Desert Toyz Team Rhino - V2R

Desert Toyz Team Rhino started last of 321 entrees. My wife and I started the race. We passed several UTVs in the first few miles and caught the 1926 Mason Rhino. I decided to follow him for a while when suddenly he lost speed and pulled over. We stopped at pit 1 to let our crew know that the radio would not transmit. We could hear them but they could not hear us. Only a click sound came across when we tried to speak. We decided to use the click sound to communicate, once for yes, twice for no. 10 miles from pit 2 on a high speed section the Rhino suddenly lost power and shut off. We pulled over and after 10 minutes I found the problem, the spark plug wire had fallen off. I pushed it back on, turned the key, but the engine would not turn over. after another 5 minutes I found the battery cable had come loose. I tightened it up and off we went. As soon as we hit the first bump the plug wire fell off again. So I drove the next 9 miles to pit 2 holding the plug wire on with my hand. We got into pit 2 and change out the plug wire, but decided to leave the engine cover off. We sailed through pit 3 and headed for pit 4 somewhere close to pit 4 the Rhino started to lose power again. Without the engine cover the silt and dust was filling the driver’s compartment and clogging the air filter.

We stopped several time to clean it and limped into pit 4. We changed the filter and headed for pit 5. We caught the 1909 Combs car at the top of the mountain climb and followed them down through the tight corners in the forest. As soon as the course opened up to big sweepers the 1909 left us in their dust. A few miles from pit 5 we caught the 1941 Burke Rhino; we followed for a little bit with the horn honking, then gave them a little nudge and they pulled over. It was smooth sailing into pit 5 where we did a driver change. Mike and Drew got in and headed for pit 6.

Somewhere between pit 6 and 7 we got passed by the 1941 Burke Rhino and then tipped the Rhino over on its side in a corner. Lucky for us there was truck broken in the same corner; they ran over and righted us and off we went. Then we came up on a class 8 truck rolled over; we stopped and offered to pull them back over but they laughed and said they would wait for a bigger vehicle to help them.

We were now in 4th place. At pit 7 we stopped, changed filters and made a shock and light adjustment. We sailed through pit 8 and headed for pit 9. Unfortunately at rm272 the drive belt broke; I had a brain fart when packing the spare parts and forgot to put a spare belt in the race Rhino. Our race ended there.

The wife and I got permission to take a belt out to Mike and Drew. We headed back to pit 8 and started up the course. We went just a few miles when I high-centered my Ford F250 long bed in silt bed. All four tires were off the ground The wife let the air out of the tires and I dug and jacked. It took about 45 minutes to get it out. When we got to the Rhino Mike and Drew were fast asleep.

The lights from the truck scared Mike so much he jumped off the ground and started to run into the desert. He later said he was having a wild dream and thought the truck was an airplane. We changed the drive belt and they drove into pit 9. We followed along in the Ford (Those Ford trucks sure are tough … ). It was about 3:00am. We headed for Tonapah where we got a nice hot shower and some much-needed rest. Thanks to all the UTV teams that came out and race with us. Congratulations to the Jagged X/ Polaris on their Finish and WIN!!! We'll get-em next year. Sincerely Cory S