Re: THe NAC Lots-O-Post Thread
Looking forward to the in-depth recap :thumbup:
I'm not typing it again, so y'all get the copy-paste edition.
My race went about as expected. We started prerrunning with no issues, until a few miles in I noticed the truck overheating. I had just installed a new electric fan kit the ngiht before the race...turns out one of the fans was pretty much DOA. We completed the prerun lap without any further issues and started to tear into it at the pits.
After messing with the fans for about an hour, we finally figured out that the 'bad' one would still spin, but 'backwards' even with the correct polarity, and at about 1/3rd rated speed. Crap. I hacked up my beautiful new fan shroud to squeeze a stock XJ electric fan back in there, fixed up a few other loose ends (Thanks Mitch for the welding!), and called it a night.
Race day we had a good start against Stu Wilkinson and were keeping perfect pace with him until the first high-speed part, when my upper radiator hose blew apart. Turns out that after taking the fan shroud in and out a bunch of times, we forgot to put the hose clamp back on. Double crap. With a mixture of Gatorade and coal water from some puddles, we topped it off enough to keep the motor happy and completed the rest of that lap without issue.
Next lap was when the weather really started to go to shit. After quickly running through our stash of rags to keep the goggles clean, I decided that the best solution was often no goggles at all. The truck was running great, temps were a little hot but still OK, and we were having a great time. Until the muddy hillclimb anyway, where my 5k lbs pig wanted none of it. My dependable but s l o w winch got us to the top (Otter - no worries on the cable, I was still pulling in slack at the time anyway) and the rest of the lap went by as a muddy blur.
We pitted only to replenish our stash of rags (Thanks again Mitch for the drive-thru service!!), and headed out back on the course for the third lap. The truck felt as good as it ever did and even without goggles, we were hauling as much ass as we could. Made it through all the rock sections, hit the high speed again, until shortly before the 180* turn something in the transfer case took a shit and the truck stopped moving.
Probably the doubler housing again. :laugh: Although I'm reserving judgement until I tear it apart and see what really happened. I'm prepared to eat shit if I've been wrong this whole time.
Aside from that, no major issues, and I can't wait til the next one!
Many thanks to my co-driver Adam for hanging in there, keeping the rig rolling, and being winch bitch, Mitch for being totally ready to crawl under a nasty muddy rig to weld some stuff back up, to Travis Watford for the ride back to the pits (that walk seems a lot longer when your clothes weigh 50 lbs more than normal), Brett Keller for the cutoff wheel and generator time, Lou's buddy Chris for the crimpers & butt connectors, Tim & Andy for the shop rags and other random stuff, and of course to the volunteers and staff for staying out there in what was probably the worst racing weather to date.
Also I received a righteous nerf from Lucas Murphy - sorry about that one, buddy. I coulda sworn I saw you head for the alternate route around that corner so I stopped to let you take it...instead of watching the mirror I was watching for you to finish the turn; I deserved that little kick in the ass. My apologies for holding you up.
