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From the passenger seat

Paul S

NAXJA Member #103
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can’t pull myself out of the KOH slump, I’m even more unfocused than usual this week.

Reflecting on the past week my thoughts go to two aspects of the race:
1) The Race… I keep running it over & over in my head.
2) The Team… I’m blown away by what a great team we had.

As co-dog I find it difficult to put my thanks in order, as I’m not sure to what degree I was crew/racer, guess it’s a bit of both.

Huge thanks of course go out to those that prepped the car, worked the pits, the radio relay, etc…
When the adrenaline kicks in it makes a huge difference in all around comfort & confidence (especially from a safety standpoint) to know that everything is taken care of & you have only to focus on the race ahead.

I owe a special thanks to Richard this year. A couple of months after KOH 08 I told him that he might want to consider a new co-dog of 09, someone that had more time than I to invest in the race, IIRC Richard’s response was something like ‘hell no, we’re in it together’, needless to say, I’m happy that he made that decision, as this years race was such a different experience from the last.
- Last years race was very rewording & ‘fun’. We went into it as less than underdogs, with a little old Cherokee & no racing experience, yet we came out on top with a 7th place finish. For me 08 was an easy race. Other than our break on Jack it was almost relaxing.
- While we didn’t fare as well in 09, I found it to be much more rewarding. It was over twice as long & had a much higher attrition rate than 08.
Just a few miles before checkpoint 1 we realized that to simply finish this race would be an achievement.
Shortly after passing checkpoint 1 & after swapping shocks we slowed it down a bit & tried to find the sweet spot, but there really was no sweet spot to be had. Between the ridiculous whoops & bottlenecks, to the sheer length of the race, we had really to work hard for every bit of it.

Probably our stupidest moment in the race was when we flopped on Aftershock. The flop itself wasn’t stupid' it was that we took 10 minutes to winch it right, then spooled-up the winchline to ship shape, then spent another 10 minutes not making it up that section, only to resort to the winch again. This wouldn’t be a thing on a trail run, but with 6 or 7 racers involved in the bottleneck & all looking for a line at the same time, it wasn’t our brightest move.

One of the funnier moments in the race was at the Sledge plaque. We gave the normal line a few tries with no luck as a few guys in the crowed were telling us that everyone was winching it & we would too. I turned to Richard with probably just a little desperation in my voice & said I thought we could try the right line, to which Richard quickly replied in a very thoughtful tone “sorry Paul, I think we’re going to have to winch it”. You’d have to know how I felt to get it, which Richard did.

I’d have to say that the race kicked our a**es, at least mine. 5 days later my neck is tweaked, my back hurts & my shoulder hurts even more, but I’ve got a big smile on my face.

Paul
 
As a spectator and minor helper out there, you guys were fun to watch, humble and appreciative.

You did soooo much more right than you did wrong.

Thanks for the memories of a lifetime.

KH
 
Great Job Paul, first class co-dog all the way!


Paul, just before the race:
DSC_0289.jpg
 
I may have it. I saw an extra stainless cup on the table.......
 
Richard, get Paul to sign it and I'll give you $20 for it......... :worship:
 
So Paul, after riding in your rig I was wondering how it stacks up to the other KOH rigs in the rough stuff?
 
So Paul, after riding in your rig I was wondering how it stacks up to the other KOH rigs in the rough stuff?

The only KOH car that I've been in is Gaut's, so I have little idea.
I'm guessing that it's better than a lot, but not nearly as good as some.

Interestingly enough, looking at the split times for the first 23 miles (all desert), the fastest guys (Jason & Randy) were about 20 minutes faster than us (pretty substantial), while the 2 F-Toys were only 4 minutes slower than us.
This tells me that for all our work on shock tunning & even the storker, were still in the middle of the pack with a long way to go to catch the fastest guys.

Paul
 
One of the funnier moments in the race was at the Sledge plaque. We gave the normal line a few tries with no luck as a few guys in the crowed were telling us that everyone was winching it & we would too. I turned to Richard with probably just a little desperation in my voice & said I thought we could try the right line, to which Richard quickly replied in a very thoughtful tone “sorry Paul, I think we’re going to have to winch it”. You’d have to know how I felt to get it, which Richard did.

Paul

Looks like Steve Bennett shot that moment:

IMG_0197.jpg


IMG_0200.jpg


IMG_0202.jpg


IMG_0206.jpg


I don't know Steve but he shot some good stuff, more here:
http://www.stevebennettdesigns.com/KOH09/index_main.html
 
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