RACE REPORT

2021 KING SHOCK ULTRA4 BFE BEATDOWN - 6TH - 4600 Class

The Sherpa Motorsports Team took on the brutal course in the iconic AreaBFE in Moab

OUR 2021 SPONSORS

YOTA MAFIA - YUKON GEAR & AXLE - LOCKED OFFROAD SHOCKS - GENERAL TIRE - BLACK RHINO WHEELS - WARN

RACE Prep & PRERUNNING:

After spending some time finding a spot in the pits, we unloaded the car and put in a few practice laps around the qualifying course to get re-acquainted with the car. It quickly became clear just how large some of the ledges were going to be on race day and how different this series would be from YORR that we had run last year. We made some adjustments to our tire pressure and went back out for another lap. The car felt as though it was right on the money. We went out to pre-run the rest of the course.

At the very back of the course, there was a sharp ledge that pointed the car towards the edge of a cliff. When we went to drop over it the first time we were going a bit too slow and found ourselves pivoting on our trans skid. By the time we unlogged the car it was sitting at a very awkward angle. Alex had to power out of it to get the back tires back on the ground. In the process of going down the hill, we clipped the front driver tire on a large boulder and broke the cage within our outer CV.

We were able to get the car limped back to the pits and the team went to work on fixing the CV. Being that we had custom CVs without a spare, Hayden went into town to get a new outer that we could swap on. We soon found out that the splines on non-OEM axles (30spline) are different than aftermarket options (28spline) so we had to source an OEM axle for our repairs. One of our team members had just arrived and happened to have one in his truck that was a perfect match. The team quickly put it all together but we missed out on qualifying.

RACE DAY:

Lap 1:

Being that we had missed qualifying we would be starting dead last (9th) in our class. In the first lap, we were making up good time on the first car in front of us. At the very back of the course, we were about to pass the first car when we got stuck on the same ledge that we broke on during pre-running. This time we weren’t so lucky and were forced to winch our way out of the situation. We lost close to 10min on the rest of the cars. We knew we had to get in gear and make up for lost time. We quickly found our groove and started eating through the gap on the car in front of us. In the process, we passed one of the Samis broken down in the wash. Our pit team told us we had three minutes to make up on the next Sami going into lap 2.

Lap 2:

Knowing we weren’t far behind the next car we pushed even harder. It wasn’t long until we could see the Red and White Sami through the trees. Around this time we also passed another vehicle that was being repaired. We made quick work of the early rock sections and within the first 10min of the lap, we were on the tail of the last Sami. We passed after a small rock section and kept pushing on in hopes of making up time on the rest of the pack in front of us. On this lap, we made quick and easy work of the ledge that had snagged us the two times before. We continued to clean up our lines and shave off as much time as possible. Car was still feeling really good as we came in through the start-finish for lap 3.

Lap 3:

A few minutes into lap 3 we started to notice that the truck was having a bit harder time going up rocky hills that we used to be able to power through. We just didn’t have the same amount of traction and we began to worry that we had lost another CV. A few minutes down the trail we came through a section a few inches further to the passenger side than before and we overextended the front end. We believe that this actually broke a second CV as we later found out they were both gone.

With a lap through Helldorado ahead we decided that it was best to call our race here and work on getting the car off the course so the next race could get underway.

TAKEAWAYS:

While we originally believed it would be best to let our CV’s serve as a “fuse” to protect the front diff, we are breaking axles in ways that wouldn’t even impact the diff. We will hopefully be moving away from a OEM style CV axles and upgrading to something from RCV. This will allow us to have an axle that can better handle our range of travel and the abuse of rock racing.

THANK YOU

We can’t thank all of our outstanding friends, family, and Sponsors enough for all of their hard work and amazing support for our program.

GENERAL TIRE - Once again we came out of a race with the same set of tires that we started racing on last year. These tires have seen more abuse than we would have imagined and survived a course that was eating through everyone else’s tires. We thought for sure we would be changing at least one tire this weekend. We can’t thank General enough for supporting us with such an impressive tire.

WARN - It is so great having such a high level of confidence in our winch and recovery gear. The 10-S platinum and the Factor55 Ultrahook make for fast recoveries when mistakes are made on course. While this is one piece of equipment you always hope to not use, it puts your mind at ease knowing it will always be there to get you out.

YUKON - HOLY COW! This car has so much power now. The new gear set and lockers in the truck made quick work of just about everything on that course. Once again another part of the car that is tough as nails and takes more abuse than it ever should.

LOCKED OFFROAD - Through all of our laps the Locked Shocks were a champ. We didn’t really see any shock fade during our time on the course and the shocks made for a smooth ride. It’s a whole lot easier dropping off some of those ledges knowing that your shocks are gonna be there to save the day.