Moss Bros Win The '09 Mint 400!

[Blanco]

This makes two years in a row That The Moss Bros claim the Class 3 win at the MINT 400.

[Yikes]

More info Cam! How did the other guys do?

[Blanco]

More info Cam! How did the other guys do?
Rumor I've heard is Raffo 2nd & Pike 3rd.
But I have not confirmed this yet.

I'll post more in the Mint 400 Thread area & leave this fthread or the Moss Team.

[Moss2]

I just got home and am interested in how things turned out for the other entries. We had a good day. The other 5 entries were feeling really confident and gave us a little head start. Either that or somebody told them it was a LeMan style start?

[Scoob311]

I just got home and am interested in how things turned out for the other entries. We had a good day. The other 5 entries were feeling really confident and gave us a little head start. Either that or somebody told them it was a LeMan style start?
My fault. When I was cleaning up the chase/tow rig the night before I grabbed my co-dogs firesuit thinking it was my spare....then left it in the hotel race morning, He got back to the race truck when you were taking the green...there was some delay while he belted/helmeted up. We waived the other threes around us.

[retroblazer]

Jeff,the Tomato man, drove the first two laps. We started off in a small panic as the batteries went dead while lining up. There are two Optimas on board, so it shouldn't have happened, but when the ignition was left on when the car was parked that's all that we needed before we went scrambling for a set of jumper cables. Everything went well on the first lap and we finished close to the Pikes and the BC bronco. The second lap was more of the same except towards the end of the second lap before the power line roads, they high centered the truck in the silt and tire grooves. They spent close to an hour getting out. I took over on the third lap. Just a few miles past the start, my codog asked if I had the cooling fans on. He said the temps looked high. The h20 was at 235 f degrees. I checked the switch and it appeared to be on, but the detent was odd. I had a small piece of black electrical tape on my helmet that I keep in reserve in case I need to tape my radio connection and I used it to hold up the switch. We went another couple of miles and the temps weren't dropping, so we stopped and turned the motor off, only to hear the helmet fans. Dennis hopped out and grabbed a tool bag out of the door with a spare switch. I had the switch out of the panel and we swapped it out pretty quickly. Not much else happened until the end of the third lap when the black Bronco passed me. I didn't think there was anyway that they had gotten behind us, so I pretty much knew that I was being lapped. I wasn't particularly happy about it, but I tried to continue to maintain my pace. Before we went out for the four lap, my crew either checked or replaced the a front wheel bearing. As I went out for the fourth lap, I thought that we were in fourth place, so I wasn't concerned with anything other than a finish. I had no idea that I was that tight on time. Figuring that I was one of the last trucks that they let out for the fourth lap, I didn't think it would hurt to help someone along the way, so I stopped to pull a class 11 that had almost made it to the top a rocky/silty hill. That didn't take long, but a few miles later I came across the Chinese pro truck that was buried in a long silt bed. Same deal, I knew if I didn't get them out they were done. It took ten or fifteen minutes and a couple of pulls to get them on solid ground. It almost cost us a finish, as we went over time.

[straightaxle]

The Mint 400 race was held in late March, just 2 weeks after the SCORE San Felipe 250. This was the second year for the resurrected race, and the Moss Brothers Racing Bronco came away with another win! There was minimal work required following the Mexican race because we had prepped the truck with the intention of running the races back to back. I did have to rebuild the rear springs following the failure in San Felipe, and many thanks to Deaver Springs for supplying the needed parts in only a week.

I met Rick on Thursday morning with his Bronco to pre-run the course. We found Web Wheeler Cam there as well and spent about 5 hours getting around the course with him. We had a few minor problems and the wind was blowing 50-60 mph. It was a good thing for me to see the course and just how rough it was so I knew what kind of pace to run. The pit area was a little small for 300 entries, and most of it had already been staked out by Thursday morning. We were able to rope off a small spot on the outside of a corner, not the best place to be located. More of the crew started arriving later in the day Thursday. We missed the Miss Mint 400 competition, but managed to keep ourselves entertained that evening. Friday was devoted to tech and contingency. SNORE was able to secure the rest of Fremont Street under the canopy and started from the other end this time. This was a major factor because we can’t start the vehicles when on Fremont Street, and it was a whole lot easier to push the Bronco down hill! Talked to a lot of people that would not normally see an off road race vehicle. We saw most of the other 6 entries in the class during the day, had a late lunch with about half of them, along with the rest of what is essentially a circus that makes up contingency. I headed back to Henderson after that, since it would be a very long day on Saturday. As it was back in the old days, the Mint 400 race consists of four 100 mile laps.

The Mint 400 Main Pit/Start/Finish area was at the Indian truck stop on I-15, well north of Vegas. I was worried that we would have lost our pit spot, which was barely big enough for one team. We ended up sandwiched between 2 class 11 teams and a Canadian Pro-truck team sharing our pit. How do we always end up with the Canadians? They were all great entertainment. Who knew that the first tool out of the Class 11 (stock Bug) tool box is a Sawzall? They cut more and more sheet metal off those poor little cars each time they come around! We traded Tecate for Canadian beer, after those guys went out after 3 laps with a sour motor.

The Bronco was all ready to go when we pulled it off the trailer, so Gary and I were strapped in and ready in line. The line turned the corner, and the start line was only 2 cars away! It looked like the rest of the class 3 teams were still standing around their trucks when we left, working out a variety of last minute problems. We headed out on our 15 second interval and within a mile hit rock solid hanging dust, with zero visibility and no wind. By some miracle, we wound our way around 6 foot ditches, big rocks, and lines of crashed and upside down cars for the first 12 miles unscathed. Because of the rising sun in our eyes, we really couldn't see the GPS either. Many teams in other classes ended their day before 4 miles with a smashed car. The lucky ones had only gotten stuck in the silt. The SNORE organizers really couldn’t have anticipated that the area just after the start was going to turn into such a huge silt bed, but starting every 15 seconds didn’t help either. After that we motored on, as traffic spaced itself out. We had Greg and Rob, along with some other Class3racing.com folks stationed at Pit C which was about 2/3 through the lap. Just before we got to their position, I heard a loud BANG in the truck. I asked Gary what it was, and he said, “It’s the fire extinguisher”, as he looked at it rolling around by his feet. When you are strapped into your seat belts, it is impossible to pick anything up off the floor. This was one of 3 fire extinguishers mounted in the truck, so we pulled up to Greg’s pit and Gary opened his door and kicked it out on the ground. At this point we were less than 10 minutes in front of the Atkinson BC Bronco, so we didn’t waste any time there. The southern part of the course was really nasty, with small alternating whoops like nothing I had ever seen, and they were just painful to endure. Once you got through those, the last 15 miles into the main pit was a fun pole-line road right next to the freeway. The dust was horrible the whole first of four 100 mile laps, but we did make it around before the first trophy truck caught us. Our first lap was just under 3 hours. We were originally going to do two laps with each driver, but since we had to stop for fuel and a rider change anyway at the end of each lap, I began to think that it would make a whole lot more sense to just switch drivers every lap. We had good radio coverage for most of the course, and the north and south pits communicated by cell phone. We called in our intentions on the driver changes, and Rick and Ken got in for the second lap. We continued to build our lead against the other entries in our class as they swapped positions behind us numerous times.

At the end of the first lap, the crew noticed that the track bar was already bent, but without knowing how close the others were, we kept going. The track bar is certainly one of weak points on the truck. We did however plan out the procedure to change it at the end of lap two, and the swap went like clockwork. I predicted the change would take 10 minutes, but the guys had it done in 9! The procedure involved pulling the spare off the truck, pulling out the bushings, installing the new one and strapping the old one as a spare back to the truck. We also did the driver/rider change and filled the truck with gas. My hat’s off to Dave and Dan for planning and pulling it off, it really was impressive. It also helped that we had Mike and the fully stocked and tooled Inquipco service truck about 5 feet away. Mike once again had welders, torches, tools and parts out and working away on numerous other rigs all day long.

Rich and I did the third lap, and by this time the faster traffic catching us was pretty steady. That first 12 mile section was clear of dust this time, but the carnage and silt was still insane. There were trucks out there with just their wheels visible above the ditch bank, a buggy on its side wedged into another ditch, an unlimited car on its side. The unlimited car was crazy, because those things are so low and wide when on their wheels, and here it is 7 feet tall on its side! At about mile 25 there was a ditch and then a pretty big silt hill. I slowed for just a second to shift the transfer case into 4 wheel drive, and wham, the truck lurched forward with a “BANG”. Rich says "Wow, what's wrong with the transfer case?", and I said "It’s not the transfer-case, there is a CAR under us". My response did not initially register with Rich, as we tried to climb the hill and got stuck. I could indeed see the pink roof and antennae of a 1600 car in the mirror. We backed down the hill and I was hoping we would break free, but we didn't. I tried the hill again, weaving this time, but still not breaking apart. When we backed down the second time, the 1600 car got crossed up and tried to go under the wheels of the Bronco, and that's when the co-driver in the 1600 car was finally able to jump out and have a look. He ran up and said "We need to use your big jack to lift the truck off". I groaned and unhooked the belts. Sure enough, their shock tower was wedged between the spring and the frame. I got the jack loose and got the truck up high enough that I was able to drive off them. The 1600 car actually hit hard enough to bend a couple of the cross members in the rear, bent the frame rails and spring hangers on the Bronco. Just one of those racing things. About 10 miles later, I began to hear a horrible banging, and I thought for sure we had broken a spring or something. It turned out to be the jack had come loose and was trying to exit the truck. We had to stop again, get out and secure it. We pulled out several other stuck vehicles, and didn't have any major issues on the lap. Ken and Chris got in for the last lap, and had to do the last part of the lap in the dark. The longest lap was about 3 hrs 18 minutes, so we stayed very consistent like we always do. I would have to say that course rivals the San Felipe course in roughness, although in its own way. We also found fuel consumption to be much higher than anticipated, similar to what we see at San Felipe. The Raffo Blazer headed out on its 4th lap as we were at the finish line having a Tecate, and they did finish for second place after having dead batteries at the start. The Pikes in the Ramcharger finished their 4th lap over time, but SNORE gave them the finish anyway. They somehow got it on its side, had electrical problems, and ran out of gas. The BC Bronco team only made it 3 laps, and two other teams never made the first lap.

I would have to say the Mint 400 has turned into one of my favorite races. The events leading up to the race are interesting and entertaining, and the race itself is a challenge. We have a good turnout in the class for the race, and since it is a loop race, we have other racers to look out for all day long. I look forward to having this race around for many years to come.

Thanks as always to BF Goodrich, not a single tire issue for the entire race. Some teams were getting 2 and 3 flats each lap. Also thanks to West Coast Broncos, Inquipco, KC Hilites, Deaver Springs, King Shocks, Powdercoat-it, and Sunoco fuel. Thanks to Rick and the Flyin’ Bronco for the pre-run, another big thanks to Rich and his family for feeding me and letting us use his place in Henderson as a nice quiet place to sleep and park the Bronco.