RCRocs race 1 2012

Are you ready?

I cant wait. supposed to be fast and smooth

Not too much luck this race. Steering felt a little off but I blamed it on a new front tire that wasn't broken in yet. Ran strong off the line but after a few miles had the front passenger FOA coilover shock unscrew from the eyelet. Took some time to screw it back together to finish the lap and pit. Stopped in the pit and grabbed our spare shock but opted not to replace it and take a chance on the reassembled one. Didn't last long and ended up swapping it out on the course. Third lap went well, drove conservatively and put up a good time. Fourth lap we got to the hill prior to outer limits and broke the drivers side upper control arm bolt. Didn't have one in the tool bag(usually I have a spare) and couldn't find one to sacrifice from somewhere else. Called the pits and had a competitor bring one out to us. Made the fix but discovered the passenger side bolt was broken as well but still in place. Finished the lap very conservatively and made it to the pits. Grabbed a bunch of 9/16ths bolts and started the final lap. Made it about 1.5 miles and the passenger bolt failed. Got out to make the repair but out tool bag was gone, must have gotten scrubbed off somewhere. Used the winch line through the stinger and placed the link back in the slot, secured it in place, sorta. We limped to a Matt/Kims vehicle and used their tools to repair the link. Now with everything in good working order we hit the course hard for the final lap. We were smokin the trail harder than ever and it was running well, except started to sputter since running low on fuel. Transmission lost 2nd and 3rd gears, motor was running really hot from running 1st gear through the course and running out of fuel. Came up on Eugene Rose who was plugging the trail with his broken rig. We got stuck a few minutes trying to get around him and finally backed down and went up an alternate route. Ran really hard towards the finish and got to the final 1/2 mile of F trail where the upper control arm bolt failed again at the 4:00 cutoff time.

damn lost another tranny, that sucks. Any clue at what keeps making them fail?