RCRocs race 3 October 16, 2010

Got back to the hotel at 3:45 a.m. the day of the race. ARB was repaired and worked great. Turns out the carrier bearing bolts backed out allowing the seal to be broken on the ARB. Also explains the leaky drivers front axle tube. Went to sleeep about 4 a.m. and got the wake up call for 7 a.m. Drove the family and vehicle to Rausch by 8:30ish. Very windy cold day but at least it will help if there is any overheating. Starting time was 10:00 and our random start position was 13th, Kims was 10th. They started the vehicles every 30 seconds this time which made it a little more interesting. Our start was good with no issues and we quickly caught up to the vehicle in front of us, blew the horn a few times to let them know we were there and they moved to allow us to pass when we finally came up to a spot that would allow it. Hopefully RC will start with some high speed stuff first and build in some passing zones before we get to the hard obstacles. Continued on and the entered the woods only to find the number 11 starting vehicle on its side in a ditch in the middle of the course. He had a tow strap ready so we pulled up and let him hook to our nerf bar. we quickly righted him and he was able to drive out of the way. We made good time to the first obstacle which was a downhill section on Upper Talisman. It is a very steep downhill section with large boulders and a path(sorta) on the left side and a large tree to squeeze past. The day before we had trouble with the jeep sliding off a very large boulder and off to the left into the tree where our drivers front would get pinned on the uphill side. We had to winch ourselves sideways to free ourselves from the tree but didn't break anything. We felt it wise to give it 3 tries and then pull cable. Next up was Devils Den which we had to go up on the far right side. It was a loose, rocky hill that had a very large rock face at the top that was quite slick. During the prerun we failed to negotiate that obstacle and went around to the left between a large boulder and a stump. we had to run just about over the boulder to clear the stump. then we had to go down devils den. They picked a line that went off a large rock face and into some large boulders. Chris knows the spot because he went up it the week before. We had to avoid sliding to the far right because we would be pinned againsed a large boulder on the passenger front with our rear up in the air and no way to climb out of it. We picked a perfect line, although quite tippy, and gave it a little throttle to keep from going on our side. Then went down to the familiar entrance to devils den and made a u-turn back up the course to the right. This is a spot that Matt was very familiar with from when we first ran Devils Den when first opened. It has the big step up onto a boulder and then quite rocky to the top. we had the choice to go along the right side or go left and up the middle of Devils Den. There was a propane vehicle in front of us that could not make it up the ledge. we decide not to go around because there were way too many holes to get stuck on as the two vehillces behind us that went around found out. The vehicle eventually backed out of the way and we were able to go around hiim to negotiate that obstacle. We made short work of it after the vehicle plug was removed. we kept our momentum up the rocky slope and out the top without problems. After a quick celebration at the top we shifted into high range and made our way at a good pace to the "son of a ditch" which we ran backwards from the last race. There were a couple vehicles already off to the side that couldn't make the climb. Another vehicle in front of us went up without too much trouble. We followed with good momentum and flew up the hill without issues(so glad that front locker was working). The course weaved it's way down to the pit, we saw smiley on his side as we made our way down there. We had no intention of going through the deep water and instead decided to circle to the right of the pit through a ditch. We had no issues and made our way to the high speed sections. We talked ourselves down from the adrenaline filled high so we could run a notch below what the vehicle was capable of. We were mostly in second gear in high range and sometimes 3rd. Made our way to a muddy section that made it's way up hill. this is the newly bulldozed section that has been talked about on the Rausch forum. We nicknamed it "shits creek" because it was a black muddy section that went uphill. we crawled through it in 1st gear without incident. then made our way to the east side of the property where the trail dropped off sharply and you could see I-81/ we kept it in second gear so as to not become a statistic and had no issues. The next obstacle that we had to face was a loose dirt and rocky uphill climb. this was a section that caused us to overheat on the prerun due to grinding it out trying to make it up without a front locker. Kim also had trouble there and was not able to negotiate the obstacle. After we overheated they gave up to help us off the course instead of trying a different line. This time there was a vehicle on the far left that could not negotiate the obstacle and was plugging that route. We picked the right side and after 3 tries stuck to our rule and pulled cable. That was the last obstacle that really gave anyone trouble. Somewhere in the course we went down the triple hillclimb that I love so much and went down "tip top" without incident. We made our way through the course without any more troubles and passed the start/finish line at the 1:20 minute mark. we decided that this lap we weren't going to do any winching. the winch was bound in several places and was taking way too much time. Second lap we made it through Upper talisman without hitting the tree and made our way to devils den. No issues there and continued through the course without incident. well except when that female codriver stepped in front of my vehicle while I was trying to bounce up the big obstacle at the bottom of devils den. Thankfully I was quick enough on the brakes to keep her from having more than just a hug from my front tire.(Don't know what she was thinking but glad she was ok and I still need to find out who it was so I can say sorry for not waiting. We spanked devils den and went through the course without problems. When we reached the loose dirt and rocky uphill climb that we winched up the first time we decide to hit the left side and made it up with a lot of throttle and lots of slidding back and forth between the rocks. Dont' know if it was the second or third lap but we saw Kim and Matt winching up out of the woods on the right there. We finished the second lap with a 50' lap time and decided to pit and refuel and check for damage. It only took 6 gallons suprisingly. While checking things over we discovered the vehicle was leaning to the right somewhat. Checked the springs and links and found the rear passenger side upper link had slowly unscrewed itself away from the jam nuts. I think there was only about half inch of threads holding it together on both sides. We were able to shorten it back up and tighten the jam nuts and the vehicle was sitting level again. Nick refused to drive so I hopped in the drivers seat and we were on our way again. This time we ran a good lap and had no issues on Upper Talisman.(someone thankfully knocked over the huge boulder that was pushing us into the tree). While going down devils den we slid of the obstacle and caught the front right tire on the boulders and could not climb over it. we were able to grind back and forth enough to clear it and that was the only issue we had during this lap. We ran a good lap, somewhere around 50 minutes. Our 4th lap we ran without trouble and made it to the northeast side of the property. Tried to turn left and hit the last part of the loop, the easy section but the vehicle kept going straight. I though "what the hell...this must be very slick". I tried to back up but the vehicle didn't feel right. I looked at the front drivers tire to find it leaning outward at a catastrophic angle. I told nick we were done and got out to see what broke. We found the drivers side knuckle busted off leaving the kingpin exposed and the high steer arm hanging from the tie rod with a chunk of metal attached. Sucks that it was at a time that we really weren't doing anything hard, we were on flat ground but at the same time thankful that it didn't happen on the high speed section or on the section near I-81 where we would have been seriously screwed. We called it in to bruce and hiked back to the spectator area where we were rescued by Julie who came with Nicks truck and beer in hand. The extraction wasn't bad. After the race was over we drove the excursion with trailer down the blacktop road, made a left up N2 and backed it up the trail in front of the excursion. The hydraulic ram mount broke off the axle while we were trying to move it when it first broke so we bent it upward to make room for the hi-lift jack and bolted the hi-lift into the stock tie rod holes to keep the wheels even. Then hooked the winch to the steering arm on the passenger side(down hill side) and drove it right up onto the trailer. It was an exciting race and our last lap were were on track to blow away our prior lap times. We were flying through the high speed sections and had no issues with the obstacles. Thanks again Chris Riley of R&S Auto and Custom Fab for getting the motor in with very little time to work with! Thanks to Nick and Matt for staying up till the wee hours of the morning to help fix the ARB problem. I look forward to the next race!

On the first lap we lost about 1 minute pulling somebody back over that was blocking the trail(#512)
Lost 8 minutes stuck on Talisman against the tree and winching.
Lost 6.5 minutes waiting at Devis den for the plug to clear.
Lost 10 minutes waiting for a plug to clear and finally winching on trail 31(wet loose dirt and rock uphill climb)

I had the gopro camera mounted on the stinger. Lost sound when I went through the puddle on the practice loop area.
camera got knocked 45 degrees sideways on Upper Talisman. Camera got knocked to 90 degrees on trail 31.
Gonna have to mount it inside the cab to get good footage.

sounds like some awesome experiences

http://www.ratemy4x4.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/16415/title/rausch-creek-rcrocs-race233/cat/691

Hundreds of pics of the event in good resolution.

You may want to edit that one pic so its alot easier to read your right up. That sucks that a stock knuckle took you out. I have an extra knuckles laying around if you need one for the next race. I can't remember what side that brand new reid knuckle is. or you could just take the stock ones off mine if need be.