Lone Kid Racing Vegas to Reno Race Report
Despite Struggles, We Continue to Compete and Learn….
This years Best In The Desert TSCO Vegas to Reno race was all it was expected to be; rough, silty, dusty, and extremely HOT . It was so hot that temp gauges, crew members, and the vehicles would be pushed to the limits. Our John Deere Gator 825i UTV would take off the line last in our class of 14. Rusty Baptist would wheel the Gator off the line at sunrise and would get the Gator through pit 1 with no problems. The Gator felt and looked great! We could see our Rigid Industries LED light bars cutting through the dust long before we could see the UTV itself as we waited at pit stop 2 where we would dump fuel and do a quick once over. After completing our pit duties Rusty and Frankie were back on course and heading on towards pit 3 where we would wait to see them once again.
Just as we set into our groove we got a call from Frankie over the radio, one that no team wants to hear. “We are having fuel issues!”, at this point they are still 20 miles from pit 3 which is where we are waiting. So we start to diagnose over the radio asking them to check things like the fuel filter and requesting that they let the Gator cool off before trying to get moving again. When the Gator did cool down it would run for a little while then start doing the same thing leaving us to believe we were vapor locking. This held us up long enough that the faster class 1 and trick trucks were closing in. Knowing this Rusty and Frankie worked there way towards pit 3 in the spots between the other classes to get it to the crew. At this time they have been in and out the car at least 15 times, tired and worn out we had the other drivers get ready to go in case they wanted out.
Some time later we see them coming down the hill towards the pit. Once they work their way into the pit we got them out of the John Deere Gator and in some shade while the crew went to work. We replaced the entire fuel system with a new pump, filters, and regulator. We then loaded them up with fuel and strapped Nick Dempkowski and Chip Boldin in for the next section. They take off and soon hear that they too are having the same issues. At this point we have no way to go in and help them so we head off to pit 4 and wait to hear something. During our wait we receive updates from friends on the progress via the IRC tracker and those tracking the race on UTVUnderground.com. We are one of the last cars on the course during this time and now our goal is to just hope that we can make it to the pit before it closes.
Finally we get the call that they are close but it was not close enough, we were buried in a silt bed and the fuel system had quit due to all the cycles it was put through. It was really disappointing but we timed out at pit 4 and had to call it a day. We did everything we could to keep plugging away. At this point the sun was down, we had spent the entire day just trying to go 200 miles.
The team was devastated, we wanted to keep trying but the rules are the rules and we came up short. Despite the struggles we have again learned more about our new race car and our new platform. We vow to continue testing and to get this John Deere Gator across the finish line sooner than later. We do want to thank our sponsors because without them there is no way we could have this much fun competing in the greatest off road racing series in America.
John Deere, FOX Racing Shox, Rigid Industries, GBC Motorsports, Ringers Gloves,MSD Ignitions Dirtbagz, UTVUnderground.com,Elite mfg., RADesigns, DMH Tattoo Supply, ITP Wheels, Azunia Tequila, Fast-Aid.org
Special thanks goes out to the Lone Kid Racing Team: Greg, Frankie, Troy, Rusty, Chip, Nick, Melissa,Eric and Michelle,
Lucas Hand
Lone Kid Racing John Deere Gator 825i Team Manager
Pre-Race Video Interview Featuring Lucas Hand of Lone Kid Racing by
UTVUnderground.com/Race-Dezert.com:
Category: Race Recap