Racing News
A New Season Begins
February 4th, 2012 - Coming off a 2nd place finish at our inaugural race last year, we felt confident we had the skill to take on the other 6 trucks in our class at the 2012 Parker 425. We should feel confident; after all, we had torn the truck down, rebuilt worn items from our last race and thoroughly inspected the chassis. Several weeks earlier we had pre run the racecourse and felt we had good, first-hand knowledge of it. We slapped on a brand new set of General Grabber Tires for pre-race testing, and to do some fine-tuning on our Dirt Logic shocks. The truck felt ready for battle.
Our game plan for this 3 lap race was fairly simple. Each lap was about 140 miles long and the truck could comfortably make 1 lap on a tank of gas, so we would only bring the truck in for a fuel stop at Main pit at the end of each lap.
Steve Erdelyi started the race 3rd off the line with Matt Coates co-driving. Steve ran a consistent pace keeping up with the veterans of the class until mile 80 when he got a flat tire in a silt bed. Replacing the tire was easy compared to getting the 7200 pound truck moving again in the deep Arizona sand, but after some digging and pushing they were off again and running strong. Unfortunately that didn't last long.
At mile 84, running at 80 mph, the rear axle pinion bearing self-destructed leaving the truck immobile. Because Best in the Desert rules don't allow on-course chase truck assistance, we were at the mercy of getting a tow in from another racer. After several hours of waiting fellow Fabtech racer Shawn Giordano was kind enough to stop and give us the 8 mile tow to the next pit.
By the time Fabtech #8111 got to the pit at mile 90, it seemed mathematically impossible to swap the rear axle out and finish the next 2 laps in time, but nobody on the team wanted to give up without trying. As impossible as it seems, the team was able to swap out the complete rear axle and get Fabtech #8111 moving again in just 35 minutes.
Steve and Matt went on to finish the first lap and complete the second lap at race-winning speeds. Best in the Desert required all teams start their third lap by 9 pm. unfortunately for us, Steve and Matt pulled into Main pit with a solid running truck at 9:15 pm, thus ending our day.
While the results for this Best in the Desert race may show the Fabtech #8111 Stock Full did not finish, we can claim a small victory in pride, knowing our team pulled together doing everything they could to get the truck across the finish line.
We look forward to racing the historic General Tire Mint 400 on March 24th!