Heartland Challenge, IOWA
Heartland challenge was bitter sweet
By Cody Miller
Track had lots of rain so dust was not an issue. Friday night for the SxS race, Hunter and I were both lined up on the outside. When we rounded the first corner, Hunter was about 10th and I was about 5th. We quickly started making passes. About an hour in we were sitting first and second. Unfortunately it would be short lived, as I pulled into the pits the following lap and was unable to continue. Hunter held the lead for another lap, and pulled in to check the car over the following lap when we discovered one of the rear cv joints was smoking. We decided to change the axle. After that, he worked his way back into 5th place when he again started having issues with torn cv boots. He decided to pit and inspect the car for problems and then was off again. but by the end of the race he worked his way back up to 9th. After reviewing the lap times, Hunter and I were running a little too fast for a 4hour endurance race.
The 10 hour quad race was the following day. Hunter and I ran a two man team in the series challenge class. I started about 5-6 and immediately made my way into second overall behind the Yamaha team of Walker Fowler, Johnny Gallagher, and Cole Richardson. On the second lap, I clipped a downed tree and had a small crash. After remounting, I handed the bike off to hunter on lap 5, with us sitting in 3rd place. At the end of hunters hour long session he had moved us into 1st with a few minute lead. From here we set a smooth pace and stretched our lead out to about 14 minutes on average. We kept the Yamaha team in sight most of the day, but lost some ground when night time came. When the checkered flag flew, we won the series challenge class and finished 2nd overall