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#1495/T.S.U. Motorsports Race Report - McKenzies MDR 400 June 24th 2006:
Just the events leading up to our first race have been quite an adventure. Between going to school full time taking
5 classes/20 units, receiving my Bachelor’s degree, and working 30-40 hours a week during the night, finding time
to work on the truck was difficult. The truck came along slowly, working on weekends and finding a few hours
during the week. The race grew closer and closer and help from friends and family made it possible for us to race. In
the final week between my graduation ceremony and the race DMZ Tim, Brad, and I had a large list to overcome:
seat mounts, electrical, safety and tech, mount our jack, aluminum work, repair an oil leak and a cracked axle tube,
test the truck, check it over, paint, stickers, and finally race.
We arrived in Lucerne late Friday afternoon, we had planned on prerunning with the truck before it got dark, but we
were running much later than expected. We were able to prerun the first 20 miles, make a quick stop back at our
pit, and then drove the truck to tech. Tech went smooth with no real problems, and we headed back to camp. We
set up the lights and began looking over the truck for a final time. We found that the cracked axle tube was leaking
again, so Josh from H-A Engineering and I pulled off the u-bolts and prepared the axle tube, and Ryan (Bonzen)
welded it up. We did a few more small things to the truck, and I decided to call it a night while Brad, Josh, and SGG
Dave stayed up and waited for our stickers to arrive. The stickers arrived at 2 a.m. the morning of the race, and Brad
didn’t get to bed until about 3 a.m. I woke him up about 2 hours and 45 minutes later for the drivers meeting, then
we put waters in the truck, filled it up with fuel, and did a final check over.
We started the race in the middle of the field, and paced GKR for the first few miles until dust slowed us down. We
set a pretty good pace for our little truck, and probably a little faster than we should have for our first race. 3 trucks
passed us in the first 14 miles, which were all V-8, linked, with coilovers and bypasses, and we were catching one of
the other TC trucks (1452). Just passed MM 14, climbing the long sandy uphill section we sheered the wheel studs
off the passenger side rear. I was able to get the truck barely off the course. We had to wait for tools, studs, and lug
nuts to arrive. We were down about an hour and a half. We made a quick stop at TC’s pit A to check everything
over and to replace a few of the lug nuts. From there we felt the truck out to make sure everything was good, as
well as running the back side (last 30 miles) of the course for the first time. Everything felt good on the truck, and
the backside of the course was fun! After our 3 hour and fifteen minute first lap, we began our second lap with a
more smooth/steady pace, simply trying to go for the finish at this point. We cruised slowly through the rough
sections between MM 12-18, not wanting any more down time and in fear of sheering the wheel studs again. This is
where Nick Tonelli caught up with us; he caught us in the rocky rough section after the long sandy hill. I heard the
horn, but had nowhere to go, and finally on the nasty little rocky hill I picked a horrible line and then missed first
gear and this is where he hit us. I actually didn’t realize he nerfed me until we took off and we lost both of our
spares. I was having fun running with him, but had to stop and pick up at least the one spare that I knew of. We
continued on after that and were running fine until we lost the spare again at about Mile 26. I pulled off the course
to pick it up, and was passed by Belcher (1483). Once we were back on course I was catching Belcher as we were
approaching the sand hill. I tried to take the longest line possible to give him enough time to make it up the hill
before we did, not wanting to have two trucks fight for one line going up the hill. Well, that’s exactly what
happened, and we squeezed right in front of him at the last minute before making the final left up the hill, and as
soon as we made the left we found Greeley stuck dead center in the hill. Greeley was motioning to slow down, but I
knew if I let off I would be stuck as well, I motioned to his co-driver who was standing on the ride side of the course
to move, and ran up the side hill on the right, clearing Greeley’s truck. After that we continued our steady pace not
pushing too hard, we actually couldn’t really reach speeds over 70 mph before the truck began to swap out. At the
end of lap 2 we made a long pit stop for fuel and a good thorough check over of the truck. Everything looked fine
so we continued on, at this point Helton was already at his pit drinking Beer. Lap 3 and 4 went down without a
hiccup, we continued a steady pace and found that cruising slowly through the rough section (MM 12-18) allowed
our shocks to cool and we could go faster on the backside of the course and actually run faster lap times. I got into a
groove and each lap time improved with our last lap being our fastest. We ended up finishing 12th out of 15
finishers in our first race! Our damage that we have found so far: 1 lost spare, 1 cracked bedside, both axle tubes
leaking/cracked, and a bent and mangled drum brake backing plate.
Although Brad and I have worked very hard on getting the truck to where it is, we couldn’t have done it without
these people: DMZ Tim for building an awesome cage, and helping us with our prep work, Tim you are a trooper for
getting this all done in time! Everyone from TOTAL CHAOS for their support, awesome suspension, and pit support.
Everyone from KARTEK for answering all my questions, helping me get the parts I need, and even running the parts
to my house after they were closed! Greg Gagnon, the Shock Satan for making the truck 100x better! SGG Dave,
Flynn Sizemore from CORPORATE FILMS, Ryan Nolan, Matt Mead, Evan Link, Bryan Denny, Bonzen, Ms. Bonzen,
Adam Householder, Sean Kepler, Ryan Cinqmars, Josh from H-A Engineering, Noodle, The Lindseth family, all of my
family, and anyone who came out and supported us, cheered us on, or at least waved! Thank you all!
Just the events leading up to our first race have been quite an adventure. Between going to school full time taking
5 classes/20 units, receiving my Bachelor’s degree, and working 30-40 hours a week during the night, finding time
to work on the truck was difficult. The truck came along slowly, working on weekends and finding a few hours
during the week. The race grew closer and closer and help from friends and family made it possible for us to race. In
the final week between my graduation ceremony and the race DMZ Tim, Brad, and I had a large list to overcome:
seat mounts, electrical, safety and tech, mount our jack, aluminum work, repair an oil leak and a cracked axle tube,
test the truck, check it over, paint, stickers, and finally race.
We arrived in Lucerne late Friday afternoon, we had planned on prerunning with the truck before it got dark, but we
were running much later than expected. We were able to prerun the first 20 miles, make a quick stop back at our
pit, and then drove the truck to tech. Tech went smooth with no real problems, and we headed back to camp. We
set up the lights and began looking over the truck for a final time. We found that the cracked axle tube was leaking
again, so Josh from H-A Engineering and I pulled off the u-bolts and prepared the axle tube, and Ryan (Bonzen)
welded it up. We did a few more small things to the truck, and I decided to call it a night while Brad, Josh, and SGG
Dave stayed up and waited for our stickers to arrive. The stickers arrived at 2 a.m. the morning of the race, and Brad
didn’t get to bed until about 3 a.m. I woke him up about 2 hours and 45 minutes later for the drivers meeting, then
we put waters in the truck, filled it up with fuel, and did a final check over.
We started the race in the middle of the field, and paced GKR for the first few miles until dust slowed us down. We
set a pretty good pace for our little truck, and probably a little faster than we should have for our first race. 3 trucks
passed us in the first 14 miles, which were all V-8, linked, with coilovers and bypasses, and we were catching one of
the other TC trucks (1452). Just passed MM 14, climbing the long sandy uphill section we sheered the wheel studs
off the passenger side rear. I was able to get the truck barely off the course. We had to wait for tools, studs, and lug
nuts to arrive. We were down about an hour and a half. We made a quick stop at TC’s pit A to check everything
over and to replace a few of the lug nuts. From there we felt the truck out to make sure everything was good, as
well as running the back side (last 30 miles) of the course for the first time. Everything felt good on the truck, and
the backside of the course was fun! After our 3 hour and fifteen minute first lap, we began our second lap with a
more smooth/steady pace, simply trying to go for the finish at this point. We cruised slowly through the rough
sections between MM 12-18, not wanting any more down time and in fear of sheering the wheel studs again. This is
where Nick Tonelli caught up with us; he caught us in the rocky rough section after the long sandy hill. I heard the
horn, but had nowhere to go, and finally on the nasty little rocky hill I picked a horrible line and then missed first
gear and this is where he hit us. I actually didn’t realize he nerfed me until we took off and we lost both of our
spares. I was having fun running with him, but had to stop and pick up at least the one spare that I knew of. We
continued on after that and were running fine until we lost the spare again at about Mile 26. I pulled off the course
to pick it up, and was passed by Belcher (1483). Once we were back on course I was catching Belcher as we were
approaching the sand hill. I tried to take the longest line possible to give him enough time to make it up the hill
before we did, not wanting to have two trucks fight for one line going up the hill. Well, that’s exactly what
happened, and we squeezed right in front of him at the last minute before making the final left up the hill, and as
soon as we made the left we found Greeley stuck dead center in the hill. Greeley was motioning to slow down, but I
knew if I let off I would be stuck as well, I motioned to his co-driver who was standing on the ride side of the course
to move, and ran up the side hill on the right, clearing Greeley’s truck. After that we continued our steady pace not
pushing too hard, we actually couldn’t really reach speeds over 70 mph before the truck began to swap out. At the
end of lap 2 we made a long pit stop for fuel and a good thorough check over of the truck. Everything looked fine
so we continued on, at this point Helton was already at his pit drinking Beer. Lap 3 and 4 went down without a
hiccup, we continued a steady pace and found that cruising slowly through the rough section (MM 12-18) allowed
our shocks to cool and we could go faster on the backside of the course and actually run faster lap times. I got into a
groove and each lap time improved with our last lap being our fastest. We ended up finishing 12th out of 15
finishers in our first race! Our damage that we have found so far: 1 lost spare, 1 cracked bedside, both axle tubes
leaking/cracked, and a bent and mangled drum brake backing plate.
Although Brad and I have worked very hard on getting the truck to where it is, we couldn’t have done it without
these people: DMZ Tim for building an awesome cage, and helping us with our prep work, Tim you are a trooper for
getting this all done in time! Everyone from TOTAL CHAOS for their support, awesome suspension, and pit support.
Everyone from KARTEK for answering all my questions, helping me get the parts I need, and even running the parts
to my house after they were closed! Greg Gagnon, the Shock Satan for making the truck 100x better! SGG Dave,
Flynn Sizemore from CORPORATE FILMS, Ryan Nolan, Matt Mead, Evan Link, Bryan Denny, Bonzen, Ms. Bonzen,
Adam Householder, Sean Kepler, Ryan Cinqmars, Josh from H-A Engineering, Noodle, The Lindseth family, all of my
family, and anyone who came out and supported us, cheered us on, or at least waved! Thank you all!
