Crusty and Dave. American Badasses.
It’s hard to know where to start a race report on last weekend’s VORRA USA 500. First, the team. Project Baja‘s Josh, Evan and Matt drove out from Colorado to help with pitting. Ryan and Alyshia with Team Drake Racing offered to manage a pit for us. Emme Hall of MegaMonkey Motorsports came in to drive. Dingos Crusty, Dave and Toby filled out the roster.
We gathered at Desert Dingo Racing Reno HQ (also know as Dogg and Ginger’s place in Reno) Friday morning and headed out to the staging area to take a look at a steep hill at RM 3 we’d been told might be a challenge for us. It was. Two sets of driver and co-driver could not make it up, so I relayed that to Race Steward George Henley and asked whether there was an alternate route. He came through and devised a new route that avoided the worst of the hill. We raced home, had a team dinner courtesy of Roxanne, raced back to Fernley City Hall for the driver’s meeting and then split up between camping in the staging area, getting hotel rooms, stringing a hammock between 1107 and a car and heading back to Reno for a last night of sleep before staging for the start at 5:30 a.m.
Ryan Drake tells Race Steward George Henley “You mess with the bull, you get the horns” at the start of the USA 500.
We were the first car off the line at 6:30 a.m. with Crusty driving and Ryan co-dogging for us for the first time. We have our co-dogs call out route miles so we can calculate radio ranges and just to have someone to talk to. When they came into radio range of Pit 1 at RM40, the first thing Ryan reported was “Crusty’s sick.’ Not a good report for someone who is expected to drive 152 miles before handing over the car. It turned out to be a passing thing, we gave 1107 five gallons of race fuel and they headed back out onto the course.
The course from Pit 1 past Pit 2 to Pit 3 is technical in some stretches, but otherwise fast and I was clocking 1107 at speeds of 60 mph on some of the power line sections. Green Booger – our arch rivals – were hitting 70 mph on some of the same sections.
Crusty and Ryan delivered a solid car to Pit 3, Project Baja got 1107 fueled and Emme took over as driver with newest Dingo team member Toby (who I found on Craigslist) coming is as co-dog. Emme put 1107 on its side the first time chasing down Meeks Motorsports No. 1142.
VORRA gave us the green light to send a chase truck out once some of the faster traffic cleared. Toby had been doing yeoman’s work to get the car righted,
Toby discovers the limits of leverage. Also, I never thought to use the light bar bracket as a jacking point. Good thinking.
By the time Project Baja pulled up, 1107 was rubber side down courtesy of a passing buggie. PBJ tightened a few things up, added some oil and they were off. Within a mile, Emme put the car on its side again, losing control in a silt bed.
Project Baja’s Evan to the rescue.
Back on course, they made it a few more miles before Emme burned the clutch out attempting to climb a hill. We got a recovery vehicle out to the car and they began limping it toward Pit 1.
By this time my frustration was pretty high. 1107 made it to the pits, the incredible team from Pro Pits went to work on the car, installing and adjusting a new clutch cable and hoping that would get us back on the road, but 100 yards after leaving the pits, Toby reported they couldn’t shift and we sent a truck out to tow it back.
At this point I threw in the towel, told everyone at Pit 3 to pack it up and head head back to us and let VORRA know that we couldn’t continue the race. The idea of spending hours well into the night pulling the engine to replace the burned clutch and maybe get in a few miles was not something I wanted to put the team through.
Dave Dougherty, however, would have none of that. Charging into Pit 1, he gave me an epic “Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?!” speech and within two minutes convinced me to let everyone get the car back on the course.
At one point I counted 15 people working on the car simultaneously.
What happened next can hardly be captured in words. The team, Pro Pits, and anyone who had ever wrenched on a VW descended on 1107.
Engine out to access the clutch.
One team went to work on dropping the engine and replacing the clutch. Everyone else focused on everything else. Welding the A pillar back together. Completely rewiring the driving lights and adding new ones. Even filling the Camelbaks.
Project Baja’s Josh (on the roof) and Evan (doing something with the fender).
Even Cody from our arch rivals Two Larrys Racing helped wire the driving lights. (He also made cinnamon toast and bacon for Roxanne and me Saturday morning at Pit 1).
I’d put my team up against Chad Knaus’ people any day.
At 10:32 p.m. 1107 was buttoned up, Dave and Toby suited up and they tore off into the night. VORRA said we had til 1:32 a.m. to make 155 miles if we wanted to be green lighted for a third lap. Everyone waved and cheered as they drove off, promptly missed the turn to get back on the course and headed over a ridge toward the start finish line. The cheering turned to screams for them to turn around.
I stood watching the dimming glow of their driving lights. And said “Fuck.”
Cody with Two Larrys Racing (did I mention they’re our arch rivals?) grabbed me and said “I have a radio.”
We ran across the pits to their Suburban, I dialed in our frequency and said “Guys, if you can hear me, you have to turn around. You missed the turn to get on the course and now you’re headed for the finish line.”
Nothing.
And then there were two clicks.
I got back on the radio and said “Guys, if you heard me, key the mic two more times.”
“Click. Click.”
I hung my head.
Five minutes later we saw the glow of their driving lights coming back over the ridge line and everyone cheered. I was behind the BF Goodrich trailer dry heaving.
Dave and Toby drove through the night. The driving lights shorted out and came back on at random intervals. The visor broke loose. The one remaining rear view mirror fell off. The GPS short circuited then fell into Toby’s lap. Dave told him “Don’t drop that. It’s the most expensive thing in the car.”
“You can let go of the GPS now, Toby. Let go. LET GO.”
Dave and Toby flew into the pits one final time, the second to last car on the course. We overfilled the gas tank one last time and sent them over the ridge line. With one mile to go they saw Race Steward George Henley waving the checkered flag “like it was NASCAR” and they rolled across the finish line, completing 386 of the 541 miles.
Unfortunately, the two rollovers and the burnt clutch have effectively taken us out of the running for season points champion. It will take weeks to repair the damage to 1107. We should, however, be ready in time for the Night Vision 250 at Fallon in September.
Thanks to Paul Schaffer for the shot of 1107 on the home page. Project Baja has their write up here and a bazillion photos here. We also want to thank Dogg and Ginger for opening their home to all of us for a few days (and for the “Baja Bugs and Buggies” book). And thanks to Winston Churchill for the great quote.
Update: In case you didn’t hear, Crusty had a blowout on I-80 out near the USA Parkway, blew two tires and damaged the fender on his ’51 Advanced Design Chevy rat rod race hauler. He’s fine and the truck is coming back together. I want to thank Wes and Jenny, Bonz, Nathan, the VORRA racing family, all our burner friends and particularly Matt Myres for their help and support in getting Crusty back on the road.
P.P.S. Cody, I’m sorry I called you Cory all weekend.