The Mint 400 is known as “The Great American Off-Road Race”. We took our car and put it up to the test with over 350 race teams of all classes. From our last race at KOH our team was ready to hammer down and eat up a podium finish. This was our first Mint400 and our car turned many heads on how clean and unique it was compared to the others in the Best In The Desert division.
Come race day we hammered down. Making quick passes and gaining positions. Lap one was a test to see what this race had in store for us and the abuse for the car. Mile 40 we ran into mechanical problems that set us back on the sidelines for a while.
Power steering Lines came loose and we lost steering. Here we also noticed that our bump stops have been beaten up in the front. but with repairs made we were back at it to get to the pits and assess the damages. In the pits we also noticed the batter had ripped off the bracket causing it to beat up the tub and fender. this took some time in the pits to fix along with checking over the car.
Lap two we were pushing hard to gain back our lost positions and keep the car alive. We had to do a weld job on the bump stops due to them ripping off the frame, along with welding a link bolt that has been wallowed out. we lost all shock fluid in our coilover due to a bent shaft. this hurt our speed quite a bit seeing we were riding on bumpstops for a good majority of lap 2. The last 30 - 40 miles, our transmission temps started to rise and CJ noticed the cooling fan wasn't working. If we put pressure on the fan motor it would kick on enough to keep out temps down. Aside from these damages We crossed the finish line with an unofficial 5th place and an official 4th place for our class!
We are pumped for the team and all who helps us get across the finish line!