We tested on Monday for two hours, focusing in on the rear arms to see if they were going to bend again. Everything looked fine.
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Contingency:
We were off to a slow start, it was very cold the night before and our heater went out, somewhere around 29 degrees. We were entering two vehicles, the Lost Boys Truck #7205 and #938 our Class 9. It took all day to finish tech. There were somewhere around 300 vehicles at the race. The driver’s meeting started at 6:30am. Everyone was there and the building was completely full, including Robbie Gordon, Andy McMillan, and Jesse James. The meeting was very long with more new rules, it seems like there are changes every year. No one live pits, 25 mph parades this year.
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Race Day:
At 5:00am Saturday it was rime to get up and put on our race suits. Pre-staging started at 6:15am at the Casino and then we paraded down to the start. From our truck we could hear the start of the top 20. We left the start line one minute apart starting at 8am. Just before the green light a pastor from Racers for Christ gave us an opportunity for prayer. We were at the start light around 9:30am where Casey greeted all the racers. We were finally ready to do battle with the “soft, sandy” desert floor of the Parker 425.
Just off the start we hit 80 mph and started to slow down for the first turn. We noticed our first problem- the intercom was not working properly and we could not hear each other. It looked like hand signals from there on out. The truck was running excellent with 540 horsepower, it pulled hard through every turn.
We ran on our first set of sponsored BF Goodrich tires. They were excellent. Traction in Parker has always been important. And with the new KRT projects in the rear we had no problems. (Video #2)
We passed four trucks in the first 20 miles.
Our truck weighs in at around 5,700 lbs, how fast do you think it could possibly be weighing that much? I clocked it on our GPS at 100 mph, uphill on Powerline Rd.
The course had a combination of everything, deep sand, deep ruts, high speed fire roads, riverbeds full of trees, blind uphill turns, and solid rock goat trails. At mile marker 120 the engine started to misfire but all the gauges looked OK.
For the 7200 truck that nerfed us on a 40’ wide road, you were only running on five cylinders, so congrats on a terrific pass. We made it to the main pit and it was time to check out the engine and fill up with race fuel. We couldn’t find anything wrong but the engine was still missing at low rpm’s. We completed 93 more miles running wide open trying to keep the engine running at the high rpm. We had never driven this hard for anything but my back was screaming, “slow down!” I think we were driving just as fact on five cylinders as we did with six.
At mile marker 90 on the 2nd lap we lose more power and oil pressure, it was down to 30 lbs. We rolled into the midway pit to try and fix it one more time but at that point the truck and I were both ready for the trailer.
Overall, the truck is capable at keeping up with anyone in our class. I hope someday we can finish a race and prove it.
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Lost Boys Racing 