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Arrival on the lakebed Thursday night. Tom and I arrived to find the Kodiak and race trailer mired in the nastiest of JV mud. Hilarity ensued.


Bad photo but we hooked up Chad and Kurtis' rigs in tandem to pull the beast out. It worked pretty well.


All the tow rigs tires looked like this, which would cause some problems as we had to dig all that mud out of there.


Race car (Bomber) on the left, Trent Fab buggy for pre running rock trails on the right.


The mud hole we were stuck in.


Tents set up but not many folks there yet.


Setting up our garage.


Chad being Chad.

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Wasting no time after getting the tent set up, we headed up chocolate thunder.


View from my drivers seat on CT.


Chad and Kurtis coming up.




Chad headed into Sledge.


My view on a bonus line on Sledge.


Tom's expression on my choice of a bonus line if I were to come over backwards on the TF car.


Kurtis on Plaque rock.

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Obligatory mailbox poser shot at the top of Sledge.




We discovered we could removed the steering wheel on the TF car and place it on the mount in front of the passenger. This became more and more amusing throughout the week as we would scheme on how to distract anthony and move the wheel.


On the way down Tackhammer, Kurtis battery came out of the mount and tried to weld itself to the bed next to the fuel cell. Mass pandemonium ensued.


Discussing preliminary race strategy.


View from starfish mountain where we used to camp at night.


And during the day.


Our back porch.

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Guy out in his CJ tent camping. This was the year to do that. It was beautiful all week.


Neat wagon.


Rigs lined up to get into town on saturday morning.


Giggity.


More with the steering wheel.


Trying to get the leash on the dog to take it for a walk. It took four grown men and one very non compliant dog to figure out how to work it.


Digging the wheels.


Kurtis and I headed out to the Nitto tire photo shoot just in time to see Anthony drive the bomber down back door which broke off our spare tire mount.

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We headed down to the photo shoot to heckle Anthony. The photographers loved it. They asked us to follow them around all week.




Heckling the Dr. while he sat there and had photos done. We had everyone rolling in laughter with our comments.


Baby 4 runner and an all grown up one.


On the way back from the shoot we had some steering issues. This after all the race prep we did and replacing the ENTIRE steering system with 100% brand new PSC components.


Turned out the system wasn't bleeding off pressure due to some crap QA and metal shavings from the brand new pump got in the relief valve.


Another team re-creating our incidents.


Anthony so happy we are having more steering issues. We worked on this ALL DAY.

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Tired of working on the race car all day, we enjoyed some delicious meats.


And headed out to run some trails. We ran turkey claw, sos, Full of Love?, and Chocolate Thunder.


Tom trying to instruct Kurtis on how to use the GPS.


Kurt happy to be driving my Jeep.


Hammertown from the top of Full of love (not 100% on that trail, but it was badass).


Heading up Chocolate thunder with quite the crowd (mostly UTVs) heckling us. We had fun.


Morning coffee and probably some off color humor.


Breakfast.

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Breakfast of champions.


EMC race land rover.


With the King of the Motos going on, Kurt and I headed over to Trap Door to goof around and watch the race.


Kurt in his open open TJ showing us how it's done.


At the top of Trap Door.


Sweet buggy coming up TD.


Kurt trying not to scratch his paint.


When we got back to camp Tiffany had arrived with some fresh socks for me. I ruined mine during the mud fest on Thursday and quickly realized I forgot socks.

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Tiffany and chad on the porch.


Tom communicating.


Nik receiving the communication.


Chad looking sexy.


Getting ready to go play.


Tom gripped Kurits' runner.


Mobbing out to Aftershock.


Tom laying waste to Tiffany in the Trent Fab car.

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Lining up for a race across the lake bed. Me explaining in great detail to Kurt that if he loses this race, he won't be allowed to drive my jeep anymore. I also explained what it took to shift though 10 gears in the ATLAS to actually have a chance at having a chance. Hilarity ensued.


Me making it perfectly clear what was at stake.


Our start girl (guy).


Us losing miserably.


3rd gear pinned. That was all she had. More on this later.


Anthony congratulating Kurtis on the winning run (with Tom driving Kurtis' Runner and Tiffany driving the TF car and Kurt fumbling with my ATLAS shifters for the better part of 30 seconds).


Taking in the sights before heading in to Aftershock.

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Heading into Aftershock.




Tom decided to try this bonus line in the runner.










Almost there.


BOOM! Toasted 60 joint. More on the extraction tomorrow.

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Nice report so far!

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PNW Jeep Club member

Chad on Aftershock.


Kurt being a poser.


Jockeying rigs around to winch the handicapped runner out.


It took some creative winching but we got her out of there.


Next morning this homeless bum showed up so we fed him.


Tom being a crotchety old man.


Chirobody Racing: Powered by Pepperidge Farm. Because Pepperidge Farm remembers


Setting the guys up to go pre-run lap one.

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Rudi setting the GO-PRO before they headed out.


We headed over to ESAB to get them to weld our cowbell back together.







Nice rig.


Cowbell re-installed on Chad's truck.


Rudi working while he's supposed to be on vacation.


Anthony was nice and paid for everyones fuel for the trip. Who wants to put race fuel in Karl's jeep and send that 2.5L out with a bang?

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The guys got back from preruning and we checked temperatures and went over the car. Everything looked great.


We then changed out the wheels and tires with the new ones from our sponsors Nitto and KMC Wheels.




We got the car cleaned up and headed over for some face time with our sponsors.


At the Nitto trailer.


At KMC getting our SWAG.


4861 parked outside of the KMC Booth.


KMC Rep telling us where to go for the photo shoot.


Saw this beast.


Guess who?

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At the KMC photo shoot. More heckling while Anthony got his pictures taken.


Kurtis.


More stickers.


More heckling. The camera guys were laughing so hard, they were having trouble taking pictures.


Back at camp hanging out.


Kurt with the accidental naptime.


Rudi watching folks practice on the short course.


Our big whip antenna for race comms.

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I'd wheel it.


TTC rigs.


Drivers meeting.


I'd wheel this too.


Rudi working again.


Backdoor shootout. We got there way to late to get a good spot.


My camera sucks at photos like this, but you get the idea of the crowd that was there. We couldn't see anything.

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With too many folks at backdoor, we got this sheet on a camper.


Found some frosty libations.


and fired up the projector.


I headed over to watch the jumbotron for a bit and stopped to say hi to the OTM folks.


Random shot from the morning of qualifying.


I'd wheel it.


The guys at the start line.


Done with qualifying. We had a KILLER save. I'm looking for the photo but I don't facebook so finding it is tough.


Don't know if this will work.

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Fixing Kurtis' winch cable.


Anthony making sausage.


Chad telling us the agenda for the day.


More chocolate thunder.


Chad trying to keep up on wrecking ball.


Kurtis having fun.


Rudi driving my junk like a boss.




More wrecking ball.


Good shot of Kurtis.

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Bender alley and the memorial to Krusty. "When you pass near, pause tip a beer. For Krusty will always be here."


Everyone having fun on the bonus lines, there were a couple lead changes in here.




Kurtis got anchored here. After some creative winching and a push from the crew behind us, we got him out.


Rudi on the wrecking ball bonus line. (denied)


So he humped the waterfall for a bit.




He got denied and ended up taking the cable.

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Kurtis' turn.




As far as Kurtis got before he took the cable.


Chad on the right line.


Chad on the waterfall.




Chad lined up.


Grabbed second and nailed it. He drove right up.

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Kurtis coming down one of the ledges on Full of Hate.


On the way down FOH, Chad broke a main leaf.


I jockeyed my rig around to stabilize and we used my winch to pull the leaf pack back together.


Kurt showing his appreciation for the shenanigans that happened right in front of us. A group was coming down the trail and a guy in a "blazer" turned toob thingy decided to try a really really dumb line up the side of the trail. It resulted in a 3 and 3/4 roll over right in front of us. They really put on a good show and nobody got hurt.


Tom welding chads rig back together. You can see the rolled rig at the bottom of the hill.


A couple rigs behind us headed down to get them back on their wheels.


All ficksed.


The rig that went on the wild ride.


Chad coming off the last ledge on FOH.

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Rudi driving down the last ledge on FOH. Notice the cloud behind the jeep. The engine was in its death throes at this point and a mild tick quickly developed into a big knock.


Jeep TJ now with new and improved mosquito fogger!!!




Kurtis.


Anthony.


Kurtis cut a tire on clawhammer.


The folks from Letz Roll Off Road / Team Yukon (4893) ambled by, saw our predicament and gave us their spare tire to get home on. I forking love the wheeling community where a competitor would give you the parts off of their race car to get you home. Thanks guys!!!

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Finally out of Clawhammer, we all said our goodbyes and headed back to camp.


After letting everyone know my engine was on the verge of the parts on the inside soon will be on the outside... everyone had a good laugh and hauled ass.


When they realized I was serious as we could only do about 10 MPH with it floored and the engine knocking like a sumbitch they came back to check on me.


And after realizing I was serious they again, promptly hauled ass.


When we finally got back to camps, Tiffany had made nachos.


Our pre tire fixin' nacho party.


Kurtis demounting his tire.


Drilling holes in the sidewall to tie wire the tear shut.

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Ever give another dude a foot rub? Ever give another dude a foot rub after being in the desert for a week? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you might be gay.


Kurtis sewing his tire shut with wire.


Tiffany taking a nap.


Plugging the tire.


Moar plugs.


Larry showed up to watch the show.


Chad computing the over under on how many plugs it would take to stop the tire from leaking.


After getting the tire fixed, we fired up the go-pro footage from our lap 1 practice to discuss strategies and course hazards.

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Wednesday morning entertainment. Remember that mud hole we got the Kodiak stuck in? This full water truck got stuck in it too!!!


Cue good Samaritan number one. We have in the past tried to use our wheeling rigs to pull these water truck out of the sand and never even budged them.


Good Samaritan number one rolls the coal to it...


And after fully getting it, he pulls the front bumper off of the water truck.


Good Samaritan number one makes a hasty exit with all of us heckling "built Ford tough" etc. Cue good Samaritan number two.


The peanut gallery.


This fine volunteer showed up collecting trash from camps. He let us know good Samaritan number two was official KOH recovery crew. We doubled our heckling efforts. "It's gonna take a crane" etc.


After emptying all the water out of the truck and digging for about an hour with us talking trash the whole time, good Samaritan number two rolled the coal to it and popped that truck out. There was a standing ovation.

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Looks like fun!

Thanks for sharing!

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Michael
2016 Tesla P100DL
2016 Infiniti QX80
2007 JK Rubicon - RubiCloak (MetalCloak Lineup)

Rudi and Tom putting course hazards into the GPS.


Watching the UTV leaders cross the finish line.


Headed to tech.


When we got back from tech, it appears someone has applied more decals to my jeep.


They even upgraded my shocks.


50 degree (more like 75 degree) shirts off guy appeared and made sandwiches.


While these guys took naptime. Suns out, guns out.

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We got our sticker. It's go time!


Group above short bus watching the qualifying.


Last team meeting to discuss pit strategy before heading to the party and bellyflop contest at KMC.




Team Chirobody representing.


Live band free food, and drinks!








M's kids got involved too. I didn't get any pictures of the dinosaur that hopped into the pool.

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Now the moment you have all been waiting for. Sunrise race morning.


If you have never seen the sunrise at the Hammers, you haven't lived. It's pretty magical.


Was my mouth open? Co driver Tom, Crew Chief Kurtis, Driver Anthony.


Crew Chief Kurtis all geared up like a pro. At least we look like we know what we are doing.


Robby Flandro.


A rare photo of Anthony looking like a badass, and me on the left.


Anthony and Tiffany.


Go time.

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Kurt and I got stationed at remote pit 2A. Since my jeep was down for the count we got to take the Trent Fab car. Giggity.


All set up.


All the other teams. We were in the second pit stall.


After learning that we had blown a tire on race mile 1. And then then lost a steering line and crapped a pump, the guys limped the car to pit 1. Kurt had the quickest street legal vehicle and the parts were back at our garage, so we booked it back to camp in the TF car. We got all the necessary parts and tools into Kurt's TJ and he and Rudi made a mad dash to RP1 to get the parts to the team. With comments like "we will pay for the speeding ticket" they FLEW out there. Probably setting the land speed record down boone road, hwy 247 and then bessemer mine road to get there.

The filter didn't catch all the naughty bits from pump #1 and we promptly blew pump #2 thus ending our day. The guys headed out with the Kodiak to pick up the race car. I moseyed out to RP 2A to clean up our pit stall. When I got back to camp, here's how I found chad.


A frustrated Tom desperately seeking a beer.


This tire had 10 miles on it completely flat at race speeds. It looked pretty good for the abuse it had taken.


Nik using goldfish to decorate a sleeping chad.

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