Camburg Racing's KINETIK General Tire Trophy Truck defeats the Mint 400!
The Nevada Mint 400 race started back in 1968 and disappeared in 1988. SNORE brought back the race in 2008 and General Tire has been a huge part in making this possible.
The #75 Camburg Racing General Tire Trophy Truck started the race with the agenda to stay on a good pace to finish on top and last the 400+ miles of the brutal Mint 400 course. Jerry Zaiden and Jason Campbell knew there would be less than a 50% finishing rate at this event.
Qualifying the day before, Jerry started 37th out of the 60+ Trophy Trucks and Class 1 cars in the early morning. He caught the truck that started right before him in the first 5 miles but due to the heavy dust from the thick silt it was impossible to pass safely. Around mile 15 in the rocks the truck was experiencing a small vibration from the rear. Both Jerry and co-driver Craig Hall got out, assessed the situation and found a dent in the drive shaft due to the rocks. Now back on there way again and on the bumper of one of the 10 cars in heavy dust, Jerry missed a turn and in fear of more damage to the drive shaft Craig got out to inspect the under side of the truck to make sure there was no damage. Craig changed the rear drive shaft so there would not be any issues to the transmission or rear axle. Now with close to 15 min of down time the #75 Camburg General Tire truck was way in the back of the pack of slower vehicles with passing being difficult this early into the race. At mile 30 Jerry and Craig pulled into Pit A where Baja Pits changed out the spare drive shaft. Now on a mission to make up time and behind about 50 Class 10, 12, and 1600s Jerry had major work ahead of him to move through the pack. Picking off cars one at a time over the rest of lap 1 was no easy task but Jerry and Craig managed to pull off a lap time of 2 hr 56 min with the heavy race traffic. Jerry now pulled into main pit where the Camburg Racing crew fueled the truck and performed a visual inspection.
On the second lap and through the rock garden with no issues they start to pass smoothly and are making up time. Going through a loose gravel section they nosed the truck hard into the face of a g-out and a rock got caught in the throttle body linkage holding it open about 15%. Pulling off the course, Jerry and Craig got out and pulled the hood off to inspect and fix the problem. They reinstalled the hood and were back on there way again only to get stuck behind slower vehicles near the finish line. With a second lap time of 2 hr 44 min the Camburg Racing Trophy Truck is now in the top 10 in class on corrected time, so a quick pit stop is required to keep on this pace.
Now midway through the race, Jason Campbell and Austin FISH Farner relieve Jerry and Craig and are ready to pick up the pace as they start on the 3rd lap. Jason on a mission is setting a fast lap and making up time in clean air. On par with setting a 2 hr 15 min lap, Jason in the dust of another unlimited vehicle stuffs the truck in a huge hole near mile 72 while on the brakes causing the drivers side upper arm to fail. Stranded outside the pit area, Jason and Austin remove the arm and hike to Pit D where the crew of Banning Motorsports and LVDC made repairs to the arm. Jason and Austin hike back to the truck, re-install the arm and are get back on there way. Now down for over 2 hr 20 min they finish their 3rd lap in 4 hr 41 min. Pulling into main pit for their 4th and final lap, the crew re-fuels the truck and adds the light bar equipped with 6 KC HiLites POD HID lights. Now on the 4th lap with an upper arm that isnt 100%, Jason took a very conservative pace around the course to insure a finish. With a lap time of 2 hr 59 min the Camburg General Tire Trophy truck took 14th place out of 27 other Trophy Trucks and doing so finished in the Top 50 overall out of over 215 starters. With only a 36% finishing rate on this extremely challenging course, just crossing the finish line is an achievement in itself.
The Camburg Racing General Tire Trophy Truck experienced a mechanically perfect truck. The Turnkey engine, Culhane Racing transmission and Tubeworks rear-end all using Lucas Oil ran smooth all day. The Eibach Springs and Fox Racing Shox soaked up the huge holes. AEMs air filtration ran the whole race and never needed to be changed. Baer Brakes stopping power combined with the great handling of the General Tire Grabbers was awesome on this course!
Camburg would like to thank all their sponsors for the opportunity to race this elite class. Without their support and the support of team members and fellow racers, this wouldnt be possible or mean as much as it does.
The Mint 400 is now my favorite test bed. With only 36% finishing, this is the ultimate challenge! Jerry Zaiden
Even with the issues I had, I was really happy how the truck handled with the FOX shocks and General Tires hooking up. Jason Campbell
For more information on Camburg products and race team involvement, check out their websites www.camburg.com and www.camburgracing.com or contact them directly.
Team Sponsors:
| AEM Intake Systems | BAER Brakes | Blue C | Eibach Springs | FOX Racing Shox | General Tire | | IRC Tracking | Ironclad Gloves | KC HiLiTES | KMC Wheels | Lucas Oil | Magnaflow Exhaust | | Monster Energy Drink | RVCA Clothing | Scosche | Sparco | SUREFIRE | Turn Key Engines | VP Fuels |
Photos by: Jason Zindroski @ High Rev Photo
