I just found out that Brian Hitt, the Deere driver that finished the the Red Lake I-170, is registered here as sledpuller88. Congratulations on your finish!

Congragulations Brian. Job well done.

Chuck

Nice job Brian.

Chuck, you are still my hero. Call me if you ever lose the waiter!

Good job Brian...

never new you were a member here !!

Hi Guys,

Brian sent me his story to my e-mail account so I can post it for him. He does read the site, but does not post much. We had a nice talk after the race and I was glad he carried the Deere banner all the way to the finish line. Congrats Brian!

-Joe Rainville

Nice job glad you made it thru and you made all the leaping deere fans proud as did all that ran this tough challenge for the breed! Shannon Garver

All,

Thanks for the accolades. I've finally recovered I think, I can touch my toes again! I feel fortunate to have lined up with some of the best guys in the I500 history. I have to thank my family for putting up with all the time and focus on this hot rod in the last month, my crew chief and gas man Tom Henry, and of course the Lord for carrying me through the race and across the finish line. Also thanks to Stan Hayes for some I500 words of wisdom last week. I used to work closely with Stan when I was a young and foolish engineer at JD Horicon over 10 years ago.

For 173 miles of the roughest stuff on the planet, the sled came through pretty clean. We haven't taken a look at every inch of the sled yet, but I only noticed a few things.
1) like I said in my note that Matt posted on the home page, there is definitely something up with the pipe. When we got home Sunday, I wanted to fire it (recall it took 100 pulls at the 2nd fuel stop)......well 2 pulls and it cracked off in the shop. What a laugh. Lots of exhaust blowing out at the y-pipe connection, and it is loud, so the pipe is obstructed somewhere.
2) right side front idler wheel missing. This is my fault. Now I know why the JD engineers put a through bolt with lock nut on that pivot joint. We made all new alum shafts for the skid, and ended up tapping each end of that shaft. The bolt backed out obviously. Luckily the other side held the pivot, losing that one would have been fatal I think. And I had an extra wheel in the gas tank box......well that is somewhere laying in a ditch in TRF somewhere along with a few nice polished Craftsman wrenches.
3) blew all the oil out of the left ski shock, laying in gobs on the ski at the end of the race.

The sled is completely bone stock, other than a gas shock in the rear skid. We had it torn down to nothing on Jan 3, replaced every nut and bolt and bearing. The name Night Train came from Tom's wife.........everything under the hood was painted black, chaincase, engine, and all. As for changes for next year's race......fixing that idler issue in the skid, likely a hydraulic brake……….the stock mech brake faded bad on me on the second leg of the race. And maybe some fancy skis like the 58.

Other than that, I managed to not get tossed off, sink it in the river, or put a hole in the belly pan (which happened to a couple of the TXL's).

The real fun for me other than the race was spending time with the JD ETD guys that evening. I appreciate them letting me a part of the club now. Thanks to Jon C, Tom O, Joe R, etc. I have been asked by several to take the 347 Night Train to the HOF ride in mid-Feb. As of now I plan to be there.

Thanks again,

Brian Hitt
#347 1980 JD Liquifire

Brian-

When the old girl was running top notch, can you recall what kind of rpm's you were pulling ? Where did she feel at her best for rpms, speedometers are a guessing game, got any info on this ?

Paul, who can look at gauges during a race?

I agree, I wont be running a dash, just like JRC. Maybe Brian does know...