fire, ending the race – or
worse. The team jumped into
action, disassembled the hub
and bearing assembly. Upon
doing so,revealing a wooden
stick had punctured the seal;
a one-in-a-million chance.
During the pit, KORE team
members went to work. Chase
driver Tim Gatto repaired wires
that had been damaged by
cactus, disabling the driving
lights. James Lamb repaired
the GPS, and Ian Kelbly helped
remove the hubs and drive
plate. "In all my years of racing,
I've never seen a failure like
this," said Nelson. "I couldn't
duplicate this if I was trying to
put a stick in there by hand. It
cost us about an hour to fix,
but it could have ended our
race if we hadn't addressed it."
With the repair completed,
Skilton and Nelson strapped
into the truck and raced into
the night. Skilton tackled the
most difficult section of the
race – the silt beds prior to
El Crucero. He had spent a
week of pre-running to find
the correct lines through the
deep silt that claimed the
race of many competitors. A
remote pit staffed by KORE
team members Nick Baroldi and
Josh Schoenfeld pre-staged
in the danger zone with extra
fuel and tow equipment, but
they may not have been able
to help. "It was like a graveyard
in there," Skilton said. "Stuck
vehicles littered the course
everywhere. Having almost
1000 horsepower to pull you
through certainly helps, but one
wrong decision and we would
have been in there all night."
Driving and navigating
flawlessly, Skilton and Nelson
WHILE OTHER
VEHICLES HAD
TROUBLE IN DEEP
SILT, THE #12 TRUCK
POWERED THROUGH
THEM WITHOUT
ANY ISSUES.
GETSOMEPHOTO
086
SCORE JOURNAL
