Check out this majestic view of 1107 2.0 in front of some mountains ‘n stuff.
Let start this off with a weather report. A 10% chance of rain turned into a 100% chance of rain, sleet, snow and freezing wind. I slept in the front seat of the rental truck, waking up to the largely unfamiliar sound snow makes when it hits your windshield.
1107 on the other hand, doesn’t have a windshield.
But i get ahead of myself. The week prior to departing for VORRA‘s Yerington 300, Bob, Crusty and I began nearly around the clock work to get 1107 ready for the race. We pulled into the pits 6 a.m. Saturday morning (after driving all night) and worked pretty much non-stop til 10 p.m. (when it started snowing) to get the car ready for Sunday morning’s 8 a.m. start time.
We did break long enough to drive into town for tech and contingency. Despite a few minutes of panic over whether you need double D rings on your five point harnesses (you don’t), things went relatively smoothly and everyone in town turned out for the car parade, lead by the local police.
Heston and Bob shimming the doors.
Then it was back to the pits to finish as much as we could before race start. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it – the great thing about racing Class 11 is that everyone helps everyone else out. The Green Booger (1112), Bob Messer Motorsports (1177) and Desert Dawgs (1106) spent time wrenching on the car. Special thanks go out to Heston, who we shanghaied from Two Larrys Racing who worked with us all day Saturday and Sunday morning.
Unfortunately, Crusty busted ass so much he actually broke something and took himself out of the lineup.
It’s like -50 degrees here in the mountains just outside Kabul.
Sunday morning’s snow delayed start time by 30 minutes. Class 9s went first with our good friend Dave Orum getting fresh powder. We were the first of the 11s since we were season points leader and 1107 rolled up to Jason Weaver’s inflatable arch complete with race numbers made out of strips of electrical tape, thank you very much.
The race strategy was to have Heston co-drive the first lap and Don co-drive the second with Bob driving. For laps three and four, I’d shift to co-driving and Heston and Don would get driver seat time.
We were running a new alternator belt and hadn’t taken time to run it for a while to stretch it, so it popped off on Lap One. Bob and Heston removed a shim from the alternator pulley and were good to go. The steering box got loose and was adjusted when they came in to the pits and Heston swapped out for Don Frederick, DDR’s newest team member and Ph.D. candidate in engine stuff at Berkeley. Our GPS was shorting out on Laps One and Two and by the time I got in the car, it was off entirely.
The steering box continued to act up and got re-tightened each time the car came into the pits. We were averaging 5 gallons for each lap and, being the cheapskate I am, I’d drive over to Trick Fuels and buy a couple of gallons to make sure we had enough to make it through the next lap. (Trick Fuels top tip: Mudslide turns regular coffee into race coffee!)
When Heston pulled in at the end of Lap Three, the pit crew spotted a loose ball joint lock nut, which got tightened.
Our intercom shorted out sometime during lap three and by the time Don got in the car for the fourth and final lap, I was reduced to sign language to communicate. Despite that, Don drove like a champion, preserved the car and we took third in class. I forgot to put on a neck donut and this morning my neck feels like a twist tie.
Desert Dawgs got knocked out after one lap, not having carburetor jets that worked for the 6,000-8,000 foot altitude we were racing. We had our aforementioned issues and Green Booger lost time replacing a shock. The Messers ran a near flawless race and not only took the win, but took home the prestigious Bug Invasion II trophy, $20 cash money and a 12-pack of PBR that they won at the inaugural Bug Invasion 1 and never got around to drinking.
A pretty big gallery of photos from this weekend’s race here.
