​#7 - 2009 First IFS Ulra4 Car

After finishing my first KOH in 2008 and taking 1st, I was hooked, and I needed something faster than any solid axle moon buggy w/ air shocks. We were at off-road expo in Oct 2008 & I met Roy and Matt from ProAm. I was looking for someone that knew solid works to help me design my new IFS front end. They said no problem, but it was going to cost a lot of money. I laughed as they looked over my current car that I had built in 1 week & said I didn’t have a lot of money. It also needed to be done by the middle of Jan. and ready for Hammers. For some reason they agreed to try & help me. They did the a-arms, uprights and gave me measurements where the pivots & steering needed to be. This was all new to me & it was the middle of December before I received anything but was determined to get it done. WE DID IT! Took us 30 days, powder coated & everything. Let’s just say no one expected us to finish & all the shit talkers said IFS would never work in the rocks, but they were wrong. I could tell the first day I drove it we were going to change the game forever. I could hold it to the floor compared to the old solid axle… it was like riding a bull, “how long can you ride”. KOH 2009, I took the green flag & passed everyone like they were parked. Then she quit moving, I had broken the input shaft in the trans. After getting towed in we thought it would be a good idea to change it & continue on knowing we would be DQD for outside assistance, but we wanted to know how good it worked! A couple hours later we were moving through the pace again & finished 9th w/ a whole lot of drama after using a competitor for traction in sledge which shortly after became a new rule! We might have pissed some people off, others say we stole the show becoming the talk of hammer town, but all I gave a shit about was that it worked. Screw the shit talkers, we just changed the future of KOH. I couldn’t imagine what we could have built if we actually had money & more than 30 days. One of my favorite races was Glen Helen. It was a motocross track w, Lucas short course & mountain desert 3-4 miles long. It was badass and I remember driving through cars leading & lapping the field on a mission. I blew a corner in the dirt & rolled down the mountain, landing on my wheels in oak brush so deep the car wouldn’t drive up. So, I kept going down, mowing shit over w/ zero visibility hoping to get back in the race. Next thing you know im hanging upside down trapped in my car trying to radio but had no comms. 5 to 10 min later it got quiet, they finally realized I was missing. I could hear people screaming my name, it was like marco polo. After what felt like forever winching out of the bottom of the canyon, I made it to the top & ready to race. Two laps down… let’s just say it was a fuckin blast! I made it back to the lead lap & finished in the top ten. She was a mean machine.