Scoob scoop: Parker Grand Prix 2000

Scoob Scoop Parker Grand Prix 2000

==== We did not have to do any real repairs on the race truck after the flawless Snowflake race. In fact two weeks before the race I participated in the Tucson Rough Riders annual Trail Dust Days (Rock crawlin' Event- fun time). I checked the fluids, put a windshield in and swapped in a muffler and off I went to crawl up some local mountains (Rice Peak). This was actually a pretty good testing situation, discovered a few little things that needed to be modified before the race.

====== One week before the race my tow rig tranny was acting a bit weird so I took it to a racer supporting tranny shop in town and they hooked it up to a diagnostic machine and they said it showed a few errors (solenoid stuck, gear ratio problem), and that it would be quite expensive to fix. I talked to some friends and the previous owner, which ended up with me taking it to another tranny shop. That tranny shop said that everything was working fine. The diagnostic said that everything was working correctly and the fluid was clean. I asked them if it would be ok to haul a race truck to Parker, he said it would be ok.

===== So there I was in Gila Bend 4th gear not working and 3rd gear started slipping as I started over the highway bridge. We started making phone calls while we nursed it back to the Texaco station. Luckily we left early that day. We had come up with a handful of options. The Doherty and Commons teams were ready to assist but still hadn't left Tucson yet. The Wells team provided the most practical option and they were only 30 minutes away. With some trailer juggling and the abandoning of my tow rig. We were back on our way to Parker. Curiously this was one of the only times that the Wells team used this route to Parker, lucky for me!

====== We got to the racecourse in time to tech and do one jetting run and one lap around the racecourse. I discovered I could get on top of the little whoops section on the first try (this comes into play later). We cleaned and prepped everything and hitched a ride to the Blue Water Casino with Pitchit Gregg's taxi service. After chowin' on some Blue Water Casino buffet dinner we relaxed in the hot tub until they kicked us out. The rest of our crew (Commons Team) came in just before midnight.

======== Saturday: Being a Class 3 we are considered a "limited class" so we ran with the "limited" racers. We lined up with the 9's and 1600's. For us it was quite an impressive start. I'm sure the rest of the limited racers may have thought otherwise. We had quite the hole-shot advantage, I was kind of surprised myself how good the truck hooked up and was pulling hard. My crew commented to me later that they got caught off guard by the start, and was wondering why I was racing across the field by myself, if I was testing some more, or just foolin' around, until they saw the rest of the racers following a significant distance behind me. It only took a few turns for some of the cars to catch me (with their better cornering ability). The huge hole-shot put my adrenaline into overdrive. So when I got to the little whoops that we got on top during practice I didn't "lift". Well as luck would have it I had took a different line from practice. From inside the truck there was a big crunch followed by quite a bit of airtime. It's pretty amazing what attitude and altitude you can get off a couple of one foot high bumps. My crew viewing this from almost directly behind the truck said they could see the complete top of the truck, and that the spectators all the way up and down the racecourse were commenting loudly. I immediately found that it was more difficult to corner and that there was something seriously wrong with the steering or front axle. A few seconds later I heard over the radio that I had spit the front driveshaft out completely. There wasn't any unusual noises coming from the truck, like part of a drive shaft beating around underneath it. So we pressed on. The front drive shaft had broken relatively cleanly away from the CV joint and front yoke. What we didn't realize was when the driveshaft came off it had pounded away at the tranny pan enough to punch a hole in it. The tranny temp gauge was on the fritz on the starting line, but by feeling the tranny coolers in the back you could tell if the tranny was hot or not. On a 4wd you put your best tires on the front to pull you through the corners, but guess what happens when you lose your front wheel drive and it's the first time you raced in 2wd and also the first time you did a "short course" event. So for those fellow racers that I may have surprised or roosted in my cornering shenanigans, it was not intentional, although it was great fun drag racing down the long backstretch. On the second to last lap the tranny started to act up, shifting late or early. Since the temp gauge was broke I felt the tranny coolers and they were cool. "It must be the linkage or something", we continued on. On the final back stretch run when all I had left was 1st gear the big light came on…hey if there is no tranny fluid running through the coolers they won't be hot. So topped out in 1st gear for the rest of the lap the rest of the racers were getting their revenge. We crossed the finish line and went directly to the pit when we stopped the tranny was still gushing fluid. Tranny #2 for the weekend.

======= Post Saturday race: There was a lot of discussion on what to do to the leaking tranny pan, the best plan was to replace the pan-no pan available, pull the pan weld it put it back on-the weather gods decided to turn the pit into a sandstorm which would put a lot of sand into to open tranny, stick some epoxy putty on it and hope for the best-hope it works. The epoxy putty worked well, the tranny was barely seeping. We decided to let the epoxy cure until morning. We were tired and coated with a layer of dust and looking forward to the Blue Water Casino's hot tub and water slide. We enjoyed the pool until we were pruned up, by that time we were ready for dinner. While waiting in line for the buffet we thought it would be a good idea to pass the time with a few margaritas. Of course we continued the margarita intake after dinner too. We enjoyed lots of racer camaraderie and entertainment including gymnastics, and magic tricks with vegetables. When I got back to the room I entertained the rest of my crew already asleep by telling them tales in unintelligible tequila speak.

======= Sunday: In the morning we checked the epoxy patch and it seemed to be holding well. We filled up the tranny with fluid and took it out for a test run hoping that the other gears would come back. They didn't. All we had was 1st and 3rd gear. They were solid though. So we lined up with the limited cars again. When the green flag dropped I stomped on the gas and the engine stalled. No hole-shot today. Got it restarted in a few seconds, wound first gear up tight caught 3rd and was able to catch up to the middle of the pack. It was incredibly dusty, everybody was racing by Braille or chasing amber lights, a 9 car (I think) appeared stopped in front of us and I had to lock up the brakes to keep from hitting him, we must have stopped within inches of him. It was a total brown out, I turned on my headlights in case someone got turned around we could avoid each other, I would surely have gone over the top of any of them. After the infield, just before the back stretch, I was following an amber light of somebody who was pulling off the course, it took us a moment to figure that out. A few moments later we had to emergency turn away from a buggy that had stopped and the driver was crawling out of the car. (Leave your amber on if your going to stop in the dust). We still had 3rd gear so we could open it up on the backstretch. We pitted every other lap to check that the tranny patch was still holding up. We ended up taking the checkered flag for a 1st in class 3…

======== Mother Nature rubbed it in by raining on the white flag of the last race of the weekend. On the way home we stopped by Gila Bend and I jumped in my tow rig, which was actually still there. I was able to drive it home, by being very gentle with it .

==== The Racing was exciting and it was pretty cool too be able to watch the whole race (dust permitting). It was a bummer that the weather didn't cooperate, flooding everywhere but Parker, where we only got a few drops after the races were over. My Larry's engine and marine motor is still pulling strong and the Art Carr Transmission worked incredibly well considering it had barely any fluid in it. The Blue Water Casino was great. Whiplash put on a great race even given the difficulties they had to overcome with the weather and the dust and the broken water trucks. I would like to give a special thanks to the Wells and Kuker Family for getting me to the race and back home. It reconfirms the character of off road racers when they unconditionally help out a fellow-racing friend. Thanks.

Scoob #311 A two-tranny weekend is still better than any day at work.