Not really sure where this goes so I'm dropping it here. Also unsure how PG this site is so hopefully none of the language is too rough as I posted this first on Pirate. This is the story of 1924 Matt "Jabnasty" Enochs and myself, Kelly Kaiser
We didn't really prerun much, only went up aftershock and saw where the pits were. I wish we had gone and seen the sand hill section. We winched up the chute instead of driving the sand. Had we have known that, it would have helped immensely. The rzr is beat horribly and has been through KOH last year, a year of riding and Dirt Riot nationals where Matt placed first at the end of last year. He was given a set of Pit Bulls for winning Dirt Riot so we made the switch from GBC to Rockers. During the part we pre ran the Rockers dug sand in front of rocks and didn't stick to the rocks like we wanted. The set of bighorns in front of us were walking slabs while we spun and slid backwards. They were not broken in and were overinflated, but we made the call to go to Mongrels. We also switched from Hiper (last year we cut 3 12's in half during the race) to Raceline 14's. I'm a vendor for both and think they both have their place. We also made the switch to Radflo shocks and were amazed at how well it did in the whoops during a short prerun. No more bucking in the back, it jumped flat and acted like it should. Prep was lacking, all the bushings are bagged out, heims on the radius rods were without their liners, the skidplate was half torn, but time was lacking and we all party too much when Texas and Kansas comes together every year. It was time to go so we strapped the spare, jack, tools, spare belt, bars, nitrogen tank, etc all to the back and got ready to race.
We drew 28th right next to our buddy Rob Usnick in his Rotax Rhino, which put us near the end of the unlimited class. As we were being lined up we were told to be in the row behind Rob, which is fine. At the start finish, we stayed on his ass but the guy lining up up kept telling us to go farther and farther back. He stood in front of us as we watched 3 production 1000's take off in front of us, then told us that because we were out of line to take a rear start. I came unglued and about blew out Matt's ears on the comms when I started screaming that we WERE in line, YOU stopped us (I realize he's a volunteer and this ins't pro racing, but in the moment, I was pretty hot). Dave saw/heard us and told us to get our asses up there and start driving. We took out and drove fairly hot until we got in the whoops and realized that with the added spares and crap we were dragging ass, bottoming like crazy in the back and overall unable to get on top of any rhythm sections. We slowed it down and didn't hunt too hard for the first 50 or so. We did give Rob in the 1999 Rhino a love tap from behind when we came up on him in the dust, it should make for some good footage. We cruised through the rough and skipped pit 1, right up to the sand hill. At that point, I made the call to run the chute as we saw 3 UTV's coming back from the sand and I assumed it was a bad situation. I saw Casey run over there and not come back perhaps that should have been a sign for me.
Winching the chute was trying for all, I know that the, "UTVs are in my way and killing my race" sentiment coming from lots of EMC guys come from this section. After that we got back on track and into camp to take on fuel. We had lost our jack and decided to go on without it. On the second lap, we cruised again, playing it safe and driving. With no sway bar the 2 track on the backside under Outer Limits and Spooners was certainly fun, I think he was more scared than I:laughing: Up and over where we came down last year by the 29palms line and into the wash for Aftershock we went. At this point I have no idea where we are except I remember somebody somewhere telling me we were in 4 or 5 (I could be wrong, who knows.
At the first rocks of aftershock I got out and started running. It is faster with 1 in there. We went to pass 3 slower rigs and took a high line where we became high centered. Good thing we did, while I was pushing on the back of the rzr I saw the radius rod bolt backed all the way out, lathing a groove in the raceline. The other lower radius rod was backed out from the jam nuts about 3 turns as well, and bent. We stole a nut off the broken sway bar end link and galled it on the radius rod bolt, it was 1/2" from tight but not coming out. We both got on the radius rod and with my vise grips got it tight enough to make it to the pits. After the bypass line on Aftershock above the big rocks I saw the drivers front wheel going different directions than the other one. The tie rod bolt was backed off down to the cotter pin and would have gone all the way if it were not in there. I vise gripped that and we pressed on. At this point we are at about 20 minutes of trailside fixes but still moving. Highway 19/20 went well, we passed a broken Currie and Crow I think. We also passed several EMC rigs and got into a groove.
At the pits they told us we were second and that Guthrie had 13 minutes on us. They started thrashing on the rig when I told them we were getting out and nut and bolting this whole thing. I'd rather finish later than not finish. 1999's crew and our crew went at it hard and hit every nut and bolt their was to hit on the suspension. We welded the nuts on the radius rods after jamming them again with a pipe wrench and got everything else tight enough. The Nyloc on most of the nuts has been in and out so many times that they were just backing off, so tacks were put in the threads of any nuts that could turn by finger. (prep, right:homer
We spent 17 minutes there, but were off again 30 minutes behind the leader still in second.
By the bottom of Jack we were back about 40 minutes per the official there. I was tired of running up and down trails in work boots with new ACL's being broken in trial by fire but knew we needed to keep going to keep second hemmed up. Over to Choc Thunder we sped, taking it easy enough to not break with finish on out mind.
At the bottom I again go out and walked up. We hadn't preran so I got the winch out and in my hand and told him to drive as far as he could. Amazingly he started coming up so I started pulling and we were by the gatekeeper. After that there was an EMC rig on the sharp second climb. They were winching so I ran up and helped the spotter pull cable and engaged his winch for him. After helping them out of the way it was our turn and after 4 or 5 tries we drove the second climb as well with my help on the rope. Matt still wasn't carrying speed and was trying to let the tires work (we aren't on reds anymore, time to climb like RZR's do and carry the fronts over the top). We drove the rest of the trail and the grateful EMC rig let us by.
Wrecking ball was uneventful, I stacked a few rocks prior to him getting there and pulled on the line a few times but we got near the top and saw Guthrie sitting there with a broken ball joint and broken axle. He said they would be in 3 wheel drive from there on out so we are now amazed that we were in 1st. We relaxed out pace a bit more and pressed on, almost driving the fall at the top. A tug from the Warn on to Claw. Down that, up Big Johnson to Boulderdash.
I think this is where I looked back and saw 2 rzrs come back. Uh oh, time to change the pace. So much for 3 wheel drive second place and haven't seen third, now its a race with 30 miles to go. We turned it on through the cross grain and up Elvis, not even slowing down during the rocks. As we exited the top we saw Guthrie hitting the bottom. He's still there, still time to drive.
The rear skid plate was hanging down and dragging as we bottomed the ass like crazy on every G out.
At MM 101 you hit a straight flat rockless stickless wide fast gravel road like we are used to in Kansas. Wide open, time to run. We kicked it up to 73 assuming we had one on us 1 minute back. After 3 miles of this, the right rear tire just exploded. With full faces on it still sounded like an M80 behind us. We went off the road sideways into the bushes all sketched out. I told Matt to keep driving and making dust, but it would only pull 40 mph wide open. We got into some sand and the wheel eventually let all the way go and came apart. Without a jack, I had him beach the trailing arm on a bush and started digging by hand to get the tire off/on. I finally got the old one off, the studs all galled on the way out and the new one was hitting the roots of the bush. We backed up, and I had to dig a new hole. I'm panicking a bit digging as fast as I can throwing sand everywhere. The tire finally goes mostly on but wont line up, still held by sand and roots. I can't get a single nut to start. I took the tire back off again and they still won't start, there are thread pieces from the nuts all over the studs. Not going to be pretty but I shoved it on and started hammering with the impact until 3 of them were stalled out and about to snap off from the torque of the Snap On gun:barf: The 4th wouldnt start.
Just as I was hammering on the last one, Crowdog and Guthrie blew by us. I threw the impact in the floor and dove in, as Matt peeled off, 50/50 rule in effect. The broken wheel inner had taken our brakes from us so the pace was off slightly but as we picked out way through the narrow paths between the big rocks and sand, we kept them in sight. At the sand hill they both went to the second one. That must be the one we want, lets go there! It was indeed one shot easy so we drove up and came into the next turn hot just 15 or so seconds behind them. Without brakes fully there we smoked a rock for the first time all day and popped a right front tire. It was over for us. Even though we started a couple minutes behind the guys in front of us, there was no way to push the last 3 or 5 miles with a flat front and keep the gap less than 2 minutes. Our effort for 1st was over and now we had to finish.
I looked at the time on the GPS and saw that we had 11 minutes to travel 5ish miles over the deepest crossgrain of the day on a flat. 2 or 3 times the wheel directly hit a rock that should have taken a balljoint out or blown the wheel up, but it all held. We were on edge with me yelling at him to drive faster and him yelling at me that we can't, we will break. We both knew what the score was but were both on edge, so close and still an eternity away. As we came over King Mountain we still had a couple minutes to spare and we both breathed a sigh of relief and kicked it on across the finish. With our flat we weren't allowed to go on stage but Miles "Bad Ass" Hasselquist, also of Paola, KS, came down and interviewed us.
Matt blamed his codriver for the flats and thanked his only sponsor, himself:laughing: In truth I did make some parts for him and got him cost on everything so I suppose Atomic Fabworks would count, but that doesn't sound as Jabnasty as, "Nobody." Dave Cole came up and asked Matt if finishing this race was better than riding up the shotcrete WeRock wall in Texas naked on a 50 in a sombrero half a racing lifetime ago, and Matt told him not better, all racing. :laughing:
After that the party was on as it is most nights when we all come together. It was an amazing event, we got so close to first we could taste it, but no worries, that's racing and Guthrie earned his win. Perhaps a new machine and some real prep next year and we'll have a shot, but you have to pay to find out:mr-t:
We didn't really prerun much, only went up aftershock and saw where the pits were. I wish we had gone and seen the sand hill section. We winched up the chute instead of driving the sand. Had we have known that, it would have helped immensely. The rzr is beat horribly and has been through KOH last year, a year of riding and Dirt Riot nationals where Matt placed first at the end of last year. He was given a set of Pit Bulls for winning Dirt Riot so we made the switch from GBC to Rockers. During the part we pre ran the Rockers dug sand in front of rocks and didn't stick to the rocks like we wanted. The set of bighorns in front of us were walking slabs while we spun and slid backwards. They were not broken in and were overinflated, but we made the call to go to Mongrels. We also switched from Hiper (last year we cut 3 12's in half during the race) to Raceline 14's. I'm a vendor for both and think they both have their place. We also made the switch to Radflo shocks and were amazed at how well it did in the whoops during a short prerun. No more bucking in the back, it jumped flat and acted like it should. Prep was lacking, all the bushings are bagged out, heims on the radius rods were without their liners, the skidplate was half torn, but time was lacking and we all party too much when Texas and Kansas comes together every year. It was time to go so we strapped the spare, jack, tools, spare belt, bars, nitrogen tank, etc all to the back and got ready to race.
We drew 28th right next to our buddy Rob Usnick in his Rotax Rhino, which put us near the end of the unlimited class. As we were being lined up we were told to be in the row behind Rob, which is fine. At the start finish, we stayed on his ass but the guy lining up up kept telling us to go farther and farther back. He stood in front of us as we watched 3 production 1000's take off in front of us, then told us that because we were out of line to take a rear start. I came unglued and about blew out Matt's ears on the comms when I started screaming that we WERE in line, YOU stopped us (I realize he's a volunteer and this ins't pro racing, but in the moment, I was pretty hot). Dave saw/heard us and told us to get our asses up there and start driving. We took out and drove fairly hot until we got in the whoops and realized that with the added spares and crap we were dragging ass, bottoming like crazy in the back and overall unable to get on top of any rhythm sections. We slowed it down and didn't hunt too hard for the first 50 or so. We did give Rob in the 1999 Rhino a love tap from behind when we came up on him in the dust, it should make for some good footage. We cruised through the rough and skipped pit 1, right up to the sand hill. At that point, I made the call to run the chute as we saw 3 UTV's coming back from the sand and I assumed it was a bad situation. I saw Casey run over there and not come back perhaps that should have been a sign for me.
Winching the chute was trying for all, I know that the, "UTVs are in my way and killing my race" sentiment coming from lots of EMC guys come from this section. After that we got back on track and into camp to take on fuel. We had lost our jack and decided to go on without it. On the second lap, we cruised again, playing it safe and driving. With no sway bar the 2 track on the backside under Outer Limits and Spooners was certainly fun, I think he was more scared than I:laughing: Up and over where we came down last year by the 29palms line and into the wash for Aftershock we went. At this point I have no idea where we are except I remember somebody somewhere telling me we were in 4 or 5 (I could be wrong, who knows.
At the first rocks of aftershock I got out and started running. It is faster with 1 in there. We went to pass 3 slower rigs and took a high line where we became high centered. Good thing we did, while I was pushing on the back of the rzr I saw the radius rod bolt backed all the way out, lathing a groove in the raceline. The other lower radius rod was backed out from the jam nuts about 3 turns as well, and bent. We stole a nut off the broken sway bar end link and galled it on the radius rod bolt, it was 1/2" from tight but not coming out. We both got on the radius rod and with my vise grips got it tight enough to make it to the pits. After the bypass line on Aftershock above the big rocks I saw the drivers front wheel going different directions than the other one. The tie rod bolt was backed off down to the cotter pin and would have gone all the way if it were not in there. I vise gripped that and we pressed on. At this point we are at about 20 minutes of trailside fixes but still moving. Highway 19/20 went well, we passed a broken Currie and Crow I think. We also passed several EMC rigs and got into a groove.
At the pits they told us we were second and that Guthrie had 13 minutes on us. They started thrashing on the rig when I told them we were getting out and nut and bolting this whole thing. I'd rather finish later than not finish. 1999's crew and our crew went at it hard and hit every nut and bolt their was to hit on the suspension. We welded the nuts on the radius rods after jamming them again with a pipe wrench and got everything else tight enough. The Nyloc on most of the nuts has been in and out so many times that they were just backing off, so tacks were put in the threads of any nuts that could turn by finger. (prep, right:homer
We spent 17 minutes there, but were off again 30 minutes behind the leader still in second. By the bottom of Jack we were back about 40 minutes per the official there. I was tired of running up and down trails in work boots with new ACL's being broken in trial by fire but knew we needed to keep going to keep second hemmed up. Over to Choc Thunder we sped, taking it easy enough to not break with finish on out mind.
At the bottom I again go out and walked up. We hadn't preran so I got the winch out and in my hand and told him to drive as far as he could. Amazingly he started coming up so I started pulling and we were by the gatekeeper. After that there was an EMC rig on the sharp second climb. They were winching so I ran up and helped the spotter pull cable and engaged his winch for him. After helping them out of the way it was our turn and after 4 or 5 tries we drove the second climb as well with my help on the rope. Matt still wasn't carrying speed and was trying to let the tires work (we aren't on reds anymore, time to climb like RZR's do and carry the fronts over the top). We drove the rest of the trail and the grateful EMC rig let us by.
Wrecking ball was uneventful, I stacked a few rocks prior to him getting there and pulled on the line a few times but we got near the top and saw Guthrie sitting there with a broken ball joint and broken axle. He said they would be in 3 wheel drive from there on out so we are now amazed that we were in 1st. We relaxed out pace a bit more and pressed on, almost driving the fall at the top. A tug from the Warn on to Claw. Down that, up Big Johnson to Boulderdash.
I think this is where I looked back and saw 2 rzrs come back. Uh oh, time to change the pace. So much for 3 wheel drive second place and haven't seen third, now its a race with 30 miles to go. We turned it on through the cross grain and up Elvis, not even slowing down during the rocks. As we exited the top we saw Guthrie hitting the bottom. He's still there, still time to drive.
The rear skid plate was hanging down and dragging as we bottomed the ass like crazy on every G out.
At MM 101 you hit a straight flat rockless stickless wide fast gravel road like we are used to in Kansas. Wide open, time to run. We kicked it up to 73 assuming we had one on us 1 minute back. After 3 miles of this, the right rear tire just exploded. With full faces on it still sounded like an M80 behind us. We went off the road sideways into the bushes all sketched out. I told Matt to keep driving and making dust, but it would only pull 40 mph wide open. We got into some sand and the wheel eventually let all the way go and came apart. Without a jack, I had him beach the trailing arm on a bush and started digging by hand to get the tire off/on. I finally got the old one off, the studs all galled on the way out and the new one was hitting the roots of the bush. We backed up, and I had to dig a new hole. I'm panicking a bit digging as fast as I can throwing sand everywhere. The tire finally goes mostly on but wont line up, still held by sand and roots. I can't get a single nut to start. I took the tire back off again and they still won't start, there are thread pieces from the nuts all over the studs. Not going to be pretty but I shoved it on and started hammering with the impact until 3 of them were stalled out and about to snap off from the torque of the Snap On gun:barf: The 4th wouldnt start.
Just as I was hammering on the last one, Crowdog and Guthrie blew by us. I threw the impact in the floor and dove in, as Matt peeled off, 50/50 rule in effect. The broken wheel inner had taken our brakes from us so the pace was off slightly but as we picked out way through the narrow paths between the big rocks and sand, we kept them in sight. At the sand hill they both went to the second one. That must be the one we want, lets go there! It was indeed one shot easy so we drove up and came into the next turn hot just 15 or so seconds behind them. Without brakes fully there we smoked a rock for the first time all day and popped a right front tire. It was over for us. Even though we started a couple minutes behind the guys in front of us, there was no way to push the last 3 or 5 miles with a flat front and keep the gap less than 2 minutes. Our effort for 1st was over and now we had to finish.
I looked at the time on the GPS and saw that we had 11 minutes to travel 5ish miles over the deepest crossgrain of the day on a flat. 2 or 3 times the wheel directly hit a rock that should have taken a balljoint out or blown the wheel up, but it all held. We were on edge with me yelling at him to drive faster and him yelling at me that we can't, we will break. We both knew what the score was but were both on edge, so close and still an eternity away. As we came over King Mountain we still had a couple minutes to spare and we both breathed a sigh of relief and kicked it on across the finish. With our flat we weren't allowed to go on stage but Miles "Bad Ass" Hasselquist, also of Paola, KS, came down and interviewed us.
Matt blamed his codriver for the flats and thanked his only sponsor, himself:laughing: In truth I did make some parts for him and got him cost on everything so I suppose Atomic Fabworks would count, but that doesn't sound as Jabnasty as, "Nobody." Dave Cole came up and asked Matt if finishing this race was better than riding up the shotcrete WeRock wall in Texas naked on a 50 in a sombrero half a racing lifetime ago, and Matt told him not better, all racing. :laughing:
After that the party was on as it is most nights when we all come together. It was an amazing event, we got so close to first we could taste it, but no worries, that's racing and Guthrie earned his win. Perhaps a new machine and some real prep next year and we'll have a shot, but you have to pay to find out:mr-t:
