Best In The Desert Off-Road Event
Race Updates From The Road (most recent entries on top)
Sunday, August 24th - 10:44 AM (Vegas Time) - "Saturday in Vegas"
Yesterday we all slept in to recover from our very long day on Friday. We then were able to do a little sight-seeing in the afternoon. We went to look at some of the very elaborate hotel/casinos and rode a roller coaster in New York New York. Then we went to the Stratosphere on the end of the strip, which rises over 1,000 feet in the air. We went up to the observation deck on the 108th floor. Then Cliff and I took the elevator up to the top of the building, the 112th floor, which was outdoors. We rode “The Big Shot” on top of the building, which shot us up to 1,150 feet in the air and dropped us back near the building several times. We were both scared half to death, but it was such a rush!
Now it’s Sunday and we are sitting in the airport ready to go back to Charlotte. Jerry showed us a great time out here in Vegas, and it was a great opportunity to experience off-road racing, although I am looking forward to being back home.
Saturday, August 23rd - 11:30 AM (Vegas Time) - "Off-Road Racing 101"
In the drivers’ meeting they showed us a video from last year’s race. It was very helpful to get an idea of the terrain, but we also watched a quad car flip, which reminded us to be cautious tomorrow. The officials went over the race rules, and then we were dismissed. I am now back in my hotel room, about to go to bed because we have to get up very early again tomorrow, and are probably facing a 12 hour race. We should be leaving the starting line around noon, which is 3 p.m. EST. You can follow along with the race at http://www.racetheworld.net/ircstore/. We already have built a great chemistry with our teammate Jessica, so we are all really looking forward to the race. Now all we need is a little luck to finish the race through the desert tomorrow and end up in Reno!
Wednesday, August 20th - 5:00 PM Eastern Time
Heading to Vegas!
Today I leave to go to Las Vegas, NV for my first off-road race. It also happens to be the longest off-road race in the United States. I’m really looking forward to the race, and I think it will be a lot of fun! I think it is going to be a scorcher tomorrow and Friday, but I have been working outside on my conditioning so that I will be able to handle the heat.
I fly out tonight at about 7 p.m. I’m not looking forward to the long flight – spending 4 hours on a plane is not my favorite thing - but I can’t wait to get to Vegas! My main focus once I get there will be to go to sleep as fast as possible because we have to get up very early tomorrow to get in the technical inspection line with the truck. I am planning to talk to a lot of the other drivers while we are in line and get some tips from them for the race. I’m also going to find out if there is a way that you can follow our race on the internet since all the vehicles have GPS systems on-board, so I should have some more news tomorrow!
We arrived at the start line early yesterday morning. Jessica and I got ready to race, as I was driving first and she was navigating for me. Cliff helped get our GPS system working, and then we were ready to go. We lined up with the other trucks, and were spaced out a minute apart. We took off as soon as they gave us the signal and headed into terrain that was rougher than any of us were expecting. We started bouncing hard through the silt bottoming out frequently as our truck did not have as much suspension travel as the ruts and ruts we were encountering. We got stuck when we bottomed out hard around Mile 1.5. Right near us was a quad car who had flipped in the same area. I had to climb under the truck and shovel out the rear suspension, and then we had to jack up the rear bumper and put rocks under
The truck at the staging area on Race Day.
the tires in order to drive away. The guys from the flipped car helped us dig out as race trucks slid around us. After we got out, we hooked a tow rope to one of the quad car’s nerf bars and flipped them back over so that they could continue the race as well. As we continued, the terrain kept getting rougher and Jessica and I were just trying to hold on.
After bottoming out several times, we lost our automatic transmission, and the truck would only drive at 15 mph. We had to pull over as soon as we found a somewhat flat area to let a couple of trucks behind us go since we were travelling so slowly. When we did, we got stuck again and didn’t quite have enough power to get out. As we started working on getting ourselves out again, I saw flames under the truck. We think the automatic transmission caught fire from being over-worked. The dry desert brush around the truck caught on fire also. We grabbed our fire extinguisher, and the drivers from another truck stuck near us came running with theirs, and we worked to put the fire out with fire extinguishers and shoveling dirt. We ran out of fire extinguishers when the fire was out everywhere except for the RF tire. We continued shoveling dirt on it, but the fire kept coming back stronger and stronger. No one else was coming by us at this point, because everyone was either already
past us or stuck way behind us. We also had no radio contact with race control or the chase truck the entire time, and our cell phones were way out of service range, so we couldn’t call for help. We finally lost control of the fire and had to watch as the truck went up in flames. The Best in the Desert officials finally came about 30 minutes after we had to give up fighting the fire, while Jessica and I had already started walking to try and find help. The officials were able to put out the desert fire, which had spread rapidly through all the dry brush, but the truck was too far gone at that point. We rode out of the desert with the officials, and were able to meet up with Cliff, Jerry, and Jessica’s mom at the pit stop. We all went back out to the race course where the truck was located later in the afternoon, and looked at the damage. The truck was unsalvageable.
We were all very disappointed with how the race turned out and the loss of our truck. However, we were able to learn a lot of valuable lessons and give Jerry some good advice on what the truck needed in order to be more competitive and survive the terrain. We discussed how it needed more suspension travel, a beefier drive train, and manual transmission. Jerry was glad that he got to see the terrain because it was much more treacherous than we had all imagined before the start of the race. He knows he will be better prepared for the next race thanks to our experiences at this one.
Thursday, August 21st - 9:56 PM (Vegas Time)
The truck after we lost control of the fire.
Cliff and I landed in Vegas last night and went to bed after getting to our hotel and watching Misty May-Treanor and Kerry Walsh win gold in Beach Volleyball. We had to get up early this morning and face a very long day. Along with our teammate, Jessica Brannam, her mom, and our team owner, Jerry Moskel, we waited in line for almost 2 hours to complete registration for the race. Then we headed outside to face the heat and waited several more hours in the tech inspection line. Some of the trucks and quads we saw in line were pretty incredible. In all there are about 320 race vehicles competing in the race. We finally made it to tech, where our #8030 Ford F-250 passed easily, and had time to grab dinner before heading to the drivers’ meeting.
Jessica, me, and Cliff on Tech Day.
From Tiff
