2009 SNORE Battle at Primm Post Race Report

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TOTAL CHAOS racers invade the S.N.O.R.E. Battle at Primm event held Feb. 13th-15th at State Line Nevada. The event includes a unique format that divided vehicle classes into specific groups that competed both Saturday & Sunday on a 12 mile loop and incorporated the existing short course off road track built behind the Buffalo Bills Casino. Over 300 vehicle entries were signed up for the competition. Class 1450 drew a record 50+ entries to compete both days, marking it the single largest 1450 event to date for this growing new truck class. 1450 drivers were staged 3 wide off the line every 15 seconds and were required to complete 3 laps each day. While the Pro 7 Open class racers were required to complete 5 laps each day.

TC Pro driver Dan Vance competed in both the 7 Open Pro class and the 1450 sportsman event. Another Team TC racer Mike Koenig made the trek from Sacramento, Calif. with his co-driver Troy Robinson to compete in this highly touted event to see how they stacked up against the deep field of racers. The weather predictions turned out in the racers favor both days, and the event saw sunny skies on Saturday and had high clouds on Sunday.

Sat report: Racing against a field of high speed Class 7 Open veterans, Vance ended the morning with a 2nd place finish 1 minute behind the leader in class 7 Open out of 14 trucks. Starting triple wide in the 1450 event Koenig drew a better start than Vance. The racers had to navigate at sun set which had its visibility challenges combined with all the dust. Koenig Racing battled for 3 laps in the conga line as they relayed bumper taps between trucks to the front of the line to get them out of the way. Driveline vibration off the start line slowed the top speed. The GPS registered 73 mph when they hit the dike jump. Meanwhile DNF Racing driver Dan Vance sat in the back of the conga line on lap one and managed to battle with the field and finish 2nd place 1:28 behind the leader. Koenig Racing discovered a bent driveline and bad u joint after the first race and made repairs to replace those before Sunday’s event. Upon removing the ring and pinion during repairs, the team found that the pinion gear was missing a tooth. CHAOS “Minion” scavenged a 3rd member from the GFO Racing team, “THANKS guys”.

Sun report: DNF Racing lost the clutch during lap 2 in the 7 Open event trailing the leader and ended the day with a “DNF”, no pun intended. Wasting no time between races Vance and the DNF Racing team removed the transmission and swapped it out with a spare in the pits. Dan and Austin “Fish” Farner ran to Las Vegas where a 3.4 replacement clutch kit was purchased at NAPA. The crew inserted the clutch disc from the 3.4 kit into the Toyota 4.0 transmission and headed to start/finish in an attempt to salvage the class 1450 2nd place. With a better start on Sunday Vance hauled the mail and drove the rubber off the GOODYEAR MTR’s. After a brutal course DNFRACING.com driver Dan Vance finished the race on Sunday with a 2nd overall in the SNORE Battle at Primm. Meanwhile, Koenig Racing’s Troy Robinson took the wheel on day 2 while CHAOS Minion sat co dawg and started 4th row. While running 11th on lap 1, lap 2 they moved up to 7th until the screw that holds the ignition wire on the back of the switch fell out. With quick thinking from the driver and co driver they located the screw and got going again with about 7 minutes of downtime. They put the truck in survival mode thru the 5-6′ deep whoops and finished the day in 15th. The combined results for the weekend put Koenig Racing in 7th overall, just 3:20 out of 4th position.

DNF Racing would like to thank the following sponsors: TOTAL CHAOS Fabrication, TOYOTA T-TEN, GOODYEAR, K&N, Light Force, Doug Thorley, Fox Shox, LIFT Safety, PCI, PRG ,Currie, KMC, family and friends.

Koenig Racing would like to thank the following sponsors: TOTAL CHAOS Fabrication, Baja Bound Insurance Services, KING Shocks, Dezert People, Flamelab, ORW, and Red Line Oil. Extended thanks to, my mom and dad as well as the rest of the family that came out to support our first SNORE race. Most importantly thanks to our wives and family for supporting us. Also to the GFO crew for loaning us the 3rd member and the crew at 1477 for all the tools we borrowed that we will now bring to all the races.