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| Cedar City, UT - May 2000 | Short Cuts | ||||
| by: Joshua Lowenstein |
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| Tracy hoists a trashed driveshaft in Farmington. Joshua Lowenstein |
While covering the first ARCA event in Farmington, NM, I witnessed a great example of teamwork, desire, and driving skill.
One of the best testaments to true teamwork was when a beat-to-crap FJ40 attempted the now-famous Stage 6 of Trail 2. With only five minutes remaining and the hardest part of the stage still to negotiate, the FJ twisted and spit out the rear drive shaft. Instead of throwing in the towel, these two guys dug out tools and a spare drive shaft and dove under their vehicle. In just over 2 minutes, with the crowd cheering their efforts, this team installed a spare rear driveshaft started back up the wall. With just under 3 minutes to spare the team had just begun to crawl the remainder of the stage when a second disaster struck, BANG!!!!
The exhilarated crowd let out a gigantic sigh of disappointment when the spotter yelled out, "Broken rear axle shaft".
"Long side or short?" queried the driver.
"Long side" was the reply.
"How much time left?" the hopeful driver asked the stage judge.
"90 Seconds" was the reply.
They said to the crowd, "Don't have the long side here, it's in the tow wagon."
With a defiant hoist of the broken driveshaft, a huge cheer burst from the crowd.
That never-say-die attitude gave me the feeling that, for these guys, this was a very minor setback.
Although they were able to replace the broken shaft before their turn at Stage 7, it did not do much to improve the 45th place finish for that event.
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| Tracy flashes a trademark smile -- turtled again. Joshua Lowenstein |
Phoenix, AZ
For the team of Tracy Jordan and Rob Bonny, the Phoenix event, in March 2000, proved to be far better for breaking into the top ten. Though they did not have the greatest first day, amassing 174 points, their second day on proved that they were contenders. Upgrading to a rear Dana 60 axle and a heavy -duty rear driveshaft kept their FJ40 together. With a second-day score of only 26, the team of Jordan/Bonny turned in the eighth best score on the #1 trail. They finished 21st for the Arizona ARCA competition.
Disaster...
After establishing a solid climb up the "king-of-the-rocks" ladder, these teammates could not have imagined what would happen next. Only 21 days before the Cedar City event, disaster struck.
While wheeling rocks near their Phoenix homes, the FJ40's carb caught fire and the flames quickly spread to the Rhino lining. They emptied two entire fire extinguishers in vain, but with the fuel cell on fire, the only thing to do was watch it burn. It was a total loss.
Rising from the Flames...
With that same never-say-die attitude they demonstrated in Farmington, these two set to work. With the help of fellow ARCA competitors Randy Ellis (Rob's boss), Dave Gore (owner of Renagade Fabrication), and Don Robbins, they began a 18-21 hour a day quest to see if a new and very much improved rig could be built in time for the Cedar City, Utah event.
Rob is a welder/fabricator for 4 Wheel Supply in Phoenix and Tracy does asphalt and concrete work. With a little less than 400 man-hours and only three weeks before the event, these two 'highly motivated individuals' built a rig that was completely untested until the day of competition. They had some help from the wiring and engine performance specialists of Finish Line Racing who installed the complete injection system and Painless wiring harness.
Cedar City, UT Day One
They began day one with a respectable 72 points accrued from the first stages of Trail 2. They were having a pretty good day, and doing well on the first climb of Stage 4... until Rob Bonny, the spotter, noticed that a sheared centering pin had allowed the rear axle to shift on the spring. With the passenger side tire driving under the FJ, the tire was binding against the body tubing. Before they noticed what had happened the 'rear steer' effect forced the rig to within inches of the edge of the rock face they were trying to cling to.
With some quick thinking, Rob told Tracy to stop. Rob ran winch cable up and through the roll cage, down and around the rear axle Tracy then winched the axle straight and began to climb the rock ledge directly in front of him.
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| Upside-down in a Cruiser-sized slot. Joshua Lowenstein |
No sooner than he let out the clutch, the Cruiser lurched up the rock face, stayed air-born for a split second, then came down at a 50-degree off-camber angle. It landed on the two driver's side 42"tires, bounced up again, then completely flipped upside down, flying through the air and wedging itself in the V shaped rocks 10 feet below!
With Tracy hanging upside down, the ARCA stage judge yelled "DRIVER OK?" Tracy responded instantly "YEAH I'm OK".
Within minutes, fellow competitor Charlie Copsey helped right the down-side-up FJ40 with his winch. The only significant damage to the rig was 4 small dents at the top of the cage -- it never hit anything else along the way -- and the rear long-slip driveshaft spun the shaft/yoke welds.
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| Tracy rolls through Stage 4 of Course 1 -- literally. Joshua Lowenstein |
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| Not to be upstaged, Walker Evans follows suit. Ian Liljeblad |
Don Robbins, who lent shop space to Tracy for the world's fastest buildup, loaned his front driveshaft slip spline to Tracy so that he could drive out to his trailer. Tracy and Rob were just a spring center pin and a drive shaft weld away from being ready for day two. Tracy finished day one with a respectable 112, in spite of this dramatic failure on his last stage.
Cedar City, UT Day Two
Tracy and Rob started out on fire (thankfully, not in the literal sense) with a zero scores of score for Stage 1 and two for Stage 2. Next was the stage that put the MK1 Scorpion on its lid the day before. Stage 3 wound up and through a short slot of solid rock only to drop at the foot of a 12-foot high wall. Ten feet past the top of this wall, the final gates marked the exit for this stage.
Tracy easily crawled the first section of Stage 3, and pulled up to the bottom of The Wall with 10 minutes still left on his time. With Rob spotting and trying to find the "Line," Tracy began to slowly climb the face, several times lifting a tire 2-3 feet off the surface of the wall. While trying the face for his third or fou:w rth time, Tracy tried giving it a little bump on the gas pedal.
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| After the two rollovers in Cedar City, this is what Tracy's ARCA sticker read: American Roll Crawler Association Joshua Lowenstein |
With a blip of the throttle and a gasp of the crowd Tracy, started to go over backwards, this time in far slower motion than the wild fast-forward flip of the day before. After a soft landing on the truck's lid, Tracy quickly released himself from his safety belt and he and Rob tried to flip the rig upright. They got the Cruiser back on its side, but they were done with this stage.
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| Tracy rolls again in Stage 3 of Course 2. Joshua Lowenstein |
Several spectators and other drivers helped push the rig back onto its wheels. The roll cost the FJ40 team 40 points for the stage, but Tracy and Rob went on to finish the day with a 26, after they turned in their winch tokens. This brought their 2-day total to 101 and helped lock up a ninth place finish.
While I was talking with Tracy and Rob after the final scores were announced, they candidly answered a few questions for 4x4Wire.
Interview
4x4Wire: What was different this time from other ARCA events for you?
| 1967 Toyota Land Cruiser Specifications |
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Body Narrowed 8" Frame OE but customized for heavy-duty use Engine 350 TBI Chevy Van Painless Harness (installed by Finish Line Racing of Phoenix AZ) Transmission SM 420 (right out of the scrap yard) Stock TLC transfer case Long-slip driveshafts front and rear Custom-narrowed Dana 60 axles with 7.17 gears and ARBs front and rear Full hydraulic steering system with Sniper-style rotary valve 2.5"-lift Man-a-Fre front springs SUA 4"-lift Man-a-Fre rear springs with a 5" longer main leaf and second leaf SUA 16.5" wheels with tubes and tires screwed to the wheels. 42" Super Swampers TSL tires |
Rob: At both Farmington and Phoenix, no one paid any attention to our rig, but when we arrived in Cedar City with our newly built 8"-narrowed FJ40, many eyes were checking it out. I woke up at two in the morning and looked out the hotel window to find people shooting photos of our rig. I was kind of scared at that point.
4x4Wire: How did you get this new rig done so fast?
Rob: It was with heart from the start, by two highly motivated people. We wanted to thank my girlfriend Sonja for not killing us while we worked 21-23 hours a day building the rig for three weeks.
4x4Wire: Having had two rollovers in two days, did you think you had a shot a breaking into the top ten?
Tracy: You are kidding, right? We knew we were doing well, but ninth place? Never!!
4x4Wire: What are you going to change, if anything, for the Vernal, UT ARCA?
Rob: Finish triangulating the cage and a few tweaks.
4x4Wire: Was any part of the first FJ salvageable after the fire?
Rob: Just the front axle housing.
4x4Wire Note: Tracy is on the quiet side.
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