Be prepared, there’s a novel coming ahead about this race. Hope you like to read!
Sloppy, muddy, nasty mess is the best way to describe the weekend. Got in some good pre-running Friday with Mike Faltz to help prep for Saturday’s race. Had a great game-plan to attack the course, but those plans changed big time once the rains came in later. Monsoons, severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings in the area made for a fun Friday afternoon and lead to a weather delay before qualifying. The track was sloppy and with this being my first time behind the wheel of the 4973 after some major upgrades and not used the way everything felt, I wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be, but there was only 20 seconds separating where I qualified and the fastest guy of the day. Not horrible. Went back to camp and dialed in some settings on the FOX shocks and was ready for the race.
Overnight there were even more torrential downpours and storms, so track and course conditions were interesting to say the least. To make matters worse, the GPS failed before the race, so any markers I had previously made were gone. Got the green flag and took off. The setting changes I made on the shocks felt great and the new front sway bar from RT Pro that they developed with PAC Racing Springs made cornering much more confident.
Almost as soon as I entered the woods I came up on fellow racers that had started before me and made a couple of passes on cars that had gone off course or had already broken. Made short work of a couple of uphill sections and came to a traffic jam on a steep downhill decent. Took a chance and sidehilled over to one of the other options to go down and passed five rigs in short order.
One other uphill tough climb and some tough bounces overloaded my power steering and blew the fuse. The last half of the first lap I had to race without power steering and lost a couple of positions I had gained. Thanks to Joey Elyse Beck for pointing me to the best route on one of the hill climbs.
Pulled into the pits and had to take out the harnesses and seats to replace a simple fuse to fix the power steering. Lesson learned, I have figured out a way to prevent that from happening again the in the future.
Second lap, took off out of the pits and soon was back to the short course. I forgot to clean the pre-filters of all the mud that had caked up on them and so I didn’t have much power. I was going to just have to deal with it, so made my way back into the woods course.
Made it about a third of the way through and managed to keep my position when I came upon another blockage. One rig was in front of me stopped. I lit up the siren, but he indicated two rigs were stuck side by side blocking all access forward. Tried multiple options and the guys stuck helped me try to winch between them, but the ruts were too deep to climb out of. By that point, someone had created a bypass, but from where I was up front, the traffic behind me had me blocked and I couldn’t get out until all had gone by. Finally made it around and had issues with a hill I had no trouble with earlier due to lack of power. Michael Lee was a huge help and I had him rip off the clogged up pre-filter and he directed me to a better option on the hill I was at. I finally had power again and once up the hill I hammered down.
Unfortunately, so much time had passed once I finally hit the short course again that I got the white flag final lap. No idea where I was at this point in standing, so I just decided to hit everything as fast as I dared. Made quick work of the third and final lap without issue and ended up finishing with a respectable top ten finish. Considering everything that happened during the race, I’ll take it. David Maddix had the 4973 on point with the way he had everything dialed in.
I’m not certain if I had an absolute blast or was absolutely miserable, but it was definitely an unforgettable weekend. Best of all, absolutely nothing broke and zero issues with the vehicle outside of a blown fuse. Considering the conditions and the terrain of the weekend, that alone was a huge accomplishment and a testament to the parts used in the build of the 4973.
Huge shout out to those that support HunkerDown Racing.
RT Pro. Had tons of upgrades from these guys after my Oklahoma race. All new trailing arms, radius rods and a-arms, along with their brace for the rear sway bar and partnership with Pac for the design on the front sway bar. I shed a ton of weight and everything feels much more responsive. Plus, I got my new Fox Podium RC2 coilovers from them. Largest stocking dealer for Fox UTV products out there, so if you want Fox, RT Pro is your source.
Nitro Racing Parts with their gated shifter. I had an uh oh moment and throwing the shifter into reverse quickly saved my butt.
PRP Seats and harnesses kept me seated and cleaned up after all that nasty mud nicely.
MC2 – Metal Conditioner Squared protected by engine when I was at WOT on some of those hills.
Factor 55 and the pro link for closed system winching when I was trying to help a fell racer out when they were stuck.
Raceline Wheels beadlocks actually took more punishment than I thought once I had them cleaned off. There were apparently some brutal rocks in that mud that tried to do some damage, but the wheels took it all in stride.
Maxxis Tires and the carnivores took the Dirty Turtle mud much better than many people expected. I never once got stuck and the only time I ever couldn’t climb anything was because of clearance issues. Impressed once again.
