Holland, MI (8/30/2016)
- While the final results may not show it,
RT Pro (formerly Racer Tech) driver Logan
Gastel overcame serious setbacks to finish
ninth in the Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno
UTV Turbo race.
Gastel, who had moved from a 23rd-place start
to fifth in the field on day one, hit a hole
on day two and broke a bolt in his upper suspension,
losing hours doing repairs. In the end, and
using his inner MacGyver, Gastel rebounded
to finish ninth in class and just 2.5 hours
behind the overall winner in the two-day race.
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RT Pro's Logan Gastel finished
9th in the Pro Turbo UTV Class |
“Each race we seem to be getting closer,
but we’ve had some bad luck,” said Gastel.
“I thought this was going to be our first
win, but we pushed hard and the desert pushed
back harder. Day two was actually great up
until mile 500 when he hit a G-out a little
harder than we should have and broke a bolt
in the front upper control arm.”
When others might have just given up, Gastel
and his co-driver set about to repair the
car, despite losing many of the front-end
components in the crash. Midway through the
repair, his jack broke, so he improvised and
used boulders to hold the car up.
“We ended up taking the whole car apart to
get it repaired,” said Gastel. “When that
bolt broke, we lost most of the essential
hardware we needed to put the front end together.
We bolted the upper spindle onto the A-arm
with a half-inch bolt, a bunch of washers
and some baling wire. We kept pushing forward,
got some fresh parts, and kept moving. We
were dead last in all the UTVs and ended up
ninth. I didn’t want to give up and we made
it back to the finish line before dark.”
Gastel said the combination of his RT Pro
suspension components, Fox’s new internal
bypass shocks and ITP tires gave him the ground
clearance he needed to clear the course’s
many ruts and deep silt beds.
“The RT Pro stuff has worked for us all season
long,” said Gastel. “It’s crucial in these
type of races to have that ground clearance.
We got into some really deep ruts and silt
beds, and the RT Pro suspension components
kept us off the belly pan. We also switched
to the new 31-inch tires from ITP. The total
package is beginning to work.
“This is our third race on the new Fox internal
bypass shocks and every race I get more impressed,”
added Gastel. “They eat up everything we throw
at them. They don’t have quit. The faster
you go, they seem to handle better.”
Gastel will return to action during the Bluewater
Desert Challenge in Parker, AZ on October
6-9 where is hungry for that first victory.
