Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

[welndmn]

Sorry, all I have is the link to Pirates, but read it, its a really good story.
http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=762034

[GloNDark2]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

Awesome write up man! It's awesome to see normal guys getting in there to battle it out.

[Rockbronco67]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

I like that there's a Bronco in the mix.

[Broncrick]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

[Mike]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

Nice job Mark. You guys are comitted. It's been a cold winter around here. When the sun goes down I'm done.

[crawlin68]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

If I didn't have a one week baby at home, I'd love to go down with you guys and help out. Tell Jeff that I said "good luck"!

[welndmn]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

Nice job Mark. You guys are comitted. It's been a cold winter around here. When the sun goes down I'm done.

He lives behind the High School, and as you can see one night the creek rose and with the rain, it flooded the barn.
There is also a slight grade in the backyard so we fall... alot.

[welndmn]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

I like that there's a Bronco in the mix.

Its fun!
Brought it home, spent 6-8 hours pressure washing it, added some gas and either and it fired right up!
Ran for about 1/2 hour, and never started again. No time to look at it.

If I didn't have a one week baby at home, I'd love to go down with you guys and help out. Tell Jeff that I said "good luck"!

Will do!
Jeff left last night, the rest of us leave Wednesday, at O-dark thrity

[Mike]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

He lives behind the High School, and as you can see one night the creek rose and with the rain, it flooded the barn.
There is also a slight grade in the backyard so we fall... alot.

Oh, over there? That's the warm side of the valley, you wussies should have been working in shorts.

I still have a lot of 302 stuff (starter, carb, dizzy) if you need something to get that EB going.

[welndmn]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

What a fun race!
Everyone should try and make the next ones, if not, there is now a "King of the Hammers" Class in the Best of the Desert races (they do the Vegas to Reno races).
Anyway, I will go cut and paste Jeff's words later, but we made it to Mile marker 64 in 2nd place!
This is a buggy with no major sponsors, or major dollars in, aginst ones with 100k + into them.
At that time, Jeff rolled, and flatten a tire, bent a wheel and lost the Alt or the battery, ending the race.
With only 20 miles left in the race.
It was very upseting but the amount of respect for Jeff went sky high. With his buggy running, pretty much, junk from 7-8 year ago when it was built, held off 90 other racers that build world class rigs just for this one event. Jeff held them all off for 64 miles of an 84 mile race.

[Broncrick]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

Read about the misfortune, he was (and did) do great!!

[Rockbronco67]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

I never been there and was wondering do people camp or motor home it? I imagine you can do both but it seems pretty windy. What is the best time to go.

[GloNDark2]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

That's awesome stuff! It makes me proud to know that the average guy can still get in there and compete with the big boys if he knows his rig and knows how to drive.

[CityHick]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

That's awesome stuff! It makes me proud to know that the average guy can still get in there and compete with the big boys if he knows his rig and knows how to drive.

Great effort by an average, everyday guy! Too bad that it ended the way it did, but to get that far is great.

That, to me, is real racing. I am so burnt out with high dollar professional motorsports - somehow seeing guys compete in vehicles that could not have been built without the deep pockets of their corporate sponsors just doesn't do it for me as much any more. I still get a kick out of seeing NHRA and Nascar in person once in a great while, but to me the hometown guys racing vehicles built in their garage is much more relatable to me.

[crawlin68]

Re: Jeff Mello gets ready for King of the Hammers!

Nice showing Jeff!! Sorry you didn't finish, but you did very well and should very proud of that!