TEAM KOENIG RACING DOES THE VORRA 24-HOUR.

 

HIGHLIGHT -  It was Valley Off Road Racing’s first two-day 24-hour desert endurance race, the first race of its kind since FUD did them in the late 80’s and early 90’s.

 

LOWLIGHT - On the way to this historic event the Koenig Racing motorhome blew its &%#@! trans.

 

 HIGHLIGHT - On Saturday Koenig Racing ran at the front of the class all day, seconds ahead of the pre-race favorite, the Samco Fab trophy truck. We were going for the win.

 

LOWLIGHT -  Knocking a driveline out of the Koenig Racing Toyota doing 80mph.

 

HIGHLIGHT - Replacing the driveline in under 10 minutes.

 

LOWLIGHT - U-joint on new driveshaft failed within 10 miles.

 

HIGHLIGHT -  Finding a replacement u-joint in the tool bag!

 

LOWLIGHT - Again pitching the driveline out of the truck, this time at 90 mph. The Koenig Racing Total Chaos Toyota is done for the weekend.

 

HIGHLIGHT - Meanwhile our friends at Rescue Racing are doing great!

 

LOWLIGHT - However, on Sunday Rescue Racing owner/driver Rick Massie spears the trophy truck breaking his back and injuring his co-driver. Rick is taken to Fallon then flown to University of California at Davis.

 

A WORSE LOWLIGHT -  Two minutes later Myers Racing wrecks at the same place. Driver can’t feel his legs, appears to be paralyzed. He’s airlifted out.

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KOENIG RACING. VEGAS TO RENO.

BOLT-ON SUSPENSION, STOCK MOTOR.

7TH PLACE!

A little back story. Four weeks prior to this race, team owner Mike Koenig dramatically lawn-darted our Total Chaos/Goodyear Toyota Tacoma race truck at the VORRA USA 500 bending everything in the frontend. Later, co-driver Troy Robinson got in and broke the rear end and the clutch. So one week prior to Best In The Desert’s Vegas-To-Reno race, everything was fixed and we went testing. Testing bent more frontend parts. We installed a new steering box to replace the bent one and the new one is bent,

too. Repairs and prep go on and on until late Tuesday. Finally we head to Las Vegas on Wednesday and, of course, a tire on the race truck trailer blows in the middle of nowhere and we have to search Tonopah for a replacement. This is a run of bad luck we haven’t seen in a while. We roll into Sin City around 11PM and do the only sensible thing, we proceed to the bar.

Tech Day, Thursday. Gremlins appear in the fuel system. All through tech the truck is running and dying. What now? Closer inspection reveals a half-inch spiral of plastic in the fuel cell. Plastic removed. Then we discover the primary fuel pump is burnt up. No problem, we have two pumps on the truck, but the back-up one stopped working at the last race. So we replace it with a new one.

Race Day, Friday. We’re ready to race. Mike takes off around 11AM near the back of the 22-truck class. We’re here to finish today, finish is good. At Pit 1 Mike complains the engine is cutting out and fuel pressure is dropping. We put a vice grip on the return line to boost the pressure and off he goes. Just before Pit 3 Mike radios in “there’s still a fuel issue” and he needs us to swap the fuel line pickups. It’s done fast by the Total Chaos crew. Pit 4, still no fuel pressure, the engine keeps cutting out. Pit 5, the Total

Chaos crew changes the fuel filter. Still no bueno, but Mike takes off anyway. At Race Mile 205 the truck dies. Mike gets out and

bolts in the old iffy fuel pump that we replaced earlier. Twenty minutes of downtime, but he’s off and running again. At Pit 9 we change drivers and co-drivers, the truck is 100%. Now Troy is driving into the night. He flies past our Locos Mocos crews at Pit 13 and Pit 14. Troy learned how to drive on this very stretch of racecourse. They blast into the whoops before Pit 15. The co-driver asks if Troy knows this section. “Yes, we test on this road!” Past the pit, over the highway and the train tracks, this is Troy’s

favorite section, but a touch of nausea keeps him from enjoying the ride. With someone’s headlights approaching in the rear view mirror he stands on it. At 1AM Troy rolls into the finish line for 7th in class and 59th overall. Out of five Vegas-To-Reno starts this is Koenig Racing’s third finish, and always with a bone stock motor. We are pretty stoked.

 We want to thank all of our great sponsors. Especially Total Chaos Fabrication - a bolt-on suspension system that again finished

the longest off road race in the USA. Goodyear tires - 549 miles with no flats, and these tires already had 400 race miles on them. Currie racing rear ends - they fixed our problems in less than a week. ORW - thanks for getting parts to us so quickly.  And Drift Innovation - in-car action cameras that worked flawlessly, with remotes, all the way to the finish.

 Thanks also to everyone who came out to help Koenig Racing, especially Chewy, Five-O, the twins Nickle and Dime, Oddball, Leadfoot, Lucrazy,  the Total Chaos crew, the Talls, Chet, Fiesta, Team Locos Mocos including Baja Jones, Bethel, the Texicans, BCG1, Shemp, Rocketman, Bubbles, PopTart, 3Ball, Baja Bros and Cousin Stacey.

 

        

      VORRA  MASTER PULL USA 500 , KOENIG RACING SAIL’S                                    80  FOOT-HIGH CLIFF AT 75 MPH.    

The first-ever Valley Off Road Racing Master Pull USA 500, hosted by The Nugget Resort in Sparks, Nevada, was a fabulous event. A big contingency downtown, food vendor, rock crawling demos and Metal Mulisha freestyle event kept the crowd coming for more. The course was three challenging loops through beautiful, seldom-raced desert north of Highway 80. The Koenig Racing Total Chaos Toyota Tacoma was prepped and ready.  We were second off the line. Then less than 2 miles past check point one, a near-tragedy occurred.  At 75 miles per hour driver/owner Mike Koenig and co-driver Mongo Niedzwiedz flew off an 80-foot high mountain, soared for 200 feet and lawn darted. Mongo’s back was  broken and Mike suffered numerous torn back muscles. Mongo last request to the team while being carted off to the Reno hospital was “Don’t let me down, You finish this thing”. Mike and his dedicated team rallied together to fix the truck and continue the race in considerable pain. Troy Robinson replaced Mike behind the wheel 200 miles down the course. Troy managed to work his way up to 2 hours behind the overall leader before a broken ring and pinion gear had to be replaced. Then around midnight  the clutch exploded at 104 mph  putting the Koenig team out of the race causing a rare DNF. Koenig Racing would like to thank all its sponsors for their support, including Total Chaos, Goodyear, Doug Thorley, Drift Innovation HD Cameras, Toyota t-Ten, Currie Enterprises, Off Road Warehouse, King Shocks and Desert People Videos. Thanks also to all the Koenig Racing team members. We couldn’t have survived without you. See you at Vegas-To-Reno!

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               KOENIG RACING TAKES THIRD DESPITE SHATTERED

                        PARTS AND ICY SNOW AT YERINGTON 300.

Koenig Racing loves social media. Facebook and YouTube let us share our racing adventures. But no way can either one communicate how it feels to race 80 mph, no windshield, in the freezing snow. Yes, snow. The VORRA Yerington (Nevada) 300 saw about 3 inches of it. And we had a few other obstacles as well: Prior to the race we put the fan into the radiator while testing. We started 11th in a twelve-truck class. Bashed a rock and broke a wheel before the second check point. Then our luck finally changed. It got worse. On a hill climb with snow blowing at us sideways we broke all of the wheel studs on the right rear. And oh, remember that rock we hit earlier? We hit it again and flattened a tire. Still, we were able to finish a solid third place! No way could we pull off a mini-miracle like that without great equipment from Total Chaos, Goodyear, Doug Thorley, Currie, King and all of it was captured on amazing Drift Innovation HD Action cameras. Also I want to thank every freezing cold member of the Koenig Racing team, especially Dusty and Fianna who changed the broken wheel.

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Drift Innovation Cameras Groups up with Koenig Racing for 2011 Off-Road Racing Season

 

Boyne City, Mich., (April 26, 2011) – Drift Innovation, manufacturers of the new HD170 Stealth wearable action sports cameras, proves itself again in the rugged Nevada desert with championship-winning Koenig Off-Road Racing during a test session in preparation for the brutal 2011 season.

Team Drivers, Mike Koenig and Troy Robinson, have successfully been racing trucks and quads fulltime for the last 18 years in venues from Nevada to Baja California in many different off-road racing series. He finds the Drift Innovation HD170 Stealth the best point of view camera in its class for off-road racing. According to a test session testimonial, to get unique footage the race truck driver would actually toss the unit out the window while recording and it would survive the impact as well as being run over.

“This camera is so resilient, it never missed a beat,” said Koenig. “It is quite a tough little camera, the lens didn’t even get scratched.”

Check out the driving team’s video editing skills and Drift Innovation footage here: http://vimeo.com/22708646.

Besides the overall toughness of the Drift HD170 Stealth, the Koenig team praised the remote control feature. It allows the user to synchronize multiple units at one time, as well as preserve battery and reduce editing time by easily being able to turn the units on and off with one touch.  Another benefit, particularly for off-road racing, is the unit’s external microphone capability to be plugged into the team’s headset intercom system. For a complete list of Drift Innovation accessories, please visit here.

The Koenig team will kick off its 2011 season with Drift Innovation over Memorial Day weekend in Yerington, NV at the VORRA Yerington 300 Desert Race. Be sure to check out the rest of Koenig’s racing schedule here. Follow all the latest off-road racing news and information from Drift Innovation here, http://driftinnovation.com/category/motorsports/off-road-racing/.

About Drift innovation:

Drift Innovation is a wearable Point of View Camera product company offering consumers wide-angle recording capabilities to capture all their adventures and activities. Designed with smart real life use features, it is highly recommended by the specialists in outdoor sports, motorsports, and snow sports. Drift captures the action from the every individual’s point of view and offers easy ways to share and re-live the experience with friends and family. For more information about Drift Innovations, visit www.driftinnovation.com.

We are proud  to announce TOYOTA T-TEN as our new sponsor for the 2011 season.

T-TEN trains and develops quality technicians who are in demand. By partnering with hundreds of dealerships and over 50 community colleges and vocational schools nationwide, T-TEN combines classroom study and hands-on dealership experience. Students work with the latest technology, tools and equipment and graduate with Toyota and industry certifications. T-TEN graduates thrive in high-paying careers working on some of the leading vehicles in the country.

 

HAVING THE RIGHT STUFF

KOENIG RACING ENDS THE YEAR WITH A VORRA

CLASS T CHAMPIONSHIP AND SECOND OVERALL FOR 2010.

 

What a year it has been. To end it in second place overall to the great Sam Berri and his uber fast unlimited Jimco buggy is both a thrill and an honor. But it’s only one of the 2010 highlights for Koenig Racing. Passing 52 trucks in the final race at The Battle At Primm wasn’t too shabby. Taking first in class and third overall at the Fallon night race was a huge team effort. Grabbing fourth in class after a very challenging day at the first ever Xtreme Outlaw race in Reno was a big achievement. And winning the MORE Powder Puff Race for a Cure on Saturday and a VORRA short course race on Sunday, over 400 miles away, was probably the ultimate tribute to what this race team can accomplish.

 Our thanks goes to all the hard working Koenig Racing team members, you made this year possible. And thanks, too, to our sponsors, not just the logos, but to the great people at Total Chaos, Goodyear, Currie Enterprises, Off Road Warehouse, Doug Thorley Headers, King Shocks and Desert People Films. If you want to win, these are the people that can make it happen.

See you next year!!

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