The Rest of the Story From 2016 Fallon 250 [Gallery]
The morning race at the Carbon Off Road Fallon 250 is filled with every type and class of car between Ultra4 and VORRA classes, while the afternoon race is reserved for the heavy weight champions: the 4400 Unlimited class. With 40 years of racing history on these desert grounds, drivers were ready to write new stories in this desolate, stark proving ground.
Fitting Ultra4 and VORRA Classes Together
The day started extra early for the 4600 stock class Ultra4 cars as well as the VORRA class 9 cars. Leaving the line at 6 a.m., the cars had time to put some distance on the second group of starters that included the VORRA class 1 cars, class T trucks, class 10 vehicles, then the 4500 Modified Ultra4 classes, followed by the 4800 Legends class. Finally the UTV pro and sportsman racers began, having to eat everyone’s dust starting at the rear of the field. All told, 67 cars left the line Saturday morning with hopes of glory and dreams of a checkered flag. While only racing cars within their class, the mix of nine different classes on course at the same time lent a “Mad Max” feel to an already *very* dusty day.
For this race, I even got to step into the co-driver's seat with Bailey Cole – view the LIVE video below to see us off on the first section of course and follow Driving Line on Facebook for more LIVE coverage. For me, not being the driver this time around, it was about trusting Bailey to make the right decisions – which he did all day long. We stuck to our plan of keeping the car together laps one and two, making position moves in three and four, then going all out on five and six. Despite the dust and rutted out canyon paths, he piloted the #4854 like a pro. Bailey's got a great future in Ultra4 racing and this race will only make him more competitive for the 2017 King of the Hammers.
Fallon Provides a Rough Desert Racing Course
The underclasses raced the same course as the 4400 class, competing over the same six 40-mile laps, with only minimal passing opportunity and a wide range of different builds. The first 10 miles of course were unofficially knows as “The Survival Zone”, where drivers and co-drivers were just trying to keep their cars together in the punishing whoops. Short dry lakebed sections gave room to pass and drivers in all classes exhibited courtesy as they let different classes around if they were caught in the desert. The middle third of the course was twisting canyons, while the final third of the course provided opportunity to hit top speeds and go all-out in the desert.
Despite the exceptionally competitive nature of all racers, it is common courtesy in long desert races to adhere to the “if you’ve been caught, you’ve been beat” rule and to let a faster car by instead of “jack rabbiting.” This is especially important when you have such a wide variety of cars on course. Rules were put in place to keep the heavier cars from nerfing smaller cars, but a love-tap every once in awhile is needed to ensure the car in front of you knows its been caught. Despite hard racing and poor visibility, all cars raced with class and there were no significant injuries. If we're speaking about cars though, that's another matter. Fallon 250 is an enduro-race of sorts, putting vehicles through harsh conditions, and there was plenty of carnage that resulted.
Finishing Order at Fallon 250
First across the line was Bruce Field in a Class T with a total time of 5:03. Following Bruce was Norris Brown in a Class 10 car, and Eric Puselick was third. Fourth across the line, and the first Ultra4 car to finish, was Dave Schneider’s 4800 car, piloted by Jake Hollenbeck for this race. Kevin Rants won the 4500 class with Brian Behrend taking first in the 4600 stock class. Get the full race results here at Ultra4 Racing. We can't help but notice the top three finishers were all VORRA guys... perhaps they're more in tune with this course?! Following years are sure to tell. Good job to the many racers and teams that came out, had fun and gave it their best!
