Yep, throwing out the red card brah. No way someone can replace a unit bearing, lugs, rotor, axle shaft, locker, diff in that short of time and beat me by THAT much on the race track. That's some straight up South Carolina calabash right there Chris May ;-).
The Flats Offroad Park put on a fantastic race this past weekend that brought in as wide of a variety of competitors as you can get. Ultra4, Rock Bouncers, rock buggies, and trail rigs all lined up for a two session, fastest time winner offroad race. The track had steep hill climbs, rock gardens, optional cliff "short cut", and a wide open throttle table top jump at the end.
We unpacked and began surveying the course. It was tight, no room for errors, and while certain sections would favor my longer wheelbase and bigger car, other areas were going to be challenging squeezing through.
The morning session was chewing up and spitting out race cars by the minute. Roll overs, busted drivetrains, and DNF's were knocking out several competitors. With such a compact course, there was no room for "pace", which I thought would favor the Bouncers. I got the green light and mashed it. Straight shot through the rocks, pinned it up the first hill climb and drifted just right into the ~160 degree turn.
I blacked out after that, but apparently one shotted the major hill climb, and brought the car around for the jump, crossing the finish line-
Through my helmet, I could hear the excitement in the announcer's voice "Ladies and gentleman, there's your new time of the day!!!" My team was extremely excited! We were in first place out of 29 cars with a 4 second lead on 2nd and around 12 seconds on 3rd. Being one of the last cars to go, I knew it would come down to the afternoon session, and everyone would be going all out for the win.
Afternoon session comes, and car by car gets their laps in. My time is still safe, then, Ultra4 driver Chris May, who rebuilt his entire car between sessions, comes out and puts on a straight up clinic. He waxed me by 8.5 seconds, moving him into first. Then, immediately after, another flawless run by a guy from New York beat me by ~.75 seconds. So, in a matter of a few seconds, we were nearly off the podium.
Well, starting in the back I had one shot left. I went all or nothing and cleared the rocks, then maybe gave a little toooooo much throttle on the hill climb and ramped the top, over shooting the ~160 degree turn and putting me into the trees. A 3 point turn essentially ended my chances of moving up, but kept me on the podium for a smile inducing 3rd place finish.
Great fun bouncing off of rocks and trees, and a huge pleasure competing in such a well run event. Looking forward to the next one.
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