This was an end to a very exciting race for the Torchmate racing #4498 car!  We travelled to Tooele, Utah for the 4th race of the Ultra 4 series at Miller motorsports park not really knowing what to expect on a short course track with the type of cars we race.  We showed up the first day to practice and after seeing the track, I knew right off there was no need in me evening practice with the 40" maxxis trepadors on the truck.  we needed a leaner, smaller tire designed for the dirt that a short couse offers.  Creighton King and the crew at Maxxis provided us with some special cut short course 35" tires for the buggy. 

 

On friday morning, we got on the track and tried to feel our way around the jumps, turns, and rythem section of the track since this was our first time on one.  What a BLAST!  i love to jump anyway so the big jumps come natural for me after years of XRRA.  I checked the rocks once and knew I'd be fine in the trenches and up hills with the 35's.  I worked the entire practice session on cornering and getting the right speed to pitch the car  in the turns.

 

We began qualifing and I was a nervous wreck until the green flag dropped, then it was all business!  I ran the short course about as good as my car would go but out of all places, I got hung up in the rocks!  This little mishap took me to 15th starting position, still respectible but not where I wanted.

 

I started the first heat in 5th place and really found a rhythm around the track.  We had a good run and finished right behind other Torchmate racer, Brad Lovell.  In the second heat, our strategy changed a little and we decided to just stay close to Brad, who started first, and then try to take the checkered at the end.  We ended up second in that heat also!  Great finish in the first two heats considering we had never been on one of these tracks.

 

The next set of races was the semi-finals and based on our overall time, we started second beside Shannon Campbell.  My goal was to try and stay with him as far as I could and then push him in the rocks.  After the first two laps, we hit the rocks and then got hung up behind slower traffic and he broke away from the pack.  The buggy continued to overheat as it had all day, so I just pushed it hard to the finish and came in second place in the semi-final heat behind Shannon Campbell.  The Jesse haines built torchmate car held together like a champ!  After all the semi-finals were over, our combined time place us in 9th place in the finals race.  It was composed of six short course laps, two of which had to be in the rocks.

 

As the green flag dropped inthe finals, I pushed the buggy harder than i had all day to work my way to the front since I hadn't been in the back of the pack all day.  I was able to move to 6th after the first lap and then everything happened very fast in turn two!  Brad lovell got hit from the side in the turn right in front of me and flipped thru the air to the outside of the track.  I was about 10 ft off his car when it happened, so the only thing I could do was shoot between the two cars in the dust and smoke.  I knew a caution would be coming out, so I raced to the rocks to complete the second rock lap during the caution!  The plan by fish and I worked great.  We came out in the caution in 5th place after three laps!  This is when everything went wrong!  As we circled the track under caution, I kept hearing a grinding sound under compression of the front suspension.  We made about four cautions and then all of a sudden, the serpentine belt came off the engine and we lost steering, this is within about three seconds before the green flag is dropped.  I managed to pull the car off the track and got out.  We discovered the front suspension link was  cracked and leaning to one side hitting the crank pulley on the engine.  I gotta thank god for not letting me go green flag and make that big jump on the backside, it would have been a very bad landing.  We ended up coming in 11th after a great weekend and I see a lot more short course racing in our teams future!

 

We have several people to thank for making this trip possible so far from home!  Jonathan Dawes and Derek West for hauling the car out, My spotter(Mike "Fish" Hullfish, My family, Maxxis for getting us the short course tires, Stan and the guys at BRANIK MOTORSPORTS  for getting our sway bar parts to us overnite, Bill and the crew at Torchmate racing for keeping me safe with my new race suit(I thinkhe knows my history with fires and wanted to protect me), and Bower Motorsports for the great coverage!

 

We are already repairing the car for the indiana badlands TREC race and Werock next weekend.  We will have the car prepped to run Promod at werock!