Moss Bros Mint 400 Race Report

[Broncodawg]

KC HiLites Moss Brothers Racing at the 2010 Mint 400
Don Moss wrote:
I have had a few days now to recover, so here is the result of our efforts at the race. We have retained our record at the Mint 400 race with our third win in three years!
When Las Vegas is involved, not surprisingly we have a record turnout of crew, which is a welcome change. The races here offer a little more to a wider portion of the crew and their families. Dave G located a 5000 square foot rental house, complete with built in theatre, pool and basketball court that easily absorbed about 13 of us for the weekend.
Tech and contingency were once again held on Fremont street in downtown Las Vegas, as it was in the old days when the Mint casino was still around. Of course Fremont is more like a patio now, with bewildered gamblers and their drinks in hand. It is a completely different crowd than we have at the races in Mexico! The SNORE organization has the best system for sponsor contingency of all the races I have ever done, and the sponsors typically pay better than any other races we do. We had our registration done and entry fees paid with their volunteer staff in less than 10 minutes, something you will NEVER see anywhere else.
The Mint 400 is a loop race, and this year each lap was about 105 miles long. The start, finish and main pit was located at the Moapa Indian reservation truck stop on I-15. Where else can you get your CB radio, gas, alcohol and fireworks at the same place? They doubled the pit area this year, but it was still tight. Greg W brought his motor home down this year to use as the anchor pit vehicle, and Rich at Inquipco brought out two 48’ scissor lifts for us to view the race with. There was scissor lift races held all day long! We have grown accustomed to having the Inquipco service truck at the Nevada races, and were worried that this might not happen this time when it was called out to a job, but Mark arrived with the new service truck during the second lap.

This year there were three entries in Class 3. The Jeep that we have battled with over at SCORE in 2009 was also there, but they had their own 3700 class with 3 entries where they are running for points. The other entries in our class were the Pike family’s Ramcharger and a newly built early Bronco that was to be driven by Larry Swacofer. Swacofer is famous for racing a 1955 Chevy for years and years and has many wins and championships in Class 6.
SNORE made some adjustments to the course this year, and once again implemented the two by two drag race start as it was done in the early years. We went off the line with the Pike Ramcharger, beating them to the first corner. Dave started in the Bronco with me, the first time he had been in the truck for over a year. There were broken down and stuck vehicles everywhere for that first lap. The Pike truck had Bob Bowers as the co-driver, and they were clearly working from a game plan that involved staying right on our tail for the first 70 miles. We passed a lot of the slower cars in the classes that started in front of us, however 3 of the Jeepspeed 1700 entries that started behind us, passed us during that lap, absolutely pushing their trucks to the limit. At mile 80 Pikes started to look for a way around us, but could not get the pass done. They did get close, as you see below (photo courtesy Bob Bowers):
We pulled out a several minute lead by the end of the first lap, and pulled in for fuel and a driver/rider change. The Ramcharger went by and actually got credit for leading the first lap. The early Bronco came around somewhat later. Ken and Dennis got in for lap 2 and ran down the Pikes in the first 10 miles and passed them. The lead was short lived however when they pitched the belt off the power steering and water pump on the Bronco
before mile 20. They put the spare belt on and reported by radio that the track bar was starting to bend. We started a mad search for another spare belt, and finally sent someone to town to try and get one, guessing at the size since we didn't have a number. Fortunately we did not have a problem with the belt again. Ken reported that we had to change the track bar at the end of the lap and adjust the rear shocks. The Pikes had some electrical and front spring problems and Ken had passed them again.
Before Rich and I got in for the third lap, I adjusted the rear shocks as the track bar was being replaced. The crew set a new record of 7 minutes for the change. We immediately noted that the course had taken an extreme beating in the previous 6 or 7 hours of racing. I hit a rock at about mile 17 and blew the sidewall out of the right front tire and bent the track bar that we had just put in. I believe that we must have used some soft tubing because all of the bars we have made with this batch of what was supposed to be 4130 chrome moly steel have bent very quickly. I told the crew to meet us at Pit B (mile 43) to look at the track bar. The bar continued to get worse, and I realized that I should have had them meet us at Pit A, mile 32, instead of Pit B. We got to pit B and made the change. While under the truck we saw that the motor mount bolt was broken and about to fall out. These are a freak 9/16" bolt size that was difficult to locate on the chase truck, and then of course we had to struggle to change it in the dirt. By this time the course was really, really bad. It was very torn up, with rocks and deep silt everywhere. We put the top lights on and Ken and Rick got in for lap 4. We knew we were in the lead now by at least 1.5 hours as the Pikes had to completely change their front leaf springs. At mile 15 or so, Rick reported the shifter was acting up, and asked if we had another cable. Of course not, so Dave, Dennis and myself headed to pit A. By mile 20 they reported that they now only had first gear! Thinking that the shifter cable might have broken, we fashioned an alternate shifter rod from the handle of a bucket we had in the truck. Their maximum speed in first gear was now 35 or maybe 40 mph. When they got to our location, we determined the problem was not the shifter, but some type of internal transmission problem. We only had park, neutral, and first gear, NO REVERSE! Selecting gears 1, 2, or 3 only gave us first gear. I assume it must be a valve body problem. Since the next 50 miles of course were very rough, I knew the Bronco could not go more than 35 mph anyway. I told them to just go on, we would waste more time trying to diagnose the problem than we would lose moving at low speed. I also emphasized that they could not get
themselves into a situation where they would have to back up! We went back to the main pit with the chase truck and loaded the spare transmission. We couldn't catch them before pit B, so we went on to Pit D at the south end of the course. Rick and Ken got paranoid about
running out of gas since they were now running the engine at high rpm, so Dennis and I started going through the pits in the dark begging for fuel. We were able to purchase 5 gallons of pump gas that we put in when they got to our location. There were no further problems and they actually passed some cars while only running in first gear! The track bar that we finished the race with was the one that we had run the entire Baja 1000 and had been slightly bent in the big wreck during that race.
The Pikes went on but failed to finish their fourth lap when the electrical problem killed their battery again. The other Bronco pulled off after their second lap. We saw the black Jeep in the 3700 class finishing while we were headed back to Vegas on the freeway. It ended up that one of the Jeepspeed 1700 class entries ran a very consistent and steady race and ended up beating both Class 3 and Class 3700, congratulations to them in what was a very tough race.
Once again the crew was able to overcome adversity and engineer a win. We have a very talented group and I just wish we had the resources to put it to work at more races. I would like to thank those that made it possible, including Rick, Amber, Sandy, Ken, Robert, Susie, Dave,
Michelle, Dan, Gary, Cary, Dennis, Brian, Jenn, Rich, Mark, Greg, and Michelle R for putting together the press releases.
In addition to all of the people that were there to help, we have a number of sponsors that in spite of the economic conditions continue to support us. They include: KC HiLites, RuffStuff Specialties, West Coast Broncos, BF Goodrich Tires, Inquipco, King Shocks, Deaver Springs, Sunoco Fuel, Lucas Oil, Slime tire sealant, and Bronco Driver magazine.

[300]

Wow, that showed up here fast!

[Nick]

Thanks for taking the time to share your teams story!

[Broncodawg]

Wow, that showed up here fast!

Oops, wasn't sure if you had joined here or not. Only seen Ken, so thought I'd post it up. Belated welcome to GFB.
Great writeup, your recall of all the details of your races is something.

[Polarcub]

Congrats on the win! Thanks for sharing the story, always great to here a race story!