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Photos courtesy of Paul Baldassarre, Mario Baldassarre & Josh England
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Photos courtesy of Paul Baldassarre, Mario Baldassarre & Josh England
The Brink Fab car looking nice and fresh before the race. The war to come would leave its marks.
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Photos courtesy of Paul Baldassarre, Mario Baldassarre & Josh England
Support for the team was extraordinary as many offered spare engines, parts and time when this mill went dead.
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Photos courtesy of Paul Baldassarre, Mario Baldassarre & Josh England
The crew and supporters work long into the night to get the Brink Fab buggy back into action.
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Photos courtesy of Paul Baldassarre, Mario Baldassarre & Josh England
After a disastrous beginning to the week, the buggy made the start despite all the challenges.
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Photos courtesy of Paul Baldassarre, Mario Baldassarre & Josh England
Throwing rooster tails into the air as the Brink Fab buggy rockets into the mountains.
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Photos courtesy of Paul Baldassarre, Mario Baldassarre & Josh England
The Brink Fab buggy unfortunately was not able to finish, however there were several other Canadians still in the running.
Story by Richard Walker, Photos courtesy of Paul Baldassarre, Mario Baldassarre and Josh England
Every year that I attend this race (four times now), I find it harder and harder to believe how big it’s getting. From just a few buddies racing back to camp for a beer, to over 30,000 people (competitors, spectators and volunteers) that now attend the week long event. It just shows the dedication and enthusiasm that people have for this sport. I think by now most of you have read my past articles on this race and are aware of the ins and outs, so I will get straight to the coverage of our Canadian racers.
2014 had six teams racing from Canada (five in the KOH race and one in the EMC). This year’s Canadian racers were: #312 Eric Brinker and myself, Richard Walker, #4487 Matt Nieman and Daryl Goldsby, #308 Rocco Baldassarre and Mario Baldassarre, and #4410 Dave Warner with Curtis Warner. I will still count Dave Warner as a Canadian for this year even though he recently moved to the States. Also, I can’t confirm it, but I am certain that Canada is the second most represented country on the lake-bed. Between the drivers, co-drivers, pit crew, media and campers that came to watch or lend a hand, we had to have well over 100 people there this year.
With so much to cover from each Canadian racer, I thought we would write about each car separately and just include the highlights so this doesn’t get super long. Some of these guys spent almost two weeks in the desert, not to mention the time leading up to the race. So, I’m sure you can imagine how much there is to talk about.
#312 – Team Brink Fab
With a brand new, and fairly untested car, we were on the lakebed to have some fun and see what this thing could do. Eric did an amazing job building the car and got there quite a bit early to do some pre-running and most importantly some shock tuning. He met up with Wayne from All Tech and they got the suspension dialed in perfectly. Unfortunately, during tuning, the cooling fan stopped working and the motor got quite hot. By the time I got there they had that all fixed and everything seemed fine. After flying in, Eric and I strapped in to put some miles on the car. We didn’t get far when the motor seemed to loose power and we lost steering. The steering was just a loose fitting, which was no big deal, however the motor was a little bit more of an issue. It was blown. A quick diagnosis showed a spun bearing in the bottom end. At this point it was certain we were going to miss our qualifying run the next day as we were supposed to be 10th up.
This is where the 4x4 community showed what they are really capable of. I awoke the next morning to seven missed calls, a full voice mail box and over 20 text messages, all from people willing to help get us a motor. Needless to say, we found a motor a mere 45-minutes away in Apple Valley. The crew, including members from the other Canadian teams, wasted no time tearing into the car while a couple others headed into town to get the new motor. By late that night it roared back to life to the cheers of the 40 plus people filling the 60x20 pit tent.
The next morning we were just double checking everything over before putting some miles on the new motor. It all seemed fine so it was time to let her warm up a bit. Only problem was, it wouldn’t start. Really? Another quick look and Mike found that the flex plate was missing a good 4-in. of teeth. No joke, the crew didn’t even skip a beat. Eric and I went back to Apple Valley for a flex plate while the crew stripped the interior to get at the transmission and t-case. Yet again, by late that night she was back to life. Again, the next day we thought everything was good to go! Wrong, no oil pressure, again. Now it was time to pull out all the stops. We took all the sump and remote filter off and went back to the basics. Huge thanks to Daryl for the help figuring it out, as well as disassembling and rebuilding the oil pump to actually get us oil pressure. You the man!
We figured with the luck so far, something had to change for race day. Fast forward to 5 am on race morning and we are off the line against “Plowboy” who is one of the Southern “Rock Bouncers”. Eric and I decided that if we were to do anything cool this day it would be to take him off the line. And that we did! We must have had 300 or so yards on him by the time we got to the single track. The next 30 miles went by really smooth, especially considering how deep and consistent the whoops were. Then disaster struck. All of a sudden, we had no rear suspension. The coil over on the driver’s rear corner was bent. We went to fix/remove it only to find we had no jack and minimal tools. I guess the ruts also pounded out the bottom of the toolbox and all of our gear was strewn about the desert. Luckily, one of the other racers stopped and let us borrow their jack so we could limp to the pits. Huge thanks to car #456 (if I remember right).
We radioed ahead and told the crew what we needed. Just over an hour later (it was a slow go with no rear suspension) Eric and I got to remote pit one and waited for support. And wait we did. Turns out the vehicle coming to bring us parts had a catastrophic break en route and was delayed almost four hours getting to us. With no radio contact, we had no choice but to wait. By the time they arrived and we got back into the fight, there was no way we had enough time to finish the entire course. We got back to the main pits just before 6:00 pm and called it a day. It was fairly disappointing, especially considering how hard the #312 crew worked to get to this point. They didn’t stop twisting wrenches for nearly 48 hours and all we wanted was a solid finish for these guys. Despite the disappointment, these guys never stopped smiling the entire time. I am very proud to say I was part of such a positive, never say never, group of people. Mike, Evan, Andrew, Kyle, Warren, I want to thank you all on behalf of myself and Eric. Plus, I co-drove for the man himself, Eric Brinker!