Meat Posted October 20, 2005 Report Share Posted October 20, 2005 Big event at Rausch on the 29th of October. This is the big one. There's a handfull of Maxxis 6 hour races throughout the year, but the 12 hour race is the superbowl of XC racing. The 12 hr has always been held in Fort Dodge Iowa until this year. Rausch Creek offroad park in Tremont Pennsylvania is the location. The race consists of an estimated 80, 3-man teams, that will race a mix of wide open haul-ass roads though the woods and 2 or 3 of Rausch's world class MX tracks. Im going to be there workin in the pits. My cousin's team races all the 6 hr races and I help pit. They won their class two years ago, we didnt have any breakdowns, and this past 6hr race in June they broke a rear axle and they didnt finish. They race the Utility Expert class. Anyways, if your close, come on over to Rausch Creek and check it out. All the top GNCC guys will be there and alot of GNC guys too. Natalie\Borich and thier third mystery rider have the best chance of winning it. Borich, Natalie and Smiley won the 12 hr last year and Borich and Smliey won it two years ago also. Borich and Natalie are unbelievbly fast. anyone goin ?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proquad101 Posted October 20, 2005 Report Share Posted October 20, 2005 A friend of mine is trying to get me to go but the gold rush is coming and I dont want tear my bikes up before it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meat Posted October 24, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 http://www.12hoursofatvamerica.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proquad101 Posted October 24, 2005 Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 looks like fun, I wish I could go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PUSH THE THROTTLE Posted October 24, 2005 Report Share Posted October 24, 2005 I always wanted to head to the one at fort dodge but the g/f birthday was always the same day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meat Posted October 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 Check this out... Live video and audio of the race announced at ATVscene.com So if yas cant make it to the race, you can watch it live on your computer. My teams racing in the Utility Expert class, there's atleast 8 other teams in thier class. Rumors say there might be close to 100 teams racing. Race starts at 8am and runs till 2pm, theres a 2 hour break and the second sesson starts at 4pm and they race till 10pm. Gonna race atleast 3-1\2 hours with the headlights on. www.atvscene.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meat Posted October 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 27, 2005 (edited) $10.00 dollars gets you spectator pass $20.00 dollars for a pit pass. Local weather report for Rausch Creek.... http://www.erh.noaa.gov/ifps/MapClick.php?...ate=PA&site=CTP Edited October 27, 2005 by Meat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meat Posted October 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2005 freakin' awsome, we got 2nd place in the Ute class. Just got home and im beat. 7am till midnight racing The team of chris borich and john natalie won the overall, they took home a $10,000 dollar purse for 1st place. Did anyone watch the live webcast at ATVScene ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PUSH THE THROTTLE Posted November 1, 2005 Report Share Posted November 1, 2005 freakin' awsome, we got 2nd place in the Ute class. Just got home and im beat. 7am till midnight racing 431173[/snapback] Congrats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meat Posted November 3, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 (edited) Anyone wanna hear my racin' story well... im gonna tell it anyways This is my third "race of america" Iv pitted. I did two "6-hour" races and this was my first 12-hour, all three races were with the same team. ATVScene.com's own John Pellan is the race promoter and the brains behind the Maxxis Race of America ATV endurance races. There were six, 6-hour races this year and one big 12 hour race. Every year since its inception the 12 hour race has been held in Fort Dodge Iowa, this year it was held 13 miles from my doorstep at Rausch Creek in Tremont Pa. The 12 hour is always raced on Halloween weekend. 70, three man teams entered this years race. 20+ teams didn't finish the race. I arrived at 7am Saturday morning and found our pits, the race starts at 8am. We had a prime corner pit right next to the finish line and 50 feet from the scorers tent. Team GT Thunder pitted next to us. Me, Tom and Skip were the pit guys, my cousin Lance, district 6 Utility champ Dave Porzi and district 6 Autosport(V-force class) champ George Richards. They raced Dave's '05 Kawasaki Brute Force. The big Kawi was fitted with 4 fully adjustable Elka shocks, the best ute tires and rims and a shitload of lights. Dave races this same quad in D6 hairscrambles. 8 Ute Expert teams, only 3 finished. Lance rode first, the gun went off at 8:10 am, 70 riders ran to their parked quads and fired em up and took off. Its quite something to see and hear 70 quads fire up at once and everyone of em take off like a bat outta hell. 99% were 4 strokes yet, so it was quite loud. The racers disappeared into the woods and we made our way back to the pit. Lance did one lap and pulled into the pits yelling the quad is wondering all over, the front end seemed loose. We knew right away what the problem was, new heavy duty tie rods and ends were used and the nuts came loose on both tie rod ends where they attach to the steering stem. The cotter pins kept the nuts from coming completely off, but the studs wiggled in the steering stem enough to damage the threads. We quickly accessed the problem, tightened up the nuts extra tight and sent him back out, the pit stop took about 3 full minutes. We immediately got our spare tie rods ready, because if the nuts come loose a second time, were were going to replace the whole tie rod+ends. Lance did three laps and the nuts stayed tight. Lance did 3 perfect 15 minute laps. Dave's turn to ride, he ran two laps and pitted because the one sides' tie rod nut came loose again(these were aftermarket tie rod ends and they were junk IMO), this time we didn't funk around with re-tighten' the nuts, we replaced the entire tie rod\ends with a brand new stock one. We were ready to replace that tie rod and we all new the quickest and best way to replace it, me and Tom had the old tie rod off and the new one in a few minutes, the whole pitstop took about 5 minutes. Dave heads back out for his third lap. We knew the distance from tie rod end to tie rod end should be around 15-1\2 inches, that's where we set the one that we put on the quad during the second pit stop. Dave finishes his third lap and says that he can feel its outta toe. The tie rod that we replaced had that sides tire pointing "out" too much. We adjust tie rod as quickly as possible. No measuring crap, Tom stood 7 feet in front of the quad and I adjusted the tie rod till "it looked good" to Tom. Dave ran three 16 minute lap times with some total time lost to the tie rod problems. We were in 4th place in our class. George's turn to ride, and George didn't have any problems. His first three laps were 16, 16 and 17 minute laps. The guys rotated like this all morning and the Brute Force ran strong and we didn't have to fix anything more during the morning session. The morning session ran from 8:10 am till 2:10 am, that's six hours\half the race. From 2pm till 4pm they stop racing and all the quads get impounded, you can't work on the quad at all during the intermission. Everyone just rested and got their strategy together for the second round. We started the second session in 4th place. Mike Penland raced, he's now a factory Bombardier guy, his team was strong and they were racing a tricked out 800 Outlander. They put in 19 laps and broke down, they stopped racing at 19 laps, I still don't know what killed their race, but they were tough competition and now they're out of the race. Last years 12hr Utilty champs are FD Racing out of Fort Dodge Iowa and they were the leaders again this year, they raced a Prairie. The second place team was CardioStack and does anyone here know Jim Stack ?? Jim Stack headed the CardioStack team, Jims the #3 Ute racer in the GNCC series and hes fact. FD Racing and Stack's team were doing 14 minute laps. Third place was team HMF and we were neck and neck with team HMF the whole race. Stack and FD were running at a blistering pace and put 3 to 4 laps on us during the first 6 hours. We knew it would be hard to catch Stack and FD Racing and keep the quad in one piece, we focused on third place and our break came when team HMF broke down. They had either axle or tie rod problems and they lost a bunch of time in the pit, we moved up to third place around 6pm and put 2 or 3 laps up on Team HMF. So were about 8 or 9 hours into this race and we're running a solid third place and catching up with the second place Team CardioStack when Lance pulls in and gives the quad to Dave, Dave takes off. ATVScene had a live webcast of the whole 12 hour race and they were walking around interviewing the racers and teams, they come over and start interviewing Lance, all of a sudden here comes Dave back into the pits with a bent tie rod, the same tie rod we replaced....... I threw the jack under the quad and we scrambled to change the bent tie rod... all the while on live webcast. I could see the cameraman out of the corner of my eye and could hear the MC (Straughbanger) sayin stuff about "nascar-like pit stop". They videoed me and Tom during the entire 5 minute pit stop. We changed that tie rod in record time, we had em jacked up, assessed the problem, removed and replaced the tie rod and put everything back together in 5 minutes tops. It was a flawless pit and it was seen by the world !!! Now, George pulls into the pits screaming "its pulling to the left", turns out he had a flat rear tire. I changed the tires and he was out in less than 2 minutes. Whew, easy fix. We now reeled in second place CardioStack to one lap, team FD Racing were running a perfect race and they were fast as hell, the only way we were going to beat them is if they DNF'ed, and we were running out of time and they were 6 laps up on us, around 8:30pm we realized mathematically that would couldn't catch em. They had 7 laps on us by the end of the race. The fourth place team of Team HMF were right behind us in third place, only 2 laps down. We couldn't afford to lose anymore time breaking down. The sun had set around 6:30pm and everyone was running their headlights and were very very tired. Lap times on our team were 17 and 18 minutes towards the end of the race. But everyone was slowing down so it wasn't a problem. 8:30 pm, with a little over an hour to go, we're in third place, HMF is 2 laps behind us in fourth place, CardioStack was ahead of us by 2 laps and FD was in first place and un-catchable at this point. Race is over at 10PM. 8:45 Pm Team CardioStack breaks an A-arm mount and is finished for the rest of the race We could easily catch them now and move into second place, by 9:00 we should have second place........ 9:00 Dave races on and passes CardioStacks total lap amount and we move into second place !!!! HMF 3 laps behind us. then.... 9:05pm Dave pulls in says the front end is really really really bad, and something snapped !!! Ahhh ahhhhh there's only 55 minutes left and we looking at the possibility of our race ending. Found the problem, turned out the front upper A-arm mount has been ripped right off the frame. Well.... we brought a welder along !!! Jim Stack just happened to be over in our pits telling us about his A-arm mount when our broke, since Jim is a welder by profession, he grabbed the welding rods and tacked the mount back to the frame. We tore it apart, cleaned it up, welded it and had him back out in 15 minutes. We lost one lap to team HMF, they were still in third place but now only one lap down. We still had 40 minutes of racing left, which meant we still need to race two more laps and we had to finish it with a weak A-arm mount and stay ahead of HMF. Lance rode these last two laps. His first lap(second from the last lap of the day) he put in a solid 17 minute lap and kept the one lap lead over HMF. At this point we had all but had second place guaranteed. All Lance had to do was one more lap and not break down. We told him to go really really easy, it didnt matter how long the lap took, as long as we got across the finish line to stay a lap ahead of HMF. Lance's final lap was something like 20 minutes long, one of the few laps that I don't really know the actual time, because this lap we were all celebrating our second place finish. Thoughts.... the race was grueling. Rausch Creek was awesome. Everyone was very tired. I seen just about every part you can think of, break. Borich and Natalie are insanely fast, they were full throttle for 12 hours, did 51 laps and rode aproxx 360 miles. Team FD Racing won fair and square and are real nice people, my hat goes off to em. I can't wait till next year !! Our team did 41 laps, FD Racing did 47 laps. There's tons of race pictures at Quadzone.com or ATVriders.com If you guys read this post, let me know what you think..... I wrote a lot Its a good way to preserve the race memories for me -Denny Edited November 3, 2005 by Meat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PUSH THE THROTTLE Posted November 3, 2005 Report Share Posted November 3, 2005 Meat that's impressive, your play by play is spot on. You should have carried a video camera and done a documentary called Mud to Glory. It's nice to hear what goes on behind the scenes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fox_Racing Posted November 4, 2005 Report Share Posted November 4, 2005 That was a nice race story Congrat on your 2nd place Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.