“Black Rhino Performance Sponsored Athlete Cody Rahders’ Baja 1000 Race Report”
El Cajon, CA, December 2, 2016– After coming off a 9th place finish at the Baja 500 and a 3rd place finish at the Rosarito Beach Challenge, Cody Rahders Racing team was looking for a good finish at the Baja 1000 but despite the best of preparation the race ended in a DNF at mile 164.
Starting with contingency, we have to give a special thanks to K&N Filters for their generosity. We received a pallet of items to give away at the Baja 1000 and it didn’t disappoint the fans; it had stickers, lanyards, flags, and hats. Everyone was so pumped that the crowd tried to rush the stage but the real hit was the coloring books; we had more parents and children ask for them than anything. Thank you, K&N!
James Hill and Fernando Ramirez were to start and run the first half of the race then swap out with Cody Rahders and Kevin Sullivan at mile 413. After the start at around mile 40ish there was a bottleneck where the race came to a halt, however, the lead UTVs started to look for an alternative line and crawl their way around the bottleneck. “Once I saw Lambert and Matlock go I dropped in line”, said Hill. “Cody and I getting stuck in that 3 hour bottleneck at the 500 was the dumbest thing ever and I wasn’t doing that again.” and after running in fifth place James jumped in to work their way past the line of racers and maintain his position rather than wait, however, sometimes this does not sit well with the other classes.
Around mile 60 a 10 car was closing in; James pulled to the side to allow room to pass but the 10 car delivered a solid hit to the left rear wheel of the #2916. Within 10 miles of contact James began to lose his brakes and as things got worse they limped the car into Baja pits at mile 95 and called it in, ‘left rear wheel bearings were toast’.
Parts were robbed off a chase car and driven through rush hour traffic in Ensenada to mile 95. With the car fixed it was sent out to play catch up but didn’t make it far before at mile 140 the co-driver lost his lunch and had to be replaced with a new copilot which was decided to be Cody Rahders.
Once in the car Cody and James began to make up time setting a quick pace but it would be short lived as at mile 164 they caught a Class 19 UTV on a long straight and as the two went to pass, rather than pull to the right or hold his line the slower car stopped leaving James nowhere to go. He veered left, bicycled, and then rolled which resulted in folding the right lower arm into the axle.
Chase 2 showed up to right the car and try to repair the damage. They were able to get enough of the bend out of the arm so it wouldn’t hit the axle but with no spare and the arm, tie rod and spindle pins not nearly straight enough to continue in 3 wheel drive Cody called it quits and loaded the car back onto the trailer for the long ride home.
Huge thank you! To K&N Filters and Superchips, they really stepped up and made this race happen.
Also, thanks to Tensor Tire and Method race Wheels, the superlight 15” race wheel and DS 32 tire are only slightly heavier than the championship winning short course setup Cody ran at the Regionals, they really allow you to run fast into the turns and are very predictable.
Speaking of short course, now that Lucas Oil has added UTV to the 2017 program, the decision has been made to park the #2916 and dust off Cody’s 2015 Regionals championship winning Production 1000 and make a run at the 2017 LOORRS UTV title. So far we’ll be joined by Polaris RZR, FOX, Method Race Wheels and Black Rhino/RacerX.
Huge thank you to those who supported us through 2016 in our entry desert, in our first season we got a podium at a SCORE race. Some people spend a career racing desert and never get on the box. We’re very fortunate and couldn’t have done it without you.
Thanks to Polaris RZR, Fox Racing Shocks, Tensor Tire, Method Race Wheel, Black Rhino Performance, RacerX Race Radios, Baja Designs, Cognito Motorsports, IMS Metal Supply, K&N Filters, Superchips, IMG Motorsports.
And our crew James Hill, Fernando Ramirez, Kevin Sullivan, Dan Gonzalez, Gerardo Chaverella, Nick Novak, Jon Kelly, Fernando Sr., Dan Gonzalez, Doug Clark, Momma Tam, and Doug Rahders.
