CANGURO RACING

The Jackpot 230 could also be called the Jackpot Brutality. Or at least the 14 miles of the course I saw from the co-pilot seat of Mathilda. But before I get the pre-mature end to our race how about we find out how we got there.

Marc arrived early enough on Friday to join the drivers meeting and get an idea of what were we were info. Part of our pit crew, Troy and Scott, showed soon after. The rest of us; me, Darren, Ryan, Hampton, Helm and Trent arrive a little bit later. Like 2am. Not ideal but a late start out of SLC put us behind schedule.

Saturday we grabbed food, filled the car and rolled out to the pits. After teching in and setting up our command post we began the prep on the car. Warming the tranny and motor, checking comms, gps etc. Before we knew it staging was on us. And the one item we hadn’t checked, the parker pumper, wasn’t working. So off came the hood, and the cowl and some quick wiring magic by Ryan and we were ready to roll. Marc and Dave would be starting the race and running the first 3 laps. Darren and I would then take over and run the last 3. Marc was in El Salvador doing dental work during the Wendover race and Dave is a late addition to the team so we thought we’d let them have a go at it. In retrospect probably might have been a good idea to split them up but hindsight is always 20/20, right? The good news is Marc and Dave drove it like they stole it.
Despite a poor shifting tranny they made very good time on the first lap having passed 3 cars and getting up to 4th overall. Our GPS mount broke so a pit stop was required. A quick fix and they were back out. Marc, being a little too anxious, cut through the pit which would result in a 30 second penalty next time they entered the pits. Another quick lap, and a GPS mount fix now broken required another pit. However, by this time Marc had climbed to within 15 seconds of 2nd place and right behind the two 10 cars. So GPS fixed, Dave now behind the wheel (for the first time ever in the car), and they were back on the course. I think Marc had way too much adrenaline flowing because he pretty much talked on the radio the entire lap from the co-driver seat. Non-stop talking. Giving us mile by mile detail. Mainly about the brutal nature of the course and the hidden harshness Darren and I would expect on the next lap.

During the Wendover race our communication with the pits was non-existent. As a work around we had used a SPOT device to signal the pit we were close. Ham tech and uber-nerd (a compliment) Ryan Davis had gone through our system and fixed every bug and set up a fantastic command post at our pit. It made for a very different race, both in the car and in the pits. Can’t thank him enough for his knowledge and willingness to help out. Including towing the car to Jackpot and back. (that is me eating a lot of crow, btw. I’ve always made fun of ryan of his love of HAM radio because he’s the only person using it that’s not over 68 years old. I’ve now seen the benefits of his knowledge)

The next pit was the hardest logistically. Darren would be taking over driving duties with me climbing in as co-driver. I would also need to get my helmet from Dave, replace the water bottle and have the pit crew add gas. We were very efficient but overlooked some of the basics, like checking all our suspension and steering links for loose bolts. Very happy with a sub-four minute stop and we were rolling again.

Within about two miles I made mention to Darren that the car sounded different. Not quite the same as we were used to. He agreed but we both dismissed it as a result of the rough and rocky course. During the high speed section leading up to mile 12 everything felt and sounded fine. We could see the 10 car’s dust on the horizon and we were determined to catch it. After turning back north and entering so called Easy Street things took a turn for the worse. According to Marc and Dave it was one of the hardest sections of the course. Watermelon sized rocks filled the narrow two track for about 1.5 miles. Well somewhere in the middle the ‘doesn’t sound right’ turned into ‘darren pull over I think something is broken.’ I climbed out and instantly knew we were done. Our micro-stub, or rear hub, had cracked due to our swing arm bolts coming loose. We radioed the pits and told them our location. Fortunately we were only a few hundred yards up the hill from highway 93 so we were able to get our crew and tools to the car. Unfortunately we were unable to get the nut off the end of the CV and thus we couldn’t get the hub back together. Ryan and Trent Ashby worked non-stop for 4 hours and couldn’t manage to get it fixed . I was beginning to feel guilty about letting them do all the work then I realized that my skill is so inferior to theirs that I would do no good. So I helped by hauling gear and water up and down the hill.

Eventually the sweeper came through and told us the course was clear and we could get the trailer on the course and load up. Well that was quite an adventure in itself. Ryan showed great skill and patience in driving his Tundra down Easy Street to load up the car. A late dinner at the casino and we were headed home. About 4 am we were all home safe. It sounds so easy to type but it was a long exhausting day. Lessons learned. A lot of fun had and one more step along our path to Baja. We can’t thank Ryan, Trent, Hampton and Troy enough for their help. Although I think they feel as much ownership of our success as we do. Let’s just say we’re very happy to have them as part of our team.

(pics by troy and Hampton)

Our first race didn’t exactly start out as we would have liked. However it didn’t really matter. After 6 hours and 48 mins of pure exhilaration behind the wheel of Mathilda it was all easily forgotten.

We rolled into Wendover about 20mins before tech inspection was set to close. We registered and made it through tech pretty easily and back into town to check into the lovely Nugget hotel. Our room was about 102 degrees with missing light bulbs, lumpy mattresses, and questionable cleanliness. After a quick check of Yelp we were off to 99 Cents Ice Cream for dinner. In addition to the cheap ice cream they also are a legit taco stand. So much so that our post-race dinner was also held at 99 Cents Ice Cream. Tortas, carne asada, al pastor and all the beverages one could find in Baja. What better way to set the mood for our first race on our path to the Baja 1000. Dinner consumed we returned to the hotel to find out our A/C wasn’t working despite the efforts of Darren and Kurt to tear into it. Long story short the four of us got a combined 9 hours of awfully hot and miserable sleep.

Morning came we grabbed breakfast, lunch, snacks and drinks at Smith’s and headed out to the pits where we were the newbies, with our shiny new helmets and race suits, no dump cans and unsure of where to go. Adrenaline was sufficient to overcome any lack of sleep and the friendliness of our fellow competitors made us feel welcome. We warmed up the motor and tranny and Darren and I tried to calm our nerves. Jason Goates arrived to help us in our pits and take pics. We can’t thank him enough for helping out. We knew that there were issues with our HAM so we quickly had to come up with a way to communicate with the pit. I broke out my SPOT device and we strapped it to the cage. Our work-around was pretty basic. The co-driver would send out an ‘ok’ message, that I set up to go to each of our phones, when the car was 10miles out. That gave the pit time to get ready and at least know we were close. The other option was if we broke down we could send a ‘help’ message. Fortunately we didn’t need it. Ad-hoc communications established Darren and climbed in the car and headed toward the staging area. Cars were being sent out every minute. We were running sportsman and going out 13th of 17. (I think). Regardless we were near the back. At this point our excitement was very high, a little nervous and a lot giddy. Then I realize I can’t hear Darren talking to me. The competitors in front of us are leaving the line and our time is coming up. Jason and Kurt are outside the car playing with wires and making sure our connections were tight. Nothing. Our time came for green flag and we had settled on hand signals. The flag waved, Darren dumped the clutch and Canguro Racing made our first dust. The GPS was also acting fickle so I pretty much relied on the course markings to navigate for the first 20 miles or so until it kicked back in.

Over those 20 miles Darren kept up an efficient but controlled pace. We needed to let the butterflies calm down and for the shocks to warm up before we really got on it. We passed 3 or 4 broken down cars in the first few miles. I made the comment to him that I hoped that wasn’t a bad sign for us. He gave me the thumbs up in agreement. Before too long we saw dust on the horizon and I told Darren it was time to get on it. It took a while to make our first on course pass as the trail was twisting through the junipers and with very little room to get by. As our progress was slowed the purple 9 car behind was able to catch up to us. So 3 cars bombing through one long dust plume south of Wendover meant the race was officially on. After we got around the class 8 we had a very narrow off camber section. The class 9 stayed pinned to our tail with horn blaring. We knew we were faster and intended to prove it. The GPS showed a long strait section ahead. I told Darren once we made that right hand 90 we were golden. 200 yards later, he dropped into first, banked hard right and left our tailgater behind in a flash. A few more passes, a long section of silt and a few washes and into the pits we rolled in 6th place overall.

The plan was simply for me and Darren to change seats. I however had to make a run for the honey bucket while Jason and Kurt messed with the helmets to figure out what was wrong. Darren’s mic wasn’t working. As I was climbing back into the car I saw our friends in the purple class 9 roll through. Helmets fixed, belts secure and adrenaline flowing again I pulled out of the pit. We hit the course a few hundred yards later and I got on it. The first 6 miles or each loop were shared. My goal was to catch the purple 9 before the split. Darren, now able to talk to me, told me to ease my way into the race. We spent some time catching up after having not been able to talk for the first 90mins and 52 miles. We talked about how awesome it was to be racing. Laughed about how I didn’t understand half of his hand signals. As my loop banked south we were in to new terrain. It took me about 20 miles to catch our friends in the purple 9 (you’ll eventually learn why I keep bringing them up) and get around them. I don’t think they were happy that we wouldn’t let them pass on Darren’s lap because I had to push them pretty hard to get by and even then they didn’t even stop, just pulled over a bit but stayed on it. Good solid racing. My section was longer and slower than darren’s with more washes and less flat out. However I also got some sweet whoops and silt holes. The temps had dropped and the clouds had finally decided to drizzle us with a light rain. We made another pass of a broken car and pulled into the pits 4th overall.

Out we climbed, Darren added 10 gallons of fuel while I helped Jason and Kurt strap in and swap batteries in our cameras. Wouldn’t you know it, as we do so the purple 9 car rolls through the pit faster than us again. Kurt and Jason will have to post up their on-course experiences but Kurt made great time on the north loop, once again passing our friends and before we knew it they were back and we were helping with another driver swap. As Jason left the pit the storm began in earnest and the rain began to fall. Jason passed the purple 9, was then passed by them, then got around them once again to get us back into 4th overall. Thanks to those guys for the good racing. Unfortunately we saw them roll into the pits on the trailer as we were leaving. The rain grew worse and the wind picked up. Darren and I loaded everything up and had the trailer ready to go for Mathilda so we could get out of the storm in a hurry. She appeared on the horizon and rapidly made her way to the finish line. 6:48. 4th overall, 2nd in Sportsman. The weather broke for a minute and allowed us to savor our performance and unwind a bit before we headed into town for some tacos. Our consensus as a group was that we all drove very well, Mathilda performed wonderfully and we were lucky to not have any incidents or breakdowns. It was a brutal course with plenty of hidden rocks to reach out and grab you but we found a way to avoid them.

Over tacos and ice cream we rehashed the laps and the days events. We made our way back to SLC in a downpour that managed to clean all the mud off the car and sometime around 12:30 we went our separate ways. A great first race and can’t wait for the next one. Thanks to Jason and all the BOR folks for putting on the event and welcoming out a bunch of newbies.

dmc

(pics and vids should be posted soon)

We landed our first major sponsor today! Toyo Tires will be providing us with Open Country MT tires for Mathilda. As many of you who are following our team may know Toyo sponsored Dave on his trip to South America with 6 tires for his 1997 Land Cruiser. Because of the positive feedback from his expedition and the relationships that were formed we were able to get them on board for as our tire sponsor. As much as Dave would like to take credit for the sponsorship the truth is Scott Simpson is the one who deserves the credit. Scott is the VP and General Manager of Interstate Tire Distributor in Salt Lake and sponsored Dave with his Toyo tires. He is the one who reached out to Toyo, on our behalf, and we can’t thank him enough for his efforts. In addition to the tires Scott has also offered up some of his business relationships to help us with wheels and decals for Mathilda and our chase vehicles. Thank you Scott and thank you Toyo.

The temps finally cracked the 40 degree barrier so Jason, Marc, Dave, and Darren decided Mathilda needed to see her first Utah dirt and hauled her out to Delle today. Compared to the 29 degrees we endured near Jean in December it felt downright pleasant today. Whether bombing the straights at 80mph or twisting our way through the narrow washes and canyons Mathilda felt planted to the ground and exhilarating to drive. It was the first chance Jason had to spend some time behind the wheel and he couldn’t stop smiling about it all day long. The only near miss we had today was some bullets ricocheting from the hills below. Very nerve wracking to be hanging out, enjoying the sunshine, chatting about Baja, and have a bullet whizzing over your head. Needless to say we pointed out to the nice gentlemen that there were indeed other people in the desert today and he should be a bit more thorough with his safety procedures. We took a few pics as well as some video. Ideally both will be loaded up for your viewing enjoyment before the end of the weekend.

Marc and Kurt kicking up first dust in Mathilda

On a cold, clear day outside of Jean, Nevada, Marc and Kurt light up the tires on Mathilda just a few hours after Canguro Racing took possession of our new Class V VW. 11 short months until the Baja 1000 and we couldn’t be more excited about the adventure in front of us. The powerline road may not have been the best place to learn the dynamics and performance characteristics of a brand new vehicle as each pole cast a literal and figurative shadow of fear over the day. Mathilda would definitely lose if the two were to do battle. Actually maybe it was a good thing. It kept us on our toes and our toes more on the brake pedal than the throttle.