Got to Yerington NV Friday afternoon. Took the truck out on the course on this 2 mile section just to make sure there isn't anything immediately wrong. Noticed right away that it seems the valving is too light, spent a lot of time near the bump stops. Didn't have time to re-valve. It was also bottoming hard, like metal to metal. We got back to pits and found that the passenger side bump stop was completely gone. So my dad went to buy another at the little parts store in this little town and the guy there didn't have one so he calls a buddy. His buddy had a trailer made out of the back of an old ford so my dad went over there and grabbed the bumpstop off.
Pulled the reinforcement plate off the frame (ground out the rivets), welded the bumpstop on, and welded the plate back on.
Swapped the jets out for higher elevation as well, and added a piece of fuel line to the stem deal on the carb so when the fuel gets bounced it doesn't go right back into the carb flooding it.
Wake up race day and it's snowing hard. Remember, i have a windshield, but no wipers.
They delay the start for 30 minutes. The snow stops and weather reports say it should clear up.
I am 2nd off the line in sportsman (sportsman is last out of all the classes) out of something like 10 sportsman cars.
There are 6 laps in the race, that come out to 300 miles total. But in the middle of the course is a "short-cut" bypassing half the course. You have to take 3 long laps and 3 short laps. long laps were 57 miles, and the short laps took off I think 16 miles of the course, but the shortcut was 3 miles long.
We decided to do 3 long 3 short. So if we get really tired near the end we know there are only short laps left.
First long lap goes nicely. I cruised over the "stadium jump" not wanting to hurt the truck and then theres Curtis filming for DP9. Darn. The first 7 miles are whoops and rough stuff that's just brutal. Last 7 miles are through a canyon which is also rough. In between there is a lot of high speed sections. We went just over 75 MPH. Could have gone much more but didn't want to risk it, i wanted to finish.
In the rough sections I had to go about 15 MPH. Why? The rear suspension was STILL not drooping AT ALL. So In all the whoops, i had to crawl over them. If i hit them going fast at all the rear would start packing up fast and start bucking, then if i let off the gas it would just buck worse, sending the rear tires 4 feet in the air. I bet I would of been able to get up to a pretty decent speed in the whoops if the rear was drooping.
2nd long lap... I get to the stadium jump and hit the gas thinking Curtis was still there filming and so i launched the truck... while airborn i could see that curtis was no longer there, darn... I want to be in DP9.
Then, on the other side of the course, I come to the section that parallels the road for a long ways. This section the truck is a beast in. I could cruise through it at about 50+ and it is not smooth... It's the perfect match for the truck.
Right as i come down the mountain and to the 90degree sharp turn that starts the parallel road section, I see curtis... and pin it of course. The truck destroyed the parallel road section...
Did 2 long laps... pulled into pits and pulled the rear spare off to help keep from bottoming.
Also realized that the spring plates that i just put on before the race were hitting the rivets that hold the bump stop plates on, so half the time we were bottoming out short, metal to metal, not rubber bump to axle.
After the 3 long laps we did a short lap. 3/4 the way around the lap I noticed a banging. Got out and found the front support on the passenger bedside ripped off the main hoop. Kept going...
A couple miles later I notice the drivers side bedside is dragging on the ground. The rear reinforcement that I gusseted all over the place ripped apart. It ripped a big hole in the bumper and sheared the 1.5" tube gusset straight in half.
Pulled the bedside off, and straped it to the bedcage, limped to main pit... thinking i needed brake lights to race.
I notice tranny fluid all over the ground and wheel well area and see the driver side cooler is soaked. Great... last thing i want to do is hurt the built tranny. I fired the truck up to see where exactly it was leaking out of the cooler and notice that the power steering line has a hole and is hosing the cooler down. Cool, that's easy, dad shortened the line and we're good to go.
Then my dad spots the u-bolt plates are literally about to fall off. the leafs were all crooked and the ubolts were falling out. Tightened them up. Back on the course.
Get to start/finish and ask about brake lights... apparently you don't need them. Also found out that i wouldn't make it in time to do two more short laps before cut-off so we called it quits.
We passed (not counting broken down cars) a few people, a UTV (which used to blow right by us), a 9 car (the 9 cars kicked my ass in the whoops like all others), a hummer or two, a class 5, and not sure what else. Didn't pass much, I think once the rearend is dialed we will be hauling much more mail!
So, the reason we couldn't finish is because the rearend not drooping (slowing us way down) and the bedsides falling off (thinking i needed brake lights and limping the 2nd bedside back strapped to the bedcage).
Bump stop repairs
snow! Rain-x did pretty good
Not the fastest we went but not bad
What a mess..
After several hours
very 
