RACE REPORT

2021 Progressive black hills throwdown - 3rd - 4600 Class

The Sherpa Motorsports Team took on the short course at “The Chip” during the iconic Sturgis Bike Rally

OUR 2021 SPONSORS

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

RACE Prep & PRERUNNING:

When we arrived it was clear this course was unlike anything we had raced before. The track was a 3 mile short course packed with jumps and high speed turns. Leading up to the race we worked on putting together a shock package that would hold up to the jumps. Catching a 6000lbs car with only a 8” coilover in the front is no small task. Our shock tuner Kevin made sure the car was able to put down everything it could.

Broken Diff

We unloaded the car and headed out for pre-running. During our first lap we were passed by a UTV that kicked up a good bit of dust, and without having the course recorded yet, we blew a turn and jumped into the side embankment. While the front end of the car was still attached we had picked up an awful knocking sound. It wasn’t until we were back in the pits that we found out we had actually blown our front diff in the accident. Once we realized there was nothing we could do, we opted to run the car in two wheel drive in hopes that it would keep the damage from impacting our transfer case while it was binding.

Broken Upper Links - C4 Rebuild

We went back out on course to get used to running the car in two wheel drive. The car was all over the place and Alex had his work cut out for him. Every turn the car was sliding out on us and it took all of the power we had to get it moving through the turns. It was clear we were going to be losing precious time on our competitors during race day. As we were nearing the end of this second lap our pit crew called out to us that the back end looked a little funny as we were coming off the jumps. We quickly pulled off the course and back into pits. We could see our rear axle shifting out from under the car and realized we had broken our upper links.

Because of the limitations of our class, we put a slight bend in our upper links in order to maximize our up travel, while clearing a crossmember under the car. We were also forced to build them out of 1.75” .120 standard tube because of our bender/dies that we had before King of the Hammers. Over the course of this season we haven’t had any issues with them and they slipped our mind. But here we were, forced with needing to figure out a replacement and fast.

Luckily we were close to our friends over at C4 Fabrication. While they don’t normally take on custom fab work, they had all of the tools and resources to put together a new set of links for us. Their team was more than excited to help out after hours and we can’t thank them enough for their work. They set us up with 1.75” DOM .120 links that also had re-enforcement plates to make sure we were set for race day.

QUALIFYING:

During qualifying we new we were going to have to push as hard as possible to make up for our lack of 4WD. We ended up giving it our all. We smacked our pinion guard when bashing through the rocks, forcing it up into our u-joint. After a few seconds of hesitation, due to the awful grinding noise we were hearing, we hammered down and continued on. We walked away with a second place spot after missing 1st by less than a second. We were excited to be on the front row for the prelim race the next day.

PRELIM RACE:

We kicked off race day with the 30min prelim race. Being on the front row for the Grand Prix start was intense. Having a race based on physical race position rather than time adds a whole other layer of intensity. The flag dropped as we rolled past and we were all off. As we went into the first turn we watched as one of the other cars nearly rolled after taking a turn too tight. We headed into the rocks touching the bumper of the car in front of us. Hoping that by taking the same line through we would clear the rocks easily. But following a solid axle line through the rocks in an IFS car didn’t go well for us. Our car fell into several holes and bottomed out. Without 4WD we were stuck and watched the rest of the pack pull away from us. The course works came by and after a couple of tugs we were on our way again. Now half a lap down we were sure that we would be in last place. The course was muddy and we spent much our first lap learning how to drive in the mud with 2WD. But once the course started to dry out, we were running lap times comparable to 1st and 2nd place. Right before the end of the race we passed a couple of other cars that were moving slow or were broken. We finished up with a 4th place finish.

FINAL RACE:

We spent the couple of hours between the prelim and the main race discussing what we did and didn’t do well. We certainly didn’t want a repeat of our accident during the prelim. During the main race we started on the second row and took a different line to the inside off the start. Once we got through the rocks were were locked into a battle with John Snell of Fly Offroad for P3/4. We pushed for a couple of laps to narrow the gap and apply as much pressure as possible. After a couple of small slips they ended up accidentally diving off course and loosing a rear spring. We took P3 and began pushing for P2. It was clear that it was going to be nearly impossible being that the leaders had almost a minute on us with only 2 laps to go. All we could do was narrow the gap and hope someone made a mistake. The leaders held out and continued their push, taking P1 & P2. We ended up crossing the line with a 3rd place finish. We were both beyond excited for our first Ultra4 finish, let alone a spot on the podium.

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.

Kevin Crocker - Shock Tuning

Kevin started tuning our shocks in the last couple races and boy has it changed the car. We can’t thank him enough for the time and energy he has put into making our team faster and more competitive.

C4 Fabrication - New Upper Links

Huge shoutout to the team at C4 fab for building us a set of reinforced upper links at the very last minute. The craftsmanship and attention to detail was impressive. Check out their armor if you are ever in the market for Toyota parts.

Locked Offroad - Shock Parts

Having a shock sponsor that goes above and beyond to get us the parts we need the week before a race has been a life saver. We have absolutely beat the crap out of our shocks and forced them to catch a 6,000lbs car flying 4’ in the air. Our tuner has been able to get so aggressive with the shock tune that allows us to push the car in ways we never though possible. Thanks Riley for all the support!