Some days the Pain is a seized bolt at midnight. Today wasn’t one of those days.
I spent a couple hours out at the 7 Mile ORV park with Tyler from Total Mayhem Racing and Ricky from Silber Fabrications, running a test and tune on Tyler’s trophy truck. The goal was simple: seat time, and getting familiar with the truck before race day. And “familiar” matters here, because this isn’t the same truck it used to be. Tyler’s put in a new rear end, a new transmission, and a new engine. Pretty much everything that makes it go is different.
First Laps
Tyler and Ricky took the first hot lap to make sure everything was happy. We burned a few minutes on radios first — a lot of channel-flipping and “can you hear me? can you hear me?” At one point I honestly didn’t know where they’d gone. Turns out the plan was to loop right back to us. Nobody told me. Classic.
Then it was my turn.
The Caged Gorilla
I ran the whoop section, then opened it up on a flat stretch. I say “opened it up” — I only got it to about 60–65. But this truck is a completely different animal. It’s hard to explain. It has so much power, but it’s so controlled. Best I can come up with: it’s like a caged gorilla. A lot of muscle, but easily handleable.
Through the whoops I was sitting around 4,000 RPM, and it just ate them. Here’s the thing: go slow through whoops and it’s rough. The suspension handles it, but you feel every hit. Start going faster and it actually gets smoother.
The only real problem? Your boy’s a big boy, and that is a tiny seat. I don’t fit so good. But I’ll make it work. It’s only a couple hundred miles, right?
So here’s my advice: get yourself a trophy truck. Better yet, get yourself a buddy who has a trophy truck. All the fun, zero responsibilities. That’s the best way to do it.
Side-by-Side Showdown
One of Tyler’s buddies, Cody Piscatelli of Hot Dog Racing, was out doing his own race prep in his side-by-side. Cody’s a King of the Castle racer — I believe he won it right there in June. So naturally, we lined them up.
Cody took off and got the jump. That side-by-side is quick. The Cody actually beat the truck on the first run, but on the second one the Total Mayhem Trophy Truck slowly started pulling away. On a short course like that, the truck’s big top end never really gets to show up.
When we asked what the guys were after today, the answer was simple: confidence and seat time. Carry 5 to 10 mph more through the whoops and the truck stops rocking and stays on top. As someone put it, you could do 100 through there, no problem.
Cody also took us through the whoop section and showed us how he runs it. After doing it in a trophy truck, I’ve got one request: Josh, I want to take your Jeep through there. Let’s see how it does. Go check out Hot Dog Racing on YouTube.
Also, for the record: nothing smells like race fuel.
Back to Reality
I didn’t film an outro at the park. We loaded up, made it home, and I had about 15 minutes to get to work. That’s the deal — the dirt on one side, the day job on the other.
We didn’t push the truck too hard. This one was about getting familiar, and it did everything we asked. We’ve got one more race prep day coming for more test and tune and more seat time. Follow Tyler on Instagram and YouTube for updates on the truck and the race.
Big thanks to Tyler and Ricky for letting me ride along — and drive.
Wheel it, Wreck it, Wrench it, Repeat!
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