rockcity
everyday is a chance to get better
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2005
- Location
- Greenville, NC
So post a recap already. 
Mall Crawling Racer...... #4410
- Thread starter REDLYNER
- Start date
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Still in Cali. Will try to post up on the plane.
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Well..... there's nothing sexy about a DNF.
Huge congrats to Erik Miller on the win, that car/driver combo absolutely killed it. More on Miller in a minute...
What a roller coaster of a week- my rookie decisions and rookie oversights kept us from being competitive in what was a very fast car and ultimately cost us a finish. The silver lining though, is the lessons I learned (while expensive), will no doubt make me faster and more durable for future races.
The game plan: Rocks: Be smooth and fluid. Constant movement. Desert: drive balls out in the desert (this Bomber starts to lose control between 67mph and 74mph). We weren't here to be conservative and just get a finish, I was here to be fast and push the car.
The reality: Rocks: Opposite of smooth lol. On the gas off the gas, on the gas off the gas- creating a Bomber bucking Bronco. We ran lap 2 without winching the rocks, but finding the sweet spot in the throttle will increase my speed significantly. Desert: an incredibly early roll over crushed my confidence and I probably dialed it back 10 to 15mph for the next 50 miles. We didn't find our pre-running pace until the back section of lap 2.
A few early week issues were cleaned up and we had a solid car for qualifying- which would be my first test under race conditions in this 4410. A mediocre start paired with an exciting finish put us right in the middle of the pack for Friday. Going back through it, I'm learning that I'm probably one gear too high in each section (not maxing out the RPMS, not utilizing all of the power). A sidewall puncture/flat was the only major damage from the qualifying course, so we were in good shape.
Race day.
Lap 1:
My adrenaline was on overload.....
In hindsight, 7 scoops of pre-workout before the race may have been a bit too much. Green flag drops, we get the jump, then on the straight a 1st to 2nd gear shift nearly puts me sideways. Can you imagine rolling the race car so early in the race??? How embarrassing would that be?
Oh the Irony.......
Up and down the first hill, getting ready to set up a pass, ease over to an outside line and touch the throttle then BLAM. I'm upside down before I can even flash Magnum to the cameras. No time to react, in the blink of an eye we were on the roof. The time it took to right the car and clear the motor just crushed us. No one worked slow, it was just a bad spot to roll. Damage to the car seemed mostly cosmetic, but I had a hard time getting out of my own head. My pace post roll was not Unlimited competitive. Seat time will correct that, but damn someone needed to slap some wooo paa back into my incredibly good looking face.
Map issues. I'm responsible for a lap 1 map issue that cost us serious time. A post lap 1 main pit conversation with Dave Cole cleared up my issue and allowed me to race on. Huge thanks to Heavy Metal Concepts in the pits, fyi.
Lap 2.
The rocks and the Salt Flats.
Mathematically, we still have a good chance to finish. New life and a new game plan thanks to my tremendous pit team and family. So now I start getting the car back to race pace and we drop back into the desert. Then on to the rocks....... Suddenly, my co-driver Josh starts yelling:
"JAY! You're on FIRE!!!"
And I'm like- "Hell yeah I'm on fire!"
And he was like "NO! You're really on Fire!!"
Oh snap! the roll over had coated the headers and some of the tubing with fluids, mixed with the hot temps in the rocks and whoosh- flame up:
Fire was put out, no damage to the wires that we could find. So we race on. The rocks were going perfect, clicking off one trail after the next when POW.... Blown tire. A gnarly rock section made for a slow tire change, but we finally got it on and not 100 yards later POW!!!! Rear driveshaft goes out. I limp the car out of the way and we proceed to swap on the spare shaft...... which was too short.
F me. That was a bad miss on my part before coming. So we take apart the two rear shafts and combine them for one good one and off we go back in to the rocks. Finally finding a hint of throttle control, the bomber tackled the remaining rock sections and we just held on for the ride.
The Salt Flats- one of the highlights came on the back section with the GPS reading 101.6mph. While no where near record shattering, it beat my previous best by more than 20mph.
We knew the lines through the rocks, our pace had finally picked up, now I just had to burn through the last 5 miles or so of Lap 2, take a splash of gas, then run lap 3 in under 5 1/2 hours for a finish at this point had thought was long unattainable.
And as if it was on cue in the open desert...... POW!!! A loud bang followed by a total fuel loss caused me to coast to a stop. Looks like the the roll over did some hidden damage that the next 100 miles of race course exposed- spare parts holder broke off of all 6 points and clipped a fuel fitting. We worked and worked but couldn't create a band aide that would support the fuel pressure needed to limp back to the start finish.
So, in deafening silence, I watched an amazing sun set over the dunes from a rock on the side of the race course.
Ever hear the story how a $20 part can end your Hammers campaign? This cost me $27 and 5 minutes of labor to fix when we got back to Charlotte:
I made a ton of mistakes, but I'll learn from them and will work to be faster..... We are signed up for the series and the goal is the same: be competitive.
Regarding Mr Erik Miller....... Nothing like coming back to my RV after a long race day of battling mentally and physically to be surprised by my whole family and team.... with T-bone steaks on the grill.... And what do I see? An Erik Miller life size face on a stick sitting on my dinner table hahaha.
Touche sir. Nice marketing.
Monster thanks to my family and Team. Josh, Mike, Lee, Lindsey, Dean, Nate, Tate. Matzells crew for the help in Main.
I'm humbled by the support we get from BAK Motorsports, Rugged Radios, Raceline Wheels, and Motor Trenz. I'm proud to be partnered with Warn Industries, NC4X4, Polar Bear Coolers, Factor 55, Liquid Iron Industries, Dynomax, S.L. Customs, Ruff Stuff, Alltech, and Hunsaker USA.
Huge congrats to Erik Miller on the win, that car/driver combo absolutely killed it. More on Miller in a minute...
What a roller coaster of a week- my rookie decisions and rookie oversights kept us from being competitive in what was a very fast car and ultimately cost us a finish. The silver lining though, is the lessons I learned (while expensive), will no doubt make me faster and more durable for future races.
The game plan: Rocks: Be smooth and fluid. Constant movement. Desert: drive balls out in the desert (this Bomber starts to lose control between 67mph and 74mph). We weren't here to be conservative and just get a finish, I was here to be fast and push the car.
The reality: Rocks: Opposite of smooth lol. On the gas off the gas, on the gas off the gas- creating a Bomber bucking Bronco. We ran lap 2 without winching the rocks, but finding the sweet spot in the throttle will increase my speed significantly. Desert: an incredibly early roll over crushed my confidence and I probably dialed it back 10 to 15mph for the next 50 miles. We didn't find our pre-running pace until the back section of lap 2.
A few early week issues were cleaned up and we had a solid car for qualifying- which would be my first test under race conditions in this 4410. A mediocre start paired with an exciting finish put us right in the middle of the pack for Friday. Going back through it, I'm learning that I'm probably one gear too high in each section (not maxing out the RPMS, not utilizing all of the power). A sidewall puncture/flat was the only major damage from the qualifying course, so we were in good shape.
Race day.
Lap 1:
My adrenaline was on overload.....
In hindsight, 7 scoops of pre-workout before the race may have been a bit too much. Green flag drops, we get the jump, then on the straight a 1st to 2nd gear shift nearly puts me sideways. Can you imagine rolling the race car so early in the race??? How embarrassing would that be?
Oh the Irony.......
Up and down the first hill, getting ready to set up a pass, ease over to an outside line and touch the throttle then BLAM. I'm upside down before I can even flash Magnum to the cameras. No time to react, in the blink of an eye we were on the roof. The time it took to right the car and clear the motor just crushed us. No one worked slow, it was just a bad spot to roll. Damage to the car seemed mostly cosmetic, but I had a hard time getting out of my own head. My pace post roll was not Unlimited competitive. Seat time will correct that, but damn someone needed to slap some wooo paa back into my incredibly good looking face.
Map issues. I'm responsible for a lap 1 map issue that cost us serious time. A post lap 1 main pit conversation with Dave Cole cleared up my issue and allowed me to race on. Huge thanks to Heavy Metal Concepts in the pits, fyi.
Lap 2.
The rocks and the Salt Flats.
Mathematically, we still have a good chance to finish. New life and a new game plan thanks to my tremendous pit team and family. So now I start getting the car back to race pace and we drop back into the desert. Then on to the rocks....... Suddenly, my co-driver Josh starts yelling:
"JAY! You're on FIRE!!!"
And I'm like- "Hell yeah I'm on fire!"
And he was like "NO! You're really on Fire!!"
Oh snap! the roll over had coated the headers and some of the tubing with fluids, mixed with the hot temps in the rocks and whoosh- flame up:
Fire was put out, no damage to the wires that we could find. So we race on. The rocks were going perfect, clicking off one trail after the next when POW.... Blown tire. A gnarly rock section made for a slow tire change, but we finally got it on and not 100 yards later POW!!!! Rear driveshaft goes out. I limp the car out of the way and we proceed to swap on the spare shaft...... which was too short.
F me. That was a bad miss on my part before coming. So we take apart the two rear shafts and combine them for one good one and off we go back in to the rocks. Finally finding a hint of throttle control, the bomber tackled the remaining rock sections and we just held on for the ride.
The Salt Flats- one of the highlights came on the back section with the GPS reading 101.6mph. While no where near record shattering, it beat my previous best by more than 20mph.
We knew the lines through the rocks, our pace had finally picked up, now I just had to burn through the last 5 miles or so of Lap 2, take a splash of gas, then run lap 3 in under 5 1/2 hours for a finish at this point had thought was long unattainable.
And as if it was on cue in the open desert...... POW!!! A loud bang followed by a total fuel loss caused me to coast to a stop. Looks like the the roll over did some hidden damage that the next 100 miles of race course exposed- spare parts holder broke off of all 6 points and clipped a fuel fitting. We worked and worked but couldn't create a band aide that would support the fuel pressure needed to limp back to the start finish.
So, in deafening silence, I watched an amazing sun set over the dunes from a rock on the side of the race course.
Ever hear the story how a $20 part can end your Hammers campaign? This cost me $27 and 5 minutes of labor to fix when we got back to Charlotte:
I made a ton of mistakes, but I'll learn from them and will work to be faster..... We are signed up for the series and the goal is the same: be competitive.
Regarding Mr Erik Miller....... Nothing like coming back to my RV after a long race day of battling mentally and physically to be surprised by my whole family and team.... with T-bone steaks on the grill.... And what do I see? An Erik Miller life size face on a stick sitting on my dinner table hahaha.
Touche sir. Nice marketing.
Monster thanks to my family and Team. Josh, Mike, Lee, Lindsey, Dean, Nate, Tate. Matzells crew for the help in Main.
I'm humbled by the support we get from BAK Motorsports, Rugged Radios, Raceline Wheels, and Motor Trenz. I'm proud to be partnered with Warn Industries, NC4X4, Polar Bear Coolers, Factor 55, Liquid Iron Industries, Dynomax, S.L. Customs, Ruff Stuff, Alltech, and Hunsaker USA.
rockcity
everyday is a chance to get better
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2005
- Location
- Greenville, NC
When racing, "if everything seems under control, you aren't going fast enough"
Mario Andretti
Mario Andretti
Good recap. I was at work but watched the feed and followed the tracker when I could. There were some times I thought you were finished so it was great to see you go as long as you did.
What races will you be trying to make this year? I've been trying to find some to follow this year, but this area seems to be lacking.
What races will you be trying to make this year? I've been trying to find some to follow this year, but this area seems to be lacking.
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
I'm racing the Ultra4 series: Arkansas, Indiana, and Kentucky. If budget allows, depending on how we're doing points wise, I'll try and hit Nationals in Reno.
I have to get the car back in shape and hit the practice tracks.
rockcity
everyday is a chance to get better
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2005
- Location
- Greenville, NC
In this pic, the chassis looks tweaked after the roll. How is the chassis?
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Early roll over changed the rock strategy a bit... so much for smooth and fluid-
(Credit David Taylor for the shot)
(Credit David Taylor for the shot)
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Working on the 4550 jeep, the goal being to address all of the little things that kind of build up. A couple of mechanical odds and ends need to be addressed: Front wheels studs (replaced), driveshafts upgraded to 1350 (working with Carolina Driveline), brake master cylinder swap, and I believe the rear pinion bearing is going to need to be replaced- working with axle Dr @Jody Treadway to try and secure some time to diagnose.
Amazing how some easy clean up stuff can bring the life back. I put a couple hours of sanding and taping in and got the frame, axles, and wheel wells painted. Hopefully this weekend I can strip out the interior and get it and the cage freshened up as well. I'd really like some @MarsFab aluminum love in my center console area. Hoping to bring the jeep by his shop to check out the mini buggy he's building and get some thoughts on how we can dress up the control panel in mine a la @rockcity .
My U shaped 1310 front.
Sanding and painting is complete on the exterior. Will hopefully get the interior broken down and painted this weekend.
Amazing how some easy clean up stuff can bring the life back. I put a couple hours of sanding and taping in and got the frame, axles, and wheel wells painted. Hopefully this weekend I can strip out the interior and get it and the cage freshened up as well. I'd really like some @MarsFab aluminum love in my center console area. Hoping to bring the jeep by his shop to check out the mini buggy he's building and get some thoughts on how we can dress up the control panel in mine a la @rockcity .
My U shaped 1310 front.
Sanding and painting is complete on the exterior. Will hopefully get the interior broken down and painted this weekend.
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
The wife getting after it- removing hi lift mounts, extinguishers, pumpers, com wires, tools, fluids, 1700 zip ties and a couple tow straps. Working to get her more familiar with the 4550 and some seat time in hopes that she can sling it around a bit.
Sanded down a few rough spots, soaped out the interior, picked up paint today. Possibly painted tomorrow?
Sanded down a few rough spots, soaped out the interior, picked up paint today. Possibly painted tomorrow?
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Haha. Yep, I was making a fuel stop on my road trip and saw the buggy. Went in for a closer look and recognized it right away. Figured it could use a little more speed so I slipped you some Level 9 ;-).
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Working with 4 Wheel Parts and ECGS trying to pin down some noises and vibrations in the drivetrain. Pinion bearings were on their way out, so I'm having everything inspected around them to make sure it will be nice and smooth for the carpool lines at school. Ryan and team at 4WP has been on point with stellar communication and Chase and the ECGS crew are doing what they always do well- fix my junk lol.
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
I've thought about it a bunch, but ultimately the labor involved to set it up so that I gained an extra 3" was just too expensive to really do it right. It's so tight up there with the 2.5" coilovers, keeping the +\- 14" of travel was going to take a ton of engineering with a front stretch. At least that's been the feedback from some of the shops I have spoken to about it.
The jeep is around 105" to 106" right now, too much longer starts to make it tough on break over angles with the 37"s (for me anyway).
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Yo, I'm like, I got No Ragrets. Naw what I'm say'n? Not even one letter.
It's like, my credo.
Naw what I'm say'n?
Ultra4 Arkansas prep is underway. First up was creating a new Mall Crawler list. A lot of fast guys out there haven't been Mall Crawled, mostly because I'm forgetting names at speed. But that has now been corrected thanks to the local tattoo shop....
After the burning died down from the new ink, I tore down the car, pressure washed all of the DNF off, then headed over to my friends @ S.L. Customs for some motor work. Since the 4410 was upside down for a bit, I decided to do a full fluid flush and swap. New plugs and wires too, but most importantly, body matched wire protectors.
Carolina Driveline made some suggestions on my driveshaft options. This one should be bringing the beef-
With the car tuned back up and the driveshafts squared away, it was time to hit the race track. And by hit the race track, I mean just run two really cool sections over and over until my wife had a shot she liked.
#driftingisforposers
The car is a little loose for me still. A couple of near barrel rolls last weekend were eerily similar to the roll at Hammers, so a few suspension adjustments are being made this week to correct that.
Blew the dust off from the track and headed over to a shop who has been helping me pose like a racer for many years. Alex @ CT Raceworx is one of the best at wading through my BS ignorance, then turning out top notch work. I'm just not a fan of ratchet strapping my parts and jack to the spare tire, so we are working on an evolved tool/jack support for the rear.
The CT Racework crew were going over the car, looking for anything needing some attention and to my luck discovered a crack in the rear trailing arm. So that is being zipped up there as well.
Hoping to get the car back in the next day or so for a final round of spray wax. Before my final final round of spray wax. Also, another shout out to Motor Trenz, they got the damaged skins re-wrapped in a day. Love working with those guys!
It's like, my credo.
Naw what I'm say'n?
Ultra4 Arkansas prep is underway. First up was creating a new Mall Crawler list. A lot of fast guys out there haven't been Mall Crawled, mostly because I'm forgetting names at speed. But that has now been corrected thanks to the local tattoo shop....
After the burning died down from the new ink, I tore down the car, pressure washed all of the DNF off, then headed over to my friends @ S.L. Customs for some motor work. Since the 4410 was upside down for a bit, I decided to do a full fluid flush and swap. New plugs and wires too, but most importantly, body matched wire protectors.
Carolina Driveline made some suggestions on my driveshaft options. This one should be bringing the beef-
With the car tuned back up and the driveshafts squared away, it was time to hit the race track. And by hit the race track, I mean just run two really cool sections over and over until my wife had a shot she liked.
#driftingisforposers
The car is a little loose for me still. A couple of near barrel rolls last weekend were eerily similar to the roll at Hammers, so a few suspension adjustments are being made this week to correct that.
Blew the dust off from the track and headed over to a shop who has been helping me pose like a racer for many years. Alex @ CT Raceworx is one of the best at wading through my BS ignorance, then turning out top notch work. I'm just not a fan of ratchet strapping my parts and jack to the spare tire, so we are working on an evolved tool/jack support for the rear.
The CT Racework crew were going over the car, looking for anything needing some attention and to my luck discovered a crack in the rear trailing arm. So that is being zipped up there as well.
Hoping to get the car back in the next day or so for a final round of spray wax. Before my final final round of spray wax. Also, another shout out to Motor Trenz, they got the damaged skins re-wrapped in a day. Love working with those guys!
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2005
- Location
- Raleigh, NC
Did you figure out the charging issue?
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Yes.... On the lakebed. Ended up picking up a new alternator from Slawson and we changed it out in our pit.
Craziest part you can imagine.... The alternator is from a 1990 S-10 2wd. Has to have the plastic removed and grind down 1/2" of steel in about a 3" circumference. But apparently it's super light and charges enough for the ls3.
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Back from CT Raceworx, trailing arms re-beefed and tool/safety boxes welded up.
Now it's final countdown time. Suspension adjustments and parts packing this weekend. 5 days until wheels up for AR...
Now it's final countdown time. Suspension adjustments and parts packing this weekend. 5 days until wheels up for AR...
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Dear Arkansas,
Get your leather pants ready, I'm coming for you. This time, I've got hair gel for days. ;-)
#racehandsomely
Get your leather pants ready, I'm coming for you. This time, I've got hair gel for days. ;-)
#racehandsomely
mcutler
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2010
- Location
- mt.airy nc
Does your engine have the bomber alternator bracket on the passenger side head? Uses the camaro beltline/water pump...
I let my alternator go with the buggy chassis, it was for the premier welder. I won't be using that system in the new rig and wasn't sure which alternator Randy uses with his bracket, that's why I ask if your motor had his bracket like mine...
Matt
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
Matt- I'll have to check. Or when I get back you can swing by and take a look.
This trip has been interrupted for an afternoon upper body pump......
FYI the drive is abnormally longer than last year- it's going to take me 14 1/2 hours, I made it in 12 1/2 last time. Crazy
This trip has been interrupted for an afternoon upper body pump......
FYI the drive is abnormally longer than last year- it's going to take me 14 1/2 hours, I made it in 12 1/2 last time. Crazy
mcutler
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2010
- Location
- mt.airy nc
Thanks, good luck and be careful
Matt
Matt
REDLYNER
Mall Crawling Race Rig
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2008
- Location
- Mountain Island
52 cars out here, 32 in 4400. I qualified 19th, An ok time after my slight crash. 3 seconds out of top 15, 9.5 seconds out of top 10. Not what I wanted, but terrible. Just means we'll have to actually race tomorrow and not just block .
Lots of tight trees, not much passing room.
.Lots of tight trees, not much passing room.