Last Sunday, I loaded up “Big Blue” (my 2018 RZR Turbo) and drove 2 hours and 15 minutes to Knesek Ranch in Rockdale, TX for Round 6 of the 2020 TORCS cross-country series. Like everyone else, I was looking forward to getting back in the driver’s seat after our long summer break. More important, I was looking forward to this event because my son and lucky co-pilot (now a Freshman at Texas State) would be driving 90 minutes from college to join me for the race. Below is my race write-up.
WHERE:
Rockdale, TX… it’s a small town approximately 40 miles west of College Station. This property is mostly flat and covered with mesquite trees and cactus surrounding a large pasture area near the front of the property. I’ve raced on this track the last few years with TORCS and always enjoyed it, especially the fast straight-away section near the back of the pasture area where racers could reach nearly 70 mph before slamming on the brakes and sliding around a sharp corner.
TRACK CONDITIONS:
When I arrived at the track around 1:15 pm, the weather was nice… sunny, 80 degrees, and a gentle breeze that felt refreshing. The little bit of rain that fell on this property a few days prior was already soaked up. That meant the course would be dry and dusty.
The track was 3.2 miles long according to Big Blue’s odometer. This year, they reversed direction of the course and changed up the track in the pasture area too. With these small changes, it felt like a new track in some ways and kept it fresh for long-time TORCS racers. Unfortunately, they also reduced the long straight-away that I enjoyed in previous races on this property. But that’s okay, it was still a great course and I couldn’t wait to get the race underway!
REPAIRS & UPGRADES:
In the last few laps of Round 5, Big Blue started making funny noises on every sharp turn. Over the summer, I attempted to change the front diff fluid and discovered it was BONE DRY. Yikes! Not wanting to spend my entire summer in the 105-degree garage, I opted instead to put her in the shop and let them deal with it. Turns out, the leaky seals and lack of fluid resulted in damaged parts that were pricey to replace. Instead of swapping out just the worn stuff, it was just as cost effective to replace the entire front diff with a brand new OEM unit (they also installed an aftermarket armature plate and re-set the lash in the pinion gear). Two months and $2,100 later, I brought her home, and my first chance to try her out would be this race. Did I ever mention this sport ain’t cheap? 😉
When I raced here last time in early 2019, Big Blue had stock suspension and wheels. With that set-up, she was a handful in the tight, twisty woods and tended to ride up on 2-wheels around every turn. Despite this disadvantage, I was lucky enough to finish 3rd out of 7 in our Turbo SxS class in that race. With upgrade suspension and wheels installed since that time, Big Blue should handle this track much faster this time around. The only question was whether Big Blue would be fast enough to bring home the win? To find out, keep reading!
PARADE LAP & HOT LAP:
When the parade lap started at 2:30 pm, twenty eager side-by-sides gathered near the starting line.
After a quick riders meeting led by Terry D. and Cory W., the parade lap got rolling. Cash and I jumped in line near the middle of the pack and followed slowly around the course. Like last time we were here, this track was pretty straight-forward with no scary hazards or technical areas to worry about. As far as obstacles in the woods, the track had a handful of short stumps here and there (marked with fluorescent paint), one rough section of deep whoops that tended to bounced racers all over the track, and a few turns with deep ruts on the outside corners. As mentioned before, the track was filled with thorny mesquite trees and cactus, so it was best to stay on the trail as much as possible to avoid flat tires.
Regarding the course layout, the first half-mile was a fast, zig-zag run around large, round hay bales in the grassy pasture. After 7 turns, the course makes sharp, right-hand turn around a tree with a rut on the far side as you exit the turn. Racers had to be careful not to slide around that turn and catch your left tires in this rut, or else you risk rolling over. The next 2 miles ran through tight, wooded trails with cactus lining the edges of some trails. At the end of the woods, the course dumps racers into the pasture area for another half-mile of fast, wide, sweeping turns. As far as I could tell, the safest bet was to make a pass in the pasture area near the beginning and ending of each lap. But seeing through the dust would be a challenge no matter where you tried to pass.
CLASSES:
On the front row, there were 6 UTVs in the PRO SxS class. Next, our Turbo SxS class had 4 side-by-sides, and behind us were 10 buggies in the Non-turbo SxS class. This is a pretty typical turn-out, but I’d love to see more entries in the Turbo SxS class next time.
THE START:
The starting area was in the large pasture near the entrance of the property. From the starting line, we had approximately 50 feet to the first left turn around a flag pole. As I recall, Cash and I were lined up to the far right side of the starting line. After we are all buckled in, Cash and I said a quick prayer for all the racers and finished it with a special fist bump for good luck. This routine helps calm my nerves and gets me focused on the start.
When the green flag finally when up, I cranked the engine and got a decent start off the line. Only a few seconds later, I found myself jostling for position around the first turn. I ended up 3rd coming out of turn number one, which meant Cash and I would be eating DUST SANDWICHES for the next hour unless we found a way around the 2 guys ahead of us, which included Collin in 1st position and Greg and his son in 2nd position. Dwayne was in 4th position and hot on our tail.
LAPS 1 & 2:
As our class zig-zagged our way through the pasture area and filled the air with roost, Cash and I stayed on the heels of Greg and his son, who were following close behind Collin. At this point, my goal was simply to keep up with Greg and wait for any opportunity to make a clean pass.
Near the end of the pasture area, the wide course suddenly squeezes down to a single-file line trail into the trees. Once we hit the woods section, there were very few places to safely pass until we reached the wide trails through the pasture area again near the end of the lap. When we reached this point, I kept a bit of “social distancing” behind Greg’s Can Am X3 so as to let the dust settle a bit and allow me to clearly see the trail as we threaded the needle through the trees. I kept reminding myself that just one clipped tree could mean the end of my race. Gulp!
About half-way through Lap 2, we hit a bumpy section of deep whoops that tossed Big Blue all over the place. A few feet up the trail, it makes a hard right turn and continues straight over choppy terrain for another 25 yards. As Cash and I made this 90-degree right-hand turn, the trail immediately ahead was suddenly filled with dust everywhere! Through the dust, I could barely see Collin’s black RZR Turbo just a few feet ahead of us. Somehow, Greg must’ve gotten around Collin and taken over the lead. Now my sights were set on Collin.
As we reached the end of this rough section, it makes a 180-degree right turn. Just then, I noticed Collin’s left rear axle disconnected from the rear diff and bouncing around. As Collin spun around the turn, he nailed the gas and his right rear tire spun like crazy trying to get traction. Losing the rear axle was obviously slowing him down. Lucky for me, Collin pulled over after a few more turns and let Cash and me safely pass.
Woo hoo! We are now in 2nd position! Now I just had to catch up to Greg again, which we did when we finally reached the open pasture area near the end of the lap. From that point forward, we consistently stayed about 10 yards or so behind Greg’s X3 and waited for the right opportunity to pass. All the while, Dwayne hung about 10 yards behind Cash and me.
2nd HALF OF THE RACE:
Later in the race, Cash and I were blazing through the woods when a large black snake was crossing the track. Yikes! Anyone who knows me well is probably aware of my fear of snakes. Logically, I shouldn’t have been afraid at the sight of a slithering reptile on the ground while Cash and I are safely riding by at 30+ mph in a 1500 lb. off-road beast. But logic goes out the window whenever I see a snake. Sure enough, I got a bad case of the HEBEJEBES when I saw it and I immediately ran off the side of the trail to avoid it. LOL Luckily, we managed to get back on track before I hit any trees. Did I mention I hate snakes? 😊
Somewhere around the 7th lap, Cash and I reached the pasture area near the end of the lap and made a wide, sweeping left turn. As we exited the turn, my right tires suddenly got traction and we were instantly up on the right two wheels. Yowza! I quickly steered to the right and brought Big Blue back down on all fours. Whew… THAT was a close call!
On the next few laps, I reminded myself of that turn as we approached it and slowed down a bit. When we made that turn on lap 8, I was suddenly surprised to see Dwayne take the inside line and try to pass us. Dang it! I was totally caught off guard b/c he had remained about 10 yards behind us for most of the race until now. I hammered the “go fast” pedal and both UTVs sprinted towards the next corner. Luckily, it was a right-hand turn and that meant Cash and I were on the inside lane. I held my line and we came out of the corner just ahead of Dwayne. My heart was pumping hard and I could no longer assume we had 2nd place in the bag.
After this wake-up call, I quickly caught up to Greg in the pasture area and hung just 10 feet off his rear bumper. Dwayne was about the same distance off my tail as we made our way around the course together like the 3 Amigos.
LAP 9:
The next lap was INTENSE! The three of us were right on top of each other as we carved every turn and blasted down every straight-away. I was hoping this lap would be the final one b/c I wasn’t sure how much longer the three of us could maintain this pace without someone crashing or suffering a mechanical issue.
Near the end of lap 9, I noticed a small, red light on my dash. My goggles were too dirty to see clearly, but I was 90% sure this was the overheating warning. Dang it! Apparently, the dust and pasture grass must be building up in the radiator and causing Big Blue’s motor to get hot. But there’s no way I was gonna slow down now. We are SO CLOSE to the end of the lap, and I was praying to see the checkered flag.
When we reached the scoring schute at the end of lap 9, I was relieved. But wait, there’s NO CHECKERED FLAG! Doh. That meant another lap to go. Oh well, hopefully Cash and I can maintain our position til the finish line.
LAP 10:
As we began the 10th lap, the 3 of us continued riding close to one another and it was still anyone’s race. All I needed was Greg to make one minor mistake (blow a turn, spin out, clip a tree, etc.) and then Cash and I could make a pass to the front. Dwayne was probably thinking the same thing about me. As we slid around the big hay bales in the pasture area, I suddenly felt Big Blue slowing down. Oh no! The engine temps finally got to the point where it throttles down to protect itself from overheating. Wow… talk about bad timing. I had no choice but to pull off to the side and let Dwayne pass me. With both Greg and Dwayne ahead of us, Cash and I were now in 3rd position and slowly putted around the pasture to let the motor cool off a bit. When we finally got going again at a decent pace in the woods, Greg and Dwayne were long gone. Dang it! Such an exciting race until then.
RACE RESULTS:
After a hard-fought race, Cash and I finished in 3rd place. Congrats to Greg and his son for taking the WIN and to Dwayne for capturing 2nd place. I spoke to Greg immediately afterwards and he said that Dwayne surprised him by trying to make an outside pass on the last turn of Lap 10 and he almost succeeded. That just goes to show that you can’t take anything for granted on the race track and you must push hard all the way to the checkered flag.
SHAMELESS PLUG:
In case you haven’t heard, my brand new book about off-road racing with Cash entitled TEXAS OFF-ROAD RACING: A Father-Son Journey to a Side-by-Side Championship is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other book retailers. Get your copy today!
As always, I have to say a BIG THANK YOU to Gil and Jackie and the entire TORCS crew for hosting another FUN event! I hope you enjoyed my race write-up.
