The Best in the Desert Racing Association has been running the "Vegas to Reno" race since 1996 and to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of "The Longest Off-Road Race in the United States", they decided to make it even longer! Or, as they liked to call it, Vegas to Reno "The Long Way". Starting near the town of Caliente, NV, the race was broken down into a 2 day event with the first day ending in the town of Tonopah, NV and the second in Dayton, NV. In all, racers got to cover over 640 miles wide open desert, mountain ranges, knee deep silt beds and of course, rocks and all under the sweltering desert sun. For this 2016 race, Cindy and I got a chance to help pit for our good friend Mel Wade and get him across the finish line once again. Here are a few pics the fun we had, I hope you enjoy 
We weren't able to make it out for the first half of the race so we got a super early start for the second half and met up with them out in Tonopah. Here's a shot of us packed up and ready to go.
Watching the sun rise as we made our way down to Tonopah.
Down in Tonopah and ready to get this going! Here's a shot from the Day 2 starting line.
And of course, here's a shot of EVO1 getting ready to line up.
Instead of having everyone start Day 2 based on their class, the race was designed to have everyone continue on in the order they cross the Day 1 finish line. Being that Mel had done so well the day before, he was way up in the forward half of the pack and mixed in with UTV's and trophy trucks.
The first pit stop for Day 2 was Pit 7 and after racing up to it ourselves, we were setup and ready for EVO1 to pull in.
Here's EVO1 coming in hot and fast.
Like clockwork, Russ and I topping off EVO1.
Looking for the source of smoke coming out from under the hood, we discovered a broken fuel line.
When you're running a skeleton crew, sometimes the guy with the most knowledge on how to fix things is the guy behind the wheel. Here's a shot of Mel working on the broken fuel line.
Everyone else continuing to do our visual inspection of EVO1.
Mission control, we have a problem!
Just before Mel pulled into the pit, he let us know that his Jeep was all over the place and thought that maybe he had a broken front track bar or missing a link. He also wanted us to give the rear coil overs a look as they felt like they were shot. As we would come to find, the EVO lever frame had broken in 2 different spots. As a reminder, this frame was originally designed to support single coil overs, it has since been adapted to accommodate bypass shocks and now 3.0's that are valved like a trophy truck and only really start to feel nice at about 60 MPH. Of course, the frame has never been updated to support the extra stresses and after years of abuse, it finally let Mel know it wasn't happy. Fortunately, I had my trusty little welder with me and even had some angle iron on hand. Unfortunately, I had been doing some welding at home and didn't pack up my hood and gloves. Here's a shot of John doing his best to weld things up using Mechanix gloves, a hat and doubling up sunglasses.
Not that it needs to be said but welding next to the gas tank overflow hose and sand soaked with said gas is pretty much a recipe for disaster. With the driver side break welded up, we moved onto the passenger side but didn't get far before we were putting out a fire. Here's a shot that Cindy took at the moment the gas ignited, a moment before John rolled away and I ran in with a fire extinguisher.
All fixed up or at least to the best of our ability and getting ready to leave the pit.
And they're off!
Further up the race course, out at pit 8 and with Greg waving EVO1 in.
Being that I just happened to have a welder on hand and wasn't really planning on using it, the battery in it wasn't fully charged and we weren't able to finish up the welding job back at pit 7. Pressed for time and wanting to get back out on the course, Mel made the call to push on and look at the break again at the next pit. As expected, the passenger side welds didn't hold up and Colin spent some time welding it up here.
All patched up and ready to race!
Greg topping off EVO1
Time to get moving!
And then there was silence. Just as EVO1 rolled into Pit 9, the motor cut out all on its own and Mel couldn't get it started again.
Just as Mel was rolling up to the starting line, his engine died and almost had to pull out when he got the engine started again and just in the nick of time. At pit one, we had all assumed the problem was with the fuel line that Mel ended up fixing but he'd still been having problems throughout the race. A quick check showed that the fuel pump was working and delivering fuel at a good pressure and so the problem had to be elsewhere.
With a stroke of luck, Mel found a blown fuse connecting the fuel pump relay to the ECU. After replacing it, EVO1 fired up and was ready to leave the pit.
Heading out!
Or, so we thought. Mel didn't even make it out of the pit before his engine quit again. Fortunately for him, the race official there was nice enough to give him a tow back to where we were setup and without penalty. Being that he was still popping fuses, there had to be a short somewhere. Here is Mel trying to dig through a rats nest of wires trying to track down the source of the short while Greg keeps him cool.
With only 7 minutes before the pit was going to shut down, Mel somehow got EVO1 fired up and running again. While he never did find the short, I think the digging through the wires move it to a point where it was in the clear. Hopefully it'll stay that way. Getting ready to roll again.
With luck on his side, it was on his way out again!
EVO1 pulling into Pit 10.
Just gas please! With things running much better, all Mel wanted was a splash of gas.
And he's off!
EVO1 coming in to Pit 11
Topping off the tank and giving EVO1 a quick visual.
Getting ready to head out.
Looking good and on his way again.
Cindy and I decided to skip pit 12 where Russ and Jarred were already setup and waiting and made our way up to Pit 13 with Lisa and John.
On the radio, we learned that EVO1 had lost a passenger side lower control arm and so we went to work looking for a spare that was supposed to be packed in the chase truck. Not finding it, we all turned to RubiCAT, who just so happens to be running the same EVO MFG high clearance long arm that's on EVO1 and got to work pulling off one of her.
We now have a spare!
And, just in the nick of time. Here comes EVO1.
Time to install the transplant.
With the sun setting, additional light would be needed for the rest of the race and a little adjusting was in order.
Wouldn't you know it! Unfortunately, RubiCAT's control arm was set too short for EVO1 and so Mel decided to just finish up the race with 3 links.
And he's off into the sunset and toward the finish line!
WOOHOO!! Made it to the finish line - A BIG Congrats to Mel! 1st in class and 100th overall. :thumb:
All loaded up and ready to give EVO1 some well needed R&R.
Before heading home, Mel, Lisa and the EVO crew stopped by to visit Camp WAYALIFE.
As luck would have it, one of the chase trucks fried a carrier bearing the day before and so we offered up our garage to help get a new one installed.
And that my friends is how the 2016 Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno the Long Way Race went for us! Once again, A BIG Congrats to Mel for taking 1st in the 4400 class and for coming in 100th overall. Quite the accomplishment :thumb:
We weren't able to make it out for the first half of the race so we got a super early start for the second half and met up with them out in Tonopah. Here's a shot of us packed up and ready to go.
Watching the sun rise as we made our way down to Tonopah.
Down in Tonopah and ready to get this going! Here's a shot from the Day 2 starting line.
And of course, here's a shot of EVO1 getting ready to line up.
Instead of having everyone start Day 2 based on their class, the race was designed to have everyone continue on in the order they cross the Day 1 finish line. Being that Mel had done so well the day before, he was way up in the forward half of the pack and mixed in with UTV's and trophy trucks.
The first pit stop for Day 2 was Pit 7 and after racing up to it ourselves, we were setup and ready for EVO1 to pull in.
Here's EVO1 coming in hot and fast.
Like clockwork, Russ and I topping off EVO1.
Looking for the source of smoke coming out from under the hood, we discovered a broken fuel line.
When you're running a skeleton crew, sometimes the guy with the most knowledge on how to fix things is the guy behind the wheel. Here's a shot of Mel working on the broken fuel line.
Everyone else continuing to do our visual inspection of EVO1.
Mission control, we have a problem!
Just before Mel pulled into the pit, he let us know that his Jeep was all over the place and thought that maybe he had a broken front track bar or missing a link. He also wanted us to give the rear coil overs a look as they felt like they were shot. As we would come to find, the EVO lever frame had broken in 2 different spots. As a reminder, this frame was originally designed to support single coil overs, it has since been adapted to accommodate bypass shocks and now 3.0's that are valved like a trophy truck and only really start to feel nice at about 60 MPH. Of course, the frame has never been updated to support the extra stresses and after years of abuse, it finally let Mel know it wasn't happy. Fortunately, I had my trusty little welder with me and even had some angle iron on hand. Unfortunately, I had been doing some welding at home and didn't pack up my hood and gloves. Here's a shot of John doing his best to weld things up using Mechanix gloves, a hat and doubling up sunglasses.
Not that it needs to be said but welding next to the gas tank overflow hose and sand soaked with said gas is pretty much a recipe for disaster. With the driver side break welded up, we moved onto the passenger side but didn't get far before we were putting out a fire. Here's a shot that Cindy took at the moment the gas ignited, a moment before John rolled away and I ran in with a fire extinguisher.
All fixed up or at least to the best of our ability and getting ready to leave the pit.
And they're off!
Further up the race course, out at pit 8 and with Greg waving EVO1 in.
Being that I just happened to have a welder on hand and wasn't really planning on using it, the battery in it wasn't fully charged and we weren't able to finish up the welding job back at pit 7. Pressed for time and wanting to get back out on the course, Mel made the call to push on and look at the break again at the next pit. As expected, the passenger side welds didn't hold up and Colin spent some time welding it up here.
All patched up and ready to race!
Greg topping off EVO1
Time to get moving!
And then there was silence. Just as EVO1 rolled into Pit 9, the motor cut out all on its own and Mel couldn't get it started again.
Just as Mel was rolling up to the starting line, his engine died and almost had to pull out when he got the engine started again and just in the nick of time. At pit one, we had all assumed the problem was with the fuel line that Mel ended up fixing but he'd still been having problems throughout the race. A quick check showed that the fuel pump was working and delivering fuel at a good pressure and so the problem had to be elsewhere.
With a stroke of luck, Mel found a blown fuse connecting the fuel pump relay to the ECU. After replacing it, EVO1 fired up and was ready to leave the pit.
Heading out!
Or, so we thought. Mel didn't even make it out of the pit before his engine quit again. Fortunately for him, the race official there was nice enough to give him a tow back to where we were setup and without penalty. Being that he was still popping fuses, there had to be a short somewhere. Here is Mel trying to dig through a rats nest of wires trying to track down the source of the short while Greg keeps him cool.
With only 7 minutes before the pit was going to shut down, Mel somehow got EVO1 fired up and running again. While he never did find the short, I think the digging through the wires move it to a point where it was in the clear. Hopefully it'll stay that way. Getting ready to roll again.
With luck on his side, it was on his way out again!
EVO1 pulling into Pit 10.
Just gas please! With things running much better, all Mel wanted was a splash of gas.
And he's off!
EVO1 coming in to Pit 11
Topping off the tank and giving EVO1 a quick visual.
Getting ready to head out.
Looking good and on his way again.
Cindy and I decided to skip pit 12 where Russ and Jarred were already setup and waiting and made our way up to Pit 13 with Lisa and John.
On the radio, we learned that EVO1 had lost a passenger side lower control arm and so we went to work looking for a spare that was supposed to be packed in the chase truck. Not finding it, we all turned to RubiCAT, who just so happens to be running the same EVO MFG high clearance long arm that's on EVO1 and got to work pulling off one of her.
We now have a spare!
And, just in the nick of time. Here comes EVO1.
Time to install the transplant.
With the sun setting, additional light would be needed for the rest of the race and a little adjusting was in order.
Wouldn't you know it! Unfortunately, RubiCAT's control arm was set too short for EVO1 and so Mel decided to just finish up the race with 3 links.
And he's off into the sunset and toward the finish line!
WOOHOO!! Made it to the finish line - A BIG Congrats to Mel! 1st in class and 100th overall. :thumb:
All loaded up and ready to give EVO1 some well needed R&R.
Before heading home, Mel, Lisa and the EVO crew stopped by to visit Camp WAYALIFE.
As luck would have it, one of the chase trucks fried a carrier bearing the day before and so we offered up our garage to help get a new one installed.
And that my friends is how the 2016 Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno the Long Way Race went for us! Once again, A BIG Congrats to Mel for taking 1st in the 4400 class and for coming in 100th overall. Quite the accomplishment :thumb:
