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WORCS Havasu Race Report, Lake Havasu

To start things off I installed my new PRP harness in the car Friday morning before practice. These harnesses are a more comfortable and more supportive than the set I was running previously.

Friday afternoon we were out at the track getting things ready and making sure the car was dialed in. We headed out for the moto practice and I was getting a feel for the track, jumping and testing the suspension to make sure the car would fly straight. I also want to see how the clutch performed at the altitude we were at, and I made a few clutch adjustments.

Next we went back out for the unclassified practice. This is a full course 30 minute practice. Overall the practice went well, but I ended up breaking a wheel. A rock got cought up in-between the caliper and rim. I was also running some front axles that we were trying out from GSP XTV and they didn’t really feel right. I honestly think they were broken on the inside. I ended up swapping them out Friday night with my stock axels that I had for spares. I was able to get a rim from Ray Bulloch, his wife brought it down from their shop in Cedar City, Utah. Because of the Bulloch’s I was able to race on Saturday.

We started to line up Saturday around 2PM. The car felt great, everything seemed to be in line and ready to rip! We took off, and I was in position to have had the hole-shot but I ended up making contact with another driver and my back tire climbed his and it rolled me over. The video is on my Instagram @brad_331_callahan if you want to see it. A bunch of people came running over and put the car back on all fours, I was able to start the car and take off.

There are also a couple other videos on Instagram of me jumping and making a pass in the air. I ran hard all the way through the pack and the classes in front of me, I got into the number 2 position behind Justin Bor who, has been my main competitor in past races. I was about to make the pass coming into the moto section of the course and the car suddenly cut out and shut off, turned the key off, restarted it and took off again. Luckily, I had only lost one position at that point. I was in second place and had passed “#887 Bryant Kirton” . I was behind Justin Bor and, the car unfortunately kept going into limp mode, which resulted in me pulling off the track just after the tabletop jump and not able to finish the race. I’ve gone through the car and found the problem, a grounding issue on the ignition coil. I have parts ordered to fix it, will make the repairs and be out testing this weekend to make sure of a problem free race at canyon MX in a couple weeks…..

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King of the Hammers preparation started mid-December with the first pre-run where we ran the 2018 desert loop and a handful of rock trails. Everything went really smooth, but I still wanted to make some suspension changes and knew I needed more traction for the rocks. The second pre-run was scheduled for the 2nd weekend of January to give me a couple weeks to re-prep the car. The plan was to test the new Maxxis tires, high clearance links, and spring/shock changes I made on any rock trails we hadn’t seen yet. First impressions were jaw dropping and the car continued to impress us all day. The combination of rock specific tires, soft suspension, and my rock specific additions to the RT Pro suspension made quick work of any line we tried. Returning home, confidence was very high, but that only added to the list of things I wanted to do to the car. We felt that we had a really good chance at placing well on our first attempt at this monster of a race. New rock sliders, camber links, seat mounts, frame gussets, A-arms, CVT primary and belts, fluids, filters, upgraded steering rack, RCV prop shaft, DWT Wheels, fresh Tireballs, steering and suspension pivots, my Co-driver and I replaced and upgraded almost everything on the car besides the engine and transmission in two weeks before we returned to Johnson Valley.

As expected, we were working on the car up until the day we left, and still had a few minor tasks to do on the lakebed. We finally got to the lake bed at 4:30am January 31st. Once the course was released, my co-driver went to note the first lap since it was reverse to what I had pre-ran, while others and I finished the last few items on the car and began breaking in the new CVT. That night we continued to heat cycle the belt, and hiked Wrecking ball to pick lines since I hadn’t driven it before. Friday morning, when I could finally drive the car hard, it became very apparent that the front diff would not engage all the time and when it did it was very late and aggressive. It was not race-able in this condition. We got the car tech’ed then began trouble shooting. Luckily my team is entirely mechanical engineers and certified auto mechanics, eventually we figured out the “upgraded” armature plate was the root cause and just so happened to bring the old parts with us. Four wheel drive was restored and tested about 1am.
I got lucky and was slotted in the first hour block of qualifying before the course was degraded and the weather rolled in. I drove aggressively and placed 32nd out of 118 cars registered to race, which we were very pleased with considering almost every other car had a turbo. After qualifying we had a few things to attend to on the car and organizing pit logistics for race day.
We were up before the sun, packing chase trucks and doing a last minute ride height adjustment. Pit team 1 was off to remote pit 1 while Pit team 2 stayed with the car until the start.
The start was calm, and I wasn’t very nervous. I am comfortable with the car, it’s extremely capable and I know my pace. There were broken cars every few miles for the entire first lap, I passed a few cars and got passed by a few cars,managing CVT temps and running a quick pace.We got to “The Notches” about race mile 50, which is the first rock section of the course. One car was on its roof and three others were working through it. I drove around Bryce Menzies, Cody Curry, and Nick Turner, unknowingly putting me very close to the top ten. We came into remote pit 1 physically 11th, where we filled with fuel and safety wired the muffler to the frame. Back into the desert, through main pit and onto remote pit 2A where we took a splash of fuel before starting the rock trails.The car felt 100% entering the rock trails, we made quick work of the rocks until we found our first traffic jam at the big ledge in Clawhammer. Five or six cars were stopped with all the co-drivers trying to un-clog the dam. I had pre-ran this obstacle and knew the car would climb right up the left side, which it promptly did once I had the opportunity. However, once on top of the ledge I was rotated nearly perpendicular and wedged into a large rock with the passenger front tire. I tried to crawl it but felt how bound up it was and backed off. That’s when I took some bad advise from a different co-driver, he said “No, it will make it, just a bit more throttle!”. Unfortunately I gave it another go with more throttle, having complete confidence the car’s capabilities, and BANG, I knew something had let go. I jockeyed with reverse a couple times and drove out in 2wd. When we got out and looked it over, everything looked perfect until the prop shaft spun freely while the transmission was in park…
Everything we had replaced, prepped, and worked on held up great and I knew the transmission output shaft was the next week link going into the race, but there is only so much time and money.
At this point, we know a finish is impossible. I am not going to be the guy who blocks all the rock trails trying to winch my way to a finish.
But since I am chasing national points, we decided to see how far we can get in 2wd and have fun with it. The next few trails are downhill, with a few rocky climbs thrown in for good measure. We were impressed with the car’s rock capabilities before, but now we were just confused. We did 5 named rock trails including Wrecking Ball and Chocolate Thunder in TWO WHEEL DRIVE! Pulling off and letting others pass as to not negatively affect their race. My parents timed the first 60 cars down chocolate thunder and I came through 6 seconds faster than the next person who didn’t break something. To be fair, if I went any slower, I likely would have gotten stuck. The sand hill after Chocolate Thunder was particularly tricky, it took a full head of steam from the fence line to get to the top. We made it all the way to the trench before Jack north (about mile 110), where a rear CV joint finally let go trying to climb a large rock face. This is where we decided to call the race and help everyone we could. We winched the car straight up the trench wall to get out of the way, then helped spot, winch, push, and move rocks for the next 10 or 15 cars to come through. Once the traffic slowed, we finished winching the car out of the trench and on to ground where the one wheel drive could get us out.
We got back to camp and had a champagne bottle waiting to celebrate the effort, determination, and performance of the entire team. Ultra4 and the King of the Hammers is the pinnacle of off-road racing in my opinion and I will continue to race it as long as I am able.

2018 Ultra 4 Nationals Reno, Nevada

October 17-19, 2018 – 2018…Ultra 4 Nationals was held at the Wildwest Motorsports Park in Reno Nevada. This is the final event of the year for the Ultra 4 racing series with the year end banquet following the main race held at The Nugget Casino & Resort.

Derek and Team #20 arrived Thursday afternoon for check in and get in some pre-running of the course. Friday morning was qualifying for all classes with 4400 being later in the day at 3 pm. Derek went 3rd in line and had an issue through the rocks missing his line and catching a tire, which laid him on his side. So he would be starting in the 3rd prelim heat at the back of the pack.

Next up the prelim heat race Derek ran great catching up to the front, but missed it by one spot to move on. The next heat would be in one hour where he would have a chance to try again in the B Main Prelim race to make it to the main race. Time for the B Main he was doing great until they stopped for a red flag on the coursec Derek ended up with several other racers in front of him on the re-start, he was playing catch up the rest of the race and came up one spot short of advancing on to the main. Once back at the pit Derek assessed the car and there were several other mechanical issues going on so he called it done. “It is always disappointing when things go wrong and break but it is just apart of racing”, states Derek.

The team was able to relax and watch some great racing before getting ready for the Ultra 4 Banquet later that night where Derek accepted his 2nd Place East Coast Series trophy. “It has been another great season I couldn’t be any prouder! Derek has continued to be a top national competitor in this off road sport for over 16 years and that is a great accomplishment that not many can say they have done!” says Ashley West. We are looking forward to SEMA Oct. 29-Nov 2 in Las Vegas, NV. Then a much needed short break before prepping for 2019 King of the Hammers Feb. 1-9 in Johnson Valley, CA.

Next up for Derek West:

Derek & Ashley West head out for their last event the SEMA Show held in Las Vegas Oct. 30-Nov 2. Then some much needed down time for family & the holidays. The 2019 Season starts off with the biggest race Feb 1-9th at the Nitto King of the Hammers held at Johnson Valley, CA.

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Image Credits:

Kristin Cline Drivingline, Redline Projects, Intrepid Off Road

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Practice Thursday went well — we made some changes to the car and re-valved the shocks with the help of Wayne from All Tech Motorsports. We felt we had the car where we needed it for the weekend and we were excited about Friday and Saturday’s races.After practice Trevor hopped on his pit bike to visit a buddy- and while riding through the pits, he caught his foot on a rock while taking a corner hyper-extending his knee. We immediately bandaged and iced it. He slept on it for the night and we realized Friday morning he would have to be seen by a doctor. Off to the ER we went for the second time in a month.
While in the ER we reached out to Pro 2 driver Danny Ebberts to run qualifying for the car and race that evening. Danny was glad to offer his help although admittedly he had little experience with Pro Buggy. Danny fought to keep the speed up in such a tight class qualifying 10th. In the main he finished 9th overall.  We were all grateful for his efforts and his ability to keep Trevor in the points chase.
Earlier in the ER Trevor was diagnosed with a tibial spine avulsion – meaning the ACL pulled a small fragment of bone from the tibia when it stretched from the extension to his right knee. He was released and made it back to the track to watch Danny Ebberts run his car race at 8:30 that night.
Longtime friend Sheldon Creed happened to be in the stands that night also. Sheldon is an accomplished short course racer himself, and is the current points leader in the ARCA series. During the evening conversation, Sheldon offered to drive the car for Saturday’s race.  Sheldon has won numerous races & championships and in Mod Karts, Pro Lite, and Pro 2 so we were all excited to work with Sheldon for Round 9.
On Saturday Sheldon had bit of a slow start— qualifying 9th. After that first run he felt he was getting the hang of Pro Buggy, and was looking forward to the main event. He started in the back of the pack— 5th row inside for the main then meticulously worked his way through the field to a solid 4th place finish. He gradually improved his lap times by the end – when he was running right up there with the leaders. Between Danny and Sheldon’s efforts Trevor maintains his position as 4th in points for the series championship—25 points ahead of 5th place.
Surgery is required to repair the damage to Trevor’s knee. An MRI is scheduled for next Wednesday where we will determine if a reattachment of the bone is possible; if that is the case the recovery period is just 6-8 weeks. The other possibility is that the bone fragment is not attachable which will require ACL surgery and a 6 month recovery.  At the moment, Trevor is fully laid up- moving about very little with crutches.
With only one points race left for the LOORRS season and Trevor currently sitting 25 points ahead of 5th he will line up for Round 10 at Wildhorse Pass, take the start at at the green flag  and pull off track. Trevor had an excellent start to the season, accumulating enough points to hold 4th even with the back-to-back illness and injury these past two races. By starting he will secure the points necessary to help retain his 4th place overall position in the season points chase. Trevor will be fully recovered in time for the 2019 season and will be making the run for the championship- now more determined than ever.
This past weekend we joined up with LOORRS to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Temecula Valley Wine Country and participate in Stomp Out Cancer; a family-friendly event to raise funds for Support the Kid, helping families pay for cancer treatments, travel, lodging and meals. Event highlights included grape stomp competitions, off-road vehicles, displays and racer autographs, live music and food trucks plus, the Peltzer Pumpkin Farm was also open.
Trevor will be at Wildhorse Pass in Chandler Arizona for the final round of the LOORRS season, October 20, 2018.  Please join us as we partner with JDRF to help raise monies and awareness for Diabetes research.

Derek West 2018 Outlaw Off Road Racing Champion!

Saturday Oct. 13, 2018…The final Outlaw Off Road Racing Series event held in Tuscumbia, Alabama at Hawk Pride Off Road Park. A total of 30 competitors came out to finish out the Outlaw season. There was beautiful weather & a good spectator turn out. This event the Outlaw crew kept with the same layout where 2 competitors run at the same time on 2 different hill climbs while drag racing each other. (Lots of fun to watch!) Then the they flip lanes and run again. The drivers times are combined with the top 10 fastest times moving on to the bounty hill, which the drivers voted on doing at their drivers meeting. It was a very difficult hill to say the least. Derek had fast times on both his runs putting him in first place going into the bounty hill. The drivers drew names for running order, and dang the luck Derek drew the first run. He got a good try at it with making a landing up at the top, but just didn’t quite make. Derek still took 3rd for the final Outlaw race of the season and with the highest overall series points he is the back to back Outlaw Racing put Series Champion !!

Next up for Derek West:

Derek & Ashley West head out for their last event the SEMA Show held in Las Vegas Oct. 30-Nov 2. Then some much needed down time for family & the holidays. The 2019 Season starts off with the biggest race Feb 1-9th at the Nitto King of the Hammers held at Johnson Valley, CA.

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This was Jenna and my first national finals race.We were very excited on our trip from Hot Springs to Colorado Springs.  We got our first look at the track Friday morning.  It had a lot of table tops, uphill gap jumps, and big banked corners.  I knew this was going to be a fun course and the most difficult to figure out.  Friday afternoon we had a good qualifying run and were going to start 3rd out of 12 in the main race.  After qualifying it was time for series awards.  I was awarded first place for Dirt Riot Central Series SuperMod class for the second year in a row.  Jenna received second place in Dirt Riot Central Series stock trail.  We were hoping to keep this momentum going for a great weekend.

Saturday morning Jenna was the first race of the day.  The green flag dropped and she was off.  For such a challenging course she handled it well.  The highlight of her race was catching a team from the Central series which had beat her all season.  She was only 10 seconds behind them after the first lap and made the pass on the second lap finishing with a second place podium at the National Rampage.

After the pro UTV race, we were on the starting line knowing it was going to be a great race with very  competitve teams.  We pushed the car as hard as we could without being out of control.  We ran a clean race with zero pits, but could not catch the lead car.  At the same time could not be happier with getting a second place podium finish at the National Rampage.
This was our most successful season yet.  Competition was fierce from the first race til the final flag dropped at the National Rampage.  Through 6 races we had a podium finish in all events.  We had two first place wins and four second place finishes in the Super Mod class.  I won the Central Series and also 1st in National Championship points.

Jenna, at the age of 13,  ended her second Dirt Riot season with 4 podium finishes, 2nd place in the Central Series and 3rd place in National Championship points for stock class.

This was all made possible by great sponsors and some of the best products on the market.  Without your continued support, White Motorsports could not and would not exist.  It truly takes a team effort, and we sincerely appreciate you for being part of our team.

Knolls White Knuckles

As many of you know, our team is changing it up a bit this year. Tedo (Josh) and the team have been working hard on the 6100 truck. So in the meantime, Scott Terry and I (Lynsey Nielsen, team manager) decided to start racing this year in his CanAm Turbo X3. We decided to try out the BOR series which is Bonneville Offroad Racing. Our first race didn’t go to well. We started out great and were picking off cars like crazy and then we got a flat tire and had troubles changing it and ended up taking 8th place. We didn’t do as well as we wanted but we had a blast and we finished. We also got our starting “car dance” video on a famous Instagram site and got over 40,000 views which was hilarious, and awesome! We also learned the things we needed to change with the car, and as a team being that it was Scott’s first time driving in a race and my first time Co-Driving.

So, fast forward a few months later and we were ready for the Knolls White Knuckles 160 Mile Race. We headed out Thursday night and got pits all set up. The next morning we took my 97′ TJ, which we call Mailory due to looking like an old mail Jeep, out pre-running. We got the course all mapped out and then went to tech. We did some last minute bolt checks and were ready for our race the next morning.

We got up bright and early, 5:00 a.m., and got all suited up for the race. We started 7th in line out of 17, with a minute between each car. We did our ritual car dance to start the race off, and we took off and were going strong.

Lap One

Our plan for the race was to take it slow and steady the first lap and really get to know the course. We were doing great and were passing quite a few cars. We finished the first of four laps making great time. We were standing in fourth place physically and we weren’t sure what place as far as time went because the cars behind us hadn’t come through yet.

Lap Two

Lap two went really smooth the course was fast and fun. We got about 32 miles into that lap and our gas light came on. We were super nervous we weren’t going to make it back to the pits, but we made it on fumes. We came in to the pits and the team filled us up and shook down the car and sent us on our way. We were standing in 4th place time-wise and at this point we knew we needed to kick up the speed now that we were familiar with the course.

Lap Three

Our third lap was our fastest lap so far and the car was holding together really well. We were communicating really great and we knew we just had to continue with exactly what we were doing. We made it through that lap and pulled into the pits for a splash of gas just so we didn’t run in to the same problem as before, and that’s when our time-keepers told us we were physically in second and time wise in 3rd. They told us 2nd place had a 4 minute lead on us, and they were running consistent laps. We took off for our fourth lap and we really laid it down! Any chance we could get to push the limits and try to make up time, we did it! This lap was by far the most fun. We were flying through the whoops like mad-men, we were taking straight-aways at 89mph. We truly pushed it this lap. We finally came in to the pits and corssed the finish line with our team standing there cheering us on and we finished in 3rd place! We made up 2:48 minutes that lap but couldn’t quite catch up to second place.

We are extremely proud of our 3rd place accomplishment, and are amazed at the difference we made in one race. There is no way we could have done any of this without our amazing team though! Tedo, james and Chance worked a countless amount of nights getting the car together, and then they took such great care of us on the course. We honestly can say we have the best race family out there! We also want to thank all of our awesome sponsors. You guys help make our race dream a reality! We can’t tell you enough how appreciative we are, and how lucky we are to have you on our team. Thank you for all of your support and we can’t wait until The Wendover Return Race!

Tell next time,

Lynsey Nielsen and Scott Terry
Deviant Offroad

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Lucas Oil Utah Nationals and the “Big House” Crandon
Luke just returned from two race weekends back-to-back filled with carnage, fun, and great racing.

UTAH
Luke started the weekend off strong a 4th, 4th, and a 2nd in practice.
He was sitting in 4th in points coming into the weekend, so moving up in points was definitely on the radar. The car struggled a little during qualifying, but Luke still ended up 5th. He’d be able to make up positions in the race and still stay in the points battle.

The race started and Luke made his way up to 3rd. He fought a good race and maintained his 3rd place position until the last lap. After some contact from another driver putting Luke behind, he would finish 4th.Luke qualified 6th for Saturday’s race.

Carnage started right after the drop of the green flag during the 2nd day of racing. The car in front of Luke flipped right off the start and with nowhere to go, he crashed into that car. The steering got a little tweaked after the crash. Luke maintained 5th place until mid-race. After the mandatory yellow a car from 11th place jumped the start causing him to hit Luke and bounce into the wall and flip. Unfortunately, Luke got a black flag for that but made his way to finish 6th.

CRANDON

We were all excited coming into “The Big House” for a weekend of good racing on a fast track. Luke had hopes of coming out of the weekend with a win and a championship, but a few mishaps along the way would prevent that from happening.

The famous Crandon parade on Friday was full of energy and the best fans. Luke was able to meet with people and hand out hero cards and sponsor products all day. Everyone loved it! After spending time with the crowd, all of the race vehicles filed out back to the track to get ready for the race.
Luke felt comfortable coming into the race, knowing he just needed a good start. He was able to do just that! Luke pulled the hole shot and lead the race until lap 5. It looked as though he had the win in the bag. Mid-race he dropped back to 3rd place. Coming up on the white flag, Luke got taken out and would end up finishing 10th.

Sunday was the big day, the Crandon World Cup Race day! Luke got a decent start but got pushed around to 11th. With this being one of the biggest races of the year, Luke knew he needed to take a deep breath and focus – he needed to make it back up front. Focused and ready, he made passes every lap and was gaining positions left and right. Luke charged his way to 4th place and worked hard to move up to 3rd. Unfortunately, he ran out of time to get the podium, but still would finish 4th – which was a solid finish in this tough of a race!