Vorra 24 Hour race, Fallon NV Sept 2-5

[pepper]

Tut and I were invited out to Fallon Nv to race with Desert Dingos Team in Vorras first ever 24 hour race. It all started Friday at the Stockmans Casino in Fallon. We tech'd car 1107 and all our race suits and helmets much like we do with MORE...got stickered and registered and off to the pits we went. It was about a 30 min drive out to where Jim Graham owner of Desert Dingo #1107 was camped out. We set up, hung out, made the bed in the back of the truck, and basically called it an early night.

We went to the Driver meeting at 7 on Saturday and got all specifics from the Vorra team. When we headed back to the pits to get ready to line up, we had a little team meeting and into the car we went.

Tut and I took the first 2 laps. It was pretty cool being able to take 1107 off the line, first time ever in her. I turned in a 1:14 lap time (laps were 41 miles) That with a little bit of a long pit to get some spare parts for another team and some fuel. On Lap 2 i turned in a 1:22 with another pit in there. On lap 3 we got Paul (driving) and Romy in. The boys took it out and turned in a fast lap with 1:05 but when they came in on the start of their 4th lap, they had broken a shock off the driver side. Clear thru the body of the car. YIKES!! With the entire teams help Tut was able to fabricate a new shock mount and get Emme and Tut out on the next 2 laps. They ran great and as we neared the end of the day we decided to just take it one more time out and I hopped in as co driver for Romy. We finished out the first 12 hours with 7 laps under our belt. To the best of our knowledge one of the class 11's was only a few laps in and another class 11 was possibly out with transmission issues. We felt we had a pretty good lead going into the 2nd day.

We had to last another 12 hours and hoped to get in another 6-7 laps. For our team meeting this time tho we decided since we had a pretty good lead that we would change drivers/codrivers every lap. Todays start would take us to a large salt flat area where there was a land rush start.

First everyone had to change a tire (the 2 11 guys that were left, us and team Skittles, opted to pass on this) and those who changed their tire the fastest got off the line. It was pretty cool to watch. Paul (driving) and Tut were in the car to start the day off with the first 41 miles counter clock wise. They ran a great lap and on lap 2 Tut stayed in the co driver seat and Emme took the reigns behind the wheel. All was going well till we got word they were stopping everyone at check points due to 2 bad accidents on course. This halted everyone for close to 3 hours...Luckily they were able to get medical help and everyone off course and the race resumed. Vorra handled everything calmly and as efficiently as possible. Once Emme and Tut got back after being in the car for nearly 7n hours we pulled Tut out and Emme out and Romy and a little guy from the next camp came over for a jump into the co driver seat. Romy did an awesome job on his 41 miles bringing it back to pits to exchange co drivers and Paul jumped in. Time is winding down and with any kind of luck Emme and I will be able to take it on our last lap for the night. As Romy and Paul took off all was going well, but found out we now have broken torsions on the driver side. They are taking it slow and really trying to get around the course to Emme and I. When Romy and Paul brought 1107 in, the team lifted the hood as Emme was jumping in the co driver seat and I was jumping in to drive. Jim had come up to me and was chatting about time and strategy and come to find out distracting us while Tut and Larry (emmes) dad were duct taping and wiring the fuel regulator back in. Tut just said to me no worries babe, we got this...there is no time for lights so get home before dark! I was instructed to take it easy but hurry. The boys had done a little over 2 hours to complete their last lap and we only had about 1:45 min to get ours in. I looked at Emme and off we went! I really took my time knowing i had a broken shock mount on driver side, and missing torsions, and a jimmy rigged fuel regulator, but for the most part the car felt great. I cruised thru the first 10 miles which were the roughest, and gunning it on the stuff i knew i could get away with. Emme was doing a fantastic job calling in cautions, rocks, and directions. Round about 7:30 dusk was upon us and starting to get dark quick. We were calling mile markers pretty quickly according to our pits and Emme was keeping me on track letting me know what time it was. In my head I had to be home before dark...before the 8pm cut off!! unfortunately we were at mile 31 and it was DARK!!! We had the flats and a long gravel road...I tried to remember the slight turns and with the great navigation of Emme looking at our GPS, we hauled butt about 50 mph down to the glowing lights of Start/finish As we came a blazing in...we were so excited and jumped out of the car! Emmes dad Larry met us with a cold bottle of bubbly and pictures were a plenty. It was quiet exciting. As we cruised it back to camp, as we were sharing stories and re living what a great weekend...Tut came on over and showed us a shock and reservoir that had been taken off the passenger side as Emme and I got in the car. I was told that they had to rip it off because that is what ripped the fuel regulator off. Tut pulled it in seconds and dropped it under the car so i wouldn't see it. He didnt want to worry me and knew i would handle the car just fine without it. Talk about funny stuff...so really we only had torsions on passenger side and 1 shock on driver side... Me and Emme were laughing! Not only were we missing parts on the car, we brought it in in an hour and a half in the dark and no lights! WHOOO HOOO...

We visited and reveled in the excitement, and decided to head to dinner to share more stories. All in all was a great weekend. The car is still running...with a few missing parts, but hey....The team worked so well together. We had great communications, we had great team work, helped out a few of our fellow racers....and made a safe travel home....

Was a wonderful time and am truly honored that Jim trusted us in his car and included us in his team. Thank you so much and Thank you to Emme, Paul, Romy, Larry, and Dave and everyone who made it possible!! Thank you Tut for a great day of co driving, i wish you would have gotten to drive, but hope you realize how valuable your co driving skills are to everyone, me included still!.

I am sorry its so long...but its 2 days of racing folks that had to be recap'd

[rat4020]

Very cool write up , Sounds like your car took a real beatin,I take it that this is the start of your race season Good job to all gee's 24hrs thats one hell of a race..

[Tut]

It was awesome!
I had a blast.. I have never been in the passenger seat with so many different drivers and styles all in one day. or event.

Very cool and to win and still be running after 24 hours.. awesome.
I think there was only like 13 vehicles still running total at the finish on Sunday and for one of them to be a class 11 stock VW bug.. now that is amazing... nice.




I will post or link to pictures as I find them.
Here is a cool video that shows Pepper and I jamming by at a pretty good race speed.. we are in the white bug 1107. Plus a nice pic at night of Pepper and Emme coming in for the win.

http://www.desertdingo.com/blog/2011/09/07...-vorras-the-24/

Take a look around Desert Dingos site for more pics etc please.


pics up on facebook album
http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?...93644806&type=1

[rat4020]

man thats a coolvid " I could sit there all day watchin those cars rip by. let me see Toy hauler+grill +lots of food & drink roof top seating= a great weekend .... man im too far from the desert..