As the Haulers approached the turn off onto Boone RD and into Johnson Valley, you could just feel everyone’s excitement. The crew had put in a long year to get back to this place and have a realistic chance at finishing the King of the Hammers. As we drove down toward the lakebed and into Hammertown, we could see we were some of the first race teams to be out here which meant we had the Valley as our own proving and testing grounds. Venom 1 had gone through quite a few changes since the last time it was in Johnson Valley and some things were yet unproven and needed running time to work out the kinks.

Once our home in the desert had been set up, the JK’s and Venom 1 hit the ground running. We were off to get the car broken in and see new parts of Johnson Valley that may be in this years Race Course. As we hit the the edge of the Marine Base 29 Palms, Mike had noticed that the steering was a bit off and had a chatter to it. We stopped to check it out and confirmed all fluids were good and everything looked tight so we pressed on still trying to hit the goal of 80 miles for the day. Mike took a hard right hand turn and the steering locked into that position and it looked as if the first gremlin of the new and freshly built car had raised its ugly head. Everyone knew there would be issues to contend with but we were hoping it wouldn’t be on the first serious run.

Chris Graves, the newly acquired crew chief and mechanic from Poison Spyder, went right to work on the steering issue and quickly assessed we would need to make a few changes and it was going to require some more testing and modifying. We got the car back to the Pit Garage and the work commenced. Mike and few others headed back out to continue pre running the course. A one shot up Chocolate Thunder got everyone back into the groove and smiling again. Oh, then there was going 100 mph across the desert but we won’t say much about that!

The next morning we were told by Hammertown Officials that an extreme storm was on the horizon and to be prepared for it so we made a plan for the worst case scenario and hit the desert once again to try and get miles on the car before the weather rolled in and made us put everything in the trailers.

With the car driving and sounding right, Mike and Andy went at it pretty hard to try and gain some knowledge on the north end of the course. As the motor started breaking in and freeing up, you could feel the horsepower and the difference that the change in power was going to make.

As we ended the tuning session the steering once again became and issue and a teardown in the desert was warranted due to the fact we were 50 miles outside of camp, not something you want to have happen but everyone was holding onto the fact that it was better to have it happen now than on race day. While the issues were being attended to you could sense the change in temperature and see the clouds building across the Valley. This was going to be a gnarly storm and we all just hoped it would pass quickly. With the weather moving in quick, the necessary fix was made and we headed back to the pit but not before we were able to snap a few pics with the drone.

You’re saying to yourself, “the weather doesn’t look that bad”? Well, what you can’t see is what’s behind us. The clouds and dust turned into a 70mph desert hurricane that lasted for a day and a half with rain and even a little snow. We used the time to make fuel strategies and talk about racing with some of the other drivers and it proved to be a good thing for us because there was some light shed on the steering and a solution was created.

Once the pit tents were able to be put back up the crew went to work hoping that this would be the last time they would have to mess with the steering and the real testing and tuning of the motor and suspension could begin.