So the hole experience was pretty amazing. This was my first UTV race, and I had no idea how hard the rock crawling parts were going to be, so I asked Bob Roggy if he was interested in driving. It was his first UTV race, but he races jeep speed in the Baja and has also competed in rock crawling series and all of the King of the Hammers racing. Bob also did all the cage work and a lot of the assembly.
We arrive Sunday night after midnight and went to work the next day to finish everything up. Our schedule was real tight in part because we didn't have much time to begin with, and also because we found out the Teryx had a blown head gasket two weeks before the race.
After getting things all buttoned up on Tuesday afternoon, we went for a bit longer pre-run. All seemed well until we headed back through a rocky section and ended up blowing out the right front-outside CV. Thankfully, Mike Lasher from Side x Side Action was with us and he had a spare front axle in his trailer. We swapped it out easy enough, but it was dark by the time we finished.
7AM driver's meeting. There were 5 UTV that had shown up. Several more had paid for spots, but didn't show, or said they would be there and didn't. Here was the lineup:
-Jagged X had their 1919 BITD RZR
- Casey Currie was driving a long travel Teryx with stock fuel tank in the rear and boat sided skid
- Mitch Guthrie was racing a long travel RZR
- Jon Bundrant was racing a RZR S
- Me and Bob Roggy in a stock arm Teryx
- Someone else started 45 minutes late in something like a Marshall side x side, but it folded the front end about 100 yards into the race.
We were the only car with stock arms, so we suffered a bit in the whoops and also from lower ground clearance.
First 35 miles of the course was the same as the buggies ran on Friday. We started 1st and were passed by Jagged X at about mile 10 or so. By the time we got to the sand/rock hill climb at mile 19 it was pretty tight - three RZRs up front, then us. Currie was behind us somewhere. We took a different route up the sand hill, and ended up busting a wheel on a hidden rock. Swapped the tire out on the hill, and lost lots of time. We had one spare with us, so we headed out and had our pit crew go back to camp to get another and meet us at the top of Aftershock (about mile 33 or so). Well about 5 miles before Aftershock, we blew another tire. Soon after we were passed by Currie. Could not get in touch with our chase team so we limped ahead for 4 mile on the wheel until we came across Currie's chase and also Bundrant. Bundrant's RZR S was dead with a blown front diff. Currie's team
had a spare, so we swapped it out and headed closer to the entrance to Aftershock.
That is when I noticed steam. We had overheated. quickly determined the fan wasn't working, but it took another 20 minutes or more to hard wire the fan. Then we were on our way. I decided to stay out and spot. What a workout! I basically spotted and ran up the rocks to the top of Aftershock. Bob rolled it once, but there were enough people to roll it back over real easy.
Then a bit more desert before hitting Lower Big Johnson. At the bottom, there was some blow sand on the side to skirt some of the rocks. Bob took that route, which looked to be a good decision until the sand met the rocks. Had to carry too much speed to get through the sand, but hit the rocks and rolled. No one around, and it was a bit down hill, so we pulled out the winch and flopped it back over. From there it was pretty smooth sailing all the way back to the finish line. I think the entire course was 45 - 50 miles.
Currie blew out low gear, somewhere before or on Aftershock. Then after Lower Big Johnson, he lost high. Rolled the last 5 miles of desert in reverse.
Guthrie won in his long travel RZR, but I heard the RZR was torn up bad. It wouldn't have lasted much longer.
The Jagged X RZR held up fine, but I think they determined that it was a bit heavy for this type of race.
Even though we suffered lots of problems on the course, our Teryx was in decent shape when we made it across the finish line. The only other car that could have gone much further was Jagged X, so that makes me feel good.
Overall, I think we could have done a lot better with stronger wheels and better tires. Long travel would have helped too. Raising up the sides by putting the fuel tank in the rear is a good idea. We just ran out of time to do anything more than we did.
Would have been better if more rigs would have shown up, but I am glad we raced.
Rich Klein is talking about puttin on some more races next Fall.
More coverage:
LIVE COVERAGE! King of the Hammers Side X Side Race | Side X Side Action
UTV Guide - 2009 King of the Hammers
