straightaxle
03-23-2009, 07:29 PM
Moss Brothers Racing at the San Felipe 250
The San Felipe 250 was held March 14, the first of three SCORE Mexican races, and the second SCORE race of the year. We had a crew of 10 this time, including my eldest daughter Lindsey. Tech and Contingency were held on Friday the 13th, and Lindsey handed out nearly 200 team t-shirts provided by our sponsor PowderCoat-It.com. It was just like sharks in a feeding frenzy.
The course was the same as it was in 2008, so we didn’t think there was any reason to pre-run. Ken and I had run a good portion of the same course in November as some of the Baja 1000 course used the same roads. What we didn’t anticipate was that SCORE was going to allow alternate course routes, which was announced at the driver’s meeting Friday night, just hours before the start of the race. More about that later.
We have had the good fortune to have the use of John’s house in San Felipe for the last couple of years. The house is about 5 blocks from downtown, and an easy walk. John owns Autofab in Santee, and we use some of his parts on the Bronco, including the fiberglass hood. I know the house has made the trip to San Felipe enjoyable for me, because it certainly is not the beat up old race course! That course is still the nastiest 200 and some miles you will ever see. The weather was fantastic, the food good, the people great, and in spite of all the warnings of doom, we had no problems at all. We did leave a fuel jug out in front of the house the night after the race, and not surprisingly it had disappeared by morning.
Race day we started way at the back of the field, like always. The Leavitt Bronco (349) arrived just before the start, the first time we had seen the guys all weekend. We missed them at contingency, and they were staying out of town somewhere. The start was uneventful, and Dan and I ran at wide-open-throttle for the first couple of miles. We have abandoned the Supertrap mufflers and switched to just a glass pack type muffler, and even with ear plugs, the noise was a little much. After that we got into the whoops, and just ground through those for the next 60 miles. We passed a couple cars, and a few sportsman cars passed us. Our crew stationed along the course reported that 349 was 1.5 to 3 minutes behind us. At about mile 70 to 80, we began to reach the edge of Diablo dry lake, catching the lead Class 9 car. Typically in the SCORE races, we catch these severely limited cars early on, but lately they have been running a lot stronger. We are just about to pass the 9 car, when he veered off the road and started heading across the lake! The lake has always been off limits in the past, and was not marked on our GPS map. This was apparently one of the “alternate” courses that SCORE had spoken of the night before. Without knowing the alternate course, and especially across a dry lake that can turn into a mud pit without you realizing, there was no way we could head out into the unknown, so we stayed on the road. We watched the 9 car for probably 10 miles off to our right as he worked his way across the lake and we twisted along the road, and sure enough, after he averaged about 20 mph slower speed, he came back on the road in front of us! We did get by him eventually, but it was a little disturbing, and we couldn’t be sure that 349 hadn’t taken the same line.
At RM 93 (Morelia Junction) we met the chase truck, and Dan and I jumped out, and Dave and Ken jumped in. I had a quick look at the truck, and all seemed fine. About 5 minutes after they left, 349 came rolling by. Dan and I had a sandwich, and were getting the chase truck loaded up to move to our next location. About that time, we heard a radio call from the BFG relay. What the heck did they want? The BFG pit was at RM 109, and we had made the decision to do our driver/rider change at Morelia Junction because there was no way to get to RM 109 without going in and coming out on the race course. BFG relay informed us that our truck had a broken spring, and they needed parts! Fortunately I had the parts in the chase truck. Unfortunately it meant taking an overloaded F350 with bone stock suspension 16 miles in on the course. This part of the course uses a graded road that is nearly two lanes wide, but it still is not a picnic. We have always had trouble during the race with traffic coming head on at us, and when the traffic realized that it was just a chase truck coming at them, they didn’t bother to pull over. We were passed by several race vehicles on the way in, and of course lots of head on traffic. We delivered the spring and then Dave and the BFG guys had it on in short order. Of course 349 was out ahead of us with something close to an hour lead.
As we were loading the chase truck back up, we got a call from Dave that they had just passed 349 parked in a wash at RM 117! Talk about a weird twist of fate! The rumor is that they had run out of fuel, but I have no confirmation on that. (Judy Smith told me later that they had run out of gas and the 4x4 was not working and they got stuck, forced to use their jacks as traction devices) Ken and Dave met Rick, Robert, Susie, Tom and Julie at about RM 167 and added some fuel and checked the truck over again. They motored on and finished the 232 mile race with an overall time of about 7 hours 40 minutes, with an average speed of just over 30 mph. It was a good thing we had mounted the KC HID lights, as they came in handy for that last couple hours of darkness. 349 finished about an hour after we did, and like I said, we haven’t heard any news directly from them to date.
I would once again like to thank all of the sponsors, companies and people that made our race successful. River City Differentials for their help with those ultra critical ring and pinion gears, PowderCoat-It.com for the t-shirts and of course the powder coating services, King shocks, KC Hilites, West Coast Broncos, and Sunoco fuel. Finally, I would like to thank BF Goodrich. At San Felipe they provided us with outstanding tires with no flats, the GPS mapping, the pit services that fueled the truck and replaced the spring, and the radio relays that informed us of our broken truck. They made the difference for us in this race that put us out in front. Thank you.
Our next race is the Mint 400, only two weeks from the San Felipe race! Preparations began immediately after we returned, and we look forward to more competition on portions of the desert where the original Mint races were held. It went very well for us last year, and as always we will do our best this year.
The San Felipe 250 was held March 14, the first of three SCORE Mexican races, and the second SCORE race of the year. We had a crew of 10 this time, including my eldest daughter Lindsey. Tech and Contingency were held on Friday the 13th, and Lindsey handed out nearly 200 team t-shirts provided by our sponsor PowderCoat-It.com. It was just like sharks in a feeding frenzy.
The course was the same as it was in 2008, so we didn’t think there was any reason to pre-run. Ken and I had run a good portion of the same course in November as some of the Baja 1000 course used the same roads. What we didn’t anticipate was that SCORE was going to allow alternate course routes, which was announced at the driver’s meeting Friday night, just hours before the start of the race. More about that later.
We have had the good fortune to have the use of John’s house in San Felipe for the last couple of years. The house is about 5 blocks from downtown, and an easy walk. John owns Autofab in Santee, and we use some of his parts on the Bronco, including the fiberglass hood. I know the house has made the trip to San Felipe enjoyable for me, because it certainly is not the beat up old race course! That course is still the nastiest 200 and some miles you will ever see. The weather was fantastic, the food good, the people great, and in spite of all the warnings of doom, we had no problems at all. We did leave a fuel jug out in front of the house the night after the race, and not surprisingly it had disappeared by morning.
Race day we started way at the back of the field, like always. The Leavitt Bronco (349) arrived just before the start, the first time we had seen the guys all weekend. We missed them at contingency, and they were staying out of town somewhere. The start was uneventful, and Dan and I ran at wide-open-throttle for the first couple of miles. We have abandoned the Supertrap mufflers and switched to just a glass pack type muffler, and even with ear plugs, the noise was a little much. After that we got into the whoops, and just ground through those for the next 60 miles. We passed a couple cars, and a few sportsman cars passed us. Our crew stationed along the course reported that 349 was 1.5 to 3 minutes behind us. At about mile 70 to 80, we began to reach the edge of Diablo dry lake, catching the lead Class 9 car. Typically in the SCORE races, we catch these severely limited cars early on, but lately they have been running a lot stronger. We are just about to pass the 9 car, when he veered off the road and started heading across the lake! The lake has always been off limits in the past, and was not marked on our GPS map. This was apparently one of the “alternate” courses that SCORE had spoken of the night before. Without knowing the alternate course, and especially across a dry lake that can turn into a mud pit without you realizing, there was no way we could head out into the unknown, so we stayed on the road. We watched the 9 car for probably 10 miles off to our right as he worked his way across the lake and we twisted along the road, and sure enough, after he averaged about 20 mph slower speed, he came back on the road in front of us! We did get by him eventually, but it was a little disturbing, and we couldn’t be sure that 349 hadn’t taken the same line.
At RM 93 (Morelia Junction) we met the chase truck, and Dan and I jumped out, and Dave and Ken jumped in. I had a quick look at the truck, and all seemed fine. About 5 minutes after they left, 349 came rolling by. Dan and I had a sandwich, and were getting the chase truck loaded up to move to our next location. About that time, we heard a radio call from the BFG relay. What the heck did they want? The BFG pit was at RM 109, and we had made the decision to do our driver/rider change at Morelia Junction because there was no way to get to RM 109 without going in and coming out on the race course. BFG relay informed us that our truck had a broken spring, and they needed parts! Fortunately I had the parts in the chase truck. Unfortunately it meant taking an overloaded F350 with bone stock suspension 16 miles in on the course. This part of the course uses a graded road that is nearly two lanes wide, but it still is not a picnic. We have always had trouble during the race with traffic coming head on at us, and when the traffic realized that it was just a chase truck coming at them, they didn’t bother to pull over. We were passed by several race vehicles on the way in, and of course lots of head on traffic. We delivered the spring and then Dave and the BFG guys had it on in short order. Of course 349 was out ahead of us with something close to an hour lead.
As we were loading the chase truck back up, we got a call from Dave that they had just passed 349 parked in a wash at RM 117! Talk about a weird twist of fate! The rumor is that they had run out of fuel, but I have no confirmation on that. (Judy Smith told me later that they had run out of gas and the 4x4 was not working and they got stuck, forced to use their jacks as traction devices) Ken and Dave met Rick, Robert, Susie, Tom and Julie at about RM 167 and added some fuel and checked the truck over again. They motored on and finished the 232 mile race with an overall time of about 7 hours 40 minutes, with an average speed of just over 30 mph. It was a good thing we had mounted the KC HID lights, as they came in handy for that last couple hours of darkness. 349 finished about an hour after we did, and like I said, we haven’t heard any news directly from them to date.
I would once again like to thank all of the sponsors, companies and people that made our race successful. River City Differentials for their help with those ultra critical ring and pinion gears, PowderCoat-It.com for the t-shirts and of course the powder coating services, King shocks, KC Hilites, West Coast Broncos, and Sunoco fuel. Finally, I would like to thank BF Goodrich. At San Felipe they provided us with outstanding tires with no flats, the GPS mapping, the pit services that fueled the truck and replaced the spring, and the radio relays that informed us of our broken truck. They made the difference for us in this race that put us out in front. Thank you.
Our next race is the Mint 400, only two weeks from the San Felipe race! Preparations began immediately after we returned, and we look forward to more competition on portions of the desert where the original Mint races were held. It went very well for us last year, and as always we will do our best this year.