I'm not the King of the Hammers, but for all the fun and laughs I had racing, I probably qualified to be the Jester of the Hammers. I spent the weeks prior to KOH buttoning up the Fun Buggy to transform it from a trail buggy to a race rig. I knew going into this race that crossing the finish line in front of some of the biggest names in rockcrawling/racing would be a long shot, but having always wanted to be a "professional" race truck driver I was going to give it my all.
I arrived in the desert three days prior to the race hoping to get a few shakedown runs in the buggy. But the first day was spent figuring out things like where to store tools, which tools to take along since no outside help would be allowed other than in the designated pits, and finally should we (my copilot Dave and I) take a spare tire or the ARB fridge freezer in the race since only one would fit. (We took the tire, but in the end, since we had no flats with the prototype 40x14.50R17 BFGoodrich Krawlers, we should have taken the cooler.)
Since the buggy was racing during the day I removed everything that wasn't needed, such as the windshield, roof rack, and extra off-road lights. I was given the course map a few days early, but since Dave, the owner of Poly Performance, wasn't there yet and I was busy final-prepping the Fun Buggy, I didn't get to prerun. Plus I figured if something broke during a prerun then I'd be scrambling to fix it before the actual race, and in the end this was a good choice. Apparently this is why real desert racers have a separate prerunner to go learn the course in, and a designated race truck that doesn't get beat up before the green flag drops.
DJ Dave and I at the starting...
DJ Dave and I at the starting line, just a little nervous with what we were about to do.
LCQ And Tech Inspection
Thursday was the last-chance qualifiers (LCQ) competition, where drivers who hadn't qualified through other events during the year could race a short course. The drivers with the 14 best times were given spots in the main race on Friday. I had been given a Media Muckity Muck spot (meaning I was invited to race because I have a ready trail rig and I would be telling you all my escapades, not because I'm some superstar driver) and didn't need to qualify, so I shot some photos of the guys just hammering on their rigs while trying for the last few positions. There was a fair bit of carnage in that short course and I began to wonder if I was really ready to be out racing with these maniacs.
The end of Thursday was contingency and tech inspection. Contingency is where companies look for racers to run their logos, and in exchange they offer money or prizes if you win or come across the finish line in a particular spot. Some even had prizes for the first to break their car or the last team to actually cross the finish line. Tech inspection went pretty smooth as well. I had to have multiple fire extinguishers, first aid kits, both fuel and electrical shut-off switches-as well as catch cans so no fluids could heat up and overflow onto the trail-and safely nets to keep appendages inside the cage in case of a rollover.
When racing hits the rocks...
When racing hits the rocks you start seeing things you might not consider too sportsmanlike, such as drivers passing on crazy lines, rubbing, and even driving over each other, but that's racing. If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.
Read To Race
Friday morning I was wide awake at 5:30 in anticipation of the 8 a.m. start of the race. I dressed up in my race suit and headed to the start line with my buggy. I had a great group of friends come from as far away as Texas and Colorado to be my pit crew, and everyone was ready to lend a hand and hopefully see Team Fun Buggy cross the finish line. We divvied up all the spare parts, tools, and tires amongst a couple different trucks and made sure everyone was on the same channel as my Rugged Race Products radio. Then we headed to the starting line.
The race had a total of 92 vehicles, with two leaving every 30 seconds. I had drawn position 80, far enough in the back of the pack not to get lost, but also setting ourselves up for possible traffic jams in the rocky portions of the race. I was lined up with Damen Jefferies, a Baja desert racer sponsored by K&N Air Filters who had borrowed a rock buggy to race in KOH. Luckily I had one of the company's filters under the hood of the Fun Buggy and was in the lead off the line with the Fun Buggy's ZZ383 screaming. (Damen passed me about 50 yards later, and I never saw him again.)
We Were Finally Racing!
Fun Buggy was working great. I was trying to keep it on the course, and Dave was jamming out to some music on his iPod. Yes, Dave had figured out how to wire his iPod into our race radio intercom so we had tunes for most of the race. Some racers might find this distracting, but then they don't drive a Fun Buggy with the emphasis on Fun.
Most stories about racing usually start with "I was in the lead until such-and-such happened," but I'm not sure I can even say that. I do know we only had to go 82 miles across some tough desert and insane rock trails to finish this race. But as they say, you have to finish to win, and I thought we would have no problem simply finishing. But to say I was ever in the lead is probably a bigger fish story than even I can spin. By mile 3 I had seen at least five cars broken down and I was getting nervous, and then the antennae for our race radio rolled across the hood and off the car into the dirt-the same antennae that had been attached to the back of the rollcage. That was going to be a problem.
I was trying to drive, watch the Lowrance GPS, follow the course, and figure out why the antennae had broken off when around mile 8 the buggy just shut off. We coasted to the side of the course and I cranked the ignition but got nothing. My first thought was a fuel issue, so I hopped out to examine the fuel cell. Now "hopped out" isn't really accurate because when racing we each had a helmet with race radio and fresh air hosed in, plus five-point harnesses and window nets for added safety. I felt safe, but getting in or out quickly is a bit of a Houdini trick. Upon inspection I found that the spare tire, which was just strapped in place in the rear, had bounced around and allowed one of the tool bags to slide down the rear radiator and shut off the fuel valve. The tire had also broken off the antennae, which was now lost in the desert around mile 3. I repacked all the gear, switched the fuel back on, put on all my safety gear, and had Dave find some different music, and we were back in the race.