Jonathan McVay #1952 placed 7th in 2018 Best in the Desert Silver State 300 Race
McVay Racing showed up in Vegas and went directly to the Texas Station. Had some business to do on Thursday but got it done pretty quickly. Friday came and we lined up for contingency. Just as we were about ready to leave the truck I looked under it to inevitably finding out that the trucks water pump went bad. Andy and Gary started to take it apart and I started hunting down the parts. Greg and Chase went to take the car to contingency. Everything got fixed and the car got tech’d. Race day we lined up in 5th position. According to RacingTrax by RM100 we were running 1st in class by 2 and a half minutes. We kept going and all of the sudden we went into limp mode. We were having electrical issues and were overheating. We lost a few positions but got back out. At RM150 we decided to do a quick look at the car and found that the alternator had gone bad so we were running only on the factory stator. We did a couple of changes to save amperage and off we went. At about RM175 I heard a belt starting to go. I asked Andy if he was hearing it and he said yes. We made a decision to pull over and change it then instead of blowing it which as everyone knows can cause damage and drama. It was a good thing we did as about 2” of the bottom cog was missing. That belt was on its way out. We did get passed by a few and were running about 11th at that point. We drove hard and fought. The silt beds were absolutely AWFUL. Some of the worst I have seen except for maybe Baja. We got through them and made a couple of passes. We went into the night and figured out what we could run and what we couldn’t. We figured out a good combination and went to work. At about RM 290 we caught another car and started getting the work done to get by them but the silt and dust was way too thick. We simply just ran out of time and they stayed ahead of us. We crossed the finish line in 7th place.
We were very happy to finish this race and in the top 10. A VERY special thank you goes out to Demon X-Treme Heavy Duty Axles. They are new to us for 2018 and the support they have given us is AMAZING. Strongest axles out there.
I want to thank Polaris RZR for building the very best side by side out there, Irontree Construction for the huge support that they give McVay Racing, Lone Star Racing for building such an awesome race car. Thank you to STI Tire and Wheel for their Chicane tires for holding up to the course and tires were NOT an issue. Starting Line Products, Fox Shocks for taming the course, BRM Offroad for making our race car look so good and Crow Enterprizes for keeping us in the car and safe.
I will also say thank you to a great bunch of guys that do this crazy desert racing thing with me. Greg Williams, Andy Willeford, Chase Willeford, Gary Hanson and Mark Milne. All you guys are the BEST!
Next up is Vegas to Reno.
Let’s Race,
Jonathan McVay
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