A Tough 1st Weekend for the Lonestar Racing SR1 Off-Road Race Team

Apr. 23, 2010 By Press Release
After a tough opening weekend for our Team, here is a little recap of the weekend’s activities. Ryan and I were running around like chickens with our head cut off Friday morning. We still had a car without an engine cover, rear side panels, numbers, graphics, installed communications, cameras, fire extinguisher, and nerf bars. After being up until 1 in the morning the previous night getting the graphics installed on the Rig, we started early. We kept the car at LSR completing all the things we could, and headed to SDHQ for the final sheet metal engine cover about 10am. Knowing there was a drivers meeting at 1:30pm, and qualifying at 3pm, we were in a rush to get to the track. We were finally on the road to the track at 2pm. We rolled in shortly after 3, and luckily the schedule was a little behind. We were able to get the car through tech before they closed, and they gave us the transponder we needed to record lap times and be scored. But we found out the transponder’s batteries were dead, and with no time to charge them, we headed out for qualifying anyways.

It was the 1st time I had the car on the track with all of the other cars, and it was a great feeling to have the car ready for competition. Since we didn't have a charged transponder on the car, we had no lap times, so we qualified in last position for Saturday's main event. Saturday morning was an 8 minute practice round, and with the charged transponder, I had the 3rd best lap times. I was very pleased with that, considering we have only had less than an hour of seat time. The car is running perfect, going exactly where I want it to go, and however fast I feel I can push it. At this point, it was all up to me, to bring it into victory lane for the main event. The main event was a tough one. The track was extremely muddy from the extra water to help keep dust down. Starting in last place, I got to feel the blinding roost from all of the other cars. I was able to move up a few positions, and had a faster car than the last few cars in front of me, but I was unable to get around them due to my limited experience and limited visibility from all the mud. It seemed like I couldn't have had enough tear offs to keep my view at least halfway decent. Many times I felt like a blind man trying to drive. We ended up with a 6th place finish, which was a little disappointing, but felt good to know we finished, and have a car capable of winning. The 3rd place car was carrying an extra 180 lbs of mud by the time the race was over, so you can imagine the muddy chaos.


Off-Road.com Newsletter
Join our Weekly Newsletter to get the latest off-road news, reviews, events, and alerts!