My second race.

[standfast]

Raced a local New Mexico race yesterday put on by ODR. It was only a little over an hour from my house. Never ran the course before so it was fun to go into it blind. We got one prerun lap and then we were off. I started off the line 2nd behind the only class 1 car that entered. It was the 107 Schampa sponsored Rigsby Racing class 1 car. We were off the line with a 30 second split between cars. We got off to a really good pace. The course was pretty damn fast for the most part. New that was gonna be hard on the chain right away since I am waiting on the gears to change up my RPM/chain speed in fast sections from RPM. We caught the class 1 on the first lap in a real sandy wash. Once we got out of it into the next high speed section he churned up massive dust and I had to lay off. That car could really move once it gets some open air but in the techincal stuff we were competitive. Unfortunately, this course provided plenty of breathing room for that 600hp beast. A couple laps in they pitted for some reason and we took over the lead. We saw him creeping up in a high speed section and I got excited and started to push harder to try to stay ahead until we got back to that wash so I could gain a little. Well, I pushed too hard, blew a corner bad and hit a cactus at about 50 mph. It was a MESS. We were covered in cacuts. It was very painful. It took us awhile to get all the catus off our laps to even climb out of the car. Had to pull the firesuits and pick out tons of thorns. Then clean out the cactus from the inside of the car. It was A LOT that made it in. Hell some of it is still in there as I type this. We get the car and ourselves to the point we felt we could continue. Just gettin poked a bit here and there but not unbearable. We lost about 20 minutes in this event. Well we continued on and then I start to here a bunch of noise from the rear. Something to do with the chain, we made it back to our pits since I wanted to fuel at that point anyway. We jumped out of the car to check the chain. Every o-ring in the chain was burned up and had tons of slack in the chain. It was cooked. Slapped a new chain on very quickly while taking fuel and getting a drink. We got back out there. A bit later on a fast section coming up on a 90 degree turn I went to apply the brakes and had nothing. We blew the turn and then saw the drivers front wheel flop off to the side. Damn it! The plate that the spindle spud was welded to tore off. Not on the welds, The plate itself just tore off. Got the car off the course, got the wheel off, took the lower shock bolts off, strapped up the suspension. Got back on course to come through in third on a GP finish. What a mess of a race but hey, we still got third and prize money. All the buggies were all in the same class due since there was not enough to make a bunch of classes. The class 1 obviously won, a 12 car took 2nd and we mustered up a 3rd despite all of our issues. More stuff to work on.

Here is some in car video of the first lap in two parts. Put it in full screen mode, you'll think you are the co-dog!

part 1
Lap1 Part1 ODR 7-25-09 on Vimeo

part 2
Lap1 Part2 ODR 7-25-09 on Vimeo

[ba450crf]

Very nice! Congrads on your finish, sounds like an adventure. Cactus can be very painful, I had a tangle with one on a mtn bike once. I feel your pain. Your car is awesome, by the way, I am anxious to finish mine, but it will take some time. Congrads again!

[Gene]

Great video. Must have been very moticating to get into his dust. Car sounds awesome. Congratulations!

[el diablo]

Wow!! Nice video, and catching that Class 1 was great!

[rowycoracing]

Hey CONGRATULATIONS! The video is great ... I always liked the video of buggies in action. Makes me want to load mine up and go out to the desert every time I watch one! Great job battling through the issues you had and coming in third.

[millbilly]

Nice vid. Don't know if I would say anything about killing a cactus...(Would like to have seen it.) There might be cactus hugger out there, Looking to shut the racing down.lol In the NW their is a hugger for everthing.

[standfast]

Originally Posted by el diablo

Wow!! Nice video, and catching that Class 1 was great!

It was pretty cool but that monster LS7 was a bit much for us in the straights. Especially with my current gearing.

Originally Posted by millbilly

Nice vid. Don't know if I would say anything about killing a cactus...(Would like to have seen it.) There might be cactus hugger out there, Looking to shut the racing down.lol In the NW their is a hugger for everthing.

No worries about that here. The cactus here is like big weeds. Nothing like those things in AZ that people seem to love. Its the ones with all the branches. They grow to about 5' and about 3'-4' wide with the branch things shooting off. One section of the course was just lined with them on both sides of the road for miles and miles. No one could even notice one gone. You do notice one when you are covered in it though. Hell, I don't think they even live that long. They just pop up like weeds, die, dry out and new ones keep coming. This is a heavily offroaded area and those cactus get mowed down non stop.

[yoshi]

you mean they don't look like this?

[K-fab]

Great stuff once again, Skyler.

Ah the wonderful cactus ride. LOL!!! Nasty things once you tangle with them. (but I do like the little beasties as long as they don't try to hitch a ride.)

I've not watched the videos yet, but the pix look like it could have been Snowflake.

Congrats on another great racing adventure!

[bajaBrothers]

Congratulations on your second race and podium finish. Those teddy bear cactus are a biotch they seem to hurt more when you take them out than when they puncture. They also seem to explode like a grenade when "disturbed". What gear ratio are you running now and what are putting in? we just changed the gears on my car from 8:1 to 6:1. I am going to test today. Did you have a fan setup on the chain or any other cooling aperatus?
Great video as well. That is a very good testament that you could keep up with the class one. They are very fast powerful and expensive cars. Usually not home made either. You should be very proud of you car. On the upright issue: what material is your upright made out of ? I had some issues a while back with that plate bending in around the weld. I have since then made new uprights out of 4130 and tigged. Very big difference in material strength. On the old ones I was also cracking the seems. You can hear the difference in strength by tapping them and listening to the harmonics. Keep up the good work and try not to hit the cactus man you know they have feelings too. Ha Ha actually you probabely propagated the crap out of that one bush. I bet its gonna start growing in your car if you dont get it all out.