The Factory Racing starts a new series with a solid Second Place Finish

On January 21, 2012 The Factory Racing Team traveled to Barstow, CA for the M.O.R.E series opener, The New Years 200. Thomas Chamlee (Driver of Record) along with co-driver, Dan Chamlee competed in Class1400, completing six 28 mile loops, covering approximately 168 miles of some of the roughest desert terrain in California. Out of 18 starters, only 11 finished within the 6.5 hour time limit. Thomas started at the back of the pack due to some fuel pressure issues and worked his way up to a 2nd place finish. It took Thomas and Dan 5:12:57 finish the race with an average speed of 32.6mph. This is the first time the team is planning to run the entire M.O.R.E. series and have built a new race truck to fit Class 1400’s set of rules. Unfortunately, that truck was unable to run this race, so the team took Thomas’ personal prerunner. The truck is not meant to be a race truck, but is still rather competitive in this class. The race started with a fuel pressure issue which began just after lining up for the start. Thomas had to pull back into our pits and after about 5 minutes of working on the truck, the issues had miraculously vanished. Thomas and Dan took off and started about 5 minutes behind their competition among a class of slower vehicles. After the first lap, they had passed over half their competition. The truck stopped to refuel and pit at the end of it’s third lap. During the third lap, Thomas had run over a large boulder that was buried in a washout and as a result the suspension had been bent and pushed back to the point that the front suspension pieces were rubbing together. While Dan worked on the front suspension, Thomas noticed that there was gear oil leaking past the rear passenger’s hub seal. After inspecting the hub and axle, they topped off the fluid and were back on the course. The team continued to pick up positions during the last three laps, only stopping once in the pits to top off the rear end oil and once on the course to change a flat tire. The winds were extremely high during the race, which made changing a flat a difficult task. The truck also lost a rear fender during a close pass of another vehicle. Regardless of problems, the team is very proud of Driver, Thomas Chamlee and his second place finish in the first race of the M.O.R.E. series. Thomas finished the race saying, “We are very pleased with the way the truck ran this race. We came into this race just hoping for a finish and are very happy with the position this will put us in for this year’s point championship. I am very proud of the whole team.” Team Members included: Thomas Chamlee, Dan Chamlee, Heather Chamlee, Laurie Chamlee, Brent Thompson, Amy Tate, Matt Tindell, Connie Strieff and the entire Dormack Racing Team. Thank you guys!