We have been working on rebuilding our engine, I should say, Dave Whitehead has been rebuilding our engine. After a complete tear down it was apparent that our engine was destroyed in the Vegas to Reno race during day1. It was a miracle we finished that race. Starting the Silver State 300 with that engine was proof w should go back to school for a refresher course in racing engines. Or probably is was just my hope that this engine would last four races and that it wouldn’t need rebuilding until after Henderson. Look for a complete update on this in our tech tips coming soon!
Please check the BitD site for a complete update on Henderson there are a lot of changes. If you are going to the race, bring LED lights for your rig in the main pit.
Our first time at SEMA and Jeff and I left for Vegas about 12am Thursday night, or is that Friday morning? Our plan was to be the first ones there on Friday. We received our badges at 7:30 pm and the show doesn’t open until 9am. But there was plenty to see outside.
Just where do you start? Well, I figured I’d would take pictures of everything before the crowds arrived. This show covers the entire car and truck world.
If you haven’t seen a SEMA show, you will really need two days to see everything. The walking distance is around 18 miles to see everything and if you did that in one day, all your pictures would be blurry!
We had a great day. I took lots of pictures, you can see the slide show HERE, check them out.
We had a good feeling going into this race. We finished Vegas to Reno and identified all our problems… not individually, with the race truck. =) We relocated the rear arm that was hitting the frame. We installed the starter heat shield and moved the starter closer to the ring gear. We solved the starter problems. We installed a brand new transmission, the old one had 800 miles on it so we will get that one rebuilt. We replaced the driver’s side spindle, Ronnie from Wicked Sand Rails repaired it. He did a fantastic job and hopefully it’s even stronger than before.
We were off to a great start. Stewart was driving. Our rear start has become a real problem and we were slowing down before every corner to let the dust drift off the course a couple of feet. 15 miles into the race we caught 5th place and around 25 miles into we saw the number two truck just ahead. But we couldn’t pass because it was too early in the race to take chances.
When we arrived at Pit #1 we were at mile marker 43 and we were in the same order as we were at the start line. We have a large fuel cell and were able to pick any pit we want to fuel up. We decided not to stop at the first pit in the hopes of passing someone. It became an uphill climb around mile marker 51 and the engine started to misfire. We heard a loud pop in the driver’s side exhaust pipe (the push rods bent as well as some other damage to the valves.) We were just getting ready to pull off the track and were hit from behind. Luckily, there was no damage but we were done at mile marker 53. Our good feeling was gone!
My first internet interview, live on Sopwith Motor Sports. I missed my cue for tire sponsors so please add BFG tires, the best we have ever run on any truck.
Lost Boys Racing update 9-10-09: Our crew chief, Jeff McCullough are I were preparing his 1973 AMC Hornet to participate in the NORRA 1000.
Jeff and his dad, Roy have spend many days in my shop getting ready for this race. We have repainted the car inside and out, installed a new oil cooler in the rear hatch area, added a new front grill, and reworked the front lights and bumpers.
We were getting ready to leave for Mexico Tuesday, 9/16 for the navigation and orientation class. Contingency was set for Wednesday and Thursday we were to leave for La Paz.
Yesterday at 3pm we received a called from Bill at NORRA. The race is being rescheduled due to Hurricane Jimena. It was not reported in mainstream news but damage throughout the Baja Peninsula was severe. There are many towns without power or water and many families are still in need of of help. See the official notice at Norra.com.
We agree that it is not appropriate to hold any type of racing that could interfere with emergency recovery efforts. Baja California is a beautiful place to visit but living conditions are very basic. The hurricane have made basic necessities in short supply. Lost Boys Racing is donating their entire entry fee to the recovery efforts.
We got to the impound area at 8:45 a.m. Saturday morning to start Day 3. By 9:30 a.m. we were pre-staged and headed over to the start line 5 miles away.
We started at the back again because of our DNF the day before. We got off to a good start but with the dust hanging in the air over the track we couldn’t see over 20’ ahead of us. After a while we catch up with the other racers. Passing was dangerous but there was no way we were going to eat dirt all day long. We looked for good openings or a long, straightaway to pass.
The night before we removed the fiberglass grille and one headlight in front of the radiator to solve the overheating problem. Our temperature went down an average of 20 degrees.
Derek was driving again but was very tired from only two hours of sleep. The first half of the day was full of silt beds. The truck was floating over them well when we maintained a high speed. The uphill climbs were quickly dragging our engine down, so we had to keep up the speed to stay in the engine’s power band all while being careful enough to finish the race.
I switched into the driver’s seat around mile marker 160. The course was very tight. Uphill grades and dangerous downhill canyons with lots of turns scattered with large rocks. We had to slow down due to our BFG’s which are 5-6 years old. With only 20 miles left to go before the finish line the entire course changed to razor sharp rocks that we that we had to go over- making sure we didn’t spin the tires the rest of the way.
The finish line and the Red Bull arch were a welcome sight. After 1,000 miles in 3 days, we finished 2nd place for the day and 6th overall. After 3 days, only 125 of the 300 vehicles that started the race finished in Reno and Lost Boys Racing # 7205 was there.
Big Thanks to our Pit Crew!
Derek & Gary Dixon- “Drivers”
Jeff McCullough- Crew Chief & “Bud Light Master”
Kurt Mantwell- “Dirt”
Erik Aldinger- “Sparky”
Kevyn Thaxton- “Tex”
Chris Thaxton- “Local Yocal”
Stewart Dixon- “Fed Ex”
Butch Burtness- “Tech Support”
