OKC Rebuilding Together Construction Derby

Sunday, October 11. 2009

Several Coasters took a road trip to OKC this past Sunday to attend and participate in the Rebuilding Together Construction Derby. This was part of our Weekend Of Gravity Racing In Oklahoma. This race was different from others as it required a 6 person team consisting of a driver, 4 pushers and 2 recovery people. The pushers have a 15 foot run to push and get the racer rolling down the hill. Once at the bottom the retrievers would catch the racer and push it up to the scales. This type of race gets more people involved and with the pushers has a huge effect on how well the racer does. As a group we had 3 racers competing. Wess and his racer Transcendence, Thad in Second Wind and me driving Thad's Radio Flyer. For being the first time at this event and this type of race the Coasters did an excellent job. It didn't take the Pushers long to perfect their method and to push me and the Radio Flyer (aka "the Wittle Wed Wagon") to a 2nd place win in the amateur category. The Radio Flyer also took the "Best Exemplifies RT Mission" award. Thad competed in the Pro class and got some good runs in but was eliminated before the finals. Wess after one practice run and a time trial run had an axle break. He and Dave hauled the racer over to the Ozarka teams shop where they were able to weld it back together. After returning with the fixed wheel he unfortunately broke the steering rod and wasn't able to compete. Lucky for Wess though his racer looks fast even when sitting still.
The racers weren't the only thing breaking down. We had a couple of Pushers with calf and knee injuries. Talk about "taking one for the team"!
Thanks to Thad for getting us involved, the pushers for their hard work, the girls (aka "speed Bumps") at the bottom of the hill, Randy's Mom & Barbara for the photos and video and everyone that came down to cheer us on. Also thanks to the companies in OKC who sponsored us.... Geo Testing and AAAA Wrecker.

OKC's News 9 story and photos here.

Photo Slideshow here.

Video...

The derby has a car + driver weight limit of 500lbs. We ran the wagon at a weight of 495lbs. I took the GPS unit with me on a couple of the runs in the wagon and the fastest speed was 26.4mph. I think Thad was weighing in the 480s. Not for sure of his speed.

Posted by Randy in Gravity Racing at 22:00 | Comments (8) | Trackbacks (0)

937 hits

Defined tags for this entry: event, gravity race, show, video

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Awesome time! I didnt make it to Saturday's racing but my son and I attended the construction derby in OKC, we arrived at 8:30am and made it to the OKC memorial, which was very moving. About 9am everyone started showing up and the Race was on! I was on the Radio Flyer push crew and during the push start for the Time Trial I popped something in my left calf, so I was out for the day, but still had a great time as a spectator. The Radio Flyer got beat in the second round by the #1 qualifier by maybe two feet, so I knew the Wagon would work its way back up the losers bracket, and sure enough it continued to win race after race thanks to a healthy group of pushers. The Wagon finally made it back to the championship round against who else... the #1 qualifier (later found out that this car was the first place car from last year...hmmm) Since this was a double elimination bracket, it meant the Radio Flyer would have to beat the #1 qualifier TWICE!!. In the final the Radio flyer got off to an awesome start and held the lead all the way to the bottom for win #1 which meant one final race for all the marbles. Well the #1 qualifier got a small jump at ther start and held it the whole way down the hill to put the Wagon in 2nd place... by about two feet. In the slowdown area, the #1 qualifier ended up crashing hard into the curb bending his ride pretty bad! Great Job to the driver Randy, and all the horsepower the push crew could muster. Kansas almost stole the crown against the "Okies"
what a great showing! And dont forget Great job Thad for building one super fast Wagon. Now we just need to find a way to squeeze another 1mph out of "The Second Wind"

#1 Grillmaster mitch on 2009-10-11 22:04 (Reply)

Man, looks like you guys had a blast. Just a quick question though, on the video at 1:17, is that BIGFOOT?????

#2 Cameron on 2009-10-12 19:49 (Reply)

Cameron, I think you are right, People were messin with him though. http://www.effie.org/winners/showcase/2008/2129

#3 Grillmaster mitch on 2009-10-12 20:02 (Reply)

Wow, that looks cool... Nice job everyone. Thad, you rock!

#4 Erick (Homepage) on 2009-10-13 00:39 (Reply)

Just a note to say thanks. Randy (The Wagonmaster) drove a perfect race. The 'Pushy' guys from Coasters made great teams. Dan Welty & Zach Clothier tuned the wagon wheels & brakes & got the weight at 495 pounds---right where it needed to be. Thanks guys for all the help in the pits, thanks to the 'Speed Bumps' for getting us back each time & thanks to all of you for making this happen. Our sponsers were happy. We got their attention this time, next time we'll get their respect.

#5 Thad on 2009-10-13 07:23 (Reply)

I had a great time even though I had an unrepairable breakdown....I'll know to bring my own welder next year and a few spare parts!!! Thanks for all the hard work everyone....we couldn't have done it without you!! I agree with thad.....Respect is ours next year!!!

#6 Wess on 2009-10-13 17:51 (Reply)

Hi, Warren Cat's Big Bore Bullet team here. We had a great time racing with you this year and look forward to doing it again next year.
Here is a link to the pics that our team photographer shot. You are welcome to view and repost them, but please give photocredit to Chunks Racing Images.

2009 RT Derby pics

Greg, and the Big Bore Bullet race team

#7 Greg Talley on 2009-11-15 12:51 (Reply)

I found a link to a bunch more pics... OKC race photos

#8 grillmaster mitch on 2009-11-17 08:33 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	HTML-Tags will be converted to Entities. Use BBCode to insert images and links. i.e. [IMG]mysite.com/myimage.jpg[/IMG] to insert an image stored on Photobucket etc... Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. Standard emoticons like :-) and ;-) are converted to images. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above:
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

Latest Comments

Jay Ferreira about Classifieds
Thu, 07.29.2010
WTB: S-7 rim or S-7 rear whee l 26 x 1 3/4. My Twinn tandem is in dire need of a rear whe el. Please email if you have o ne or the other in good condit ion.

Grillmaster mitch about Bicycle Bob In Critical Condition After Accident
Wed, 07.28.2010
Get well soon Bicycle Bob!

Erick. about 2010 Art Of The Bicycle
Sun, 07.25.2010
Yeah, this is the opening... t he big night is this coming Fr iday. It should still be huge .

Randy about 2010 Art Of The Bicycle
Wed, 07.21.2010
I believe the plan this year w as to have fewer bikes on disp lay so they could be better di splayed. Also bikes that haven 't been in the show before whi ch would narrow it down quite a bit.

anon about 2010 Art Of The Bicycle
Wed, 07.21.2010
I have stopped by the garage.. .. I could have sworn that the re were more people into this kind of event than what has sh own up..... Where are all the bikes! There is alot of good stuff but I know there is much more that could have came!