RCQ 2012

We crossed the finish line! It was a very rough day though. Finished 2 1/2 laps without many issues. Didn't have 3rd gear from the start. Then on talisman we lost brakes, fortunately before we went down that nasty hill. we discovered a front brake caliper bolt failed causing it to fall out and jam against the wheel. Strapped it in place and hoped for the best. Only lasted long enough to get to Devils Den where the strap broke and jammed the wheel. Strapped it back in place and wrapped it up with about 20 loops of Gorilla tape. continued to outer limits where the right hand lane was occupied by a winching vehicle. He tried to guide us around but got us hung up hard. Tried to winch out but he let overheat the solenoid(must have shorted) causing the battery terminal to melt in half and killed all power. Took awhile but we were able to track it down and use a different hole to get fired up again. Made it up outer limits and pushed the guys vehicle off the trail and somehow got locked up with his vehicle (like two bucks with their horns stuck) Struggled for a few minutes and finally pushed him farther in the woods and broke free from him. Discovered reverse wasn't working somewhere in the 4th lap, absolutely nothing. Finished the lap without too much of a problem and was told we had 1 hour to finish the race. With a renewed sense of hope we started the last lap without a winch, without reverse, and with the front caliper duct taped in place. We made good time out to lower talisman but got jammed against a tree on a steep downhill and unable to back up. Jacked up the passenger side and broke it free. Headed over to devils den. we would have to 1 shot it but struggled there all day with the wet conditions. Made it halfway up and got the rear diff hung up hard. Jacked it up again and stacked some rocks. Also stacked the left rock face to improve our odds. Throttled it hard and made it out. Then off to the new section below affliction. We took the severe off camber/slippery route as we did on prior laps. It was really getting chewed up and we were leaning hard, no axle winch to pull the front end down because of the terminal failure. We almost went over, wheels came up but decided to go back down somehow. got to the last corner and slid against a tree. we were jammed in hard and couldn't throttle out, no winch and no reverse. could jack again but we were loosing our motivation and ready to give in. I slipped the transmission towards park and somehow reverse decided to work for about 3 seconds, just enough to give it some throttle and free from the tree. I throttled out and made it through affliction without incident. Hit some high speed sections and enjoyed all the mud along the way. Back to Outer limits where we nearly flipped again, right side of the vehicle was really starting to lean hard. Made it through outer limits and hit more high speed area. Seriously running out of time so we were really running hard. Got to the last section before F trail and smoke started rolling out from under the vehicle hard. Nick said he saw flames so we bailed and used the fire extinguisher to douse the flames under the hood. Decided to drive it and try to finish the last obstacle and complete the race. Crawled through F trail without incident and raced up to the finish line smoking like a Texas BBQ and leaning hard to the right. We shut it down away from other rigs and quickly bailed with the fire extinguishers in hand. Thankfully it didn't ignite again. Turns out the passenger front FOA coilover resevoir failed and dumped the shock oil all over the motor and transmission. We got a checkered flag and were the last to finish, 19th place. Exhausted!

You did 5 laps?

no wonder it took so long.

A couple of good shots of you