Moss Brothers '08 SCORE Class 3 champions

[Blanco]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 26, 2008
MOSS BROTHERS – SCORE CLASS 3 SIX TIME CHAMPIONS
SACRAMENTO, CA – Having recently competed in the legendary SCORE Baja 1000 off road race, brothers Don and Ken Moss have secured the SCORE Class 3 championship for a sixth time. The brothers are also one of fourteen racers to earn the Toyota Milestone Award for having completed every mile of every SCORE race in the 2008 season. They join Troy Herbst and Rob MacCachren as multi year winners of this prestigious award.
The Moss Brothers and their black Bronco crew dealt with an uncharacteristic second place finish in the 1000 when the rear ring and pinion came apart (but did not break) 90 miles into the race. A subsequent replacement left the team with a 50-mile deficit they were unable to regain. Undaunted, the brothers and their crew drove through the night, guided by their new KC POD HID lights. "The PODS are awesome ! They take the KC HID to a whole other level. The driving light pattern is larger in all dimensions and doesn’t have a hot spot concentration," Don Moss exclaimed. Twenty-one hours after the Bronco left the starting line in Ensenada, the Moss Brothers finished the Baja 1000 on the same BFG tires they started with.
The brothers, always cognizant that it takes much more than the two of them to compete at this level, are extremely grateful to their ‘Black Bronco Crew’, which also includes their sponsors, for all of the sacrifice, commitment and plain hard work it took to capture the Class 3 Championship once again.
In closing ceremonies Sal Fish, CEO of SCORE International, saluted all the competitors stating, "Every single person from the drivers and riders to the spouses is a winner for making this valiant effort to conquer the Baja, through a desert race. The race is over, but the stories and the memories truly live forever."
The race will be televised as a one hour NBC Sports special for the fourth consecutive year, airing at 1 pm EST on Sunday, December 14 on the NBC Television Network.
# # #
CONTACT: Michelle Read
michelle@mossbrothersracing.com

[Joe Rockhead]

Congrats to the Moss Bros for another great season! Another class championship and another Toyota award.You may have to build an addition to the house to put all the trophies in! I'll gladly sit in the desert in the middle of nowhere any time for you guys.Its not like you have to work:D.Thanks for letting me be a part of it. Rob

[Grimm]

Still waiting for a detailed story from them. I would really like to know the events surrounding the 3rd member failure. I know that would probably DNF us. How did you guys get it back together? Did you have a spare 3rd member on board or did you have to wait for the chase crew to get to you? How do you plan for something like that? I don't know what we would do. And to only be down for an hour or so with this is unbelievable.

[straightaxle]

Still waiting for a detailed story from them. I would really like to know the events surrounding the 3rd member failure. I know that would probably DNF us. How did you guys get it back together? Did you have a spare 3rd member on board or did you have to wait for the chase crew to get to you? How do you plan for something like that? I don't know what we would do. And to only be down for an hour or so with this is unbelievable.

The fully detailed story is more than I am up to yet, but here are the details on the rear end:

It looks like I must have picked up the pumpkin from the builder before it was actually ready. I bolted this unit in just before the Primm race in September and noticed it didn't have a pinion seal. Should have been the sign that something was up. It also appears that cap bolts were never torqued either, and all 4 were found backed out when we pulled it out at La Rumarosa. So it made it all the way through 140+ miles of the Primm race, plus two trips into Ensendada from the beach house, 50 miles of pre-running and the trip from Ojos back to the house, and 100 miles of the Baja 1000 before it backed out far enough for the gears to stop meshing.

One of the advantage's of having a 4 wheel drive is that when one ring and pinion gives up, you can typically pull off the related driveshaft (in the cactus!) and keep on driving while the broken parts flail around inside the housing. We were close enough to La Rumarosa that we already had radio contact with the crew and chase trucks that had already made it to that location. The advantage to this race was that nearly all the major parts could be carried in one truck, and that truck was following us around via the highway. Of course we still had to work our way out to the highway using a Dana 44 front axle that has a habit of turning spider gears into metallic gravel. Driving it out to the crew was much more efficient than sending an overloaded diesel F350 with stock suspension 20 miles in to a remote work site. We took it easy going out, since a front wheel drive Bronco handles VERY poorly. The hardest thing ended up being filling the rear end back up with oil. By the way, I thought I'd mention to the crew that I found the proper funnel when I unloaded the truck yesterday! I had forgotten it was even on the truck!

When you’re faced with an unexpected failure like that, you do the best you can. You can usually get it fixed one way or the other, but it just takes time. SCORE wonders why they have such a better finishing rate at the Baja 1000 (in the mid 60% range for this race), it's because they give us more time. There have been races that we would have timed out even making one repair like this. We still had 10 hours left on our time limit when we finished. We had a well thought out chase plan, GPS and radios in all the trucks, maps of all the access roads, experienced chase crews that know the roads, knowing how long it takes for the race truck and chase trucks to get from one point to another, and a good idea of what can fail on that old truck.

[Grimm]

Thats why you guys are the champs. So did you end up re torqing everything down or did you just throw in another 3rd member? Logistics appear to be half the battle down their.
Thanks for the short version, i'd been thinking about it for a week now.

[straightaxle]

Thats why you guys are the champs. So did you end up re torqing everything down or did you just throw in another 3rd member? Logistics appear to be half the battle down their.
Thanks for the short version, i'd been thinking about it for a week now.

Oh, we carry another 3rd member on the chase truck. When the gears go out of alignment, it gets real ugly, and all the load goes to the edges of the gear teeth, and chips them off. The gears that came out are junk! In addition, the ring gear bolts "clearanced" the housing, but I think it is saveable.

[Broncodawg]

We had a spare 3rd in a shipping case and it saved the day. Full floater 9 inch
make it quick, until the funnel debacle:rolleyes:;).
Watched Raffo and the ATK jeep go by as we were breaking the seal on the axle. Robby Gordon was pitted just up the road from us after his rollover.

Sorry about Raffos bad luck with the axle housing. We heard about it on the radio as we were going by and glad to read about the help you got getting out of there.

[jkrell]

Congrats to the Moss team for the championship! Very impressed you guys had a major failure and still got the Baja 1k podium finish.

I look forward to racing with you guys again sometime soon.

[kal]

congrats to the moss bros,

[chupakabras]

Congrats to the Moss team for the championship! Very impressed you guys had a major failure and still got the Baja 1k podium finish.

I look forward to racing with you guys again sometime soon.

what's your plan for next year? san felipe?:D:D

[jkrell]

no definite plans for us next season yet.