BITD: Syko Racing Nevada 1000 summary

We finished our first 1000 mile race in the new Pro Truck of Syko Racing that runs on Bilstein shocks, lit by Hella lights and cleaned by Del Mar Chevron!

You can tell by the first line that we did not get first place. We finished in 6th place for the 1000 mile long race.

We had AGAIN serious belt problems on day one that severely hurt our chances to finish in first place. Even though our belts came off three times we still managed to finish in 5th place. The format of this race had the top 20 truck finishers starting in their finishing order and unfortunately we finished in the 21st position. This meant that four of our competitors started in the top 20 cars and we had to start first in our class. This meant that we were about the 35 vehicle off the start line. Huge advantage to the four guys ahead of us.

This race was so dusty that it was close to impossible to pass any vehicle in front of you. So, we were only as fast as the vehicle in front of us. And, let me tell you, that some of those trucks drivers in front of us were SLOW! This in many respects was our race story. Any down time put us behind slower vehicles and thus our only hope was for the drivers of the other vehicles to make a mistake or for their vehicle to break, so that we could pass them.

I think our day three position of 2nd in our class and 10th overall speaks volumes for the fortunes of the other drivers and their vehicle reliability. We were held back from a much higher position by the slow driving of three vehicles that were in front of us for at least 150 miles.

Our Crew did a fabulous job of pitting us for the three days of racing and for prepping the truck during our one hour of allowed time after each race day. Thanks to the following people:

Duane Hammes
Jim Hammes
Mark Hammes
Justin
Vinny Pederson
Bren
Mike Lesle
Byron Rexwinkle

Also, thanks to the Dave Westhem crew for assisting us on day one and providing us with tools and parts to help prep our truck that first night and to the Ace Motorsports (my brother Marc Stein's team) guys who assisted the team when they could at the various pit stops.

The Syko racing guys were a blast to hang out with for the four nights of racing and playing. We visited some really happening towns during our tour of Nevada. Tonopah is a must for your vacation schedule. (ha)

After racing for day one, we replaced the following parts during our one hour of repair time:
Carburetor
Power Steering pump
Parker pumper filters
Tires and wheels
All Belts

After racing on day two we replace the following:
Tires and Wheels
Drive Shaft

And of course after day three of racing we replaced water for alcohol at the Palms hotel!

On day one of racing we had the following truck problems:
power steering belt came off twice
alternator belt came off once

On day two of racing we had the following truck problems:
replace defective drive shaft
replace two flat tires

On day three of racing we had ZERO problems!

So, we are finished with the first of two planned 1000 mile races. What a great time and the truck is a lot of fun to drive and the Syko racing crew are great people. The best line of the race belongs to my roommate; Bren, who told me that "pain is nothing but weakness leaving my body". This philosophy really helped me put things in perspective. Thanks Bren.

I hope that I am so lucky to have the same group of people help my in future races. We are all winners for the effort that we put out. Syko crew is NUMBER ONE in my book!

Next race is the Henderson Terrible 250 on July 13th. See you at the races!

-Dave Sykes