RACE REPORT: Knolls 250

With Bonneville Off-road Racing

WHAT A RACE!!!!

This race was a fun one but let me get something out of the way real quick.

I should have put a race report out for the Jackpot 300, and I failed to do that. We didn’t finish that race as we lost many parts, and I had to scramble to get the car back together and fix all the broken issues. I’m also starting a new job and moving, which means buying and selling houses, which is a nightmare in this market. These are all poor excuses, but it’s why you didn’t see a race report from Jackpot 300.

On to good news. WE FINISHED.

This race was supposed to be 250 miles at night, but due to a miscommunication with the BLM, it became the Knolls at (K)Noon. We arrived Thursday to set up and relax. Since Jackpot, we have partnered with three other race teams to share resources and formed the Team Utah group. Knowing we had a big group coming, I arrived early to stake a claim to a large section of pit row. That evening Jake from Woodnerlust Racing in the 910 showed up, followed shortly by our good friend Dave with D&D racing in the 909. Jake has been our chief mechanic for the whole season thus far but has got his car together to race and Can not possibly be prouder of him, and his 2^nd place finish in the Sportsman class in his first outing. Dave nailed down a 3^rd place finish in the same class. The fourth member of our Dynamic Quattro ran in PRO Turbo with me and was piloted by Robert from Borrowed Parts Racing. Unfortunately, Robert’s secondary decided racing was over for the day in a fantastic way, and there was no repair possible on the lake bed.

And now, let us talk about the 908 of Off Map Racing. Cut to the chase, 9^th out of 18, but we are stoked because this 9^th is after getting our butts kicked by more broken parts. Right after lap one, we pitted for a splash of gas. As we took off right at the end of pit row, the primary bolt for our new STM clutch decided to shear off. The TEAM UTAH crew was on it, and we had a diagnosis and pull back to our pit in minutes. The crew started tearing the old stuff out and drill the broken part out of the primary. Luckily, we had a factory clutch in a box and could swap it in reasonably quickly and get back on course. This clutch was not set up for the car, so the alignment was off, and weights were not set for the car, so we lost quite a bit off the top end and had to manage our belt temps constantly, but we were still in the race.

30miles from completing our lap three, the right rear axle gave out and put the car in limp mode. We ran it with a max speed of 40mph on the other three axles. Pulling into the pit, the crew from Team Utah killed it again, swapping out an axle while I cleared the codes. In no time at all, we were back on course, trying to gain a few spots back. The last lap was uneventful, and we came to the finish with a 9^th place finish in class. We started 12^th and worked our way up the order well on that first lap. Breaking down gave up all the positions that we fought for, and with the sub-optimal clutching in the car, we could not run anyone down on the straights as we had during lap 1. Is 9^th  place where we wanted to finish this race? No. But we are pleased with the finish. It’s still a decent amount of points considering the class size, and with the adversity experienced, it could have been worse. And after our huge disappointment at Jackpot, we are just happy to finish at all. There is one more race in this organization’s series.

We are looking forward to the Pony Express 400 on October 9^th. 110 mile laps is going to be a huge undertaking.

Big thank you to the people who helped get us here.

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