King of the Hammers 4413 Race Recap

We had spent the last 3 months getting as much prep done as possible and felt good with where Tiffany was at as we loaded up for Hammers. We left a few days early with the goal to get to the lakebed so we could get comfortable out on the course and get a feel for the new rock sections. It turns out that Mother Nature had a different idea for all racers and decided to flood the lakebed preventing us from being able to get to our pit spot for a few days. To make the most of our time we rerouted to Arizona to meet Joe, Stacy, Kevin, and Sarah where we took advantage of having a lift so we pulled Tiffany out and did a bit more prep work. We all then caravanned to Johnson’s Valley and spent the evening at Steve and Kathy’s house right outside of the OHV area. Wednesday finally rolled around and we all decided it was time to weather the storm and set up camp. We rolled into Hammertown and worked to get everything set up over the next two days. We even used Scout to try and smooth out the roads and pit area. Thanks Scout for always being our go to workhorse. 

Once we finally got settled, we unloaded the cars and took them for a spin around the qualifying lap. Coming down resolution it became very apparent that we had some big issues with keeping Tiffany running. Rolling 4 foot flames from the exhaust was not something I enjoyed seeing in the mirror.   At this point we had to call in for reinforcements as we were a bit out of our element on what is causing all of these issues. Luckily Jan Moeller with 5 Star Tuning was willing to make the drive from PHX. Once he made it to KOH we started to dig into the issues. After hours of work and finding some shorted wires in the engine harness we thought we were good to go for qualifying. Oh how we were wrong as the electrical gremlins came in full force as we pulled up to staging, melting a brand new alternator in under 300 yards, we swung into Chuck and Randy’s pit. Grabbing Randy’s spare alternator we swapped it out with the help of the entire Sherpa motorsports team, FRR crew, Chuck, and Randy. We cannot thank everyone enough for jumping in so quickly to help! 

We jumped back in line for qualifying only to discover a new issue, the car was melting the fuse to the coils killing power to them and killing the motor. This was a brand new issue for us so we were facing a lot of unknowns. We came to the conclusion that we had about 7 minutes before the fuse would melt so John and I decided we had 7 minutes to make it through qualifying before losing power. To save us time, we broke the cardinal rule of race cars…we put a new fuse in and shut the car off on the starting line. Giving us the 10 second count down we fired it up, crossed our fingers, and off we went. All was going great until the fuse melted in 2 minutes…it turns out our calculations were a bit off. We tried to replace it on course but this time the entire fuse block melted so we had to call it. 

Once the car was back at pit, Jan and the team immediately started to dig deeper where we found that the ECU had shorted out and was now completely broken along with further issues in the engine harness. We made a tough decision that we either had to call the race or rewire the entire car. If there is one thing about this team, quitting isn’t in them! 5 Star Tuning was able to assist with overnighting an entirely new Holly computer and engine harness. 

Thursday started with a lot of nerves waiting on the FedEx driver to deliver the parts. At 1 pm we received them and the entire team got to work including Dylan from DDL Motorworks lending a hand. In just under 5 1/2 hours we went from a broken car to her first fire with the new equipment. When Holley claims plug and play they are not lying. It was impressive to be a part of. I cannot thank the guys enough. They say it takes a village ours is more than that, it is family. 

Wrapping up the complete rewire and tuning of Tiffany at about 2:30am we all went to sleep for a few hours then off to contingency in the morning. Hoping to get through early so we could shock tune and get the engine dialed in. Our Bazooka Mini Party Bars took the stress out of contingency by keeping the vibes high and setting the mood as people walked between both cars. We made it through contingency somewhat fast and off to the desert for some pulls on Tiffany to get tuning data. After that we met up with Keith at KDM Shocks for shock tuning. Fingers crossed we only needed minor changes. Keith did his thing and Tiffany was dancing across the whoops. Car felt the best it ever has. 

Once checking over the car we found a broken bearing in the rear diff. Not sure what took it out but it was not something we could race with. Thank you to Joe, Jesse, Steve, Dylan, Seth, Christian, Yogi, and Jace for working late into the night to rebuild the rear end. Going to bed at 3 am race day and back up at 7 was tough but that is Hammers it seems. Lining up to start the race was a victory at this point and John and I had a plan to make it around and hope for a checker flag. I made a mistake in Turkey claw and rolled the car after slipping off a rock and not recovering the car fast enough. Huge thank you to Chuck and Randy for the assist in getting the car flipped back over. Hitting the desert on lap 1 Tiffany found her legs where John and I picked off a ton of cars. Stopping for a quick splash of fuel at Pit 1 we headed back out. Coming down resolution we hit a rock that John felt in his teeth. After hurting his back the day before, this was the nail in the coffin. Limping into main we assessed John’s back and the condition of the car from the roll in Turkey Claw. 

Feeling it was not safe to send John back out he made the hard decision to hop out and give up the right seat to Steve Graff in the car. I will say it is amazing how easy both of them are in the car at giving directions. It made for a very smooth transition to get back out onto lap 2. After adding a filter back into our intake system and an on the fly pit charge pipe, we set off to make up time. Tiffany is a blast in the desert checking off miles with ease. We hit the first round of rocks which went smooth and stopped at pit 2 for fuel and to assess the click in the front end. In Pit 2, the guys found a damaged axle shaft so they packed it full of grease and sent us back out. 

Working our way through, Graff and I settled into a smooth ride. We didn’t have to pull cable once and worked our way around the course. When we came through outerlimits that all changed. Breaking a steering rack we went from racing to recovery. Steve came up with a plan to use the winch to help steer the car to maneuver our way off course. With very sore arms after fighting the wheel we began our journey back to main. Hearing that Joe and Jesse were closing in on a finish, the second race of the day started with us trying to beat them back so we could cheer them on as they brought Teka across the line. While our day ended with Tiffany being broken it was an amazing evening as we got to watch Teka, the car that started this all for Fire River Racing, cross the finish line and see a checkered flag at Hammers. Very proud moment to see that happen. 

There are so many people I need to thank for giving me the energy and desire to keep fighting this year. It was a long two weeks filled with a lot of highs and many lows. But the team we have created stepped up at every turn. They are the reason we made the start and I could not be more proud to call them all family. While my race went south, as a team we won. Teka finished and we didn’t quit even when I wanted to. We will fix the cars and give it our best at the next one. To my team I say thank you for having the drive to keep getting better. Seth, Christian, Rosalie, Jan, Joe, Stacy, Joe Al, Jake, Steve, Kathy, Kevin, Sarah, Dylan, Lindsey, Jesse, Kristi, Chuck, Randy, Kyle, Max, Ian, Mike, Andrew, Preston, Eric, Paul, & Drew.

And to all our sponsors thank you for your support. We will be back to fight another day better and stronger. 

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