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Parker 225


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On 1/10/2020 at 12:16 PM, AKIQPilot said:

Im sitting here at George Bush International Airport in Houston waiting on my flight back to Vegas and my phone rings. A CanAm team was looking for a pit crew to work the remote pit. Somehow my name came up. Of course I said yes. 

The race is tomorrow morning. The Parker 225 is a big SxS off road race through the desert. Ten, 22+ mile laps.   Parker AZ is about 25 miles south of Havasu. This team is a Pro Unlimited team running a full custom Turbo Maverick.  Probably close to $125k to build and race a buggy like this  

Big Stinky Dave is down toward Quartsite. Im gonna give him a call and see if he wants to come up and help. Looks like I will be responsible for refueling and the clutch/belt. 

If Dave shows up I’ll get someone to take a picture of us in our Pit attire. We will look like Danny and Arnold in Twins. 

I’m pretty excited. 

Very, very cool indeed!  :bc:

 

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What a fun day. We were a little behind getting the car prepped for the race but we managed to get it all checked out and ready with a few minutes to spare before the green flag dropped. 

Dave (stinky chaos) and his buddy Mark came up from Yuma to lend a hand. Dave made out pretty good on the deal. Billy the team owner gave Dave a set of bad ass tires and about 3 drive belts. The tires are $250 each and the belts are $200 each. 

Because of the late sign up we started dead last in the Pro Unlimited Turbo class. And were about the 100th car out of the gate.

On the first lap Billy had worked his way up 3rd in the pro Unlimited class and had already passed about 85 cars on the course. 

Second lap we blew a belt and Billy had to change it on the side of the trail. We lost about 3 positions in class. We came in after lap 2 refueled and changed codrivers. We were in 3rd going in to the final lap. 

Lap 3 went well but we had a few more problems. A rock wedged between the caliper and wheel and ground the wheel all the way through and the tire went flat. Billy pushed on for about 10 miles with a left rear flat and a broken wheel. 

Finished in second place about 17 minutes behind the leader and 5 minutes in front of the 3rd place team. 

What an incredible day. 

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8 minutes ago, Skidooski said:

No there's a nice retirement! :bc: 

After the race we bounced around in the pits eating great food, drinking free beer and swapping stories of the race. Apparently the course got really bad on the third and final lap. 

Everyone seemed to have a great time even teams that didn't finish. It was a beautiful day for an off road race. 

Next race is in 2 weeks. 

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52 minutes ago, AKIQPilot said:

After the race we bounced around in the pits eating great food, drinking free beer and swapping stories of the race. Apparently the course got really bad on the third and final lap. 

Everyone seemed to have a great time even teams that didn't finish. It was a beautiful day for an off road race. 

Next race is in 2 weeks. 

Did you remember to tell Dave that Pouts is still thinking about him and still butt hurt as ever? :dunno:

:lmao:

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3 hours ago, Frostynuts said:

Awesome pictures and stuff Tom. Are you hanging around for the next race in 2 weeks ?

We are in Havasu till May. There are about 4 more races within 150 miles of here.  Im sure I will help out with all of them. 

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2 minutes ago, racinfarmer said:

What do you figure they have into one of those turbo buggies?  

Billys car cost $125k to build. He wants a lighter 2 seater. We were at the Lone Star Racing pits last night and Billy was ready to stroke another check for a new car based on the 2020 motor and chassis. 

Billys current car is an LSR car. The long wheelbase goes well through the big bumps but the extra weight slows him down. Max speed recorded on the Lowrence yesterday was 88mph. The 2 seater buggies can go 100. 

Sounds like the new car will be ready in March. 

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1 minute ago, AKIQPilot said:

Billys car cost $125k to build. He wants a lighter 2 seater. We were at the Lone Star Racing pits last night and Billy was ready to stroke another check for a new car based on the 2020 motor and chassis. 

Billys current car is an LSR car. The long wheelbase goes well through the big bumps but the extra weight slows him down. Max speed recorded on the Lowrence yesterday was 88mph. The 2 seater buggies can go 100. 

Sounds like the new car will be ready in March. 

Makes the dirt cars seem not so bad.

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1 minute ago, racinfarmer said:

Makes the dirt cars seem not so bad.

Yea, not a cheap sport. The overall winner yesterday got a check for $7500. Second place in Pro Unlimited got Billy a check for $2500. 

Billy stores his racing operation in Phoenix. He lives in AK and flies down the day before the race, picks up the truck/trailer/car and drives to the races. Usually a few of the LSR guys pit for him but this weekend was so short notice the LSR crews were all spoken for. 

Billy really liked how well things turned out yesterday. He wants to put me on the payroll. I told him I work on racecars for free. Hahaha

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7 minutes ago, AKIQPilot said:

Yea, not a cheap sport. The overall winner yesterday got a check for $7500. Second place in Pro Unlimited got Billy a check for $2500. 

Billy stores his racing operation in Phoenix. He lives in AK and flies down the day before the race, picks up the truck/trailer/car and drives to the races. Usually a few of the LSR guys pit for him but this weekend was so short notice the LSR crews were all spoken for. 

Billy really liked how well things turned out yesterday. He wants to put me on the payroll. I told him I work on racecars for free. Hahaha

Is $7500 a "big" payout for them or just average? 

$7500 in a dirt mod is fairly large, but having $10k and larger races isn't uncommon either. 

Weekly most are racing for $500-1000. 

$1500-3000 for 1 night "specials" and most tours/touring series are $2000-5000/night.  

Payout would improved if it was like the old days of 75-150+ cars in a class for the large weekend specials.

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