Dan and Joe where having a great run.  The team was looking at a potential top 10 finish in class 1 until a flat cost the car more time.  Then came one last blow to the class 1 success; a hasty pit resulted in the car running out of fuel 10 miles from the finish line.  Luckily the Dan and Joe where able to round up some pump gas from some course workers, which got the car home with a 14th of 31 car finish.   Even though we had hoped for better the team is happy to get a solid finish the first time racing V2R.

The class 10 car had a much worse day.   The plan was for John Langley and Bill Young to start, Paul Keller and John Krempp to take the middle leg and Morgan Langley and Bill Gantner to bring it home. Sadly, the car never made it to Paul.  Close to RM46 car #1093 was trailing another class 10 car.  In extreme dust this car collided with a rolled over class 10 car, hitting the driver.  Our car, #1093 , then hit the rolled car destroying our passenger side front arms.  After John and Bill got out another class 10 car ran into car #1093 causing further damage.  In the chaos of this the driver of the rolled car had been injured.  Bill and John aided the injured driver until BITD officials arrived.   Thankfully this didn't turn out worse.  The COPS Team wishes a speedy recovery to Race Ritchie (the injured driver of the rolled car).
 

After a grueling day of racing in the Baja desert, the COPS Racing Team finished third in Class 10 and took a DNF for their Trophy Truck after it had fuel delivery issues at race mile 53 near Ojos Negros.

Morgan Langley started the race with Mike Howell co-driving in the 1001 buggy for the COPS Racing Team and made it cleanly through the technical and tricky section leading to Ojos Negros.  Morgan continued to Borrego, where the team did a driver change.  Dan Martin took over the driving duties with Joe Lombardo for the middle section of the course.  Zak Langley drove with Sean Williams from San Vicente to the finish.  Zak and Sean were originally scheduled to drive the Trophy Truck from San Vicente to the finish, but with the truck out of the race he opted for a seat in the Class 10.

At Ojos Negros, with just 50 miles to go, Zak pulled over to check an oil warning light.  After checking for leaks and any possible problems they continued on to the finish.  The stop cost them five minutes.

“We had a good race and it was the class 10 race we wanted to have.”  Zak Langley said after the race.  “The other two cars beat us fair and square.”  Despite a DNF for the Trophy Truck, Zak was pleased with the team’s performance.  “Anytime you can get a podium, especially at a race like the Baja 500, it fires up the team and you feel like you accomplished what you went there to do.”

The COPS Racing Trophy Truck built by Racer Engineering faced a week of trials and tribulations that lead to its debut.  During a shakedown test of the new #50 Trophy Truck just three days before the race the team suffered a broken crankshaft in the engine.  The team was prepared to withdraw the truck and race in Class1 instead, but a monumental effort by the crew saw the engine repaired and the truck arriving in Ensenada late Friday afternoon.

Shortly after being unloaded, the team brought the truck down vendor row on the way to technical inspection.  Drivers John and Zak Langley created a feeding frenzy among fans as they rode on the back of the truck giving away hundreds of COPS Racing Team hats and stickers to the mob of fans surrounding the truck ten deep as it drove towards technical inspection.

The #50 Trophy Truck will undergo an extensive testing program in the coming months in preparation for its next race at the SCORE Baja 1000 in November.  The COPS Racing Team’s next race will be BITD Vegas to Reno, August 16-18, in Class 1500 and 1000.

The light cars you can throw around and get in trouble but pull out a recovery much easier than the big class 1.  My class 12 was 2000lb to correct , now I'm trying to do the same thing but with 5000lb going 20% faster! 
This has proven to be more of an adjustment than I anticipated!

The one thing that I have learned about my class 1 car is that slow in - fast out is the best mantra.  With over 700 horses you can get to speed quickly... It's the slowing down part that is a little trickier.  I think that some people see the class 1 cars and think of nothing but speed but what I have learned is that the speed is there regardless, it's the braking points and executing controlled/ efficient turns that make you faster or slower than the next guy.
I hope you enjoy the video -- I'm planning on keeping the rubber down from now on!

Many changes were made to contribute to a successful Silver State 300, including completely re-wiring the class 1 car, but unfortunately our best laid plans did not pan out. 
The class 1 car started at the back of the pack after a roll over in time trials.  Luckily the roll didn't damage the car.  Everything was going well on race day but at mile 18 the engine suddenly died.  After 2 hours of trouble shooting driver and co-driver Zak Langley and Josh Valko were unable to fix the vehicle.  After being towed to pit one, the Grove team and Noppert Racing properly diagnosed the trouble... but by now pit two had closed.

The class 10 car had troubles of a different kind.  Early in a race they had to skid to a stop to avoid another class 10 car that had blown a cattle guard crossing. While trying to back up they were hit by another class 10 which severely damaged the rear of the car.  The air filter was smashed in and after arriving to pit 4 on three cylinders it was clear that the car was done for the day.

Sometimes in racing things go your way even if unprepared.... Unfortunately sometimes events do not favor your outcome despite your best preparations.  Having two DNF's again this season is a hard pill to swallow but the team can only take this outcome as something to learn from.... it will only fuel our drive for success as we head into the Baja 500 !

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren't alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' mice an' men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promised joy.pans

The previous set up had always had some flaws: the display was in the center of the dash and often hard for both the driver and co-driver to read. Many of the switches were lower than your line of sight and impossible to see when wearing an R3. And, maybe most importantly, the battery switch was on plane with your seats back, making it not only in a place you could not see it when buckled in but also very hard to reach to turn off. With the help of all the team and Mike McQueen (long time fiberglass guru) we addressed all of our concerns in the new dash.

We added a warning light system and Motec display for both the driver and co-driver. The battery switch and flame out are now located next to each other in the center console where both the co-driver and driver can reach them. I’ve always felt that this is an important safety measure. We also added a touch pad, solid state switching system that both drivers can reach and that also displays if a system is working or having electrical issues.

I think that the new dash design will be more efficient for driver and co-driver communication. We wanted to put the relevant controls and data right in front of the person that needs them as well as make essential safety controls reachable and in eye sight of both drivers. Everyone on the team feels that we accomplished those goals – now it’s time to go test!

Car #1093 started the race with John Langley at the wheel and Mike Howell in the right seat.  They were off to a great start but hit a giant rock at RM 14 which took out both left side tires.  They were fortunate that COPS car #1083 stopped to leave them their spare.  This incident cost #1093 a lot of time but they were up and running strong until the second lap.  Morgan Langley and Bill Gantner where in for lap 2 and had made it mostly around their lap when the engine let go, ending #1093's day.

Car #1083 started the race with Bill Young, the former sheriff of Las Vegas, at the wheel.  He had a clean first lap, only loosing time when co-driver Ryan Endo had to get out to give #1093 a spare tire.  The second lap was driven by COPS team mechanic Brandon Chrisman and co-driver John Turney.  They were running strong and gaining positions.  The third lap was driven by Dan Martin and Joe Lombardo and the fourth lap by Zak Langley and Sean Williams.  On the fourth lap the engine was ready to let go.  Zak and Sean experienced continuous oil pressure drops.  The car was limped in for a successful 6th place finish.  

The course was soft, rocky and beat to hell.  With all the engine problems the team is pleased to get one finish at the Mint 400.  Now it's on to the Silver State 300 where we will have the class 1 car back together and have the class 10 engine issues sorted out!

The team fielded two cars, the class 1 with Zak Langley and Dan Martin at the wheels and the Class 10 with Morgan and John Langley sharing driving duties.   Both cars finished but each had unique challenges that kept the team from the podium.

The class 10 car was having a great race.  Morgan held 2nd on the road for some time but the car lost power and began having electrical issues.  He delivered it to John Langley in 5th place but in a tight race being only 5 minutes out of 1st.  When John and co-driver Bill Young got in the problems that Morgan had experienced escalated.  The intercom failed completely and the engine continued to misfire.  Later we found that the ECU wiring harness had failed.   Without the computer controlling the engine the car unexpectedly ran out of gas as a result of it running far too rich.  The team rallied with the help of the checkers pit team and got the car to finish.

The class 1 car unfortunately started the race with an oil leak.  The team caught the problem the day before the race but couldn't isolate the leak.  The car had to make 3 stops to take on oil during the 248 mile race.  In addition to this problem the Zak Langley had 2 flats in the first 100 miles.  After the hand off, Dan Martin was running 5th on the road for some time but the rear limit strap failed and he had to moderate his pace to save the CVs.   
It was still an accomplishment to get both cars a decent finish especially after the Parker results.  Now we have something to build off of.  The mechanical issues are being sorted then it is on to the MINT 400!

The class 10 car had 2 flats, one of which welded the wheel to the hub.  On the 3rd and final lap the engine seized.   Two DNFs to start the season is a hard pill to swallow but has refocused the teams resolve.  The next race will be the SCORE San Felipe 250 on March 10th where we are aiming for a strong showing in class 1 and class 10.  It is still possible that we will debut the Trophy Truck at this race but it is more likely that it will now be first raced at the Baja 500.  We will keep the updates coming.

King Shocks

Jamar Performance

Rigid Industries

Trail Ready Wheels

With the help of these quality companies the team is looking forward to continued success and a strong 2012 Season!

There are also some big changes to the teams program for 2012.  This season we are planning on running both the SCORE and BITD series.  The game plan is for Zak Langley and Dan Martin to pilot the Racer engineering class 1 car for a points run in BITD with John Langley and Morgan Langley doing the same in class 10.  For the SCORE series, we were unable to make Laughlin but will run the rest of their  races (San Felipe 250, Baja 500 and the Baja 1000).  For these races the team plans on racing our new Racer engineering Trophy Truck with John Langley as Driver of record and a new racer engineering class 1 Car with Morgan Langley as the DOR.  

It's going to be an exciting season with the teams move to a more unlimited class program!
We look forward to seeing everyone at the races!

Our crew set up at race mile 90 for the first fuel pit.  This was our first race using the Ion Earth tracking system which allowed us to track the race cars from out chase trucks-- It worked awesome!  Dale started fourth in class and despite a well publicized spin in the wash at the start, he was the first class 1 car to race mile 90.  We fueled and looked the car over and sent him out of the pit first on the road in his class.  From there we broke down the pit and headed to the Borrego pit at race mile 204 where we were going to fuel the car again.  Tracking the race car when we were on the highway we saw that it was stopped at race mile 155.  Soon we got a sat phone call from crew chief Joe Taylor stating that car 104 had lost a power steering pump.  This car, without power steering is almost impossible to drive.  We rounded up the necessary parts to fix the car, planning on heading out to it, when we saw Dale moving again slowly towards us on the tracker.  Dale managed to drive the car all the way to the Borrego pit without power steering (sore arms!). We replaced the power steering pump and found a bunch of metal in the system (from the failed pump).  We cleaned the regulator and lines but decided for safety, knowing that we could not completely remove all the debris from the system.  It could be catastrophic if the debris caused the steering servo to fail at high speed.  So, our class 1 race was over at Borrego.

The class 1 crew then turned our attention to the remaining cars and helped get a 2nd and 3rd place finish in class 12 and 10.