Success! Well sort of
Made it through all 6 laps, total of a little over 30 miles.
Very dry dusty day with temps in the 90s. Total ATV/UTV field of 78 racers, ran with a commander, and two razors in the UTV class.
Had the hole shot off the starting line only to shift the wrong way and go from first back to neutral
. and go from first to last. First lap was going to be a mellow one anyway to see what the engine/transmission could do, so i wasn't bothered by it too much.
Got to the hillclimb gulch and had a motorcycle park right in my line at the bottom, which was the only dry way through, so not knowing if it would pull the climb without a run i punched it through the mudhole and promptly covered myself with muddy water--no tear-offs, = prescription glasses and eyes fubared
and engine a little bogged out from the bath.
Once i got the engine to rev again, it pulled the hill in first pretty well.
about 1/4 mile after that came the dusty field runs from hell. Visibility was about zero and already getting lapped and massively dust roosted by the bikes and 4 stroke quads. slow going. (several big collision wrecks out there in the jeep/truck classes and one ATV rider missed a corner at the fastest part and went off in a big way. He wasn't found until he woke from the wreck and rode out about 15-20 minutes later.) It took 3 laps til i had a visible run through that section and was able to go at speed (probably in the 40s) through that 1/2 mile or so. rest of the woods/rock gardens went well.
broke 2 of my aluminum break-off tie rod bolts on separate laps (punched a tree dead on with the left tire and one "fast-in" deeply rutted right turn in particular heavily loaded the left side tire sideways every lap until it popped the bolt) I had spares with nuts so i fixed those--took longer getting out and belted back in the buggy than the fix.
Also ran the gas tank down out of the "main" feed to the reserve portion. On the last lap right at the start I had intermittent power/revs as the pickup tube kept getting uncovered. Didn't know if clutch was shot or what, so i crawled most of the last lap in 1st. got stalled out 3/4s up the hill climb and had to torture the clutch with 1st gear rev dumps until i got it turned and was able to angle off onto another path up the last part. --brakes wouldn't hold me from rolling back down, so i had to go to neutral, rev while i rolled back then bang it in gear--took about 4 hits to get it. Should have started off with the petcock in the reserve position
best lap was 11 minutes, including stopping in the field to wait for visibility. rest of the class ran mid 10s, should have no problem at all matching those times in the future. out of 78 in the ATVs/UTVs, ended up in 48th.
really happy with the results, brakes sucked--I used engine braking for the most part and i need tear offs in a big way
--that probably cost me the most time. I'd planned to change the tire rod design with the shear bolts, have a setup in mind that will get done before the 7 miler as the aluminum can't take the constant pounding this place dishes out. for recreational riding , they work, they're just too weak for this place.
when i get the chance i'll pop up some vid highlights and pics.
Oh, took home $20 (half the race fee)
they lost the trophy though
LOL