Rusty Bray Wins Rausch Creek and Qualifies for 2012 Griffin King of the Hammers
Our weekend started off by qualifying on Friday morning after multiple rain storms! We ran the qualifier hard with Mike "fish" Hulfish running codawg! After a little mishap and the engine dying during qualifying, we ended up forth for the main event. We were right where we wanted to be because we could push or just stay with the top three and let them make the mistakes!
We pre-ran the 12.8 mile course on Friday afternoon with competitors Derek West and Cottin and Randy Rodd. About 11 miles in, we broke the upper wishbone on the front suspension. It started to get the team stressed out because we didn't have a spare and only a large stick welder to repair it. Fish worked about three hours prepping and repairing the link enough for us to decide we would chance it on Saturday.
I woke up feeling our game plan would be to survive the first three laps and start pushing hard on lap four and five. 4, 3, 2, 1 and we were off. Skies clear and just a 12.8 mile brutal muddy track ahead of us! We started forth off the line and at about race mile two we passed Eric Miller broke and on fire on the side of the trail, after checking to make sure he was ok, we started chasing Derek West and Shannon Campbell. The first big obstacle was Upper Talisman and we walked right up it with no troubles! We raced the first lap with no issues and no one even close to us besides the two leaders out front! We didn't really push the car hard and decided we would stay at the same pace on lap two because we felt for sure there would be a traffic jam at Upper Talisman and was there!
After getting there and having about nine cars in front of us winching, rolled over, and everyone trying to help Shannon get back over, we decided to winch through a large gap in the rock face off the trail! Lucas Murphy and Levi Shirley beat us to it and we had to wait for them so we could get through! Nasty car size boulders and sharp angles on the rocks made for large diff hangers and very difficult to even winch! Bill Baird and JT Taylor were behind us and JT jumped right in and helped Fish and I winch thru the difficult spot! Thanks JT! After we made it up, we knew that there was a long line of traffic coming the same way and out for us!
On lap three, we decided to pick up the pace and start chasing Lucas and Levi! Every time we came around to Upper Talisman, we started having to winch because of all the traffic and we didn't want to chance breaking the car if we didn't have to. There was so much mud in the open fields that you couldn’t see my legs on some of the laps because of how thick it was! It would shower up in the air and fall like rain! I started to freak out a little about it stopping up our cooler's so we opted to pit every time and flush the radiator and tranny cooler. It needed it bad!
At the end of lap 4, we decided to take 5 gallons fuel, check the brakes (I had NONE) and we found that I blew a brake line because the sway bar broke and fell off the car on lap 4! In the pits, I told them I didn't have time to fix it or add fluid, so I ran lap 5 with NO brakes at all! On the 5th lap, at about race mile 6 and pushing hard, I passed Levi with a blown motor! At that point, I asked my co-driver if he wanted the win or make sure we finish and qualify for the 2012 King of the Hammers. He said WIN IT! I really pushed the car hard in the rocks and all of a sudden, there was Lucas Murphy in front of us. There was a slower car in between and I kept blowing and blowing the horn, trying to get by! He wouldn't move over but just slammed on the brakes in the middle of the track. I didn’t have any brakes so you can imagine what happened! BOOM! I hit him really hard and just backed up and went around! Don't really know why he stopped but I did gently remove some of the rear parts of his car! We caught Murphy and passed him at about race mile 8! I have no idea how we caught him because in the pits, they said he was 30 minutes ahead. We also let fellow pit crews put an optima battery, tranny parts, and a throttle cable in the car and hauled them to different spots for broken competitors. At the awards ceremony, I had one of the drivers that finished come up and thank me and couldn't believe the guy who won first would stop and take parts out to him so he could finish.
With three miles to go, I went into Outer Limits and must have cracked the oil filter from the skid plate hitting it. We ran the last three miles with the oil pressure dropping to zero and the sway bar dangling off the back of the car! I have no idea how the car finished the race but it had to be a little luck and some praying from the entire Torchmate team!
At the finish line, I got so excited and thought we had won right off but Dave Cole informed me I had to wait for 5 minutes to make sure Lucas Murphy didn't cross the line because of corrected time. They held a clock while I waited and then it was all high fives: We Won.
We would like to thank Derek West for hauling the car up. Todd Puckett, John Sweet and his crew for loaning us all the tools to fix the car. Maxxis Tires (we used the same four tires for qualifying and racing with no flats), Yukon Gear and Axle, Raceline Wheels, PSC Steering, Aamco Transmissions, High Angle Driveline, Spidertrax, Branik Motorsports, Warn Industries, Jesse Haines, Our families, and my Codawg.
Rusty Bray Video at Rausch Creek Qualifier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajAvmhOdg74
