I guess I should start by talking a little about the builder project. This project started in August of last year, and finished by racing in Rocky Point at the Rock to Rock. The project was a load of fun, and I learned so much. I hope that some of the readers of this page have benefited from it. Quickly, I would like to thank all of my sponsors – Fat Performance, Dave Folts Transmissions, NiCE Custom Embroidery, Auto Meter, MSD, Renegade products, Hella, Fox Shox, Kartek, Foddrill Fabrication, Signs Now in Mesa, and BF Goodrich for their support. I would also like to extend many thanks to my wife – Nicole. Without her hard work, it would still be sitting unfinished in the garage. I also need to thank co-driver and best friend Todd Bennett, for his many hours of hard work helping me get this car together. Anyway – on to the race.
Preparing for Mexico was quite stressful… Brand new car, in a new class, and a rough, sandy course waiting for us south of the border. We prepped the car basically as we built it, knowing that we wouldn’t have much time to go back and re-prep before the race. Quite a scary thing when you think about it – because many of the things we put together have been sitting for months without examination. Of course – we double-checked as many things as we could – but again – you just never know with a new car.
We loaded up and headed down to Rocky Point on Thursday, getting there just after dark. We spent the evening hanging out, drinking some beers, and enjoying the great weather. The next morning – we headed into town for a couple hours, and returned to the Oasis Camp in time for Tech and Contingency. We decided to do a little test and jet session in the heat of the day – to simulate race conditions. We ran the car for several miles, and checked 3 different jets before deciding on the #155 jet. I knew it was a little on the fat side, but wanted to be safe. I had also dialed my timing back down from 30 to 28 degrees to keep the little motor running strong, but not on the ragged edge. Probably a good move… During our last jet run, I put the clutch in as I shut off the car, and just before the car came to a stop, the motor again began chugging, as the clutch had released –without my releasing the pedal. The pedal was also stuck to the floor… Uh oh!! The pedal was slowly bleeding back – so we waited a few minutes, started it up, dropped the car in gear and headed back to camp in 1st gear.
Once back in camp – we tried troubleshooting the problem – and tried bleeding the clutch. The fluid was completely polluted, with black rubber particles and junk. No bueno. We pulled the master cylinder out of the car, and took it apart. The rubber seal inside the cap was slimy, indicating a bad reaction between fluid and rubber. Weird… We continued to pull the cylinder apart until we had the plunger out – and found that the seal inside the plunger was broken into several pieces, and that explained the majority of our problem. The broken pieces were interfering with the operation of the plunger, and were allowing lots of fluid to bleed by – causing the clutch not to operate properly. We needed a new clutch master cylinder. I immediately called Kasey Crook, and Dana Andrews who were on their way down from AZ, and asked Kasey to grab the master cylinder out of his car, which he did. In the mean time, I began searching for a replacement. I asked several people and teams, and no parts. Then – as luck would have it – our camp neighbors Nolan Blackwell and his team showed up – and we were talking about the problem. Nolan had a spare in his box, and happily lent it to me. We were saved!! We installed his spare on the car, bled the system, and were back in the race. We did another final test run, and called the car good to race. Thanks Nolan!
We completed tech and contingency, and were all registered and ready to go. We drew the very last “pill” on Friday night – meaning that we would start last of the pre-entered racers in the class. We were #7. Only one additional racer entered the race who was not pre-entered, Hector “Pacho” Garcia. Hector would start in the#8 spot – the last car of the 1600 class.
On Saturday morning – the bikes and ATV’s raced on the course. The car race didn’t get started till almost 11 am. Todd and I were suited up, and ready to race. Everything with the car had been checked, some water and food stashed in the car, and everything was a go. We got staged up, behind the #1630 car, and right in front of Pacho. Starting in front of the 1600 class – was the class 7 Sofa City truck of Jeff Gilbert. As luck would have it, when the green flag dropped for Jeff, his truck went down – instead of forward, and was stuck in the sand. The 1600 cars started right next to the buried truck, and were going off one at a time, as onlookers tried to free the truck. 3 cars to go before us – and he was still stuck, despite the efforts of the crowd. Just one more car ahead of us – and the crowd got the truck moving – just to watch it bury itself again just a few feet away… Dammitt!! The car ahead of us makes it out in front of the truck –as more onlookers are summoned. They push the truck out of the sand, just as the green flag drops for me. Right off the start we are following the truck right on his bumper, eating sand and dirt. Hope the rest of the race wasn’t going to go like this. We follow the truck for several miles – having difficulty seeing through the thick dust, and watching our speed to try to stay on the track. I was furious… and my attitude was not improving as we struggled in the heavy dust. It also allowed Hector to catch up pretty quickly, and within about 10 miles or so – he was on my bumper. I allowed him to pass – and watched him drive away from me just as quickly as he came. Several more miles went by – and we were still fighting dust… We were able to catch and pass Mark Milne’s 1600 as he was down on power and top speed as we caught him on a long graded road. We passed with a friendly wave – and got a taste of clean air for a while. The course followed the highway for a section, and then made a hard right down a smooth graded road. It gradually transformed into a trail through some sand dunes, continuing to head east. Gradually we were catching someone’s dust, and could soon make out another class 1600 racer. As we fought through the dust, we could see that it was the #1630 Bill Stoner car, and just in front of it the white 1602 of Krissy Sullivan. “Great!!” I thought – “Two birds with one stone!!” We continued to pursue both cars until a short straight section allowed the #1630 car to pass. Just inches off of his rear bumper we followed, and made the pass cleanly as well. We now were just one car away from clean air. Bill was moving pretty well, and we continued to follow as closely as we could. Coming into a sharp left hander, Bill overcooked the corner just a hair, and opened the door for a hostile pass. I braked hard, and tucked just inside of his car, accelerating out of the corner quicker and getting the clean pass. We never looked back, and never saw either car until the finish.
We now had clean air, and were sailing. The course came through the dunes, and followed several sand washes through the cholla gardens, and around a rocky mountain. We came across the Rascon Brothers #1608 entry dead in the water, with Enrique bailing out of the car. Looks like his day was over. We would see Rascon on the following lap, still waiting to be rescued in the same spot.
We had only 1 “near death” experience during the race, and it happened in the firmer sand dunes after we went around the mountain. I was feeling very confident, and we were running in clean air through miles of twisty-turny hills and whoopers. We were flying in 4th gear, just pounding over the terrain. We approached a large hill, and I did lift the throttle – but no brake. Cresting the hill, I knew we were in trouble. The hill fell away sharply as we launched over it – crashing into a second hill just as big as the first. The car landed with a hard crash, and then launched over that hill sideways, and into a third big berm. The car nearly stalled, and we were both shaken from the tremendous impacts. Quickly I stuffed the car into a gear, and we kept moving. I asked Todd if he was alive, and with a quick “Yes” we were racing again. We adopted a new rule just 1 mile down the road. “NO JUMPING ANY HILLS YOU CAN’T SEE OVER!!” We didn’t make that mistake on lap 2 I can assure you.
The course continued southward through more sand dunes, the well road, and then the “whoop de doo” road. It’s a stretch some 20+ miles long, of sandy, deep whoops with no relief. With my skinny rear tires, I just couldn’t get on top of the whoops, so it was second and third gear through the whoops. It was killing us. We reached the Caborca highway at the end of the whooper road, and were second on the road behind Pacho. Erik Jones had been in front of us as well, but he pulled off with an ailing motor, and headed back on the highway. Pacho had about 15 minutes on us after lap #1.
We ran quickly along the Caborca highway with our 2 chase vehicles running along side us on the road. Kasey, Todd’s daughter Breanna, and Dana were in F350 #1, with our wives Nicole and Krista in F350 #2 with Todd’s sister Traci and boyfriend Randy along for the ride. We completed the lap without any problems, and headed out into lap 2. We were in clean air. We took fuel and made a quick stop at the “Hole in the Fence” and pounded out the second lap. We occasionally saw broken vehicles, and were passed by the winning class 5 car. This lap was a complete blast, running as fast as I could for the first half of the lap, and taking it easy on the second half. Knowing that we were in a solid second place spot – I cruised and saved the car. We finished about 11 minutes behind Hector, and 6 minutes ahead of the third place car of Krissy Sullivan.
I was really pleased with the performance of the car, and just the fact that it held together. With just 22 of the 50+ cars making the finish line, it was a tough race regardless of if it was your first race, or if it was your 50th. It felt pretty good to get that first race under our belts, after spending so much time getting the car together. Can’t wait for the next one.
This car was so much different than my 5/1600, it was like night and day. The 5/1600 required much more concentration, because every corner, and every bump could be your last. Pitching the car into a corner was dangerous at best, and going through whoops at speed was a real no-no. This car is all about just driving the road. Looking at every bump and corner is nor necessary, as the car seemingly will hammer over ANYTHING at speed. It’s a wonderful thing. This car is all about driving.
Anyway – thanks for reading – and I hope you enjoyed it. I love writing these race reports and hope that you can see a little bit of what I saw and experienced during the race. Next on the agenda is the Snowflake 175 in September. If I get too ancy, I may have to get in another race during the summer months, but we’ll just see how it goes.
Mike