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Las Vegas 150 Trip wrap up, pics and stuff
Jean consists of the Gold Strike Casino, a prison, and an airport. 15 miles south is Primm which has some really nice looking casinos and 30 miles north is vegas. So i have no idea how this place stays in business. It was engineered by midgets too. The ceilings are 6.5ft high, even the shower head is firmly mounted chest high. However right next to jean is the huge dry lake bed / riding area which is awesome for any off road enthusiast.
The race takes place about 10 miles from the casino out near a dry lake bed. The race course is 34 miles long and consists of some high speed fire roads, whooped out washes, powerline roads and a rocky hill climb where you go 1000 feet up in a mile. The race is 4 laps long. I entered the Amateur Ironman class. There is also an expert ironman class, expert team, amateur team and Pro team. A few of the big name pros where there like the honda sponsored Matlock team which won the baja 500 this year. There was also some crazy 08 450r frame stuffed with an XR650 engine punched out to 700 something. I guess it has been clocked at over 120mph.
They like to start early in this organization so we left the casino at 5:30am so we could be ready to line up at 6:30 am. The closer we got to the pits the colder it got, it was 35 degrees when we unloaded. Right away there was a problem with the clutch, it was hanging up and wouldn't fully disengage with the clutch in, in 1st gear. I thought it was due to the freezing cold weather however it never went away.
They start one quad at a time, 30 seconds a part. Unfortunately my class started at the end but at least I drew the number one spot in my class. Finally it was my turn to line up and the head of BITD comes up and says good luck and also "don't miss the first turn, it is a right turn into the wash about 300 yards up." (foreshadow much?)
So the green light turns on, I pop down into 1st gear and take off. The dust is fairly blinding. The sun hasn't risen yet so there is no breeze or wind of any kind. I am driving along for what seems like 1/2 a mile and I start to get worried I missed the turn. I better keep an eye out for this wash. Finally I find a wash and turn right. Eventually I see course markers so in my mind I never missed the turn.
Lap 1 is horrible and cold. The dust is extremely thick and lingering and about 35 quads have kicked up all the dust ahead of me. Then the sun starts to come up and there are spot where you drive into the sun and the dust and you can literally see about 2 feet. I blew through one corner and almost took out one of the scorers pop up tents. oops. At mile 6 or so I caught up to a guy in another class and passed him. The rest of the lap consists of putting along, not being able to see a thing. Around mile 30 I blew a corner that wasn't marked very good. I figured nobody was close to me but when I turned around to jump on the course I saw the 2nd guy in my class coming (Jack Gravel) so I jumped in behind him. I was all over him but he didn't hear me and the rocks and dust were bad so I dropped back. Then I hear some noise behind me and it is the guy from the other class I passed a long time ago. I have no idea how he can see through this crazy dust so I frustratingly wave him by.
By the end of lap 1 I have to pee so bad my eyeballs are floating. So I finally reach the pits and I hop off the quad and drop about 2 gallons while adam and my dad do the gas and check the quad out. Turn out on lap one I did an extra mile or so thanks to blowing that turn.
Lap 2 there are sections where I can see so I pick up the speed quite a bit. I caught a guy in my class who I thought was Jack. I passed maybe 2 or 3 other random guys and when I came into the pit I see Jack in front of me. I was really confused and my dad said "don't worry are ahead" he had no idea jack was in my class and his comment really confused the crap out of me. I left the pits without getting new goggles. Turns out the guy I passed that lap was someone who passed me in the pits when I was peeing before LMAO.
So I take off from the pits knowing that the 1st place guy is only 30 seconds or so ahead of me. I am moving pretty good and I catch him in the same wash I passed the other guy in. Jack didn't hear me for a while then waved me by but I couldn't make the pass over the rocky stuff so I waited a bit then made it around. Next I caught up to a white honda who I didn't recognize at first but it was John. I tried to pass him in this crappy wide whooped out section The whoops are huge and they nearly bucked me over the handlebars. I was out of control to the point where in my mind I said "ok here we go, I am going to wreck and eat ****." All of this happened while John is looking over at me waving me by. He said it was highly entertaining. Somehow I recovered and landed on all 4 wheels and my feet safely on the pegs. That lap I passed a few more guys in classes who started ahead of me including Jason who thankfully waved me by, so I knew I was moving.
I stop in the pits one last time and start the 4th and final lap. It was fairly uneventful. Although there was zero dust so I could finally see perfectly. I passed one other guy on this lap. There are some sections of the race where you are wide open in 5th for 2-3 miles. I knew I was leading by a lot so my only worry was having something break. I am pretty sure these little atv engines don't like being at WOT for long periods. Luckily everything went ok and I made it through the finish. Then you drive up onto a platform and they interview you and the guy told me I was the first person in my class he had talked to and only the 2nd ironman. I was pretty sure I had won but I never fully believe it until the results are posted. The awards ceremony isn't until the next morning so I had a while to wait.
After the race I felt great. I could have done more laps. The course was so much fun other than the dust. I am positive I will do more BITD races next year. Their organization is top notch and everyone is so friendly. They also had more people on the race course flagging the race than any race I have ever seen. I was inspecting the quad after the race and noticed the nut that holds the swingarm to the frame was missing and the bolt was snapped. Lucky for me this bolt didn't work its way out, that would have been ugly.
I ended up wining my class and finished 2 minutes behind the expert ironman winner. I was also 11th overall out of every class including the teams.
After the race we headed to vegas to try to find a place to watch the UFC fight. I wanted to valet the truck since my quad and gear was in the back. We went to the mirage first and the oriental valet guy said that our "scooter" or "tractor" was too tall for their valet lot. So I tried ceasars and they informed me that no casino on the strip shows the UFC fights. It is some blackout thing but the Station casinos owned by the Fertitas (owners of the UFC) show the fights for free. So we went to the station casino off the strip. They were having a car show too. They have the fight showing in their big banquet room on multiple TV's and 2 projector screens and they setup a bar and hot wing stand in there. It was awesome.
Thanks to my dad and Adam for everything. Thanks to RSD for the pit support.
here is a link to my SPOT GPS page that shows the terrain of my journey
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/f...HPevCukfaQJ4qD
Unfortunately I had my camera on the 640x480 pic size for the first half of the trip.
results sheet:
Bridge progress:
team kendall:
registration
me and dad after the race:
checking my SPOT GPS thingie
john and glenn
rockstar team, they gave out all the free rockstar we could handle:
my dad bought a shirt from these chicks for a pic:
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