The first lap saw carnage such as body damage, flat tires, busted shocks, and damage of parts deemed as being“ bullet proof” little did they know of the wickedness of the terrain at Rausch Creek. Doug Bigelow, starting in row 5, was running a good Race until coming out of“ CV Hillclimb”, brought the front wheels off the ground and upon landing, the high steer arm snapped. Here’ s what Doug had to say....“ Disappointed that I didn’ t qualify for the KOH race at the RCQ, But, know we did everything to try and get there. Starting ninth and by the second lap we were sitting in Fourth when on the CV hill climb I broke a high steer arm. Pulled it off and walked the couple of miles back to the pits, got it welded back up, then walked back and got it on the Yukon buggy and got back to work. The field was starting to fall apart and mentally, I, could count that I was back up in the Top ten again. Half way thru my fourth lap I was stopped by KOH Ops and they told me my fuel cell was leaking. I stuffed twigs up in the small hole in the Can and got it stopped and they let me continue. At the pits before my 5th lap KOH ops again checked it to make sure it was safe to continue, then my guys found a loose pressure return Fitting that was spraying fuel into the can. They fixed it and Dave Cole told me I had about an hour to finish and to get on my way. I smoked all the climbs again at Jotters and the CV trail and then noticed my throttle was starting to stick. It was about a 1 / 4 stuck and when
I got thru all the rock sections and down to the go fat noticed my brakes were fading
from trying to hold it back. I shut it down and got out and found the throttle gobbled up with mud. Buckled up real quick and got going again thru the fast section. I had one small section of rocks to go thru again and the throttle started to stick, going over one of the last rocks the high steer arm we welded earlier broke at the weld. Immediately I knew my day was done.
I pulled the arm again and started the couple mile walk back thru the woods to the pits. With no time left to get it fixed and the last couple of finishers crossing the finish line we called it a day. We never gave up!!!!!
MAY 2013 WASTED TRAILS / 29