baja-chris wrote:Can see the Yukon hubs in this photo too.
Absolutely fantastic looking truck! Had a chance to look at it at contingency, since we were all there ALL day long. Had time to have PCI completely re-wire my helmet and go through registration a second time. Design, body work, paint and workmanship are second to none. Was taken completely by surprise when you switched to Class 8 after we had talked about it quite some time ago.
We have found that it takes 40 to 50 miles at race speed for leaf springs to wear in or loosen up and it is a completely different truck by then. We went by when you were working on it at 183 and then saw you going in to BFG 2 as we were coming out. I got out at BFG 2 and didn't see my truck until after 1300 the next day at Mike's road. "Only" getting to RM 183 may seem like a short race however that first 200 miles was just incredibly rough. We had no major mechanical problems but had problems in the silt and the wash below Coco's. We knew the time limit of 36 hours could have easily times out with any problems and we had elected to do the whole course and not take the short cut. I brought it up with my crew and not doing the entire course was not an option. Roger would not consider making the time limit longer since he already had the course workers out there for 48 hours to accomodate the early bike start. The other entry wasn't happy about it but agreed, and they ended up having an engine problem that took them out before they even got over the top of the course.
After a season with the new owners there are items that I am not that wild about but the effort to change up the course was very much welcome. Sure it was tough on logistics and the crews but I can honestly say I saw parts of Baja that I had never raced through before. My other drivers and crew said the same thing. Even though much of their sections were through the night, the full moon and clear conditions really lit it up. The traffic jams and stuck vehicles we expected never materialized even though we were hearing about them over the Weatherman. Didn't mind the rougher course, just would have liked to have had time for all the entries to reasonably cover the course for a finish. Finishing rate was only 45%.
It took us 30 hours and 20 minutes to finish but I have to laugh when it apparently looked like we were "taking it easy". We still averaged 29.1 mph in a heavy, short wheel base entry built to the existing rules. There were no finishers in Classes 8, 9, 2, 1700, 4000, and 7200. Stock Full and 7SX both took the short cut but their average speeds were calculated over the entire course so their average speeds were higher than ours.
