WOW!!! i'm impressed!!! THAT is freakin' awesome. I love KOH.
just curious though, did you get heckled before the race? and what was the reaction after the race. I am just wondering because i took my off road enthusiast,ex-pre-runner racer buddy/co-worker out last night on a run and he was thoroughly impressed with my H3s performance. He was in a state of disbelief for a good while. At work, all the guys pick on me for my vehicle choice so it was good to show what it could do in stock form.
Not really, I asked people not to bump and rub into me and they all agreed that they didn't want to either. We had a "reverse shotgun start" where everyone lined up side by side but in reverse, (and oriented rearward) to try to make it so the big horsepower rigs couldn't be guaranteed the race right off the bat. Well I chose the far end of the line and started with my wheels already turned so I could turn around really fast. I got turned around right after the gunshot start, slammed er in "D" and gunned it. Turns out I got the holeshot which I was kind of surprised about. After that it was history, I was lapping people by the 2nd lap. I never got passed.
After the race was over at least half the crowd came up to shake my hand and tell me they were impressed with how smooth the H3 soaked up the course. "Cadillac" was refferenced several times ha.
Yes, I'm curious too. What kind of rigs did u go up against?
I was put in the stock class of course, running with me was a few wranglers, a Toyota pickup or two, a decently modified XJ Cherokee (who broke a track bar bolt and DNF) a pair of full-size chevys, a Suzuki samurai, a Mazda 6 that was previously involved in a rollover (no joke, but they said that because he couldn't do the rock section that he would have had to do 2X the desert laps as the rest of us, but he also DNF) and my heaviest competition was a pretty decently modified 1st gen 4runner. Captain Rob Flandro's if you know his name in the world of these sports. But regardless I still ended up lapping him.
There was an unlimited class too, which are the videos on my Instagram. (I only videoed friends, there were a bunch more buggies that I didn't get recorded.
But everyone said that if I had raced in the unlimited class (same course) I would have likely won it too. Next year I will probably be in the unlimited class because of winning the stock class.
They were going to do a 3rd heat with the combined winners from each class and race them again, but with an injury in each class (broken hand in stock class, broken rib in unlimited class, both due to rollovers) they decided to not do a 3rd race.
I am probably gloating more than I should be but it was a really awesome experience and it was my first time doing anything like that.
We didn't want to stand on the roof of my H3 so that's why my victory picture is on the roof of the unlimited class winners' jeep.
I did suffer some minor trail damage, I snapped the shaft of my front driver's shock around lap 6 (that's when I started hearing the clunking anyways, these crappy Rancho 9000 shocks didn't feel any different with it being snapped or not. Everything on my H3 is under a no-questions asked 3 year warranty so it should be no problem getting it replaced. Too bad it is just with another crappy 9000. All the oil is from the shock. With only 40k miles on my H3, it doesn't have any fluid leaks ha.
