Last weekends Ultra4 Grand Prix at Glen Helen was jam packed with great racing action. With 85 entrants including 17 UTV's coming from all over the country to compete in an awesome GP format race. The course was fast and challenging with high speed straights, huge hill side sweepers and big up and down hill runs. They literally used the whole park which included the motocross/ enduro and short course.
We have been helping and sponsoring John Duckworth #1920 this season starting with KOH and we set up to pit for him at Glen Helen. John arrived early Friday so we had a little time to talk strategy look over the car and get to the drivers meeting. The first qualifier was set for 12:30 so we got back to the pit and went over the car one last time.
Although the car wasn't perfect John managed to run hard and pulled a second for Saturday's heat race.
Once he got off the track we went to work to prep the car for the next days action. The suspension was working pretty well, but we wanted more out of the rear to suck up the big hits and make it a little plusher through the short stuff. Our Bilstein rep was on site to help us out, so we got the rear shocks off the car and made the move on the valving. Because the new 8125 series are so easy to work on and revalve, we had both shocks done and back on the car in under an hour.
Next was the brakes, they faded on John and the pedal went to the floor during the qualifier which made it really hard to attack the corners and spooky on the big down hills. We checked everything we could but could not find any problems.
Not finding what was going on with the brakes, we moved on to the motor. It had a bad miss and was really crapping out at 4k rpm. John knew that he could run it but he wasn't going to be able to compete with the fast guys on the track. We had brought our XP1000 down for pit support, so the plan was to swap out every part related to fuel and ignition to see if we could isolate the problem. So that's what we did, the list included swapping out the ECM, fuel pump, coil pack, wires, etc.. We even pulled the valve cover to confirm that it hadn't jumped timing. It was getting late and we decided to call it at 11:30 pm because we had to be on the line at 7:30 the next morning and a little rest was in order. The last thing I touched was the coil wires, because we thought they might be damaged. They have a double elbow connector and it didn't seem right. I took it apart, cleaned out some weird build up inside the connector and got it back together.
Saturday morning comes way too fast and we are all a little blurry eyed. We go over the car one more time, fuel it up and get John to the line. This was a 1/2 hour qualifier for the main so our plan was to just keep the car on the track so we could at least get a starting position for the main. John gets out hard and set a nice pace, he gets on the radio and tells me that the car is back and running well, what? This was a great qualifier with John dicing and swapping places with the leader several times, unfortunately his brakes started to fade again which made it hard to keep up the pace. He worked as hard as he could and ended up in second place only 1 second behind the leader.
The main was set for a 12:30 start which gave us some time to go over the car. The car was in good shape except for the brakes. We did what we could, but just could not figure out what was going on with the brakes. So we knocked off all of the mud, fueled up, checked tire pressure etc. and called it good. Looking at the times and knowing there is always attrition in a race like this we knew we could get a podium finish if we kept the car together and on the track.
So the Main starts and John gets a good second place start. He's keeping with and pacing the leader for the first lap until the brakes completely failed him, which made it difficult to run hard. He gave up the second position, but was able to keep the leaders in his sites. This is where it gets crazy.... My wife Mary is very comfortable around the track and knows that racing is a team effort. She was on the motocross part of the track taking pictures while I was spotting up in the grand stands in the short course section. She notices that John had lost his gas cap and was loosing fuel rapidly. She got all the way over to where I was and let me know what was going on. Luckily we had our shop car staged in the hot pits with a spare tire, belt etc.. So I send Mary to our XP and get her to take the gas cap off of our car and be ready for John to pit. I had to let him go one more lap so Mary was ready for him. John gets into the pits and the car is literally sputtering and running out of fuel. Mary starts to put the cap on and John yells out that he is out of fuel and won't finish unless he gets topped off. This is where we find out how close knit the Ultra4 crowd is and ready to help in a moments notice. The Discount Tire crew was staged in the hot pits right next to us, Mary yells out that we need fuel. One of the crew from Discount jumps in the back of his truck grabs a fuel can and tops John off, Mary gets the cap on tight and we were out of the pits in under 3 minutes.
Only one car had passed us in the pits, and I wasn't sure if he was ahead of us, I thought we were looking at third place if we could just keep the car on the track. As John leaves the pits I look back to the tight section just outside the short course and I think I see the leaders both down with mechanical issues. They had been pushing hard and the track got the best of them. I get on the radio and tell John to keep up the best pace he can, but it looks like you in a good place and save the car where you can.
John did a great job of keeping the car together, he completed 9 laps by the end of the hour race which was one more lap than the second place finisher. He was fast enough and the car held together to get the first place finish!!
This was truly a war of attrition, with many being the victim of broken cv's, axles, suspension components, trannies and broken belts. One of the guys in the Discount camp said he went through 6 belts between the qualifiers and the main, Ouch!
We set Johns car up with the Bilsteins that proved their worth, they worked perfectly absorbing the harshest hits maintaining good contact with the track greatly reducing the shock load on the drive components. The addition of our CVT cooling system also worked to keep belt temps in check and John was able to drive the car hard and never worry about belt fade or failure any time during the race.
This was truly a team effort, and just confirms that preparation, hard driving and lady luck all play a part in off road racing.
We want to thank Ultra4 for putting on a great race as well as all of the volunteers that keep us safe on the track (couldn't do it with out them). As for all of the racers in all of the classes thanks for welcoming us and making us feel like part of the family.
We have been helping and sponsoring John Duckworth #1920 this season starting with KOH and we set up to pit for him at Glen Helen. John arrived early Friday so we had a little time to talk strategy look over the car and get to the drivers meeting. The first qualifier was set for 12:30 so we got back to the pit and went over the car one last time.
Although the car wasn't perfect John managed to run hard and pulled a second for Saturday's heat race.
Once he got off the track we went to work to prep the car for the next days action. The suspension was working pretty well, but we wanted more out of the rear to suck up the big hits and make it a little plusher through the short stuff. Our Bilstein rep was on site to help us out, so we got the rear shocks off the car and made the move on the valving. Because the new 8125 series are so easy to work on and revalve, we had both shocks done and back on the car in under an hour.
Next was the brakes, they faded on John and the pedal went to the floor during the qualifier which made it really hard to attack the corners and spooky on the big down hills. We checked everything we could but could not find any problems.
Not finding what was going on with the brakes, we moved on to the motor. It had a bad miss and was really crapping out at 4k rpm. John knew that he could run it but he wasn't going to be able to compete with the fast guys on the track. We had brought our XP1000 down for pit support, so the plan was to swap out every part related to fuel and ignition to see if we could isolate the problem. So that's what we did, the list included swapping out the ECM, fuel pump, coil pack, wires, etc.. We even pulled the valve cover to confirm that it hadn't jumped timing. It was getting late and we decided to call it at 11:30 pm because we had to be on the line at 7:30 the next morning and a little rest was in order. The last thing I touched was the coil wires, because we thought they might be damaged. They have a double elbow connector and it didn't seem right. I took it apart, cleaned out some weird build up inside the connector and got it back together.
Saturday morning comes way too fast and we are all a little blurry eyed. We go over the car one more time, fuel it up and get John to the line. This was a 1/2 hour qualifier for the main so our plan was to just keep the car on the track so we could at least get a starting position for the main. John gets out hard and set a nice pace, he gets on the radio and tells me that the car is back and running well, what? This was a great qualifier with John dicing and swapping places with the leader several times, unfortunately his brakes started to fade again which made it hard to keep up the pace. He worked as hard as he could and ended up in second place only 1 second behind the leader.
The main was set for a 12:30 start which gave us some time to go over the car. The car was in good shape except for the brakes. We did what we could, but just could not figure out what was going on with the brakes. So we knocked off all of the mud, fueled up, checked tire pressure etc. and called it good. Looking at the times and knowing there is always attrition in a race like this we knew we could get a podium finish if we kept the car together and on the track.
So the Main starts and John gets a good second place start. He's keeping with and pacing the leader for the first lap until the brakes completely failed him, which made it difficult to run hard. He gave up the second position, but was able to keep the leaders in his sites. This is where it gets crazy.... My wife Mary is very comfortable around the track and knows that racing is a team effort. She was on the motocross part of the track taking pictures while I was spotting up in the grand stands in the short course section. She notices that John had lost his gas cap and was loosing fuel rapidly. She got all the way over to where I was and let me know what was going on. Luckily we had our shop car staged in the hot pits with a spare tire, belt etc.. So I send Mary to our XP and get her to take the gas cap off of our car and be ready for John to pit. I had to let him go one more lap so Mary was ready for him. John gets into the pits and the car is literally sputtering and running out of fuel. Mary starts to put the cap on and John yells out that he is out of fuel and won't finish unless he gets topped off. This is where we find out how close knit the Ultra4 crowd is and ready to help in a moments notice. The Discount Tire crew was staged in the hot pits right next to us, Mary yells out that we need fuel. One of the crew from Discount jumps in the back of his truck grabs a fuel can and tops John off, Mary gets the cap on tight and we were out of the pits in under 3 minutes.
Only one car had passed us in the pits, and I wasn't sure if he was ahead of us, I thought we were looking at third place if we could just keep the car on the track. As John leaves the pits I look back to the tight section just outside the short course and I think I see the leaders both down with mechanical issues. They had been pushing hard and the track got the best of them. I get on the radio and tell John to keep up the best pace he can, but it looks like you in a good place and save the car where you can.
John did a great job of keeping the car together, he completed 9 laps by the end of the hour race which was one more lap than the second place finisher. He was fast enough and the car held together to get the first place finish!!
This was truly a war of attrition, with many being the victim of broken cv's, axles, suspension components, trannies and broken belts. One of the guys in the Discount camp said he went through 6 belts between the qualifiers and the main, Ouch!
We set Johns car up with the Bilsteins that proved their worth, they worked perfectly absorbing the harshest hits maintaining good contact with the track greatly reducing the shock load on the drive components. The addition of our CVT cooling system also worked to keep belt temps in check and John was able to drive the car hard and never worry about belt fade or failure any time during the race.
This was truly a team effort, and just confirms that preparation, hard driving and lady luck all play a part in off road racing.
We want to thank Ultra4 for putting on a great race as well as all of the volunteers that keep us safe on the track (couldn't do it with out them). As for all of the racers in all of the classes thanks for welcoming us and making us feel like part of the family.