The Desert
Nevada 1000
June 18-23, 2000
Damen and Casey Jefferies took the Herman Ford to the OA win in the central Nevada “1000”. Doug Fortin was on the way to the win when the Scat tossed a rod early on Day 3 out of Tonopah. The word was was that his wife was on a plane to the finish. Kyle Taylor tossed a transmission on Day 1 and was never in the hunt.
The course ran counter-clockwise north of Las Vegas through the high country of the Great Basin with overnights at Ely and Tonopah. Contingency and Day 1 were clear and hot/warm; Day 2 was overcast and some competitors even felt rain. Day 3 was a repeat of the clear weather. All days had some, or a lot, of wind, making some pits a chore but clearing the course for the racers. The altitude was a moderating factor with a stated average of about 5,000 feet above MSL.
Day 1 – 339.9 miles
Day 2 – 297.0 miles
Day 3 – 286.4 miles
Total – 923.0 miles
All competitors had a free 70 minutes in the Repair Pits after each day’s Finish to prep and fiddle. Any time beyond that a penalty was assessed – minute for minute – added to the entry’s elapsed time.
The Nevada “1000” was perfectly-run. Every pit access was marked, the Pit Support Book was detailed and accurate, making chasing a breeze. There were few issues; that pesky, garrulous, irascible, irrepressible, redoubtable Mac Stein was assessed a one-hour penalty for ignoring the “NO WORK’ edict in the staging area. It was refueled —but “It wasn’t me! I didn’t do it! I wasn’t even there! OK, I was there. But it was someone else! It was an honest mistake!” Framed, I’d wager.
Injuries were limited to the motorcycle brigade and pit/chase infractions seemed to be thankfully missing. We never saw any NHP, either.
Best In The Desert Class Classifications and Cross-Reference Chart
Class 1000 / Class 10 Unlimited 1650 cc Open-Wheel
Class 1100 / Class 12 / SCORE Lites / a/k/a Beam “10”
Class 1200 / ProTruck
Class 1400 / Trick-Truck / Trophy-Truck
Class 1500 / Class 1 Unlimited Open-Wheel
Class 2000 / Class 1600 Restricted 1600 cc Open-Wheel
Class 3100 / Stock Mini SUV
Class 4100 / Stock Full SUV
Class 5000 / Class 5 Unlimited Baja Bug
· Class 7100 / Class 7 Mini PU
Class 7200 / Class 7S Mini PU
Class 7300 / Stock Mini PU
Class 8000 / Class 8 Full PU
Class 8100 / Stock Full PU
DAY 0 - WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 – SUNCOAST CASINO, SUMMERLIN
TECH & CONTINGENCY
· Weather: Hot & Sunny
· Mood: Festive
· All Ways Racing/Chuck Hovey uses a special aluminum stem in their high-lift – but the mount burred one of the ascending holes so that at the end of the 500 Chuck couldn’t ratchet “up”! Now they have the detent pins beveled to obviate any such snags. Hovey also has a fine heat shield over the intake tract. This is available frkm Wally Palmer @ ORW. They use HUGE rubber boots on the outward side: “The ‘normal’ boots’ bellows chafed on each other, tearing them.” The car as large-diameters axles (from Fortin) with leather boots on the inboard side – to prevent brush and foreign-object damage due to off-course excursions.
· Tim Scalzo will be driving with Casey Jones in the Aceco truggy, but has not steered it yet.
· Mark McMillin runs a RaceRunner shock upside-down as a jack.
· Bucky Strunk will be chasing sons Shiloh and Shane along with Quadster Skyler Stewart.
· Nils Castillo will be racing in ProTruck with Kevin McGillivary.
· Barry Beacham, on the “500” (he took over from Mike Groff after the driver got his wrist caught in the Momo: “I dropped a wheel off past Mike’s and then did what I always lecture my drivers about – I made it worse.”
· Kory Scheeler lamented their latest wiring woes: “(The main bus) wires went out! Now we have Tom Oliva – he does the Herbsts.” He then offered a “short funny story”: “Larry (Job) was in the car (one time) as it got dark and he said that the light bar blocked his view. So I got a phonebook and duct-taped it to a horse collar and put it in the seat. Don’t tell him I said this.” OK!
· “Wild Bill” Wiederhold will be riding shotgun in one of the Scaronimobiles. Since Bill has a BFG suit …could it be in the ProTruck?
· Matt Scaroni will race the SMD ProTruck with Scott Steinberger.
· Lucas Hand promises some historical off-road films transferred onto video in the (near) future. Luke said that his golf cart – fitted with a Rotax snowmobile engine blew its motor. Or, rather, Lucas did it: “We were drinking (Duh) and I turned it over (Duh duh) and some oil ran out (Duh^3) and that was stupid.”
· Kevin Colan’s old Bunderson is the Rudy Cortez / Dale Ebberts Laughlin rig
· Bob Shepard’s ProTruck arrived late after blowing a motor. “Bob will drive the entire race. The Ron Shaver $12K motor is gone; we will use the old reliable engine – the one that gave us all our wins and all our finished.” – Larry Foddrill. They had a Garmin GPS that was preprogrammed to sound an audible “squawk” when a trouble spot was approaching – or when they were approaching, actually.
· Tommy Koch’s ProTruck had all four corners intact – in Tech. What happened at the “500”? – “The whole corner.”
· Mark Beeler (AZ Class 8er) was up from Phoenix with LeeBob Finke. He is struggling through a tough period of surgery. He will have his last surgery at the Scottsdale Mayo Clinic in a month and “then go racing”. Mark suffers from colitis so severe that he had to have his colon removed – losing 45 pounds over the ordeal. He said that “When I wasn’t racing I found out that I didn’t need to work!”
· Ensenada is in the middle of completing the agreements with Shell Oil for a $500,000,00 oil off-loading facility. Bruce Conrad’s partner, Matais Arjona, is the City manager (a/k/a Vice Mayor”).
· Greg Foutz’ V10 SuperDuty F250 uses 0.250-wall tubing for the skid plate and the rear end.
· Jim Price is racing in his old “10” car with DoR Steve Strobel.
· Tim Lawrence is driving with Scott Douglas in the “4112” Bronco – “We built it in six weeks. It has 518 horsepower.” John Currier sold the black Truggy to an Aussie via Rich Minga. The blue Truggy is half-owned by Chuck “CNC” Neal and 25% each by Tim and Currier.
· The Groffs have a crew with two high-resolution cameras which will follow the people side, rather than the race, per se: planning, personnel, . support, e.g., 14 crews.
· Chase Troubles: Rob Reinertson 1234, Rich Johnson, 1243 with identical color schemes.
The Hot Site for fasteners in LV: McFadden-Dale Industrial, 4477 West Reno Ave: (702) 251-8059, South of Tropicana, west of Arville. They have everything, for example Grade 8 3/8-16 in quarter-inch increments, brass bolts, flat bastard, round sumbitches, Grade 5s, metric, 1-inch hex keys.
The Wilson 1020 has Steve Downing on the body panels.
Doc Glass: “We have the same team and we’re ready. But I’m pissed: I want to race all day, all night, three days, no fix-it time. Make it tough! We’ll change radius rod bushings on Day Two. We’ve had not flats in two-and-a-half years then two at Terrible’s Town! We used up the stock of spares for the 7/8-Kusters. Now we have new Kings. We moved the valving and hoses to the back side.”
· PARKER POOP:
Jimmy Beaver: “What you read on Desertracing.com is pretty much the way it is.”
John Calvin: “Big meeting on Wednesday in Parker. Whiplash will be out.”
· Jay Reichert’s “Auto Warranty America” Pony Express runs a Kawasaki ZX1000 with a 1 mm overbore. The normal countershaft sprocket spline drives a pulley to an auto alternator then to a normal power steering pump. The output goes to the reverse box, solenoid actuated. The body is carbon fiber ... a very slick car. With 33x10.5 15 A/T. The dif is a Toyota Supra with 4130 flanges and 930 CVs Danny der Fod made the rear arms and the spindles. The tubing IS light: .063, .085, .090 wall.
· The Feldkamp Wiks Scat car has Greg Woodington listed – a Syko guy!
· Dave Sykes has Mike Lesle signed on along with Duanne Hammes
· Foutz’ SuperDuty weighs 8,000 US pounds.
· Class 4100’s John Sunderland has to get their ’86 Bronco out of SUV Stock – “What sort of four-wheel drive SHOULD I use? Ask everyone!”
· The Mongos: “Hey! We’re set! We got a new 351W motor … since at Pahrump the air cleaner stud broke off and fell into the Secondaries.”
· Casey Jefferies said that they weren’t actually chased out of their shop by the Cajon Pass fire: “But we did get the race car out!”
· #2052 has a “jgtranswerk” sticker.
· Steve Wheeler said that “Me’ n' Foutz are going for it --- five guys plus BFG.”
· Foutz has the partially-completed “7” on the blocks. A fine piece.
· John Baker is on the Henn’s Hummer.
· Jeffro Lothringer is up to help the Hunters cars in “10”
· Wake-up call at 0400. See ya!
DAY 1 - THURSDAY, JUNE 19 – KANE SPRINGS START TO ELY
· Weather: Hot & Sunny
· Mood: Pensive
· Wake-up call @ 0400
· On the road @ 0440
THE START – KANE SPRINGS
· Jesse Jones was putting Jeff Darland in for the start: “At least I get some driving,” Jeff needled Jesse. They had had to send the twin-plug Porsche back to Fat after sanding the engine at Terrible’s Town. “Anyone following us didn’t have any dust – I the engine sucked it all in!” They said that they used a poor oil for the filter: “Let’s see, K&N oil is two bucks, the engine rebuild cost $13,000. See anything wrong here?”
· Darland was wearing “little ballerina slippers”, pointed out Jones. “I wear something that I can walk in!” Darland countered that maybe Jesse needed some shoes that would allow him to push down on the gas a little more.
· Mike Julson reported that the big “1” teams had lobbied Casey to have the Top Twenty of each day start in their elapsed time order – as opposed to the original plan of each group starting within their own class, e.g., the slowest, most-troubled Trick-Truck would start ahead of the fastest “1” buggy. Mike also agreed with Jesse that keeping a cool head through the rocks would guarantee a good finish; a flat would ruin the chances for being in that exclusive Top 20 – a position that would be well-worth the care required.
· Jesse said that at the “500” he ran anywhere from 60 on the highway – when they saw a radar gun – to 125 when Mark Miller caught up to him: “I wasn’t about to let Mark get by me!” At about 50 miles – nearing the Ojos fields -- a rear wheel came off and buggered up the studs, “so I left Travis with the car and walked out.” Darland came in on a borrowed XR650 and fixed it! Loose lugs nuts …”Now I’m having Barry Beacham do the car and the team.” He’s doing Scott’s Trophy-Truck and the Groff’s.”
· The Chad Hall Hummer had upper shock bolts from Cat heads. Brad: “Those ¾-inch-diameter bolts normally cost $25 each. We replace them if they are corroded and I can then use them.” In a Cat that are loaded axially but here they are in double shear so the loading is substantially less – and in a different plane.
· #1020 is Sammy Ehrenberg entered in “10” with only the restrictor plate removed on the “1600” single-seater. “We tried a ‘10’ engine but it was too tough on the bus box.”
· #1516 Tim Scalzo / Casey Jones Aceco truggy runs a remote Turbo 400 mounted at the diff via a long engine-speed drive shaft. Cliff Hagan was right seat with Tim. Cliff was once a Baja KTM teammate of El Gonster.
· #1220 Chet Huffman said that “We get way too many flats. I don’t come out here to change tires!”
· The McMillins bought Jesse’s ex-Rod Muller’s V6 Porter: “That car handled really bad. It went sideways a lot. They redid the rear.”
· #1517 Mike Julson: “I have the fastest car out here!” He runs 33s on the front. Weyhrich runs a different tread on his fronts.
· #1535 Jeff Darland was starting with an empty right seat.
· #1227 Scaroni’s ProTruck carries a rolled-up length of carpet – Berber, of course. Nothing’s too good for the Heber gang..
· #7303 Aaron Dixon said that they were pulling a Mike Doherty: “We didn’t test!” Then Aaron admitted that they forgot the toolbox back in Lompoc ... they discovered this at Baker.
Open-Face-Helmet Racers:
· Lloyd Ruby
· Ivan Stewart
· Ed Beard w/ red bandanna
and
· Rod Hall
· #4107 Eldon Coats’ Bronco has a manual floor shift. Steve Olliges: “That takes the cake … crazy!” And steel wheels. Must be an Oregon thing. Or a DNF deal.
PIT 1
DRY LAKE VALLEY
RM60
· Greg Foutz & Steve Wheeler stopped with hood up and on a jack.
· Manny Esquerra through, Greg Foutz follows @ 1036
· #1015 Terri Tavis
· #8103 Chad Hall @ 1045 – reports passing Greg Foutz (assumed down)
· #1112 Conrad
· #1020 Steve Downing / Sammy Ehrenberg
· Ace pit tootsie reports “personal” shave job to crew and bystanders – shows same.
· Hall reporting heating – needs RH hood strap re-fastened at Pit 2 Caliente (this is an item that Greg Foutz put his hands on before the start!!) and two turns out of the front shocks. Wants a different thermostat this evening.
PIT 2
CALIENTE
RM105
1. #1227 Scaroni – 1117
2. #1220 Chet Huffman –
· RJR #1243 Rick Johnson reported with fuel problems
3. #1299 Steve Barlow
· Kyle Taylor the 1st car
· Herbst 2nd
4. #1256 Kevin McGillivray
· “Darland stalled and hard to refire – electrical?” – Danny Foddrill. Rear cage off? Jesse in? Odd pit chatter.
· #1529 Groffs did not stop at BFG where they were sked 30 gallons
· #1243 long stop – fuel problems?
· Jeff Lothringer hangin’ @ Hunters wearing Roman Sandals
· 6. #1269
· #1016 Diz – 1128
· #1014 TSCO – 1130 – running hard!
· #8011 LeDuc – 1130
· #1011 Ashcraft – 1132
· #1013 Jason Hunter – 1133 @ in, out @ 1134
· #1013 Dennis Hunter single seater – in @ 1134, out @ 1135
· #1511 Danny Anderson
· Chad Hall called in a flat; did the hood strap; did the shocks in the field
· 7 #12xx Koch
· 8. #1226 Al Hogan – RR bed panel gone
· 9. #1243 Rick Johnson - out @ 1141
· Jason Jernigan – 1144
· #1020 Sammy – 1147
· #1004 Steve Strobel – 1147
· #1022 Cartlidge III “putt-putt”
· #7210 Shawn Wanzek – 1149
· #1015 Terri Tavis – 1150
· Fontana’s rough-sprung 8”
· #8104 Manny Esquerra in – 1152, 2 quarts of oil plus coolant, Out @ 1157
· Feldkamp had to change a CV boot at Pit 1
· #1120 Bruce Conrad out of BFG @ 1202
· 10. #12xx Tom Koch in -- no front fenders
· #2020
· #8009 Ortiz – adjusts rear bypass
· Dougie Brown: “Feldkamp on the wheels, looks OK, changing a tire?”
· #7101 Joe Custer into BFG pit, gets out, crew under truck
· #2052 – 1211
· #8103 Chad Hall – 1212, GRT does a hood hitch pin fix – out @ 1213, 16 minutes behind Manny
· #8102 Greg Foutz in 1214
PIT 3
CATHEDRAL GORGE
RM155
· #12xx Tom Koch said to have cartwheeled the ProTruck …. ergo, i.e., no front fenders, scraped hood.
· #8011 Curt LeDuc – 1254 w/ a strap a-`dragging
· Dodge ProTruck
· #1226 Hogan – 1257
· #1004 Steve Strobel
· “Herbst through Pit 4 @ 1258”
· #1243 RJ stops – 1301
· #2020 Steve Downing getting in for Sammy, the outerwrap-was silt-coated, they changed it, Wik motor spotless: “The shifter was hung up when I blasted a water crossing it freed up.” Steve WD-40-ed the assembly. “I was way out-horsepowered but when it got tight? I excelled! I caught and passed them back. And it is not a smooth course!”
· #7213 Jernigan – 1309; lost the antenna on low-hanging trees. Mike York got out. Low right rear tire discovered just when they were ready to go. Put on a different treaded-tire but checked the torque with a flex handle. “We had to bypass two stuck ‘1s” and tore off a fitting on a cooer and had to jumper it. Running strong.”
· #1022 – 1310
· #1411 Kyle Taylor seen putting up the asphalt
· Rumor – 1227 SMD “out”
· #1015 Terri Tavis – 1317
· #8005 Fontana – 1318
· #12xx Tom Koch – 1321
· #2020 changed crew – 1322, car hates to idle. Fuel crew forgot to pull the vent plug. Tsk tsk. Kevin Graves: “I was going slow through this water crossing and a ProTruck knocked me into it. I roosted him – but it feels good!”
· Manny Esquerra– 1332. Leading
· #1017 Hunter – in 1325, out 1330
· #1112 Conrad –1326
· #1256 Kevin McGillivray – 1327 … he and RJ still in the pits @ 1358
· #8102 Greg Foutz & Steve Wheeler -1334
· “Excursion stuck in silt beds”
· #8103 Chad Hall – 1334, stop for fuel
· #8009 Mike Ortiz – fuel and a left rear caliper
· Manny Esquerra vs. Chad Hall delta– 15 minutes
· #7101 Custer – 1338
· #1529 Brian Parkhouse fuel, rack looks galled, pushing metal: “It’s like [censored]; its skatey; the brakes feel like its locking up”
· #8009 Marc Stein: “Its great! It was a casual ride!” Mike McComas out at 1346
· #1529 Tom Ridings out in Parkhouse car – 1346 – car loading up BAD!
· #7105 Malcolm Vinje – 1348
· #1525 Groffs – 1350, lots of silt into the car.
· #4103 Rod Hall in 1353, out 1356
BRISTOL WELLS ROAD ENTRANCE
#7105 Malcolm: Vinje: “When I passed Rod he moved right over. He is a kind gentleman.”
PIT 4
BRISTOL WELLS
RM206
#1020 Steve Downing / Sammy Ehrenberg – 1433
#12xx Tom Koch - gassed up, spill up, in 1442, changed crew
Tom: “Well, after the roll-over it didn’t go that bad! It was at a little turn, a little uphill.”
Dougie Brown: “It’s so nice, like where I like to ride, up in the forest, just railing it There were dead soldiers everywhere. We were upside-down, jacking and building a rock pyramid. We were all bumming. We didn’t drop any water or any oil or any tranny fluid.” A sorry day in Checker history, perhaps?
Manny Esquerra– 1454
#1256 Kevin McGillivray – out 1458
Bruce Conrad: “The T(oil) went way up off the start. - It’s a new engine - 260 - so I backed it down to 3,500 – 4,000 revs. When I hit the water crossing the water cooled it off. I musta just been breaking it in. There was everything: silt like Punta Prieta and Santa Rita … lots of it and deep. Zero visibility. We saw Scaroni and Greg Foutz & Steve Wheeler stopped. And some cars laying over in the ditch. This was s great deal, high speed, pine trees, easily marked, never a doubt. Danger markers were by a bike guy, of course. So they were pretty much ON the danger.”
Chad Hall through 1505.
PIT 5
PONY SPRINGS
RM235
#1256 Kevin McGillivray– 1540
#8103 Chad Hall – 1545
#1227 Matt Scaroni drove off a big cliff. “A 100 mile-an-hour straight then a hard turn. Either roll or go off. I went off. I had a huge lead – that cost 45 minutes but didn’t hurt the truck. My Goodyears did not even get a flat after 150 hard miles … they looked like a BFG after 400. My Dad wouldn’t let me enter Trick-Truck.”
#8104 Manny Esquerra–1537 gas and a visual
· #1112 – 1539
#1017 Hunter – in 1540 out
PIT 6
GEYSER RANCH
RM285
Bypassed – heading toward Ely for the J & P NAPA auto parts store.
Major’s Junction – Home of The $9 six-pack of Bud.
FINISH
RM339
BFG RELAY “12” DNFS
#1004 Steve Strobel
#1011 Ashcraft
#1013 Jason Hunter
#1228 Dan Hunt
#1233 Greg Hansen
#1243 Rick Johnson
#1256 Kevin McGillivray
#1421 Roger Gray
#1521 Feldkamp on the trailer
#1537 Kory Scheeler
#4102 Sunderland out at RM155
#4112 Scott Douglas
#7210 Shawn Wanzek
#8107 Henns on BFG Relay traffic …
#1017 Scott Webster brought the Diz Jimco in the Top Twenty with nothing more than a flat tire.
Manny Esquerra complained of heating problems: “We took out the (cooling system) restrictor and I ran a little harder. And we have an oil leak that we haven’t found yet.”
The Wilson’s Scat car had two flats and were in the Top Twenty: “Where we need to be! I saw one of the McMillins and Scalzo’s Aceco Truggy but I don’t know what was up.”
#1256 Nils Castillo did not have a Nice Day: ;o(. The carb was acting up, boiling the fuel?
#11110 Matt Cullen also suffered the high T(oil) that Bruce Conrad experienced in the first art of the day’s race but only to 220F. “I cruised a bit but when we got to 7,200 feet I thought, ‘How can this be hot up here?’” Conrad refused to consider any evening maintenance: “This thing did the ‘2000’ without an evening’s ‘fix-it’ time!”
Scott McMillin lost all gears in the auto except top – so he legged it in that way.
#4102 Mike McComas said that the ACE Explorer was underpowered: “This has 220 hp and this is heavy. When we get into the silt it’s in First roaring but no going.” They had no trouble other than cleaning the mirrors.
#1013 Jason Hunter lost P(oil) way back and the event was over for him.
#1017 Dennis Hunter couldn’t get the car started at the finish. They were looking at P(fuel) and out-of-gas syndrome.
#7301 Ian Dixon said that the worst thing they had happen was loosing a hood pin. “The new 3” Fox shox really work, although they are kinda mushy. But way better.”
CONTROVERSY! The “Top Twenty” deal was not sitting well with those not in the “Top Twenty”.
DAY ONE PRE-IMPOUND
#7303 Aaron and Ian Dixon finished within ten minutes of Rob MacCachren and Steve Olliges. They changed the power steering pump before impound.
Syko only threw three belts! Still not amused. Syko was also unhappy with #1233 Greg Hansen: “This guy was holding up the show!” Dave had a lot to say: he stopped for Matt Scaroni’s down-slope excursion and even offered to pull him out. Psych said that Matt dithered so much that two buggies got by and then never actually hooked up the strap. Sykes split. Mike Lesle will start on Day 2.
Jim Dizney and Scott Webster were in the Top Ten
Dick Weyhrich and Jim Zupanovich were assessed a 15 minute penalty for a highway infraction – vague enough? Diz said that the TSCO car was pretty beat up from “trying to keep up with us!” Torn brake lines, banged A-arms. Diz n Scott had one dinged rim.
#1522 Randy Wilson had a Fortin go bad – Doug, Sr. got into pulling the nose cone in situ.
Pat Dean lost the auto in the Porsche car and had to take a full penalty two hours.
#7213 Jason Jernigan hit a tree – a BIG tree and lost most sheet “metal” on the right side.
Greg Foutz bent an I-beam
#1227 Scaroni got stuck then Foutz got him out. Then Foutz got stuck and #1227 got him out, so reported “Hired Gun” Scott Steinberger. “When I got in there was no power! I thought ‘Jeez, their engine guys hasn’t got it!’ Then we changed the air filter and ‘Wow”, some power.”
Marc Stein said that he helped Foutz get unstuck, too.
Strange alliances are formed and dissolved hour by hour.
Feldkamp had shock shaft woes and elected to trailer in and round up Brett King.
Sam Berri finished Third but then had to dig into the bowels of the engine: pushrods, lifters, rockers. And was rewarded with a time penalty.
The Mongoids started off tossing belts with in a few miles of the start and never stopped .. never stopped tossing belts. They cleaned out the Caliente NAPA. Misalignment. They shimmed it right but lost mucho time.
Ace 3101 Dave Turner underwent an extensive shock mod rework with cutoff wheel, wire welders and BIG hammers.
Mark McMillin’s engine had the valve cover off and an oiling question seemingly unresolved.
Jeff Darland got motion sickness (so sez owner Jesse Jones) and Jess took over unannounced. He was Ninth.
Brian Parkhouse was pulling the Jericho top-loader … looked like a difficult and time-consuming task.
Chad Hall changed the H20 pump on the Hummer -- which did not help matters. only resulting in a time penalty.
Seen: Bill “Memo” Rodriguez of VP race fuel fame. He was impressed by the huge effort of BitD and the late night thrashing of the teams.
DAY 2 - FRIDAY JUNE 21 – ELY TO TONOPAH
START - ELY
· Bob Shepard started Day 2 as the top ProTruck -- with two flats on Day 1.
· Dan Hunt was the tail-end ProTruck to finish … running their tow truck to the Impound on a shredded tire and the rim! Dan is famous for flipping at RaceMile 0.5 at the Baja 500 and at Laughlin. Great fun!
· Dennis Crowley said that the John Sunderland “4102” had a coil wire break inside the “harness” then Jr. bent a radius rod and broke a shock.
· Tim Scalzo broke a brake line in the Aceco Truggy – they pinched it.
· Chuck Hovey was running good but had flats and the aluminum jack acted up.
· Ben Schlimme and Danny Anderson lost a power steering pump at RM15 Day 1. They changed it at Pit 1 then played catch-up.
· Jesse Jones said that one of the McMillins blasted Jeff Darland and stove in the rear cage. He was no amused!
· Scott Webster said that Jim The Diz had a bellyache this morning and wanted Scott to run all of Day 2.
· Syko pulled his spark arrestors
· Dougie Brown said that he and Koch bicycled. “I had to be a motivator! Telling Tom how we can make it work; how the Egyptians built the pyramids. So well lugged rocks and built a pyramid to jack it back over. And there were plenty of rocks.”
· Steve Downing in Sammy’s #102 changed the rear hub bearings and the power steering pump: that went out 20 miles after I got in at Pit 4. 8005 drilled me five miles out so hard that my visor flew up!”
· Mike Julson said that Bobby Lofton had the OA until a flat. “But we have ‘em where we want ‘em!”
· The Mongo power steering belt alignment was not good enough – to these tired old eyes.
· Marc Stein’s #4101 had the rear bumper about torn off.
· The Groff / Fiolka “1” car was puking tranny fluid – “I love the smell of hypoid in the morning! I reminds me of, of … a DNF!”
PIT 1
RUBY LAKE NWR ROAD
RM42
This pit had a 15 mph speed limit, none of the competitors that I radared conformed: 30 was about it and that seemed way slow for the big buggies, anyway.
· Fortin
· Baldwin
· Herbst 4WD
· Damen
· Fontana’s 4WD “8”. What a tank.
· LeDuc stops, pulls hood, backs up, looks under, leaves
· Ortiz “8” passes
· Cartlidge 1002 by with loose outer left CV boot. Does not stop
· 1004 Jim Price in the Strobel car stops with a miss – shooting ducks at high revs. Changing distributor (carried in car). “Reverse (detent?) is not fully engaging.”
· Manny: 093713
· Foutz: 093744
· Chad: 093844
PIT 2
NEWARK VALLEY
RM72
PIT 3
DUCKWATER
RM116
Duckwater also had a 15 mph speed limit as the course ran on the road’s shoulder. Dave Sykes’ 1256 ProTruck – Goodyear-shod, of course, was at the BFG box van begging for welding assistance. Mike Lesle (Syko) had a bad propeller shaft vibration that limited the top speed to about 45 mph. Not good on the high-speed start road.
· Feldkamp had broken an A-arm pivot on Day 1 which, in turn, broke/bent the shock shaft. They had flipped heading toward Pit 3
· 1227 Scaroni – 1104
· 12xx Koch – in @ 1105 out @ 1107
ProTruck Order
1. 1234
2. 1282
3. 1226
4. 1299
5. 1220
6. 1243
7. 1227
8. 1256 Nils
9. 12xx Tommy
10. 1269 Syko – no bed, needed a welder
· Dougie Brown: “What a fun race course! Lotsa gotchas, just technical. We saw a Class 1 that biffed a ravine after a turn he missed – so did we but we saw him so we saved it.”
· 8009 Ortiz – 1123
· Manny – 1127
· LeDuc – 1127
· Downing – 1131
· Chad in @ 11440, out @ 1142. 175 psi N2 in Rt Ft shock – Poolman’s pit with huge pit dawg.
· Manny Delta = 1142 – 1127 = 15 minutes
· Conrad – 1146 strong
PIT 4
BLACK ROCK SUMMIT
RM162
· Silt
· Rocks
· Silt & Rocks
· Basalt
· Ruts
· Rocks & Silt
· Vehicles both ways
· Dodge “Infinity”
· Silt: “Good rocks, gone bad.”
PIT 5
HOT CREEK
RM162
· #8104 Manny – 1329
· #1014 TSCO
· #1269 Sykes
· Chad – 1340
· DPit 3: 15
· DPit 4: 15
· DPit 5: 11
PIT 6
STONE CABIN
RM238
· #8104 Manny – 1413, stops
· #1014 TSCO – 1410
· #1228 Dan Hunt out @ 1414
· #1269 Syko out @ 1416
· #8103 Chad – 1422 @ 72 mph
· #4106 Stein – 1931
· #4103 Rod – 1932 both @ 62 mph, Roy in
· #1020 Sammy – 1433 @ 53 mph
PIT 7
TONOPAH AIRPORT
RM288
· #8104 Manny – 1519
· #1020 Steve Downing: “After the start there was thirty-miles of graded road. They all blew by me. Then all the big cars were stuck in the silt. I cranked the wheel and jumped the ruts. Sweet. I don’t’ know how I did it! But before ‘Four” when Sammy was gona get it, the heim on the rack unscrewed out of the tie-rod. I fixed that for him. Then Weyhrich reeled him in.”
· #8103 Chad – 1526. He passed a REAL LATE bike rider and tossed up a HUGE cloud of heavy silt. The rider stopped. Then fell.
· Through “7”:
· #1509 Fortin
· #1401 Damen
· #1517 Lofton
· and
· #1466 Baldwin -- all within a minute
· #1407 Herbst eight back
· Before the race a “difficult” landowner changed his mind and BitD, plus the BLM, had to change the course. No harm, no foul.
· #4101 Stein – 1537
· #4103 Roy – 1538
· #1020 Sammy - 1539
· Rob MacCachren - 1529
FINISH
RM297
· #1112 Matt Cullen rolls at finish left-hander. Slid in gravel which transitioned to pavement – “Clank”. “Casey asked me how I liked that turn. I told him that I’d like to a lot better without the asphalt!”
· #1511 Ben Schlimme / Danny Anderson: The new power steering lost a belt but we made it to Pit 4 to get fixed. The course was a freeway with bad silt! We are the 15th car, made up ten spots.”
· #1016 Scott Webster: Issues? None whatsoever. We were first ‘Ten’ by over an hour.”
· #1016 Jim Dizney: “That fifteen minute penalty on Dick Weyhrich? It was reversed.”
· #1014 Dick Weyhrich: “We lost a battery, then it stalled. Rod Hall wouldn’t push start us! What goes around … paybacks are Hell.“
· #1014 Jim Zupanovich: “This happened 17 miles after Pit 4 (after” reeling in” Sammy Ehrenberg) at the road crossing; my foot slipped on the clutch. We started 15th and nobody passed me.”
· #1523 Jeff Darland – everybody was talking about Jeff not having his pit ready when he drove it. Danny Foddrill jumped in to save the day, pumping a JO pump from Bob Shepard’s drum. Jeff had to buy some Dramamine. Motion sickness? Morning sickness? “Jeff’s never been in that fast of a car before -- or for that long!”
· #1020 Sammy Ehrenberg: “Weyhrich? I let him go by then caught him. He said: ‘I couldn’t believe it when you caught me in that tight stuff!’” “Yeah, but you were vapor-trailing,” said Sammy.
· #1529 Brian Parkhouse rolled early when his steering wheel came off!
· #1227 Matt Scaroni wants it known that “the SMD semi had nothing to do with tearing down power lines” near Pit 4. Now you know. (Not that this has ever happened before, huh??)
· Brady Wisdom: “I can give you a list of the eye witnesses to the Scaroni tractor rig driving off with the antennae still up and downing the power line on Black Rock Summit in a hail of firework type sparks. Actually, I know who has the burned flag that normally flies at the top of their antenna. Hey, accidents happen, no use lying about it later.”
· #1227 Chris Bostic of SMD is going to school at Cal Poly SLO, working, and trying to play ; he had to pass on the first two to come help Scaroni.” SMD Credo: “We got two days done; this is like being at Mike’s at the ‘500’. Now we go for it!”
· #4103 Rod Hall was hot under his Reno collar: A competitor’s car had their crew come into the starting line and fuel the Ace car. Reliable personnel say that photos were taken. This was noted to be specifically “verboten” at the Drivers Meeting.
· Aaron Dixon has loose ball joints, now looser.
· #8106 Randy Merritt and the Mongoids got stuck at RM51.5: “Wanzak and Jernigan were there. I came around the corner and had to stop. We all agreed to help each other. We had to push and use a strap.” Temporary alliances are, indeed, made here.
· #7312 Mac Glass rolled the Ford and hit all corners, even bowing the top.
· #4102 John Sunderland was not amused after getting his rear bash bar stove in on the bucking Bronco: “It was that SMD chaser.” (And Doc Glass!) The SMD gang (apparently) entered a Ford in Sportsman 8000 as a legal chaser.
· #1111 Allan Cartlidge was reported to have rolled and had to be cut out of the Penhall. Condition unknown.
DAY 3 - SATURDAY, June 22 – TONOPAH TO ALAMO FINISH
Day 2 News
· Al Cartlidge unhurt after a serious flip – he was trapped in the “Penhall” for three (3) hours! The first helicopter was lost – needs one of those rare GPS systems -- and then the Jaws of Life were somewhere else. An interested bystander tried to cut the car open with a hacksaw. Zzzzz. Cartlidge was actually only bruised from his belts but the garbled radio Tx went from “Doom” to “Gloom” to “I need a beer!” He was released from the hospital after only thirty minutes.
· Marc Stein was assessed a one-hour time penalty for the refueling infraction at the “Entries Only” Start Line. Que lastima! They said that he was booed from the Meeting when he complained that everyone was breaking the 15 miles-an-hour speed limit in Pit 1 on Day 2.
· Jim Diz’ tranny cooler started whining – “so we keep it turned off until we need it”. (Too bad that Marc is not fitted with a similar switch!)
· According to independent on-course spies the Mongos blew the corner at Pit 6, dusting several Forest Strangers who were counting trampled pucker bushes.
· Harsh Environment: When there is only one predominant plant specie it suggests that the environment is way-severe, such that only one plant can survive – Sage.
PIT 1
TEST RANGE
RM28.0
PIT 2
WARM SPRINGS
RM69.0
Two chase trucks got together. A moronic move by the driver of motorcycle entry number “101” resulted in totaling the trucks, bringing out three ambulances, and clogging the access road: thanks, guys. Justin Wray’s idiotic “helper” had decided to cut a U-y in deep dust and was T-boned on the driver’s door by Scott Mitchell (#Q53)s big Ford (or maybe it was a GMC – I wasn’t THAT interested – I’ve seen car accidents before.). The driver got a broken bone. Top Tip: Next time get reliable help.
An accident that I DID see was between Rob Reinertson and Al Hogan’s ProTrucks. In another unwise move the RJR crew sent Rob’s truck out in front of a Max-AB Hogan who was coming down the pit straight heading into a sharp right-hander. The RJR truck was not up to speed and unable to “rail” the corner like Hogan had in mind. The Red truck was suddenly in the apex of the corner – right where Hogan planned on being. “BOOM!” Hogan’s driver’s door hit Rob’s right rear and the Montana truck flipped over, landing like a turtle. Crews rushed to turn #1226 back onto its feet; it then waddled to the pit for repairs and inspection. Shock and steering repairs commenced along with tying and stowing the fuel cell filler neck. Ivan came over and posed for a few “After” photos. The incident was all so totally unnecessary.
· 0902 - Damen
· 0906 - Julson
· 0911 – Weyhrich
· 0912 – Mark McMillin Auto
· 0913 - #1515
· 0914 - Baldwin, stops, get 2nd spare – puts it in gear with a guy still in the bed
· 0915 - Herbsts – stops, pulls front clip, splits
· 0916 - Danny Anderson (on to pop a motor under the control of Ben Schlimme)
· 0917 - Dale Ebberts
· 0918 - Scott McMillin
· 0921 – Jesse Jones
· 0921 – John Gaughan
· Sam Berri running pretty good in the Scat car
· Rob Reinertson out
· Al Hogan over
· Rob’s pit crew sends Rob out right in front of Hogan’s ProTruck and they get together in the 90-degree right-hander. Hogan contacts Reinertson’s tire and Hogan flips over the RJR truck, landing on its top.
· V6 Wilson
· Dave Westhem
· Chuck Hovey – that trick jack acting up again!
· Bob Shepard
· Kyle Taylor
· Casey Jones / Tim Scalzo
· Kevin Colan
· 0938 – Brian Parkhouse
· Rick D. Johnson
· Doug, Jr. out of race: tossed a rod. “He was running it way (too) hard on Day 2. 6.7K in top gear … (Lotsa) miles-an-hour”. The crank trigger was (mis-gapped? The crank was running eccentrically?) Pit chatter.
· 0940 – Koch
· Barlow
· SMD #1227
· 0944 - Syko
· 0947 – The Groffs – suffering a long-time spare replacement
· 0949 - Curt LeDuc: burp, fart, spit, pop, snort (Did I mention how many Class 8s there weren’t?)
· 0950 – Diz / Scott – smooth and LOUD!
· 0956 - Waznek had a buggered-up track rod uniball ... they were welding (on) it
· 0959 – Manny
· 1002 – Chad
· 1003 – Mongos
· 1003 - Foutz
· 1004 – Strobel’s troubled “10” in
· Ronny Wilson with a torn up spare and a frayed left front tire, which did not dismount nor did it damage the caliper
· 1008 – The Henns’ Hummer
· 1011 – #2052
· 1015 – Malcolm Vinje
· TSCO Ten - DNS/DNF – found a bad motor Evening 2
· #2020
· 1015 - Braden
· Adam Wik recommends 3-Bond “121” for engine case sealing. Adam and Bekki are building a new house out in the Blue Diamond area. Everyone is invited to the house warming! After the SF250 the car is being changed, e.g., spare of the back, rack supports beefed, etc.
· 1017 – Marc Stein
· 1018 – SMD 4111
· Custer
· Rob MacCachren
· Strobel changes a bad CV boot
· Steve Downing stopped after a long throttle cable repair in the field - the right stub axle bearing was checked, found to be loose, and he was “good to go” after R&R-ing the outer outerwrap
· 1034 - Aaron and Ian Dixon. Never had to get out of the car all event. “Did I mention we beat all the 7S and 7 Open trucks (and Macrae) with a STOCK MINI!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
· 1027 – Dave Turner #3101
· 1031 - Strobel’s “10”
· 1032 - #3103
· 1032 – Mac Glass #7312
· 1036 –Wavra #5015
· 1039 - in – Rodney #4103
· John Sunderland down “a few miles back from Pit 2”
· 1043 – Rodney put in lots of H2O, radiator cap loose at Staging! Used their drinking water.
· Chaser accident: “101” and “Q53” – 101 was doing a 180 and the Ford hit the 101 in the door! Morons.
· Bruce Conrad / Matt Cullen #1112 out of race somewhere in the hills
PIT 3
Twin Springs
RM97.5
The road into this pit was spotted with deep silt – the kind that flows over the hood and windshield like water. Vehicles passing the other way would throw up waves of silt.
· BFG Pit Poop per Poolman:
· Foutz stopped for a visual
· SMD Excursion had the hood up
· Herbsts stopped for a “… long time. Did they lose first gear?”
· 1229 – Rod dusts Wavra #5018
· That Dodge “Infinity” again
PIT 4
Rachel
RM147.2
A-lee Inn
Quik Pik
· Strobel – sounded flat
· 1209 - #3101
· 1209 - #1303
· 1218 – Rod Hall
PIT 5
Tikaboo Valley
RM170.2
Pit 6
Hiko Narrows
RM223.0
PIT 7
Pahroc Summit
RM242.8
· 1325 – LeDuc
· 1327 – Hogan
· 1337 - #1503
· McMillin broke a spindle just past Pit 7
· #1508 Mark McMillin on trailer
· 1339 – Mongo sounding very strong
· 1340 – Foutz tearing up the big Ford, hitting a large tree and peeling back the bed panel on Wheeler’s side.
· Wilson Scat #1524 playing catch-up
· 1350 – Chad
· 1353 – Manny
· 1357 – Casey Jones #1516
· 1400 - SMD #4111 Excursion very fast
· 1403 - Rob MacCachren
· 1402 - Stein #4101
· Groffs #1525 with huge oil stain on left isde
· 1404 - Casey Jones out
· 1413 – Byzrk #2020
· 1414 – Malcolm Vinje
· 1421 – Dixonian Institute #7303
· 1422 - Dave Turner
· 1424 - Sammy #1020
· 1426 - #3102
· 1432 – Rod #4103
FINISH
· Scott Webster: “We didn’t even dent a wheel today!”
· Tommy Koch – First ProTruck on Day 3. Westhem was hitting them. Big Marty asked Dave: “What’s the problem? “Oh, er, no problem, no problem, I didn’t have any brakes.”
· Dougie: “It was a very uneventful day. After a little battle with Barlow. He passed us in the pits, then Lee went out and caught him.” It was real fast today. The first hundred miles we musta averaged 70.”
· Marc Stein was crying tears as big as horse turds when Hot Rod Hall took the win on elapsed time. “Ace” even went so far as to “suggest” that Hall was a “cheater”. Somehow. As if cutting the course would be a) faster, or b) unseen in the dust. Their Ford, however, is extremely well-built and maintained – even so, Mike McComas lost a front half-shaft nearing the finish line. He pulled it and ran on 2WD. Hall later laughed, offering that a good rivalry was great for the sport: “Play it up!”
· “Wily Veteran Humbles Brash ‘New-Comer’!”
EL CHEEZE
ACCOMMODATIONS (sort of)
Anyone who was anyone stayed at the “Nevada Hotel’ in Ely, e.g., John and Judy, Diz, Scott, n Mike. The elevator was circa 1920 – you had to back into it – and the rooms were less than spacious. How small were the rooms? Well, the rooms were so small that the mice were hunch-backed! The rooms were so small that you couldn’t swing a cat by its tail! A single-bed room had barely enough space to allow luggage to be placed on the floor. Additional guests could be put up on a cot but that fold-out had to be placed in the entryway, blocking the route to the biffy. The lucky guest, however, might get to stay in the ”Hank Thompson Room.”
The world-famous “Clown Motel” in Tonopah was not that bad; certainly better than the “OK Corral” which was not.
FOOD FIGHT (sort of)
The Tonopah McDonald’s appeared to be unaware of the magnitude of the breakfast crowd on race morning.
We invaded the Ely MickeyD’s for 12 large fries, 12 Quarter-Pounders, 12 Big Macs -- and two Diet Cokes. They didn’t even bat an eye.
The food at the “Del Pueblo Truck Stop” in Alamo was better than OK.
KORY AND LARRY’S POSTMORTEM
Looks like Larry and I will have to make you eat those Top Tips another day ...
Thurs: I lost the power steering (later traced to a grenading rack & pinion) 30 miles into Day 1 and I had to drive on it (the parts were at Pit 3). Then a hole in the radiator (from a tree branch!) ground us to a halt at RM80. Trailered to Ely and replaced the power steering pump & servo and also put in a new radiator that our crew had to go back to Las Vegas to weld the necks onto (3:00 am completion time).
Fri: Same power steering problem right off the start (after the fluid warms up, turn the wheel and it kicks back quite violently in your hands, shoulda replaced the rack also?), then lost 1st and 2nd gear in the trans around RM100 (Fields auto). Handed the car over to Larry at Pit 4 (Heard over the radio after he got in: "How the f--- did you drive this thing!"). The rack and pinion finally locked up at RM260. Larry had to keep pulling it apart and unlock it to make it to the pit. We changed it, finished, and put it on the trailer.
(1) Was that you in 15 mph Pit 1 on Friday pointing a radar gun?
(2) WTF is that Pony truck thing doing running in Tricky-Truck? I followed that 'Burro' for five miles on Friday. Maybe he should change the name to ‘Makesalotof Dust Truck’. He must wear one of those NASCAR neck devices........
See you in Tonopah......
Kory
DIZ, SCOTT, AND MIKE’S POST-RACE REVIEW
After approx 1000 miles and three days of racing the Dizney Motorsports Class 10 car came home a winner. This is the 1st victory for Jim in this car. It was also the 1st clean run we have had. The only setback we had was one flat tire on Day 1. Scott had to get out of the car to change it, then stop to have a new spare put on the rack. No work was needed during our 70 minutes of " Free " time each day , beyond scheduled maintenance. We changed the engine and pumper filters, checked fluids, and other vital inspections that were done daily to insure a trouble-free run. Jimco built a bitchin’ car, Kenny Major / Steve Dose did a wonderful job on the engine / fuel injection, and Fortin gave a tranny that was trouble-free.
Once we learned that the Weyhrich car had withdrawn after Day 2 it took a little weight off of Jim and Scott's shoulders. They were giving us real run for our money. On Day 3 I spoke with Dick Weyhrich at Pit 2 and he offered his crew and any parts that we might need. What a awesome feeling that gave me.
Day 1: At our fuel pit Hovey’s crew helped us fuel the car and take care of a driver change; later in the day Jim was able to repay the favor by helping them change a flat.
Day 2: Weyhrich crew helped at the fuel pit/drivers change
Thank You very much to those who helped us achieve our goal.
Mike McClintock