Still of the night Racers stories

So here it goes: To even start the report about this last race, we have to assess the damages from the previous (March). Drive shaft began making very bad sounds.10 miles out from the finish with a very comfortable lead... KABOOM! Drive shaft, tail housing and trans case all done in. DNF and some disappointment.
Pre-race prep. Found a cracked tube in the rear that most likely was the cause of the March race happenings. With the rear of the truck shifting, it certainly caused a good portion (if not all) of the damages.
Got the tranny pulled and sent to RDE. Sent both our drive shafts to Oceanside Driveline. Got everything back and the truck was ready for the Fiberwerx200 on Thursday before the race...
Friday morning at the track Ryan "Forklift" put on 2 HID's and wired them for the night race. We decided to get them on Tuesday prior to the race thinking with starting towards the back of the pack, we are going to be in a lot of dust for a while. The top bar only has 4 lights which are not HID's. Towards the afternoon we (Brian and I) decided to pre run in the chase Jeep. About 1/4 of a mile out onto the course, we happen to see a utv with the seats pulled and 2 guys working on it. Stopped, grabbed the strap and hauled them back in to their pit. Round 2-ding, let's try this again. Off we go. Pre run went good. We were thinking a day time pre run to get a visual on the course before the night race. Cruising along somewhere in the mm 25 area, we got passed by a 1450 truck. No big, we are just cruising. Get up to where check 4 was going to be and come stumble upon the 1450 stopped and the 2 out of it. So, we stop and talk for a minute. It's the same 2 that were in the utv earlier on the course. Decide we'll need to tow them in. Grab the strap and off we go. Down the drop after check 4 was pretty fun! Followed the rest of the course because there were only a few miles left anyway. It's starting to reach sunset Friday night.
Get back to camp and grab I grabbed my kids and headed to the 1450.org BBQ/B-day party. I had raffle tickets for a pit crew shirt give-a-way I was doing. Anyone that knew there was a raffle, could find me, and ask me for a ticket got to enter. That ended up to be pretty fun. The BBQ was awesome. Good people, good food and a great night! As the B-day cake was being prepared to be eaten, I snuck away to print the pit crew shirts for the raffle winner. (1495-AJ). I printed the shirts and ran them back to the winner who was SO excited! He didn't know that he had won, so when I presented him with the shirts, AJ had a priceless expression. That was so cool for me to get to be a part of. AJ got me almost as excited as he was just because he was so happy.! Very cool experience!
Saturday morning I begin to get things ready for tech/contingency. I realize..DOH...I left the canopy at the shop. Hubby "Forkilft" and Ervin (Chase help) go into town. A canopy, ice, hamburgers/hotdogs (for the volunteer BBQ, starbucks, and a ton more stuff later, they reappeared. In the meantime, I took a blow up pool out there for my little one so I filled it with air and cooler water while we waited for the water truck. Water truck came and filled the pool thanks to Art (Tech) who could speak spanish to communicate with the driver. That was awesome! The pool was a blessing to all those who used it! It was hot. Drivers meeting/race time! I haul butt to staging because Brian is already in waiting for me. (Had to give last minute instructions to the baby-sitter and help Amy with the computer for pics). We stage and the truck in front of us had something going on and they were out of it. We finally get around them in staging and see Duncan's truck pull to the line. WAIT!!! We drew in front of them. How come they are going? We pulled up next to them. Tried to communicate, but ended up they went and we were held. (Not a great start to a race BUT since we were towards the back anyway, did it really make a difference?) Shake it off. Just run our own race.
Green and GO! The first 2 laps went good. All was good and we were on a good pace. We ended up shutting the top light bar off and just using the 2 front HID's. THANK GOODNESS we had them. Otherwise we would have been left in the dark....Pitted on lap 2 for fuel and a quick look over. Everything seemed to be good. Off we go for lap 3...Go by mm 7, we hear over the radio. You look good, pick it up. Get to mm 20 and all is well. Hit mm29ish. The hard right up the sand hill. We are in a lot of dust can't see squat. I glance up and see an amber stopped on the outside of the turn at the hill. I tell Brian go right. Being as silty as it was with the speed we were going in it with, I did not want to risk sliding and hitting the other truck and hurting them. Consequence...we were now stuck.... Brian and I jump out of the truck. OH MY.....The whole 3rd member on the drivers side is buried. The passenger side is not quite as bad because of the angle on the hill but still in the sand deep. I radio to chase run to the driver side and start digging. I dug enough Brian was able to get to the valve stem on the tire (that was at the bottom) and let some air out. I ran around to find some rocks and kept digging. Brian threw the passenger side spare out of the truck and grabbed the jack. He jacked the right side up after being able to get under the axle. I threw rocks under the tire. He went to the driver side and I scrounged for rocks. He dug under the trailing arm enough to get the jack under it. I threw him the jack. He lifted the truck, I threw a larger rock I found under the tire. He yelled get clear. I ran to the front of the truck, he hit reverse and I was so happy when that truck went flying back!!! We were free!!! I jumped in, drank a ton of water and noticed Brian outside the truck grabbing the jack. I yelled to him “DROP IT”. “Ry is on his way”. Brian stopped dead in his tracks, dropped the jack and got in the truck. I radio’d to chase mm29 get our jack and spare...Off we went! The whole episode of being stuck I estimate the time being roughly 18 minutes. When we left, the truck on the other side of the track was still there. We were on a mission. 1 mission. FIND DUNCAN! We stopped at pit to check over the truck. Being as buried as we were and everything, we thought it best to pit and be sure. All is good....GO! Oh no.....A familiar drive shaft sound is not what we wanted to hear, but...Starting lap 4, Brian and I discussed the sound and decided to take it easy. Listen and feel and pray for the best. The vibration actually started mid lap 2, but I didn’t want to say anything at that time. Go by mm7, chase says looks good as we go by. Around mm 20ish, Brian reaches over and points. “There’s our guy. He’s down!” Pass Duncan we go. I thought to myself, KARMA. But being the pre run we did our good deeds, I was hoping for the best. I radio’d chase and asked for a location. MM29. I replied stay there. We were running the same channel as Duncan (how does that always happen?lol.) So I didn’t want to say why, but the drive shaft was really not happy. MM26...truck dies. Just stops going. Brian quickly pulls as far to the right as he can and we jump out. A huge bush is right under the truck and under the hot exhaust and we could hear it smoldering. NO BUENO! Brian said the fuel pump was making a funny sound to him when he shut it off. So, ok, change the pump. I grab the spare pump, give it to him, radio chase. MM26 Bring gas. Go to the back, smack the fuel cell. Nothing....? Blow through the breather tube....NOTHING. You have got to be kidding me. Chase had headed back to S/F because they were out of gas also and we were on our way in really. Finally get gas to us and fire it, nothing. DOH 2 of the race. Fuel pump is on backwards. Brian mounted it how I handed it to him and neither one of us ever thought to look. A quick flip and the truck sounds good again! (And we didn’t catch the bush or truck on fire.) All and all that ordeal took a good 45 minutes or so. Jump in the truck, off to finish the last 10 miles praying the 10 mile curse from the last race has passed us. Told Brian to cruise to the finish. No need to replay the damage from last race. Cruise at 40-50 through the wash back to the checkered! Wow. All the down time and we still pulled a 5th from the night. Brian and I were happy. For everything that night, a 5th to maintain the points lead in the DRIVE series worked well for us. Later in the am, I was at S/F waiting to see Duncan come across. Still waiting, and waiting some more. I walked passed Doug and heard him mention that 1492 (Duncan) may need a 4wd to give him a pull. I turned right around and told Doug to get more info like where? What mm? Asked hubby and Erv to get chase ready, they are going on a hunt for someone. (Oh yeah, all this time in the race, the right front of the chase Jeep kept losing air so Ry and Erv would have to put air in it every time they moved.) Ryan spoke to Doug, Erv got the Jeep ready and Brian jumped in the back. Off our chase goes to find Duncan and help if needed. This is with a little less than 40 minutes until time for him. With time running out and only minutes remaining, and the end of pit row there are lights coming towards S/F. They are glowing in every direction with every whoop I know they are crossing. I heard his siren and knew...Jason was on his way in! Crossed S/F with only 3 wheels! Ry said he met up with Duncan on the course but he was moving so they just dropped in behind him to follow him in. Way to go Jason! What an incredible tale.
Thank you to all our sponsors and help that allow us to run hard and have fun. Tony from RDE is a huge help, Parada Painting, Bear Designz, S-K Specialties, Rollie's Auto, Kartek, Jonsson Motorsports and all our friends and family. Another thanks is in order for DRIVE and the awesome volunteers that keep us going!
Well done all and we'll see you in September!
AJ 1494 Cully Racing
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