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The light turned green and we took off into the unknown expanse of desert, guided only by our GPS and the ruts left by those who crossed the start line before us. Vehicles started two at a time, every minute. ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ turns and rolling jumps provided a false sense of ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ next to us in our rear view mirror. However, reality soon set in as we hit several miles of washboard road and bowling ball sized rocks. The shock tuning that we had done earlier in the week increased our speed three-fold in the larger whoops but in the small chop, I could still feel my insides rattle with each bump underneath our 30 inch tires. Once we made it through to the high speed areas, we found what we had come for. I had 170 horsepower at my command and I used every bit that I could while staying within the buggy’s limits. With every mile, the course began to look more like a salvage yard as we passed broken race cars that were missing tires, body panels, and in some cases even complete suspensions. Meanwhile, Matt was calling out each race mile to our crew over the radio and the numbers climbed at a steady pace. When we pulled into Remote Pit B at Race Mile 72, the crew gave the buggy a thorough inspection. The drive chain tension needed a quick adjustment but otherwise, everything was solid. It felt like we just might have a chance © Angela Bianchini Courtesy Photo 52


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