2012 Volume 29 Number 6 Dusty Times Magazine : simplebooklet.com

volume 29 - Number & June 2012 DllliYlil■IG Publisher Emeritus Jean_ C"1v.in _ Editor John Calvin Associate Editor Judy Smith Editorial Assistant Bekki Wikel Controller John Calvin Marketing Pat Caplan Circulation Vance Scott Contributors Homer Eubanks H.O.R.E. Subscription Rates: $25.00 per year, 12 issues, USA, Foreign Subscription rates on request. Contributions: DUSTY TIMES welcomes contributions, but is not responsible for such material. Unsolicited material will be returned only by request and with a self addressed stamped envelope. Classified Ads: will be published as received, prepaid. DUSTY TIMES assumes no liability for omissions or errors. All ads may be subject to editing. J. Preston Bradshaw Jim Culp DUSTY TIMES: (ISSN 8750-1732) is published monthly by Hill~ide Racing Corp, 20761 Plummer St., Chatsworth, CA 91311, (818) 882-0004 with additional Dusty Times, LLC offices at 415 N. Higgins Avenue, Suite lA, Missoula, MT 59802. Copyright by Hillside Racing Corp. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher. Periodical Postage paid at Chatsworth, CA 91311 and at additional mailing offices. Martin Holmes Rod Koch Byrle Moore Steve Ruddick Maurice Selden Tony Tellier Trackside Photo Art Director Larry Worsham POSTMASTER. Send address change to DUSTY TIMES, 20761 Plummer St., Chatsworth, CA 91311. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Four weeks notice is required for change of address. Please furnish both old and new address, and send to DUSTY TIMES, 20761 Plummer St., Chatsworth, CA 91311 SNAPSHOT OF THE MONTH ••• D. J. Garman was the big winner in Class 4 at the 1984 SCORE Barstow Classic, he's seen here in his Chevy 4x4 on his way to the checkered flag. DUSTY TIMES will feature pictures of similar "funnies" or woes on this page each month. Send us your snapshot of something comic or some disaster for consideration. DUSTY TIMES will pay $10 for the picture used. If you wish the photo returned, enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Only prints up to 8x10 or electronic media submitted via e~ail will be considered. . In This Issue ... FEATURES NORRA Mexican 1000 Rally by Judy Smith .................................... 8 Rally of Argentina by Martin Holmes .............................................. 14 VORRA Season Opener by Troy Robinson ................ : ..................... 18 BITD Silver State 300 by J Preston Bradshaw ................................. 20 MORE California 500 by Steve Ruddick ......................................... 24 King Of Hammers by Steve Ruddick ............................................... 30 Lucas Oil At Speedworld by J Preston Bradshaw ............................. 32 Magnum Opus Rally by Egerer & Maskus ....................................... 38 Steve And The BLM by Steve Ruddick ............................................ 40 DEPARTMENTS Happenin~s ......................................................................................... 5 Trail Notes .......................................................................................... 6 Good Stuff Directory ....................................................... ·-··············42 Classifiea Ads ................................................................................... 46 Index To Advertisers ......................................................................... 46 ON THE COVER BJ Baldwin drove his Chevrolet to the Class 1400 win and the overall win as well, but it was close, he had a mere 14 seconds on his competition. Trackside Photo Michael Gaughan and his youngest son Brendan ran their vintage Dodge Ram Charger to the overall win in the NORRA Mexican 1000, here at high speed. Trackside Photo Visit Our Website at Dustytimes.com IIJ F~~b~o~, '--·7oaeu, to, DUSTY TIMES THE FASTEST GROWING OFF ROAD MONTHLY IN THE COUNTRY!! □ 1 year -$25.00 □ 2 years -$40.00 . □ 3 years -$55.00 (to subscribe online go to www.dustytimes.com) □ NEW □ RENEWAL Name ______________________ _ Address ______________________ _ City _____________________ _ State _______________ .Zip _______ _ Primary Interest Cars D Trucks D Motorcycles□ Send check or money order to: DUSTY TIMES 20761 Plummer St., Chatsworth, CA 91311 Canadian • 1 year $30.00 US • Overseas subscription rates upon request Page4 June 2012 Dusty Times 7

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2012 Happenings ... lOK FOUR WHEELERS P.O. Box36 CLEVES, OHIO 45002 <4x4 forever.org> (AU events staged at the club grounds in Cleves. Ohio) 4x4 FoREVER,.Lro. 1665 DELAWARE ST. 0sHKOSH, WI 54901 AMERICAN RALLY SPORT GROUP, INc. 3650 Sovrn PoINTE CIRCLE, Sum 205 LAUGHLIN, NV 89208 (702) 298-8171/FAX: (702) 521-0597 <web l.userinstinct.com/271413 25-ameri• can-rally-sport-group.htm. E Mail: roger@rallyusa.com AMERICAN 1'RIAls ASSOCIATION AMA Obseroed Trials Southern California Championship Series BILL MARKI.JM, 2010 PRESIDENT (909) 860-1857 24 HR HOTLINE, 2010 (714) 562-7742 E MAIL: BMARK909@AOLCOM <www.atarwils.com> AsOCIACION EsTATAL DE AUTOMOVILISMO SAM WELL, TECH INSPECTOR APTo42 SAN JOSE DEL CABO BAJA CALIFORNIA DEL SuR. MEXICO AUSTRALIAN OFF ROAD CHAMPIONSHIP DARRYLSMITTl 19 SoMERS ST. CASHMERE, QuEENSLAND, 4500, AUSTRALIA DUSTY TIMES @bigpond.com AUTOCROSS QUEBEC OFF ROAD Cu..ss IO CARS ONLY RENALD VAILLANCOURT 3069 DAGENAIS WEST LAvAL QuEBEc, CANADA H7P 1n (450) 622-4440 <www.autocrossquebec.com/ pages/ indexpag.html> BAJA CUP CHAU.ENGE BAJA PROTRUCK OFF ROAD RACE SERIES 14402 BOND COURT EL CAJON, CA 92021 619-390-6252 The Promu:k· schedule for 2012 will consist of both the SCORE and Best In The Desert races. BARONA SAND DRAG ASSN. P.O. Box 1521 LAKESIDE, CA 92040 All Races Are Night Races All Races At Barona RacewaJ, Lakeside, CA BBM MARKETING PROMOTIONS Off Road Short Course Racing & Special Event Marketing NORCO, CA 92860 e-mail bbmracing@aol.com (909) 815-5811 BEST IN THE DESERT 347 5 BoULDER HIGHWAY I.As VEGAS, NV 89121 702-457-5775/FAX: 702-641-2431 <www.bitd.com> August 16 - 18, 2012 General Tire Vegas To Reno Nevada October 12 - 14, 2012 Bluewater Desert Challenge Parker,Al · November 30 - December 2, 2012 Transwest Ford Henderson 250 Henderson, NV BORR BONNEVILLE OFF ROAD RACING Allen Gerber 801-380-9011 - after 5pm please www.BORracing.org c. July 20-22, 2012 Wendover Night Race Wendover, NV September 14-16, 2012 Wendover NV October 27, 2012 2nd Annual Adopt-a-highway Poker Run Lehi, UT BP MoTORSPORTS P.O. Box411 WOODLAND HILLS, CA 91365 Dusty Times 760-578-6258/760-578-6259 FAX: 818-348-4648 E-Mail: bpmotorsports@earthlink.net AU Events At California Cicy, CA BRIGHTON SPEEDWAY R.R.3 BRIGHTON, ONTARIO, CANADA KOK-lH0 (613) 475-1102/FAX (613) 475-3250 CAJOR CuJB AUTOMOVILISTA }UARENSE DE CHAMPIONSIDP OFF-ROAD RACING 7210 GATEWAY EAST EL PASO, TX 79915 (915) 593-4848 RALPH GARCIA 011-52-16-17-45-42 CESAR FUENTES CALIFORNIA RALLY SERIES <www.Califomiarallyseries.com> CANNING ATTRACTIONS P.O. Box400 MAYWOOD, CA 90270 (323) 560-SHOW CENTRAL SOUTH DAKOTA RACING ASSOCIATION P.O. Box645 PIERRE, SD 57501 DAVE ADAMS (P!LOTS AND BAJAS) (605) 224-9481 DoN ENGLEMAN (BIKES) (605) 224-4967 CHAMPLAIN VALLEY RACING AssOCIATION C.J. RICHARDS P.O. Box332 FAIR HAVEN, VT 05743 (802) 265-8618 CLAIRTON HJ-JACKERS l.C.O. TOM DELAUDER SR 1091 TWP. LINE ROAD WELLSVIUE, OHIO 43968 (330) 532-4589 Short <;:ourse off Road Racing At Har-rison County Fair Grounds. Cadiz. OH CLUB AUTOMOVILISTICA SAN QUINTIN CAUE 6TA FRACc Co. DE SAN QUINTIN SAN QUINTIN, BC, MEXICO HERACUO PATINO (011 52 616-5-22-07) CLUB AUTOMOVILISTICO SAN VICENTE San Vicente Off Road ENSENADA, BC, MEXICO USA JAN WRIGHT (011 52 61746834) RAMON CAsTRo & RUBEN ACEVEDO (61637/7 0034) CMC CONTINENTAL MOTOSPORT CLUB P.O. Box 3187 MISSION VIEJO, CA 92690-3178 Fax: (714) 367-1608 CODE TECATE 2012 CHAMPIONSHIP MADERO 621-A ZoNACENTRO • • MBOCAU, BAJA CALIFORNIA 21100 Oll-52-686-553-4087 USA 686-553-4087 MEXICO <www.codeoffroad.com.mx> E Mail: mail@codeoffroad.com.mx July 27-29, 2012 ORW Gran Prix Tecate, BC, MX October 5-7, 2012 .Mex~cana uigi$tics 300 • • Mexicali, -B€, MX • November JO-December 1-2, 2012 OXXO Race Ready 27 5 Mexical, , ' San Felipe, ~t;, ~ ". COLORADO Hn.L CLIMB AssOCIATION BARB V AHSHOLTZ, PRESIDENT (719) 531-3642 W/(719)687-9827 H P.O Box8286 CoLORADO SPRINGS, CO 80933 (719) 653-8449 COLORADO OFF RoAD Exnu:ME Continued 1n page 6

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Trail Notes~ .. SAD NEWS -Lobsam Yee, long time young racer from below the border. was badly injured testing a Trophy Truck north of San Felipe on May 12~. The trucks suspension just wasn't right and Lobsam decided to make one more run. At 50 or 55mph the .truck went over and over and over and on one landing his hand was crushed,· through the window net and was severely broken. The truck ended up on its wheels and it took.six of his friends to get him out of the truck and they took him tQ the hospital in Ensenada. Lobsam' s brother, Eli called a fr-itnd ~ith a;p}ane and they flew him to UCSD in San Diego. He had a 12, hQur surgery on his back and four hours of surgery on his hand. DoGtors there said he will not walk again. It will be weeks before they know for sure about the potential for recovery. So, put in a good thought fot one of the nicest off road racers we know and pray that he will recover all of his faculties. FINAL FLAG -We were saddened to hear of the passing of Frank Arciero the elder on May 23rd, 2012. Frank was very active in the racing industry, the Unsers, Parnelli Jones, Michael Andretti were all part of the Arciero Stable at one time or another. His sons, Frank and Albert were avid off road racers for many years and now it's grandchildren behind the wheel. There was a family Winery near Paso Robles which was sold in 2007. Frank will be missed by those to whom he was dear and by many, many friends in the racing industry. HDRA Is BACK! -High Desert Racing Assn. (HDRA) is a professional off-road racing organization based in Las Vegas, NV. HDRA currently sanctions off-road racing events in both Nevada and California. Their 2012 schedule includes five races ranging, from 10-12 mile multi-lap DesertCross courses all the way to a 500-mile long distance cross-country desert race. High Desert Racing Assn. was founded by Walt Lott in the mid-?O's, and-soon became one of the premier off-road sanctioning bodies in the sport. After Mr. Lott's untimely passing, the organization underwent several transitions and faded from the desert racing scene in the 90's. HDRA was re-introduced to the desert racing scene in late 2011 by long time desert racing enthusiasts Roger Norman, Robert Gross and Ken Flippin. Together with a core group of other experienced desert racing personnel, HDRA is committed to move desert racing to new dimensions. Their focus is desert racing FOR RACERS ... BY RACERS. Chat with us on RDC. Follow us on the Race-Dezert.com forums on our dedicated HDRA forums. Give us your ideas and feedback so we can make HDRA Races your favorite races to run. KING SHOCKS RACERS STRIKE IT RICH AT BITD, SILVER STATE 300 -Different race courses have different challehges. San Felipe is known for miles and miles of brutal whoops. The old Mint 400 course is rough and rocky. The Best in the Desert, Silver State 300 course is mostly flat but that does not mean it's easy. The long straight stretches· of flat terrain have their own set of challenges. Most of the couTse is wide-open, high speed running with tight technical sections and deep silt beds mixed in. You need plenty of damping control but precise handling is also critical. The course is narrow and when the corners come up, you can't afford to lose time slowing way down to get around them. During the Silver State race, BJ Baldwin was racing at the front with Robby Gordon and Rob Mac. After over five hours of flat-out racing he was able to take the overall victory by a mere 14 seconds. When the racing is that tight, you need to be confident in the handling of your vehicle. "We spent time fine-tuning our King shocks in San Felipe to the point where the truck isn't just super fast, it's comfortable to drive" said BJ, "The truck is now better than it has ever been. I can run wide open with total confidence." Bj is not the only driver happy with his King shocks, King drivers took ten first place finishes at the Silver State race. Robby Gordon and Tim Casey have both won their classes three races in a row now. "The high speed sections can easily lure a driver into a costly mistake," said Tim Casey, "there are tons of silt beds that can stop you dead in your tracks and on the tight mountain sections, you are just inches away from disaster. We almost got stuck in the silt three times; there was no room for error." Congratulations to the following King Shocks drivers who won at the Silver State 300: BJ Baldwin, 1st overall, 1st Trick Truck; Robby Gordon, 1st Class 1500 *Third win in a row; Eduardo Laguna, 1st Class 7200; Cody Freeman, 1st Class 1000; Macrae Glass, 1st Class 8000; Tim Casey, 1st Class 8100 *Third win in a row; Nick Bayes, 1st Class 3000; Perry Coan, 1st Class 1700; Hal Deschamp, 1st Class 4400; Bill Bunch, 1st Class 3700. Whether you are in the heat of competition or driving to work, you need King's precise handling and performance damping control. When you ride on. Kings you'll know, there really is a difference. Nothing rides like a King. ROCKSTAR'S ANTOINE L'ESTAGE TAKES FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON AT STPR RALLY -Rockstar Energy Drink Rally Team's Antoine L'Estage from St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec and co-driver Nathalie Richard from Halifax, Nova Scotia won the 36th running of the Susquehannock Performance Trail Rally held in Wellsboro, PA on June 1-2. L'Estage and Richard in their 2011 Mitsubishi EVO X led the rally from the start after his chief rival Subaru Rally Team USA's David Higgins and Craig Drew suffered a gearbox problem in their· 2012 Subaru lmpreza WRX STI that pushed the team down as far as 13th overall. It then became a battle to the finish between the Rockst'ar team and Can-Jam Motorsports' •Leonid "Crazy Leo" Urlichich from Thornhill, .Ontario and Carl Williamson from Ammanford, UK. L'Estage amazingly survived major overheating problems through the first day and managed to stay ahead of Crazy Leo by a mere 8.8 seconds. L'Estage changed his engine overnight and both teams battled Page& www.coloradooffroadextreme.com 303-956-3600 July 7, 2012 Colorado Rally Cross Event July 15, 2012 Mile High Desert Racing Series Bikes,Quads and UTV's only www.rsenalracing.com July 28-29, 2012 Tumbleweed 150 Desert Race Cars, Trucks,4400,and bugg:,'s www.coloradooffroadextreme.com August 11, 2012 Colorado Rally Cross Event August 26, 2012 Mile High Desert Racing Series Bikes,Quads and UTV's only www.rsenalracing.com September 1-2, 2012 CORE Classic 125 desert Race Cars,Trucks,4400,and buggy's www.coloradooffroadextreme.com September 9, 2012 Mile High Desert Racing Series Bikes,Quads and UTV's only www.rsenalracing.com September 15, 2012 Colorado Rally Cross November 3, 2012 Colorado Rally Cross CORP P.O. Box392 CALEXICO, CA 92232 HECTOR CERECER 011-52-65-66-4458 CORR SERIES 270 NEWPORT CENTER OR., Sum 100 NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92660 866-501-CORR, CORVA 1500 WEST EL CAMINO, Sum 352 SACRAMENTO, CA 95833 1-800-42 CORVA EXT 42 fax (818) 957-4435 CRS CALIFORNIA RALLY SERIES <www,CaliforniaRallySeries.com July 13 - 14, 2012 North Nevada Rally Lovelock, Nevada August 4, 2012 Mendocino Rally Ukiah, California August 28, 2012 Gorman Rally Frazier Park, CA October 5 - 6, 2012 Prescott Rally Prescott, Arizona D&T PROMOTIONS DAVE VAN DEREN 2405 BAKER AVE. EVERETT, WA 98201 (206) 339-9079 (All events at Hannigan race track, Bellingham, WA or Thurston Councy ORV Park, Olympia, WA) DAKAR RALLY DARREN SKILTON BAJA AUTOMOTIVE ADVENTURES 455 E. OcEAN BLVD., Sum 208 LoNG BEACH, CA 90802 (562) 755-2278/FAX: (562) 590-7925 <www.dakar.com> Bajaautomotive@Yahoo.com 0EcATUR Foua WHEEL DRIVE CuJB DECATIJR, TX 76234 ToMAilEN (800) 662-3649/(214) 641-2090 DESERT STEEL MoTORSPORTS 1863 COMMANDER DRIVE LAKE HAVASU CITY, AZ 86403 (928) 855-2208 EAsrERN Off-ROAD RACING AssN. TOM DELAUDER, SR. 1091 ToWNSl-ill' L1NE ROAD WELLSVILLE, OHIO 43968 (330) 532-4589 ENsFNADA BAJA OFF RoAD RACING Av. REFORMA·l136 ENSADA, BC, MX 011-52-646-1818989 Eus10 011-52-646-1715230 AARON Races for bugg:,s & Motorcycles EsTERO BEACH INTERNATIONAL Short Course Racing VICTORIA GALINDO ENSENADA, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO 011-52-646-176-6230 EDR EXTREME DESERT RACING P.O. Box 91615 AusnN,TX 78709 June 2012 (512) 848-4344 / E FAx (1512) 687-5310 LOORRS www.EDRTexas.com LUCAS OIL Car Truck Series OFF ROAD RACING SERIES Bike Quad Series <www.LucasOilOffRoad.com> FORDA August 4 - 5, 2012 FLORIDA OFF RoAD DRIVER'S Glen Helen Raceway September 1 - 2, 2012 AsSOCIATION Reno JASONLEIBIN September 22 - 23, 2012 (727) 376-4176 Las Vegas Motor Speedway Mar, Apr, May, Nov at Davidson Raceway October 27 - 28, 2012 GENERAL TIRE Firebird Raceway TROPHYLITE SERIES MAMARRITA OFF RoAD RACING DRIVE RACING ORGANIZATION WIS CARLOS ALVAREZO 760-352-6020 PANAMERICANA AVE #5105 Las Vegas, NV Co. JuAREz, CH1H., MX 011-52-1637-1799 GLEN HELEN BAJA CUP MICHIGAN BUGGY BUILDERS CHALLENGE SERIES PO Box6950 Dune Buggy Trade Show SAN BERNARDINO, CA 92412 (517) 543-7214 PHONE: (909) 384-9343 <www.buggybuilders.com> www.glenhelen.com MicmGAN OFF RoAD Lucas·Oil Regional OH Road Series CHAMPIONSmPS July 21, 2012 M.T.B. Enterprises Inc. December 8, 2012 15529 JONES ROAD Baja Cup Challenge GRAND LEDGE, ML 48837 GORRA (517) 627-6200 Motorcycles, Quads, ATVs and Pilots GEORGIA OFF ROAD only RACING ASSOCIATION MAORA 420 HOSEA ROAD LAWRENCEVILLE, GA 30245 Mm-AMERICA (404) 963-0252 OFF ROAD ASSOCIATION GPORRA P.O. Box664 GREENUP, IL 62428 GREAT PLANEs OFF ROAD (217) 962-1318 RACING ASSOCIATION E-MAIL: rooster@maourracing.us TIM HODGE <www.maoraracing.us> (402) 991-6048 M.O.R.E. ScoTIMoRRow MOJAVE OFF ROAD RACING (816) 792-2126 (AU races are short course, stadium scyle ENTHUSIASTS Classes, 2010 Sportsman, 1/2-1600, P.O. Box 1231 5-1600, Sport Truck, Quads, Tough Truck BARSTOW, CA 92312 Nebraska Raceway Park, Exit 420 on 1-80 760-253-4453 between Omaha and Lincoln.) <www.moreracing.net-For latest info check moreracing@earthlink.net < www.gporta.net> July 21, 2012 Freedom 250 HDRA Barstow, CA HIGH DESERT RACING September 8, 2012 ASSOCIATION Chili Cook Off Lucerne, CA P.O. Box 750208 LAs VEGAS, NV 89136 October 6, 2012 7th Annual Powder Puff <www.hdrarace.com> Barstow, CA July 4-8, 2012 · December 1, 2012 Fireworks 500 • Tahoe-Reno Motorpl~ Holiday 200 " Reno,NV Barstow, CA October 5-7, 2012 Southern Nevada 400 . M1cmGAN SPORT BUGGY As-Pahrump, NV SOCIATION November 9-12, 2012 DAVE BARRET Riot on the River 6363 NIGHTINGALE DR. Laughlin, NV FUNT, ML 48506 HIGH PLAINs OFF RoAD RACING (810) 730-9221 2000 W. QUINCY AVENUE #B MoroWEST WINTER TRiALs SERIES ENGLEWOOD, CO 80110 BILL MARKHAM 303-806-8062/303-781-0974 fax (909) 860-1857 <www.lTSrrials.com> INTERNATIONAL lcE RACING All events at Perris Raceway AssocIATION (At Reed Valley with a school) P.O. Box 8105 ST. PAUL, MN 55108 NATIONAL Mun RACING AssN. STEVE BEDDOR RT. #l, 2010 Box 380 (612) 937-3816/Fax 474-2769 DAVE OR MARLENE RYAN INTER-SHOWS MOTORSPORTS PALATKA, FL 32177 PROMOTIONS, INC. (904) 325-5422 P.O. Box 2910 NATIONAL TUFF TaucK AssN. MISSION VIEJO, CA 92690 Butch Chapin Motorsports Promo-(949) 582-2371,, tions ]EEPSPEED 1404 EAST 3RD STREET HAsnNGS, MN 55033-1415 1826 N. WINDES (612) 437-2459 ORANGE, CA 92869 714-538-7434/ fax 714-633-1724 NOORA Same schedule as Best In The Desert NORTHERN Omo OFF RoAD KAMl.ooPS OFF ROAD RACING RACING AssN. . Wh,ispering Pines Sports GARY WULFF (724) 283-2678 & Recreation Center E-MAIL Kaylaaron@aol.com l<AMLOOPS, BC, CANAO'A <www.Nooraoffroadracing.com> Buggies, Pilot/Odysseys, Trucks, Quads www.korrbc.ca. (Spring Valley Raceway, on route 518, 20 Mike Strange (250) 573-4003 minutes SW of Lisbon, OH) LAS VEGAS SANDSPORTS & (Thunder Valley located 15 minutes from OFFROAD EXPO Spring Valley) (626) 961-3782 NORRA <www.prerunners.com> NATIONAL OFF RoAD <www.megashow.cotn> RACING ASSOCIATION Curt LeDucs Off Road Swap www.norra.com Meet (661) 262-7171 L.I.T.R.E. info@norra.com <www.mexican1000.com> JEFF ELROD OFF ROAD EXPO (408) 926-0522 J1MARUTA SPIN COMMUNICATIONS (408) 247-4402 (415) 380-3890 Dusty Times

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Meghan@spinpr.com OFF ROAD RACING ASSOCIATION Volunteered Series PRESIDENT, 2010 GEOFF LEE 1243 TRICE ROAD LEBANON, TN 37087 (615) 453-5830 C!ASS REP., 2010 1/2-1600 BRUCE MEYERS (865) 453-1005 C!ASS REP., 2010 9 & UNLTD. MICHAEL MOORE (334) 271-7035 OUTIAW REP. DON PONDER (314) 631-8190 (AU Races at Wheeling in the Couni, 900 Acres) Omo OFF RoADERS INc. 1427 GOSHEN HILLS ROAD S.E. NEW PHILADELPHIA, OHIO 44663 }IM KENDEL (216) 339-4674 All races held at Harrison County Fairgrounds. Cadiz, Ohio ONTARIO OFF RoAD RACERS AssOCIATION RICK TICHBOURNE, Pusuc RElATIONS (519}-681-4192(H)/(5.½9) 457-2913(W) OUTLA w SEVEN PICKUP 9269 UMMELMAN ST. Louis, MO 63123 (314) 631-8140/Fax: ((314) 631-1921 PACE MOTOR SPORTS U.S. Off Road Championship 495 N. COMMONS DRNE AURORA, IL 60504 (630) 566-6100 <www.usoff-road.com> PENNSYLVANIA SHORT COURSE RACING SMITHTON HOLE RACEWAY 313 SKYLINE DRNE SMITHTON, PA. 15479 MIKE GEISER 330-683-6263 www.smithtonhole.com Short Course Offroad Racing All Races At Smithton Hole Racewa, PIKES PEAK P.O. Box 6962 COLORADO SPRINGS, CO 80934 (719) 685-4400 PINE BARRENS ROUGH RIDERS OFF RoAD RACING CHATSWORTH, NJ ·(856) 875-7591 PROTRUCK PROTRUCK MANAGEMENT !Ne. 11409 PlNEHURSf DR. LAKEsmE, CA 92040 (619) 885-4458 Protruck Schedule consists of aU SCORE and Best In The Desert Races PRo 1600 SHOOTOUT CoREYGO!N 559-647-6132 GOINRACIN@HOTMAIL.COM PURE ENERGY PROMOTIONS P.O. Box50 RICKETTS, IA 51460 (712) 679-2221 RALLY AMERICA <www.rallly-america.com> 8014 OLSON MEMORIAL HWY, STE 617 GOLDEN VALLEY, MN 55427 July 13 - 14, 2012 New England Forest Rally • Newry, ME September 22 • 23, 2012 Olympus Rally Seattle, WA 22ND RALLYE AlcHA DES GAZELLES The Only AU-Women's Off-Road Rally Raid fa The World U.S. Liaison:Kelly Van Hoesen 203-249-1340 Skype: kellanvanhoesen kellan@soulsidenet.com <www.rallyeaichadesgazelles.com> RG CANNING PRODUCTIONS, INc. OFF ROAD SWAP MEET P.O. Box400 MAYWOOD, CA 90270-0400 New/Used Off Road Related Pa~ts & Accessories • MIKE CAMPBELL 323-560-7469 Ext 507 mc@rgcshows.com RocK CRAWLERS AssocIATION Dusty Times OF AMERICA P.O. Box 1406 RlvERTON, UT 84065 (801) 446-5337/Fax: (801) 253-3176 SAN DIEGO S}fORT COURSE WINTERNATIONALS A New Series fry Snowbird Off Road Racing Pro Tracks, Desert Tracks, Buggies, Pilots, Tough Track <www.snowbirdracing.com> (858) 571-5088 SAN DIEGO OFF ROAD ExPOsmoN (888) 836 7918 SCCA RoADRALLY P.O. Box 19400 TOPEKA, KS 66619 800-770-2055 <www.scca.org> SFX MoTORSPORTS GROUP 495 N. COMMONS DRNE, Sum 200 AURORA, IL 60504 (630) 566-6100/(630) 556-6180 Fax SCORE SCORE INTERNATIONAL 23961 CRAFTSMAN Ro., Sum A CALABASAS, CA 91302 (818) 225-8402/FAX: (818) 225-8102 <www.score-international.com> November 14-17, 2012 SCORE Baja 1000 Ensenada To La Paz Baja CA Mexico December 8, 2012 SCORE Awards Night To Be Determined SCCA RALLYCROSS NATIONAL CHALLENGE August 25-26, 2012 Great Lakes National Challenge National Trail Raceway October 5-7, 2012 SCCA RallyCross National Championship Tulsa Raceway Park SNORE SOUTHERN NEV ADA OFF ROAD ENTHUSIASTS P.O. Box 270516 LAs VEGAS, NV 89127 702-277-2295 www.Snoreracing.net September 7 -9, 2012 KC Hilites Midnight Special SNORE/MORE Lucerne, CA October 26 - 28, 2012 SNORE 250 Jean, NV December 7 -9, 2012 Rage At The River Laughlin, NV SONS OF '{HUNDER 4 WHEELERS RACE DMSION KEITH STEWART · (714) 522-1899 SOUTHEASTERN OFF ROAD CHALLENGE STEVE RULE (800) 313-5621 OR((770) 963-0252 Mike Moore, 2010 (224) 272-5400 SPEED SPORTS EXPO MEGA PRODUCTIONS 3129 S. HACIENDA BLVD. #322 HACIENDA HEIGHTS, CA 91745 (626) 961-6522 SCTA SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA TIMING ASSOCIATION & BONNEVILLE NATIONALS, INc. P.O. Box 10 OROS!, CA 93647 (559) 528-6279 (559) 528-9749 FAX <www.SCTA-BNI:org> SOUTHERN SHORT COURSE OFF RoAD RAcING AssN. 4305 WOOTLARI( DRNE TAMPA FL 33624 (813) 962-2857 (All Races at Eastbay Race~, Tampa, FL) TRAXXAs TORC SERIES July 13-14, 2012 Round 7-8 Charlotte Motor Speedway (PRO only} Charlotte, NC July 19-20, 2012 Round 9-10 Route 66 Raceway (PRO only) Joliet, IL August 11-12, 2012 Round 11-12 Bark River International Raceway Bark River, MI September 1-2, 2012 Round 13-14 Crandon International Raceway Crandon; Wl CUP RACE &hedule September 2, 2012 AMSOILCup Crandon International Raceway Crandon, Wl September 2, 2012 Traxxas PRO-Light CUP Crandon International Raceway Crandon, WI TOYS FOR TOTS (619) 252-1197 /(619) 252-3093 UNADILLA VALLEY SPORTS CENTER P.O. Box 5119 EDMESTON, NY 13335 (606) 965-8784/FAX: (606) 905-8784 <www.unadillamx.com> VORRA VALLEY OFF RoAD RACING AssocIATION 1970 EAST 2ND STREEl' RENO, NV 89502 775-287-0615 <www.vorra.net> July 14-15, 2012 250 Mile Night Race Fallon,NV September 1-3, 2012 Yerington 300 Desert Race mare Happenings an page 13 Attention Race & Rally Organizers List your coming events in DUSTY TIMES free. It is the only.way some fans know about your event, if they don't happen to be on your club mailing list. Don't call, but mail your-2012 sche_dules as soon as possi~le for listing in this column; it could bring you some ex-tra entries! Mail your race or rally schedule to: £A.1sty Times 20761 Plummer St., Chatsworth, CA 91311-5003 June 2012 Trail Notes ... hard the next day to stay within a minute of each other until stage 12 when L'Estage started placing time over Urlichich. L'Estage finished 1:15.1 ahead of Urlichich. "It's a great win. We changed the engine, so it was a team win" said L'Estage, "Mathematically, I have a shot at the Rally America title, so it's not over yet." L'Estage is having a great run lately since failing to finish the past two Rally America events. He won the Canadian Rally Championship's Rocky Mountain Rally in Calgary, Alberta last week and followed up with an STPR Rally win a week later. This is L'Estage's third STPR Rally win having taken the top spot in 2008 and 2010. Higgins and Drew mounted a furious comeback targeting Urlichich sitting in second overall and winning 6 of 10 stages on the second day. Higgins overtook Urlichich on stage 13 to finish 2nd overall 1: 11.8 over Urlichich, who secured third overall for a consecutive podium finish in America. Higgins retains his 2012 Rally America National Championship lead with 78 points. L'Estage moves into second place overall with 41 points, one point over Urlichich who assumes third place overall with 40 points. Lauchlin O'Sullivan from San Francisco, CA and co-driver Scott Putnam from Minneapolis, MN took an impressive win in the Super Production (SP) Class by only 14.1 seconds over last year's SP Class STPR Rally winner, Ramana Lagemann and Chrissie Beavis. This is O'Sullivan's second SP Class win this year having won the Rally in the 100 Acre Wood in Salem, MO. Ramana Lagemann from Somerville, MA and Chrissie Beavis from San Diego, CA took 2nd place in the SP Class followed by 2011 SP Class winner, Travis Hanson from Woodsville, NH and co-driver Terry Hanson from Williamsburg, MI running 4:46.6 behind. O'Sullivan builds a larger SP Class lead in the standings with this win with 62 points over Hanson with 53 points. The much anticipated battle between Two-Wheel-Drive (2WD) American driver, Chris Duplessis from Bethlehem, NH and co-driver Alex Kihurani from Philadelphia, PA and the Summit Rally Team 's toP, drivers, Will Orders from Melbourne, Australia and co-driver Toni Feaver from Perth, Australia finally occurred at the STPR Rally. This was the first meeting between the top 2WD teams and Orders immediately placed time on Duplessis; It appeared that Orders was going to walk away with a win, but his 1989 Nissan Silvia began losing oil on the first leg of day two before retiring at the second service with electrical misfires. "Because Orders had issues with the motor, we took over the le_ad, happily, and held on," Duplessis said. He added they only finished the car on Thursday, arriving too late to run the course reconnaissance prior to the event start. Duplessis assumed the 2WD Class win by 4: 18.1 over Summit Rally Team's second team drivers, brothers Ross Allan and Scott Allan both from Australia. This is the Allan's first American podium. Chris Greenhouse from Cincinnati, OH with co-driver Brian Johnson from Bethel, CT returned to the 2WD Class podium in a newly acquired 2003 Dodge Neon SRT4. They won the STPR 2WD Class last year and took third in class at this year's running. Notably, two 2WD favorites suffered mechanical mishaps that forced them out of competition. Ford Racing's Dillon Van Way from Carencro, LA with co-driver Jake Blattner from Salem, OR in a borrowed Ford Fiesta R2 from Team O'Neil Rally School suffered a minor fuel fire at the end of stage 6 to retire. In. addition, Scion Racing's Andrew Comrie-Picard from Hermosa Beach, CA with Jeremy Wimpey from State College, PA broke their rear suspension in their 2011 Scion xD that knocked them out from the race. Andrew Comrie-Picard gives up the 2WD Class top spot to Duplessis by not finishing STPR. Duplessis has 66 points in the 2WD standings, followed by Comrie-Picard with 52 points. A scary crash occurred on stage 10 with FY Racing's Adam '(eoman and Jordan Schulze, both from tlancock, MI, in their 2002 Subaru lmpreza when they crashed into a tree. The stage was halted as emergency services took the team to Wellsboro l:lospital where they were later released. Yeoman reported a concussion and Schulze received minor cuts to the face. The competition continues on July 13-14 when round five of the Rally America National Championship heads to Newry, Maine, for the New England Forest Rally. Visit www.rally-america.com for details. ROBBY GORDON BRINGS STADIUM RACING BACK To LIFE -In the 80's ~nd early 90's the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group MTEG packed stadium venues across the country providing fans with plenty of exciting off-road entertainment. After the untimely death of Mickey, and his wife Trudy, the group began to dissolve without the dynamic personality of Mickey Thompson around to guide them. With his loss it appeared stadium racing had become history. That is until the multi talented racer Robby Gordon decided to add promoter to his long list of accomplishments. Gordon came to the birth place of stadium off road racing, the LA Coliseum, to introduce Stadium Super Trucks, SST. With the introduction of SST Racing Gordon says he wants to revitalize the old series that he was once a champion of and is determined to make it grow to the next level by adding to the program. Besides the SST program Big Foot monster trucks and amateur UTV side by sides have been added to appeal to the diverse fan base that makes up off-roading. The SST intro, or should I say party, that drew well over a thousand fans to see what was next for off-roading drew many of the previous MTEG stand out racers and some of the new big guns in short course racing as well. Danny Thompson, Glenn Harris, Ricky Johnson, and Cal Wells were a few of the noted former stadium participants and new hot shoes like Jessie Johnson, Luke Johnson, Andrew Caddell, and Sam Hubinette were among the many of who's who of off-roading in atten9ance. In fact there were so many notables there we don't have room to mention all. Judging by the huge turnout it looks like there is a serious interest in stadium racing. Gordon plans a 10 race season beginning in 2013. To entice racers to the SST Racing series Gordon is dangling a big carrot in the form of a huge mare Trail Notes on page 17 Page 7

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By Judy Smith MEXICAN 1·000 RALLY Michael/Brendan Gaughan_ overall Photos: Trackside Photo Mark McMillin/Krommenhoek was the Vintage Open Buggy class winner, they were a mere 28 seconds out of the overall in his Chenowth two seater. Michael Gaughan/Growney captured the overall NORRA Mexican 1000 win, seen here driving the South Point Hotel & Casino Dodge Ram Charger SUV. keep traffic moving. The first day started at the top of Laguna Sal-ada and finished at Bay of LA. In addition to Salada, which they traversed from north to south, they then did Diablo Dry Lake from north to south, through the whoops and the dump road, and into San Felipe. Then there was a Transit, on the pavement 'til they got to the end of the_ pavement, below Huerfanito a bit. That dirt road, which went past Punta Bufeo, and Gonzaga Bay and the road to Punta Final, then turned the corner just past Coco's Cor-ner, and went out to the highway at Chapala. Then the racers were on a Transit again, all on pave-For the third year, Mike Pearl-man's reincarnated NORRA put together an event that attracted a m~ed bag of old racers and Baja lovers set on having a great time. Michael Gaughan and his son Brendan (NASCAR truck racer), teamed to racetogether for the first time in their aged Dodge Ramcharger pre runner; and won "overall" in 13:44:58. They were the winning team in the vintage classes, but in the Evolution group, which allows practically anything, Clyde Staey, Robby and Bob Gordon, and Justin Matney teamed to win in the Hummer that Gordon's teammate Nasser drove in the Dakar race earlier this year. Their time was 12:08:42 The format, as in the previous two events, was that of a rally, with Special Stages and Transits; words and phrases that mean nothing to many Baja racers. It went like this: on the Special Stages, which were mostly dirt, the racers were to hustle along smartly, getting to the end of the section· as quickly as possible. But then there would be a "transit", which included some time on the paved highways of Baja. In these sections the object was to get to the end at a "target" time. If you made it on the button, well and good -but if you were late you received penalty points at the rate of one point per minute. If you were early, the assumption was that you exceeded the legal speed limit, and you received penalty points at the rate of two points in a shady place and wait for the ment, until they got into Bay of appropriate time to hustle on in L.A. At that point they'd reached to the Transit finish line, right the end of the first day, and if on the correct minute. Many of they'd had a fairly good day there per minute the cars and trucks did it that was time for relaxation, a nice Each vehicle had a "Road way, and for most it worked pretty dinner - there are plenty of places Book" - a spiral bound book well. At the end of each Special to eat in B of L.A., a shower, a (bound at the top) printed on Section (dirt) the race officials good night's sleep, and start all heavy paper, with maps of the wo~ld record the racer's time on over again in the morning. In the day's terrai{!, and then tulips for the Timecard (a page in the book) morning the course, the Special each section. The book measured for the day, and at the end of the Stage part, started southward 6" by 11", contained 98 pages and last section for each day, they tore out of B of L.A., just as SCORE weighed a pound. The object was out that page and kept it. They events do when they go through for the navigator to keep track of also recorded the racer's times on B of L.A. It then followed the where the car was by comparing a big sticker they'd adhered to the road around the shore, then into the "tulips" to their actual sur- car, somewhere by the windshield the next valley and down almost roundings. In actual fact, most so the driver or co-driver could to San Francisquito, turning entrants used a OPS set into watch them jot down the time right into the cactus, on the road their dash. This was a new thing Prerunning was not allowed. that leads to the ad little town of to some of the old racers, but The course covered a lot of fa-El Arco. After El Arco the road they learn quickly. There were a miliar territory for the old Baja wandered a bit on the old, old flock of rally bikers in this year's racers, but this year they'd made road, then went straight out to edition, highly experienced and it into a. four-day event, instead the highway, and the end of the enjoying the chance to get a look of just three days, and it finished Special Stage. The Transit then at Baja and compete at the same just west of San Jose del Caho. took the racers to San Ignacio, time. Their bikes wore more That not-so-little town is a rabbit from where they headed west, OPS hardware than one would warr.en of one way streets, (barely out along the beach, on a Special have thought possible. Some of wide enough for a pickup truck), Stage that went through Puri-the older bikes had those maps dead ends, traffic circles and. sima, and eastward to Highway 1 on rollers, (The rally bikers used bridges. The actual finish line was north of Loreto them too.) whi.ch have to he at a resort just on the edge of the The final section of the day constantly adjusted so that allow- town. The resort sat on a beach, was the pavement into town, ances are made for tire wear and the finish line was on the pave-where they overnighted at the the like. A safe bet would be that ment. Parking .for chase crews; end of Day 2. Day three went most of those guys just eyeballed spectators, and finished race car~ west from Loreto, through the it. On the Transits if they'd been was at a premium. It was hot. But hills and narrow roads, over to clever enough to figure out when everyone seemed to be enjoying Santo Domingo, on the Puri-they were due to arrive, they the chaos, except maybe the local sima/Insurgentes road. They had could haul butt and then stop gendarmes who were trying to a Transit on the highway for a __ .....,..;;__.;;_ ___________ ;;..... _____ _ bit, then below Constitucion the route turned eastward, and went over to the gulf shore, and Punta Coyote, new territory for most of the entrants. From there it dropped south, and finished after a short Transit at a hotel south of La Paz. The final day was a zig zag, from the neighborhood of La Paz, through rush-hour traffic, then over to Todos Santos, in the dirt, then back southeasterly, to High-way 1, at Santa Anita, and in to San Jose del Caho. Some thought the last section was an "easy ride", others found it fraught with dan-gers and stress, especially if they had never been over the road and didn't know what to expect. There was some soft sand near the end -it crossed several huge washes - which was a struggle for the tired motors and tired drivers. The total mileage for the race cars was 1339.29, no mean feat. And no one was supposed to have pre-run any of it. Of course, some of the entrants have been playing in Baja for 40-plus-years. Some own homes down there, many go to all the SCORE races, and some help with chasing, pitting, or even course layout at SCORE events. That gives them a slight edge. It must be remembered that NOR-RA does not mark their courses. Not one arrow gets put on the course. This is a bit of a puzzle, but apparently they do it that way because Ed Pearlman, Mike Pearl-man's father, did not mark the original courses for his NORRA events. However, beginning in 1974, when SCORE started put-ting on the races, the Mexican government insisted upon course markers, because they wanted to not have lost racers wandering around through farms and small towns, with all the potential for accidents that came with that situation. For some reason, they · don't seem to mind the lack of markers now, and it may be·that they assume that all racers are equipped with the OPS devices Willie Valdez, long time racer, navigator and race car builder, The Brian Collins/Gaughan Chevrolet Silverado finished fifth overall The Calvin Jensen/Micheletty AlumiCraft Grande buggy finished The Rudy Lekar Alumicraft Grande buggy finished fourth overall in the at NORRA, they were less than a minute in arrears at the finish. second overall in the Evolution contest, first in Buggies W/Back seats. Evolution division, seen here speeding along in the outback of Baja. Pages June 2012 Dusty Times ,.

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, chase crew and mechanics his wife Winnie, Vic Wilson and As usual for the time of year, his wife B.J., John Johnson and the weather was warm to hot Becky, and Lynn and Amy Che-all along the peninsula, with nowth. Mouse McCoy and Marty blossoming ocotillo and bloom- Fiolka are involved in the pro-ing cardon cactus. Bay of L.A. , duction of the film. Meyers and Loreto, and La Paz are three of Wilson were traveling together, the prettiest places in Baja, never and towing a couple of.bright red failing to provide gorgeous sun- Manxes, which they'd unload and rises and sunsets, and sensational use to make a sort of "grand en-views of the Gulf. While the trance" into each town. They also event was originally aimed at rac-putted around in them before the ers who'd been there in the past restarts. There must have been and might like to relive some of a million photos snapped of the their early experiences, there are two couples, representing as they newcomers who have found it a do the best of the beginnings of way to try a little Baja racing and the sport . touring all at the same time This year's Grand Marshall This year there was a camera was Dave DeSpain, the main JohnSwift/Camphadaprettygoodevent,theytookthewininVintage4.510pen crew, apparently putting togeth-guy on the Wind Tunnel TV SUV in his Ford Explorer, he was nine seconds out of the overall win. er a fl·lm on how 1-t was 1· n the S d · h D program on un ay n1g ts. e-said that he thought it was much next day. It was possible to "take "old times". In the evenings they Spain briefly worked as a press harder than the Baja 1000. He the maximum penalty" for a day grouped some of the old timers person assigned to the Baja races explained that at the 1000, if the· on which the car quit, repair it around bonfires -to "bench race". a decade or more ago, and he car was badly damaged, they'd overnight, and go on, to become It seemed a bit hokey, but did get discovered that he really enjoyed just load up and go home. But a finisher. Several teams did that some terrific people to come out the sport. His show is one of the at this event they wanted it fixed this year. But those overnight re-of hiding and join in the fun. few that will actually mention off overnight so they could go on the pair jobs took a serious toll on the These included Bruce Meyers and road race results, interview o(f road racers and show clips from an event. For the NORRA race he rode out from the east coast wjth a buddy on their street bikes, and then made his way down the peninsula on the bike, except for days one and two. Those days he navigated. Day 1 he was in the "Snortin' Nortin" Chevy Nova, which dates back to the '70s. Jim Riley was doing the driving, but DeSpain nav1gated tli e entire dis-tance. He worried in advance that his eyes might not be up to the challenge, but he learned quickly, and had no problems. Day two was another matter The two-time previous win-ning team of Bob Gordon, and Ryan and Frank Arciero, were out of the race on the first day when their transmission gave up. Gordon was running his '88 Chenowth Magnum, with all its original old components, and rather than try to make repairs, they sent it home with part of the Cantinued on page 1 D ----------------------,.-----------------------, .. The Hernquist/Lund absolutely perfect VW Baja finished seventh overall in the vintage Division, seen here racing across the Baja Peninsula. The Howle/Barret 2 seat Hi-Jumper finished second in the Vintage The Jakobsen/Flood Ford Bronco was the eighth overall finisher in 2.21 Open Buggy Class, they were the ninth overall finishers in the the Vintage Division, they finished third in their classification. _V._in_ta...,,g'-e_D_iv_is_i_on_. _______________ _ Dusty Times 2,160 Rooms And Suites 60 Table Games 2,600 Slot Machines 22-Table Poker Room Race & Sports Book 640-Seat Bingo Room 16 Movie Theaters 9 Restaurants 75,000 Sq. Ft. Of Meeting Space 4,600 Seat Equestrian & Event Center 80,000 Sq. Ft. Exhibit Hall Spa & Fitness Center Showroom 64-Lane Bowling Center LAS VEGAS BLVD AT S/LVERADO RANCH• SOUTHPOINTCASINO.COM June 2012 Page 9

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The Westham/Salmont duo captured the Vintage Open Truck leafspring win, they finished fourth overall in their GMC 1500. team and Bob spent a day sharing the driving in i:he Hummer Mike "Mouse" McCoy, in a nice looking Chenowth two-seat-er refurbished by Billy Gasper, blew his limited engine on the first day. But Gasper had a spare, originally purchased for $400 to use in some TV stunt that would have destroyed it, so he went north to get it and then appar-ently worked overnight to install it. The C;\r was then loaded on a trailer, and caught up to the race somewhere down south, near San Ignacio possibly At the last minute, Malcolm Smith and his son, Alexander, were persuaded that they should join in the fun. Malcolm had driv-en with Bud Feldkamp in their old Funco in 2010, but hadn't entered this time. Alexander had been in Guam, for the races over there, and was just barely back be-fore having to pack up and head south. They brought along Andy Grider to serve as chase. Malcolm would do the pavement transits, and Alexander ran the dirt sec-tions They had 98 entries, -and together with their chase teams that was enough to fill up hotel rooms the length of the peninsula Both the Colonial and the next door Crowne Plaza in Mexi-cali were full of off roaders, and in Bay of L.A., the town handed over the entire motel list to NOR-RA and let them deal with it. Every team was assigned rooms calculated to have beds enough for their team, with no reference to where anyone would prefer to stay. It works out fine in Bay of L.A. where all the rooms are similar, and nothing is very far from anything. It's sure that com-munities from San Felipe down to Loreto must love this event, because the chase crews don't just roar through town on their way to La Paz as they do for a Baja 1000. There's time for lunch, and they stop overnight and have dinner in towns that are often bypassed by the crews. A race that lets the crew stop at San Felipe or Gon-zaga Bay for a fish taco lunch is a definite change of pace, and a real treat At the hot, sticky finish line in San Jose del Cabo, Gordon's Hummer was the first finisher. He reported that they'd had no problems at all. The car, he said, was exactly as it had been when Nasser got out of it down at the Dakar event, except that they'd painted it his .(Robby's) trade-mark bright orange. Clyde Stacy, who tried this race in a Porsche in 2010, drove Day One, Robby's dad, Bob, drove to San Ignacio on Day two, with DeSpain navi-gating. Bob said, "We had fun!" But there was a short time when DeSpain obviously didn't think it was fun. He was navigating again, and the effort of reading the OPS screen and checking the landmarks got to him - made him car sick. Obviously, the Hummer went faster than the Nova had the day before, and they got into a twisty section, with small rises -and suddenly DeSpain wanted Gordon to stop because he was sick. Gon;ion was polite -but wouldn't stop - told DeSpain to open the window. So DeSpain threw up for about ten miles, and then the course leveled out, and/ or he had nothing left to lose, and things got better after that. At San Ignacio Robby got in and went to the finish at Loreto. On Day 3 Justin Matney drove, and then Robby got back in for Day 4. He said they'd had "No prob-lems - we're ready to win Dakar." Second place in that class went to Butch Jensen in an AlumiCraft pre-runner. The class is appar-ently officially called "Buggies With Back Seats". Jensen drove every mile, every day. He had no flats, and just one overheat-ing issue which meant he had to "baby it into Loreto". He put in a new water pump overnight. D. J. Micheletty navigated and Debbie Christensen was also part of the team Their time was 12:30: 16 In third was a sentimental The Trenery/Haynes Toyota Pickup was the second place finisher The Clyde Stacy/Gordon H3 Hummer took the overall win in the Evolution Class, they had 22 seconds in hand when they took the checkered flag. favorite, the team of Jerry Herbst and his sons, Troy and Tim, in a Chevrolet. Jerry hadn't driven a race car since the late '80s. He started on Day 1 and Tim fin-ished, then on Day 2 Troy drove and Jerry rode, and Tim drove on Day 3, and on Day 4 Troy started and Jerry finished. They had a problem free event. Their time was 12:30:21 Fourth went to Rudy and Hunter Lekar in another Alumi-Craft/Grande in the "Buggies with Back Seats" class. Somehow we missed them in the confusion at the fin-ish, so we don't know how their trip went. Their time was 13:45:54 In fifth it was Ben and Kim Schlimme in three-seat Alumi-Craft -the Buggies with Back Seats class again. Ben did the driving, Kim the navigating. Out of Bay of L.A. they lost a pow-er steering belt and flattened a right front tire. They also had to change a c.v boot. But other than that their trip was clean. Their time was 13:48:28 In sixth it was Russell Thomp-son who did all the driving in his Ecor pre runner which features an Acura motor, and is also in the Buggies with Back Seats class. Bri-an Truchin navigated and their guy in the third seat was Trey Lagese. Their time was 15:26:12 Seventh went to Cameron Thieriot and Sean Hoglund, in a Ford F/150, which was in a class called Trucks/SUVs/w/real doors Apparently, and surprisingly, we missed them also. Their time was 16:23:22 In eighth it was Klaus Rasch, Martin Garibay and Gus Vil-dosola, Sr. in a '69 Volkswagen sedan, running in the Stock VW Beetle class, under the Evolution heading. Vild9sola did the last part, and said he'd had "a little engine pulley issue 12 miies out", but aside from that it was a "great four days -no issues, no flats, grand time." Of course, they'd had to bypass the oil cooler after the pulley came off -but until then they'd had no problems, "It just ran and ran and ran ... we did change the steering box over-night at Loreto." Gus drove from Mexicali to Saldana, and then Bay of L.A. to Vizcaino, and then Todos Santos to the finish. Rasch and Garibay did the rest, and they had no problems. Gus was all smiles, apparently enjoying the little Volkswagen as much as he does his Trophy Truck in other events. Their time was 17:35:48 In ninth it was Ben Phillips in a Trophy Lite in 18: 12:37 Walter Prince and a cast of thousands finished 10th in the "trucks with real doors" class, driving a 2002 Ford Explorer. Walter hadn't painted it in candy cane stripes, but he did bring along 1000 small candy canes to toss out of the race vehicle win-dow, "kinda like the old days." he said. Tony Vanillo (of •the Lucas Oil short course series) drove part of the way, and he had a broken control arm Brandon Steele, who drove also, had a flat tire. Their time was 19:46:31 In 11th, in a Stock VW Beetle, it was Hector Sarabia in a VW sedan, in the "Stock VW Beetle" class. His time was 23:06:28 In 12th it was J. T. Taylor, who drove all the way and Doug Nagy, who navigated, in their J.T. Cus-toms Raven chassis - a big rock Racer, with a Chevy motor and huge tires. They were in the "Un-limited 4X4" class. They were on the same Goodyear tires they had run at the King of the Hammers race (which they didn't quite finish). The car is, of course, four-wheel-drive. They said that "in that last canyon we wanted to stop and play, there were some good rocks out there." The car is an old one • and-has some distinguished history as the first Rock Racer to race at the Pike's Peak Hill Climb. Their time was 29:24:53 The 13th finishing team was Guadalupe and Duke Wild in a 1989 Jeep Wrangler. Their time was 31:08:42 In 14th it was Doug Mendez and Jim Borden in a 2001 F-150, who finished last in the Evolu-tion Group, in 32: 16:08 There were a couple of dozen motorcycles, and while we don't usually write about bikes in this publication, there were a few notables at this event. First of all, the winning rider Octavio Valle, on a 2009 Honda, rode all the way himself. He's a rally and enduro rider, and rode in the Dakar last year, on this bike. So, while many of the bikers had a very short range, as far as fuel supply goes, Valle had a really big tank and could go 300 miles on on~ tank of fuel. This gave him a .huge advantage, and particularly at this event, when one of the pit crews was unable to get to their assigned spot on time due to an accident, it didn't affect him at all. His time was 14:23:04 Michael Gilkey was second on a KTM, in 15:22:52 . And in third it was the team of Malcolm and Alexander Smith, on a "cobbled together" 76 -84 Husky. Alexander blew up the "old Husky" about ten miles into the first Special Stage of Day 1 (on Laguna Salada). He man-aged to get it running again, and limped to the end of the stage, where they put a new top end on the motor and then had no fur-ther mechanical issues for thi:: rest of the trip. But he was one of the riders who needed gas and found · that the Mag 7 pit meant to fuel him, was not in its spot early on Day 3. Alexander started knock-ing at the doors of ranchos, after he used the small supply he car-ried on his back, but to no avail. Finally he found a kid on a Razr, and got some gas from him, and -• he also took some from one of the media teams (the guys working on the movie) that he came across. But he'd lost a lot of time, and positions And the reason for-the fuel di-saster was a long story, but worth mentioning. The Mag 7 crew was made up of eight teams traveling in five vehicles. They couldn't leave Mexicali until about noon on Saturday (the race started Sunday), because they had to wait for all the racers to get there and give them their fuel and tires and so forth. When the train of vehicles got into the hills south of Rosarito, and before Catavina, one member of the team was sideswiped by a big truck. He was shunted off the road and into a ditch, with three flat tires, (and only two spares,) and various other damages. No personnel were injured though. It took a full 24 hours to make repairs, locate a new tire that fit, and get it to the in the 4.01 Open Truck Leafspring class, they were 10th overall in The Saltzman/Faber Ford Bronco was the fifth place finisher in the The Bird/Wagstaff VW convertible finished in fifth place in the Vintage Open Buggy Class, they're seen here at high speed on the course. the Vintage Division. 1997 & earlier 108w 4x4, seen here on some non-dusty trail. Page 10 June 2012 Dusty Times

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team, and then get going again. They felt they could still get to their assigned positions on time, so they pressed on. But this now · meant that they'd have to drive at night, something they usually try not to do. As the crew assigned to the pit near Santa Rita (south of Constitucion) neared its assigned spot, a cow strolled up onto the road in front of them. The truck was towing a trailer, and tried vainly to stop in time, got it slowed down to about 30 miles per hour, and hit the cow It' s unknown how the cow fared, but the truck's radiator was damaged. They made repairs and carried on. They said they peeled off the pavement toward their assigned spot at about the time the racers left Loreto. They were about ten miles from the pit as the riders started to arrive. They'd been due to get there at 8 a.m., and didn't arrive until 11 or 12. Ultimately, they think they affected only five or six racers -but of course, they were all front runners, and understandably upset. It was a bad situation for all involved, but there's no easy solution. They would have liked to leave Mexicali much earlier, but had to wait until noon on Sat-urday before they had received all the parts and tires from the racers The Vintage group was the . biggest bunch, and the most inter-esting - in terms of the vehicles at least. The personnel were pretty interesting also The winning team of Michael and Brendan Gaughan had some-how never before had the fun of racing together. Both have been The Jerry Herbst/Gorsuch Chevy 1500 took the Trucks/w real doors class win, Jerry finished third overall in the Evolution division. at it for years, but son Brendan completely forgot that the folks put most of his time into the there enjoy watching the race, NASCAR stuff for a while, and and to enhance their own enter-dad, Michael, was busy running tainment they annually build a his business. In Michael's years little hump of dirt that makes as a two-seat buggy racer, he had the cars get a little airborne, and Lenny Newman as a partner, as lets them take some nice photos. Brendan was still in school, and The resulting jump was a bit too playing basketball. This time much for the old suspension of Michael did most of the driving, his Chenowth, and he blew out in their '88 Dodge prerunner but a couple of front shocks. He got Brendan drove the mountains on to the end of the day o.k., but Day 3 with his dad riding, and the crew had some work to do they were both in the truck at the that evening. McMillin ran near finish. It was clearly a treat for the front of the pack each day, each. They said they'd had "no driving what he called a "pre run" mechanical trouble." Their time pace -he said he was the "first was 13:44:58 guy without air conditioning .... " Mark McMillin, in a 1979 Then on the fourth day he picked Chenowth two-seater, with Gary up the pace "a little" and almost Arnold as navigator, was second. caught the Gaughans. His time On the first day as he got to the was 13:45:26, just 28 seconds area where the turn off to Gon-behind them zaga Bay was - he was in familiar In third it was John Swift in territory, enjoying the ride, and his '91 Ford Explorer. Swift drove The Coleman/Cole Jeep Commanche finished sixth overall in the Vintage Division, they were 1st in the Vintage 4.01 Open Truck leafspring class. all the way, but he had three different navigators: Chad Shuff-ield, Sean Roper and Eric Camp. Near San Ignacio they'd lost their fan belts and the crew was late getting to them because they'd had trailer trouble. But other than that they'd had a good run. Their time was 13:53:48 · In fourth it was Dave West-hem, driving the '78 GMC race truck that had been built in 1981 for Jeff MacPherson. Mike Nesmith bought it in '82, then Westhem bought it in '84 and he won Class 8 in the Baja 1000, in that truck in '87. At this event Randy Salmont his long time navigator and co-driver, drove on Day 2. Westhem drove the rest of the way. Their time was 13:55:26 Brian Collins was fifth in a 1989 Chevrolet Silverado. He said that the truck had started to "get a little hot late in Day 4." And also -as they came off the freeway his navigator "got messed up a bit" and they went off an embankment and flattened a tire. But other than that they'd had a good race. Their time was 14:33:54 The sixth place finisher was Mike Coleman in an '87 Jeep Co-manche in which he drove most of the way. His co-driver drove 100 miles from LA. Bay to the road crossing. After Day 3 they had the transmission rebuilt in La Paz, and the guy was so efficient they were finished with the work by 11 p.m. Their time for the race was 14:58:55 Bill Hernquist and Mike Lund, with Todd Henderson and Robb Ott brought their '84 Class 5 convertible Volkswagen to the finish in seventh place, in the "Open Buggy" class. The car Won Continued on page 12 The Sarabia/Navarro VW Sedan took second place honors in the Stock VW Beetle Class, the were 10th overall in the Evolution The Prince/Steele Ford Explorer finished third in class at the NORRA The Bacon/Wiechert Willys Flatfender took the silver in 1997 And Division. event, they were 11th overall in the Evolution Division. Earlier 108w 4x4 Category, seen here lifting out of the silt. Performance Proven for Desert & -Off-Road ·us-e 150 Heavy Duty Sizes to Choose from Detail & Pressure Wash Tanks Marine Holding & Water Tanks Bulk Storage &Waste Tanks R.V. Tanks Quality Products & Friendly Service RONCO PLASTICS, INC. • 714-259-1385· • FAX 714-259-0759 • www.ronco-plastics.net . 15022 Parkway Loop, Suite B • Tustin, CA 92780 • CALL, WRITE_ or FAX us to Receive a Free Catalog VISA ~-------------------------------------------------------~ Dusty Times June 2012 Page 11

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I • , l • • • • • • • • ! , 1 ' . , •• f . Cesar Vela took the silver medal in the Vintage Swing Axle Buggy It was a third in Vintage class 22.1 Buggy finish forthe Furrier/Nichols The Omartian/O'Boyle duo took a fourth place finish in the 2.21 Class, his Tubular Design 2 Seat Challenger is seen here just at Chenowth 1000, they were the 11th overall finisher in the Division. Open Buggy Class, they finished 18th overall in their El Lobo Buggy. _to_u_c_hd_o_w_n_. __________________ _ Class 5 both years at the Willow The car finished this event with their windshield, right where they the afternoon, but we couldn't all night to get to Loreto in time Springs events, and in the early a seriously cracked windshield in had to look out. Their time was catch it. Their time was 20:24:46 to restart. It meant they took the '80s it belonged to Tommy Min- 15:48:03 16:36:30 In 20th, the '77 Ford Bronco "maximµm penalty" for Day 2, ga. Apparently they all took turns In 13th place it was Mike The 16th car to finish was the of Tito Tinoco and Melissa Eick-but got to go on. The rest of their driving, navigating and pitting. Shatynski in a 1980 Class 9 T-Snortin' Nortin 1971 Chevy Nova hoff, in the '97 and earlier 108" race went smoothly, and they The only thing they had to do to Mag. At the fi.nish Shatyski said that Jim Riley drove, (with Dave 4X4 class finished in 20:28:54 finished very well on the last day. the car was to add a quart of oil. it had been "A fun run -good DeSpain navigating on Day 1) Chris Sullivan, also in the But their total time was 20:57:56 Said Hernquist, "What a hoot!" racing." He was tickled that he'd It's in the Vintage Production '97 and earlier class with his '68 The 26th place finisher was Their time was 15:05:47 been able to wear his 1985 Driv-Sedan class. Riley drove the first Bronco, did all the driving and Marco Tavarez in a Ford, whose In eighth, in the Vintage Open er's suit, which included a jacket three days, and after the first day finished 21st. He had a broken time was 21:20:32 Truck category, driving an '81 trimmed with a couple dozen he had a two-minute lead. Rick L drag link and welded wrenches In 27th it was Lance Kane and Bronco, Mike and Skyler Jakob-souvenir patches, all in prime Johnson drove Day 4, with his onto it to fix it. That happened af-Amanda Boyer in a '69 Ford, with sen had a good trip. Mike drove conditiorr. Shatynski's in the navy wife, Brenda, navigating. They ter Loreto and cost him "hours". a critter's skull on the front bum-all the way, and Skyler, in his first and his team mate, Tim King, is a had various other navigators also, Javier Tiznado's son, Armando, per. Their time was 22:48:51 "Baja 1000", in a car, thought it SEAL. They were in the Vintage and no flats, no problems at all was the navigator. Armando used The 28th finisher was the team was "awesome, killer", and has Swing Axle Buggy Class. Out of Larry Tunnel in Parker, built to race Class 9 cars and Javi raced of Tom Bird, Ray Fuentes, Scott decided he wants to drive. Their San Ignacio they'd had a bad flat, the Snortin' Nortin originally. with Mike Leon, legendary owner Wagstaff and John Koltura in a only problem with the Bronco which cost them ten minutes, Their time was 17:15;38 of Mike's Sky Ranch. Sullivan's 1970 VW Convertible winged was that they lost one rear brake and then a five minute penalty In 17th it was Ned Bacon and time was 20:31:50 Baja Bug. Bird is the own~r of caliper, so they just took it off because of that Kat Wiechert, in a 1960 Willys The 22nd finisher was the the car. They said their OPS and capped it and went on. Their They'd started day four Flatfender, which falls into the team of Dean Wayman and Andy went out, they lost their brakes time was 15:08:26 neck-and-neck, and finished in '97 and earlier 108 inch 4X4 class Frick in another old Bronco - a and lost a c.v boot and "all in all, The ninth place finisher was 15:56:49 They finished about ten min- 1978. Their time was 20:41:58 things went great." Everybody did Bob Howell in a 1979 Hi Jumper In 14th it wasDave Sykes and utes to four in the afternoon -and In 23rd it was the team of Ce- some driving, and Wagstaff got bug_gy. He drove all the way and Mark Stein and Scott Steinberger didn't stop to chat. Their time sar and Jorge Vela, and Martin Pa-to bring it across the finish line. said he'd had only, "little stuff' in a '72 Ford FlOO. All three was 18:04:29 lacios in a 1989 two-seat Tubular Bird bought it from the racing to bother him along the way. As in; a tie rod end broke. The car drove various parts of the course In 18th it was John Omartian Designs Class 9 car. They were in Denauli: family, who had used it _ sported a 2.0 liter VW motor, On one of the early days, with and Richard Jameson in a 1974 the vintage Swing Axle class, and as a pre-runner, and he "made it with rack and pinion steering Sykes at the wheel, they broke a "El Lobo " Buggy. It did not their time was 20:44:57 into a vintage style bug". Their and drum brakes. Howell's son, radius arm heim joint, and it cost sound healthy. The noise., they Finishing 24th it was Sol time was 23:07:33 Barrett, did the navigating. They them two hours for the repairs said, "started on Day 3." This is Saltzman, who drove all the way In 29"th it was Michael Nova! were in the Vintage 2.2 Open Then, on Day four, Sykes again a "Vintage 2.21Open Buggy" -and Justin Rovera, who navi.gat-and Charles Hendrickson in a '77 Bugf Class, and their time was driving, they broke another radi-though how it could be "vintage" ed, in a '69 Ford Bronco, made to Chevy. It was a replica of a Par-lS: l =52 • us arm heim joint, and this time with a' Chevy Eto-Tech motor in look just like Parnelli's old racer, nelli Jones/ Walker Evans truck, Spencer Trenery, his dad it took only 40 minutes to effect it, defies understanding. In addi- complete to the smallest lettering and ran in the Vintage Open,; Bruce, and Eric Haines all shared the repair because they now knew · tion to the terrible knocking in and Firestone tires. This was his Truck class. They said a fan came the driving in their 1991 Toyota how. The truck has a Dodge cab, the motor, their left rear shock third time racing the event, and off and the truck overheated. Pickup with the Ivan Stewart a Dodge chassis, Ford suspension, had been without oil since the both the other times he blew his Also the roll cage snapped at the lookalike paint job. This year they Ford front and rear fenders, and a day before. The reason for the motor. This year he ran out of gas driver's side front down bar, (the had no problems and finished six-year-old stock Chevrolet crate rod knock was apparently because a couple of times, once due to the weld didn't break -the tubing lOth in lS:Z7:0B motor - "a tired motor." They call they'd "smushed" the oil pan, Mag 7 problems, and that cost did) so they had hose-clamped it In eleventh the 1977 Che-it "The Fodge." It runs in the so it leaked, and the oil pressure him about two-and-a-half hours. together, but the front suspen-nowth 1000, originally driven to Vintage Open Truck class within went down to 10 psi But, nothing broke this year. sion is attached to that bar, so victory in Baja by Mark Stahl, was the Vintage category. Sykes said, They drove all the last day Their time was 20:54:36 that "fix" didn't work well, nor driven this time by Jeff Furrier "This is the most fun racing - this that way. At one point the driver In 25th the finisher was John did the front suspension. No-and his nephew, John Furrier. is the way to do it." Their time looked over and saw that the oil Gable, with Curt LeDuc riding val had to change transmissions They had some steering box prob- was 16:30:53 pressure gauge read "lOpsi" - so shotgun, in a 1971 Ford F-150, in overnight, and said that BFI lems, but they had a spare so they The 15th finisher was the he said to the navigator, "There's the vintage Open Truck class Racing helped a lot, for which just changed it. They also had team of Boyd Jaynes and Brian something wrong with the gauge They blew their ring and pin-he wanted to thank them. Nova! one flat near San Ignacio. And Godfrey who both navigated and - fix it!" The navigator told him ion at Mile 28 of Day 2 (south is the nephew of the late Don something happened to some of drove on their '68 Bronco, with a he "didn'.t think so." Then they of Bay of L.A.). A bearing was Francisco, Ed Pearlman' s partner their tin, and they did a nice job 351 Cleveland, which runs in the finally realized what was wrong. ruined and they had no spare. in the early years of NORRA. of "Mexicaneering", and made 1997 and Earlier class. They said Their time was 18:48:35 But J. T Francisco always stood out at the a new "upper tin" for off the they'd had a "very conservative" The 1973 AMC Hornet, driv- Taylor had one, and was ap- races, in pristine white pants with blower shroud, out of a bucket. day 4 - they'd stopped for gas, and en by Jeff McCullough and Jeff parently feeling generous. LeDuc a crease, he was perhaps the most It looked great. Their time was 'stopped to help a biker." They'd McClough was in the Vintage and Gable made the necessary elegant person ever at an off road l5:34:37 also hit a tree near the finish, and Production Sedan class. It crossed repairs to their Ford, went back race. He passed away some time Jonathan Swift drove the Vic had a. big spiderweb of cracks in the finish line at about 3: 10 in to Bay of L.A. and then trailered ago, and Noval decided it would Hickey builr 1970 Olds Banshee ...-----------------------------, Cutlass in the Vintage Open Truck Leaf Spring class. James Garner drove it in the '71 and '72 events, then Ray Swift drove it for two years, then Wally Dal-lenbach drove ·it once, and then it sat in Jack Mendenhall's barn for 30 years. Then Jack died, and a couple of years later his son finally sold it to John Swift Oona-than's dad) Jonathan drove all the way this year, and said he'd had a "pretty good run" until Day 4. He got caught in a bottleneck and had to push a buggy out of his way. He was "very fortunate" to have no problems. He said "Hickey did a very good job building it." They had put new shocks on it. Page 12 Top honors for the Stock VW Beetle went to the Rasch/ Vildosola Bug, they finished eighth overall in the Evolution division. June 2012 .... It was a first in class finish for the Phillips/Morehead Trophy Lite R4 in the trophy Lite Class, seen here just at liftoff. Dusty Times

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The Shatynski/King TMAG Class 9 Buggy finished first in the Vintage Swing Axle Buggy Class, seen here at speed for a 13th overall finish Jonathan Swift finished 12th overall in the vintage Division in his Jeff McCullough took the silver medal in Vintage Production Sedan in Vintage. Oldsmobile Banshee Cutlass, he's seen here at speed. in his AMC Hornet, Jeff is seen here at high speed on the course. be appropriate to distribute his ashes in Baja, so a box with a hole in it was set in the bed of the pickup, and Francisco's remains were gradually dispersed over the length of the peninsula. Their time was 24:03:51 Todd Zuercher and Andrew Norton shared the driving in their 1968 Stroppe Ford Bronco and finisned 30th. They had four navigators; Gary Hewitt, Nick Menudier, Eric Nesset and Terry Marvel. Hewitt, from Canada, came down in 2010 having actu-ally paid money to have a ride in someone else's Big Oly truck, but the ride never materialized. In 2011 he tried again, but the vehicle he was scheduled to ride in didn't make it to the start. This year his dreams came true, and he was a happy camper. On the first day, when Zuercher was "driving a little too fast for my skills", he "flopped the Bronco" on to its side on the Morelia Junction Road just before San Felipe. He had some friends nearby and they helped him change the resultant flat and get the fuel pump going again. On the highway near Cha-pala they discovered that they had a dead battery, but they had no other trouble Day 1. Day 2 went well, but Norton "went a little too fai; south" on the second Special Stage, a repeat of an error made by the team that drove the truck in 2010. On Day 3 Zuercher had "electrical issues", and fell behind by the time they'd sorted it out. The truck "burbled, coughed, stalled, and caught" until they found a problem with a circuit breaker. Their Day 4 was prob-lem free. They said they had a great time and are already talking abot1t coming back next year Mike McCoy said his team "made a Frankenmobile" out of his disabled Chenowth and went on to finish 31st. They brought the $400 motor down to San Feli-pe and worked all night to install it and get the car running again. They restarted the race either late in Day 2 or on Day 3, and had no serious problems after that. They did lose their brakes late in Day 4, and went through a cattle guard "sideways", which McCoy, who wasn't driving at the time, thought was pretty exciting. Greg Tracy was the skillful driver who pulled that stunt. Their time, with penalties, was 25:43:36 Ray Swift drove the 1958 Ford Edsel, which was considered an antique when it raced back in the early '70s. Teammates Sean Roper, Rylan Swift, and Willie Valdez were all part of the team that got it down the peninsula finishing in 32nd place. Valdez said he'd "Had a lot of fun, it's a nice old car." On Day 3 it lost a lot of time when the rear axle housing broke in half and had to be welded back together. It didn't get to La Paz until about 2:30 in the morning. They said, "ring and pinion trouble." They also said it "cracked the oil pan" about four miles from the finish. It was in the Vintage Production Sedan class, and its time was 28:42:47 Armando Guzman, and Mark McIntyre teamed in a two-seat 1986 Chenowth to finish 33rd. It had had its cage raised so that the current owners, apparently a bit taller than the originals, would not be bumping their heads. The modification gave it a strange, boxy look. Their prob-lems started on Day 1 when they blew an axle at Laguna Salada. So they then didn't ao the ·Bay of L.A. to Loreto loop, but spent the time fixing the car, and re-entered the event at Loreto. The car was a Class 9, and Guzman "brought it out of retirement." They liad ignition problems on Day 4, in the morning. The motor cut off, and he had to make repairs. Guz-man did the driving and Shea and Mark (Shea's daa) McIntyre and Rudy Sa_pien were the naviga-tors. It was the first time Guzman drove in a very long time -he's been navigating in Protrucks and other small truck classes, and has raced in both, as well as limited buggies. He said/, "I had to apolo-gize to a cactus. -Their time was 29:24:01 Jason Elmblad and Matt Carl-Jim Riley took the gold medal in the Vintage Production Sedan class, the old Snortin Nortin Chevy really looks great! Dusty Times son, in a '79 Ford Bronco, were 34th. They both drove and navi-gated. They said that their "front end basically broke off on Day 4." They'd also had distributor trouble on Day 1. But, when the front end broke off they were about 14 miles out from the fin-ish, so they got out their tow strap and, literally, tied it up. It wasn't pretty, but it held long enough to get them across the line. Their time was 30:59:29 In 35th it was the team of Jay-son Walmsley, Jack Krusche, Mike Kitchen and Tyler Smith in a '78 Chevrolet pickup. They were run-ning a set of tires with big gnarly treads and by a mile south of Bay of L.A., on that very rocky rnad, the tires had thrown so many rocks that they'd torn the blades off the fans. They'd already gone through two sets by the time they hit the pavement outside of El Arco. But one way or another they kept moving along, and on Day 3 they got stuck in the second Special Stage because they broke both ball joints when they hit a rock somewhere between San Ignacio and Loreto. Th!!Y bor-rowed a trailer from the Snortin Nortin team and tried to drive it in to the truck that night, but the trailer's axle came loose about a mile into the road, so they went back to Loreto. By then it was 3:30 a.m. The two guys who were in the truck Oason Walmsley and Jack Krusche) were doing fine, and didn't mind camping out. So Smith and his buddy got a couple of hours sleep, and then at 7 a.m. found an open parts store. They bought new balljoints, and had the trailer welded. They spent all day "gathering parts and welding on the trailer." About four p.m. they had everything ready to go, · and had located the race vehicle on the map. Now they decided it would make more sense to go around That is they went south on the highway from Loreto, across the peninsula, then north at Insurgentes, almost to Purisima, and in on the course, where the truck was - only seven miles from the highway. It was a longer trip, but much easier, especially for that empty trailer. By 7 p.m. they found their truck and its crew. The upper and lower balljoints on the drivers' side were broken, as well as the br"ake line. The tie rod end was still attached. But, they discovered that the balljoints they'd brought were not the right ones Somehow, using some Mexi-caneering, they used bolts and the tabs from their extra limiting straps to get the truck together enough to load it on the trailer. Then they headed south. The team that had been lolling in the Mexican sunshine, Walmsley and Krusche, did the all-night drive, and they got to La Paz about 4:30ish. At 8 a.m. they found an open parts store, and a mobil welder, who arrived just in time to weld up the new balljoints. The hotel they were staying"at in La Paz was "very helpful" and even went to the trouble of shut-ting down the power in the whole place so they could plug the 220v welder into the panel in the park-ing lot to get their job done Then they replaced the brake line and bled the brakes. By this time they were too late for the start, but got to the Special Stage in time to join in. The rest of the fourth day went "fairly well", with just a little overheating while going up the mountain. They finished at about 3:30 in the af-ternoon, and with their penalties, had a time of 31:07:00 Kay Awaad and Rihard Bartell in an '87 Ford Ranger, were ap-parently the final finishers, but we missed them. Their time was 34:56: 15. The finish line closed at 5 p.m., and the activities pretty much adjourned to the bar The Evolutiion class cars have a lot of fun, and enjoy the event a lot, but the real Baja-type racing is done by the folks in the Vin-tage classes. There's nothing like having to stop and make repairs The Jaynes/Godfrey Ford Bronco finished first in the 1997 & Earlier 108" 4x4 Class, they were 15th overall in the Vintage Division. June 2012 in some unlovely prickly spot in a 100+ degrees of Baja desert, to give one a sense of accomplish-ment -and maybe a chance to learn some new skills. Our hat's off to all the vintage racers who surmounted whatever difficulties they had and went on to get all the way to San Jose del Cabo. Good work NORRA More Happenings ... Yerington, NV October 6-7, 2012 Short Course Prairie City OHV Park, Folsom, CA October 27-28, 2012 Short Course • Prairie City OHV .Park, Folsom, CA VICENTE GUERRERO OFFROADCUJB PRoro. Crnovio GAMBOA 011-52-616-6-21-91 (2-6 p.m.) WESTERN OFF ROAD RACING AsSOCIATION URRY HENDERSON (604) 538-0692 WORRA P.O.Box 3241 SUMAS WA 98295 WESTERN PENNsn v ANIA WHEEL To WHEEL OFF RoAD RAcING PATRICK McGUIRE P.O. Box376 ADAMSBURG, PA (412) 527-6556 WmPLASH MoTORSPORTS 2939 E; Grovers Ave. PHOENIX, AZ 85032 (602) 971-3730 <www.whiplashracing.com> WILD WEST OFF ROAD RACE SERIES 406-321-4644/406-670-4647/ 406-698-9536 July 28-29, 2012 High Desert 100 Powell, WY September 22-23, 2012 Wil West 100 Columbus, MT WISCONSIN MOTORSPORTS SHOW (414) 747-1711 WISCONSIN OFF ROAD FESTIVAL TERRY OR BEV FRIDAY 5913 so. U.S. HWY 45 0sHKOSH, WL 54901 (414) 688-5509 WORLD SERIES OF OFF ROAD RACING FIA WORLD RALLY CHAMPIONSlilP P.O. Box99 CRANDON, WISCONSIN 54520 303-880-7221 <www.WRC.COM> XTREME INTERNATIONAL 1863 COMMANDER DRJV.E LAKE HAvASu Cm, AZ 86403 (520) 855-RACE/(520) 855-2208 BAJA OFFICE: 011-526-6225 ZR PROMOTIONS LUIS RENE MONTAflO C. CALZADA INDEPENDENCIA 200 -5 COL INSURGENTES Esn; 21280 MEXICALI, BC, MX (686) 564 6653 info@zrpromo.com Page 13

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l.J\J2C: !2•D PHILIPS RALLY ARGENTINA Loeb/Citroen Take The Gold By Martin Holmes Photos: Maurice Selden Sebastien Loeb and his Citroen DS3 took the gold medal at the Argentine Rally, he had 16 seconds in hand when he took the win. Just another week's work for Citroen driver Sebastien Loeb, when everything went right. It was his seventh successive win on a world championship rally in Argentina, and th.e 70th vic-tory of his WRC career. As usual misfortunes befell his rivals. Pet-ter Solberg was leading until his Ford Fiesta crashed down on rocks embedded in the road and smashed the steering, forcing him to miss three stages. He pulled back to finish sixth after winning more stages than everyone else put together but his ad-hoc teammate Dani Sordo retired from third place with electrical trouble on the final stage. And just at the right moment, when Loeb was be-ing challenged for the lead by his teammate Mikko Hirvonen who was just 2.1 second behind, the team issued stay-put orders. Loeb had won once again. Special memories were a second win this year in PCWRC for the Mexican Benito Guerra, yet another po-dium for the incredible Mads Ost-berg in his worn-out Fiesta, fourth place for DMack tyres and for Martin Prokop, a fantastic battle between the two VW Skoda driv-ers Sebastien Ogier and Andreas Mikkelsen which continued into the final day when Mikkelsen's suspension collapsed. The fifth round of the FIA world rally championship fea-tured for the second year a major initiative inspired by the FIA's long term vision for the future of rallying. Last year the organis-ers were persuaded to include stages with a major emphasis on a change of surface from gravel to asphalt, a policy since glob-ally scrapped. This year they were persuaded to inject an aspect of endurance, with the longest stage to be run in world championship rallying for many years, a section of 66km, run scheduled on the final day plus an extension of the stage distance which had to be covered on the same set of tyres. Normally the maximum stage distance betweei;i tyre chang-ing points is 80km. For this event it was 100km. The rally was run on the tra-ditional stages in the foothills of the Andes to the west of Cordoba, with gravel and often rocky stages. The elevation of the rally is the second highest after Mexico with stages going up to 2000 metres abovt sea level. Traditionally there have been deceptive water cross-ings, significant in view of a lot of recent rains in the area. There was a popular superspecial venue on the outskirts of the host town of Villa Carlos Paz, first used last year, while the Power Stage was a shortened version of the traditional El Condor stage. In the weeks before the event the or-ganisers agreed to reschedule the pre-rally formalities so that recce started during Monday, allowing the Qualifying Stage to be moved forward to the Thursday morning. A total of 43 entries in Rally Argentina were eligible for the world championship category, with another 17 entries eligible for the national championship cat-egory ·bf the event, making a total of 60 cars. This year the FIA had changed the regulations concern-ing the local Maxi Rally Car rules. Last year these cars were admit-ted into the Class 3 category for Group N cars, but not this year, so the three such cars competed for the national category (the ACA Cup) instead. This meant that there was a disappointing turn-out of top local drivers, the only one being Marcos Ligato, who is entered in the FIA Production Car Championship. Argentina was the final chance to see new PCWRC drivers this year. One driver back again in the series was the Indonesian Subhan Aksa driv-ing an Evo X rented from Race Torque, the Western Australian team which were running the MRF Skodas in New Caledonia, held at the same time as Argen-tina. Of the 12 drivers finally ac-cepted into the PCWRC this year, all except the English lady driver Louise Cook had chosen this to be one of their six qualifying rounds. Sebastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were the S2000 winners in the Argentine conflict, seen here nicely airborne heading for home. With memories of the shock, Agile Maxi Rally which he person-when the FIA approved a rule ally uses in national champion-for Cyprus 2009, that Pirelli's ship competition. gravel tyres should be used for One other special feature of a full day of asphalt stages, was the event was Eliseo Salazar. His the extended stage distance on entry on Rally Argentina rounds the same set of tyres an unac- off a most incredible m9tor sport ceptable demand on the official career for 57 year old Eliseo Sala-tyre suppliers? Michelin's Rally zar, who has raced in Formula 1, tyre manager Jacques Morelli NASCAR, Le Mans, Indianapolis, was unconcerned: "It is not the Dakar , and now competed in the same as the Cyprus story. When world rally championship. At the tyres for this year were de-the end of his active competi-signed we knew that the FIA were tion career on the racetracks of looking at ways of reintroducing the world, Salazar took up rally the element of endurance. We driving in his native Chile. He realised there would be differ- drove for the Hyundai importers' ent ways to bring "endurance" team in 2002 before moving on to back into world championship drive Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX in rallies." There was a curious dis- 2007. In Argentina he drove the sent between the two official tyre Prodrive rental Mini John Coo-suppliers for Argentina. While per Works WRC. Other novelties Michelin nominated their hard seen in the service park: Prokop compound tyre as their standard was running in the M-Sport rental tyre for the event, DMack went Fiesta instead of one of his own in the other direction and nomi- cars (the entry originally for Ke-nated the softer tyre. DMack tomaa was changed, with Prokop explained: "Probably Michelin now using the DMack tyres prom-felt that the hard compound was ised to the Finn) and for the sec-a fail-safe choice. So far as DMack ond time in five rallies Sebastien are concerned, we reckoned that Loeb had a brand new car while .. our soft compound tyres this VW team driver Sebastien Ogier year had a compound close to had a new Skoda as well. the harder compound tyre used Was the endurance factor what in 2011." The main on-event is-everyone wanted? Loeb: "I would sue _was the limited quantity of not like every rally to be like this. soft tyres for Michelin users , a There are a lot of new stages for us, problem which eased when the but certainly this rally has a bit of weather improved. everything. It is one of the most Next special feature of the complete rallies of the season, we event was the virtual absence of will have to push hard because top Argentine drivers. There were the other drivers will not treat various reasons for this. Firstly, it like an endurance rally." His the success of the Mruti Rally for-teammate Hirvonen: "I have al-mula means that the majority of ways preferred longer rallies, and top line national drivers use these certainly this event has everything cars. Secondly, Rally Argentina rallying has to offer. What hap-does not qualify for the national pens will depend a lot on the championship, but a national weather." The big pre-rally debate championship event run out of however was at Ford. They had Tucuman, some 700km away to to decide who should drive their the north of Cordoba, due to be car instead of the injured Lat-held one week later.' For these vala. Eventually Dani Sqrdo was reasons the only well known na- given release by Prodrive in time tional driver to compete on the for him to conduct about 200km event was Marcos Ligato, driving of tests in England. His codriver a Group N specification Subaru Carlos de! Barrio meanwhile had Impreza, instead of the Chevrolet agreed to compete alongside Sala-~ Marcos ligato and Ruben Garcia were the 15th place finishers in Giving lots of fans a bath, Martin Prokop and Zdenek Hruza finished Argentina, seen here plowing one of the many water crossings in Dani Sordo and Carlos Del Barrio were out of the rally with electrical the rally first off the podium, seen here in their Ford Fiesta RS. their Subaru lmpreza WRX. problems on Stage 19, they're seen here at high speed on the course. Page 14 June 2012 Dusty Times

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Mikko Hirvonen and Jarmo Lehtinen get a bit out of shape as they hurry to the rally's end, they',e seen here in their Citroen DS3. zar, and in the end Carlos reverted to Dani and the retired codriver Marc Marti (the 2004 Argentine winner, with Carlos Sainz) was enlisted to return from retirement to be with Salazar. When the teams got to Villa E::arlos Paz the conditions were not welcoming. Rain, mud and rough stages and on higher ground fog as the cloud level came down to zero. Happily the fog was mov-ing around during recce, so there was hope that on at least one of the passes on the affected stage would be clearer. "Free practice" produced a tantalising prospect with four drivers (Loeb, Solberg, Hirvonen and Al Attiyah) sepa-rated by 0.2 second, each tactically making their second run late dur-ing the practice period in order to be able to prejudge closely the conditions when they would run the Qualifying Stage, Solberg how-ever only made one run. He said "We wanted to save the supply of soft tyres". With poor conditions predicted for the event, he then chose the less suitable hard tyres for the Qualifying Stage, thinking about his limited allocation of the preferential soft compounds. In fact, it made surprisingly little dif-ference to Solberg's selection pro-cess. The rain startec) to fall again during QS and the conditions got progressively more slippery. First car through, Loeb, was fastest - by 0.8 seconds from his teammate Hirvonen, who was third car through. The first four through the stage ended up with the best five times. Solberg on hards was fourth, one place behind his team-mate Sordo who had softs. For the team, Solberg's choice wisdom had no unwelcome consequence. The selection process went largely in accorda_nce, not in-versely, with the times scored on the Qualifying Stage, the only ex-ception being when Petter Solberg swopped with his new teammate Dani Sordo for taking the third place. The famous world champi-on who resolutely opposes the old automatic running order system, ... Loeb, opted to be - first on the road for the stages starting on the Friday. Absent from the start lists were the young German Valentin Hummel and the Venezuelan Al-berto Adriani. (Day 1 part 1) Thursday - 6 Stages - Gravel - 204kms 42 cars lined up for the Super-special on the Thurs<:lay evening, in this instance in promotional order, with the fastest drivers in the middle of the field running an hour after the earliest cars. Fords scored fastest time on the opening superspecial, Petter Solberg fitted soft tyres this time and it paid off, he was fastest on the long (6km) stage by 3.6 seconds from his teammate Dani Sordo, and Mar-cos Ligato was fastest in PCWRC, again by 3.6 seconds, this time from Nicolas Fuchs. Sadly the rally lost Ramona Karlsson. Her Mitsubishi was reported to have collided with an organisers' re-covery vehicle on the approach to the stage, the radiator was dam-aged and the engine failed on the stage. ,Daniel Oliveira hit a bank and damaged the front suspension and he incurred a maximum ten · minute penalty but was allowed to drive the stages on the Friday. (Day 1 part 2) Friday -A night of little sleep for the crews as the rally restarted at 0545, when the running order for the full Day 1 was by driver selec-tion. This remarkable mega-long day had competitive distance of 204km, the longest day for nearly ten years, starting just before dawn. There were two long stages, totalling 89km, before service and tyre changes, then the same loop was run again followed by a 20km stage to round off the day. Nov-elty? The rally had not run the first stage of the loop since 1994, before the present day drivers were active. Endurance? Sure. The FIA would be happy if the drivers found it hard work! The fear of fog on the higher altitude stages was inescapable, offering a huge advantage to drivers who had com-peted here before. Mads Ostberg and Jonas Andersson took the bronze medal in Argentina, they're seen here in front of admiring fans in their Ford Fiesta RS. The first stage of the full Day Hirvonen. Solberg: "This morn-1 was delayed by 62 minutes, ing the conditions have been very because of the breakdown of the difficult. I am driving sensibly, as event's refuelling truck heading much as the conditions allow!" for a remote refuel location. For Of the 41 cars which set off the second rally running there from Villa Carlos Paz on Friday were difficulties because of Re-morning only 33 were still run-mote refuel problems!!! A criti-ning after the first midday service cally important consequence was break. Conditions were still dry that the front running cars now but cold, but nevertheless fourth started off in real daylight and the placed Sebastien Loeb changed later crews drove the final stage in to hard tyres. as he set about re-darkness. The conditions were ducing a 34.8 seconds deficit improving, the overnight rain from the leader Solberg. After -had stopped, the fog had gone the first stage Loeb had moved away and the surfaces were drying up to second and by the arrival out. Sebastien Loeb took 1.9 sec-at the second midday service he onds off early leader Solberg, de- was leading. _Principle victim spite a spin and having to reverse, was Petter Solberg who stopped and rose from an overnight eighth close to the end of stage 4 with to second place. Mikko Hirvonen a broken steering arm and then rose from 11th to fourth, behind damaged the suspension on the Sordo. Already the punctures other side. He had impacted were coming for Ott Tanak and heavily on the sumpguard and the Martin Prokop (who drove 20km car lasted 10km before it finally on a flat) while Nasser Al Atti- stopped. Ford's misfortune neatly yah was suffering a painful neck put the two Citroen teammates ("sleeping on a bad pillow") which in a 1-2 position, in front of Dani took away his concentration and Sordo. Sordo was cautiously keep-led to a spin. .Evgeniy ~ovikov ing a little in reserve. aware of his hit a stone beside the track which suddenly enhanced responsibili-damaged the rear suspension ties. Ostberg arrived at the end but he continued. After stage of stage 4 in despair, the engine 2 Solberg's lead over Loeb was was showing signs of the same 8.3 seconds. The 51km stage 3 misfiring problems he had in Por-(Ascochinga to Agua de Oro) is tugal, while Tanak had gone off · widely considered to be even more the road and got stuck. Araujo testing than the final morning was worried as his Mini's engine 65km Sunday stage. Loeb had lacked top end power eventually two more spins, reporting that his traced to a simple wastegate fail-car was oversteering, sometimes ure. Salazar was gradually getting uncontrollably, while teammate. his confidence, and quipped "By Hirvonen compl~ined his car was next week I can be leading this understeering. Sordo eased his event!" (Finally he finished a pace, thinking (wrongly) that he splendid 12th). On stage 5 Neu-had a puncture. Novikov stopped ville ended his run when he went reportedly having lost a wheel. off the road and rolled. Ostberg Tanak stopped and changed a had a bad moment when the in-steering arm on the stage (losing tercom failed and he nearly went a quarter hour). Thierry Neuville off the road -but the engine was spun in a water crossing. Paulo now working well, after re-setting Nobre hit a rock, stopped for a the mapping. Sordo deranged the short time to check his car. Ev-rear suspension but did not suffer erything seemed OK, so he con-much time loss. Hirvonen found tinued, but after a few kilome-he was struggling to keep up his tres the suspension failed and he speed in ruts which were now stopped in the stage. Solberg's much deeper. lead was now 20.l seconds from Because of the earlier delay Martin Prokop and Zdenek Hruza drove their Ford Fiesta RS to a the light was fading fast as the cars tackled the final stage of the day, but the most dramatic consequence was that the con-ditions were still very slippery, especially where there were fast bends near the end of the stage -and most drivers needed to use hard tyres. Araujo's earlier engine problem had been traced to a broken wastegate valve and was repaired at the final service and was fine for the final stage. At the end of the day Loeb had justified his number one running order selection and finished exactly 0.1 second ahead of his teammate Hirvonen. It was interesting to see where the Rally 2 ("SupeR-ally") drivers now stood in the overnight rankings, Solberg was lying 11th. In PCWRC the overnight lead-er Ligato dropped back to third place while Nicolas Fuchs pulled into the lead ahead of Michal Kos-ciuszko. Trivino hit a rock which damaged the suspension, Bertelli lost more than 20 minutes having lost a wheel. Benito Guerra was pacing himself, "This rally is going to be decided on Sunday, There is no hurry I took hard tyres!" After the second midday halt Fuchs continued to lead the category, starting the afternoon 6.0 seconds in front of Ligato. After the first stage Ligato had reduced this to 2.8 seconds but he then stopped on stage 5 with a TCA bolt fail-ure. Guest driver Ezequiel Cam-pos stopped on stage 4 with trans-mission trouble. Kosciuszko had brake problems and his steering wheel came loose. The DMack driver Fuchs ended the day with a lead of 5.9·seconds over Michelin driver Kosciuszko with Guerra third. There was a great battle be-tween the two non-championship VW team Skodas with Andreas Mikkelsen and Sebastien Ogier just 0.3 second apart at the first midday service park after more than one hour of rallying. On the mid-afternoon loop Ogier dropped about four seconds with a puncture on stage 4, then Mik-kelsen slowed on stage 5 with a broken damper, so the gap be-tween them was about 20 seconds, with Mikkelsen sixth overall. Day 2 Saturday - 7 Stages -Gravel - 166.54kms 40 cars, including all 14 Pri-ority drivers lined up for the restart. The only championship retirement being Ramona Karls-son. The reverse order rule was followed in an approximate but not exact sense, with three drivers running under Rally 2 running at the head of the field (Tanak, Novikov and Nobre). The PC-WRC drivers were sent off mixed into the local Group N driv-ers. The leading Citroens were Cantinu1d an pag116 Benito Guerra and Borja Rozada drove their Mitsubishi lancer Evo fourth place overall finish in Argentina, seen here airborne and Nasser Al Attiyah and Giovanni Bernacchini drove their Citroen DS3 X to an 11th overall finish in Argentina, seen here at high speed. cornering hard. to a ninth place overall finish in Argentina, seen here at the car wash. Dusty Times June 2012 Page 15

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.. . running 14th and 13th cars on the road and Solberg seventh. The competition headed to the south of Cordoba where the stages were of lower elevation, fast roads often with many blind crests. Although there had been rain overnight the conditions were clearer in the morning, and it was not so cold. The real challenge came for the Michelin drivers who had now almost exhausted their supply of soft tyres, not helped by the first stage being unexpectedly com-pletely dry. Time for mixing and matching the tyres. Dani Sordo relied on wet conditions and went entirely for softs, to his cost, and he lost touch with the lead-ers. At the end of the first stage of the day fourth placed Ostberg (safely with a four minute buffer in front of fifth placed Al Attiyah) was found with hard tyres on the front and softs on the back. Then came Loeb with hards on the right side of the car and softs on the left. Sixth placed Prokop was using the abundance of available soft DMack tyres and had no such dilemma, as was the PCWRC leader Fuchs. There were three stages in the loop, the first in a reverse direc-tion while the third and longest (39.74km) was completely new, featuring a lot of changes in con-ditions and ended with a long flat out section. Drivers were nervous as they had suffered bad fog during recce. Solberg spun on the second stage, and the third stage saw the excitement build up. Loeb had a near moment, bounced his sumpguard on a rock and saw the front of his car launched into the air: Neuville had a similar experience and had a spin, even though he had been going more cautiously after his crash the day before. Ostberg, was driving as cautiously as he could, to preserve his soft tyres, but slid into an open bridge putting one wheel off the edge. Araujo had a bad handling problem. Novikov complained that 2km flat out on the rev limiter was bad for the health of an engine. Oliveira first had power steering failure then the mounting for the steer-ing column broke. Most serious problem here was severe suspen-sion damage for Nasser Al Attiyah who did not attempt to drive back to the midday service. Loeb and Hirvonen were starting to pull well ahead, with only Solberg able to match their times. There was 2.1 seconds between the Citroens at the end of the loop with Sor-do lm30s behind Hirvonen in third. Al Attiyah's trouble meant that in fifth place behind Ostberg was Prokop, eight minutes behind the leader. The rally had now reached just 57% stage distance mark, time for much more to happen. It was decision time for Citroen. It was clear that Loeb's moment on stage 9 had frightened not only him but also the team, who could see their 1-2 situation was at risk. At a most convenient moment, when Loeb was just in the lead, the team announced a "stay-put" order. Meanwhile Nobre had trouble and left the midday service park three minutes late and then stopped when he reached the start of stage 10 and stopped with overheating trouble. Conditions were completely dry on stage 10. Ford started making calculations about Solberg's ulti-mate finishing position. Solberg: Page 16 "I reckon we can end up fifth if took the start again. Like the day category. The departure of the Trivino suffered a broken gearbox, there are some retirements ahead before there were small changes in non-scoring Minis did not help on the final stage of the first of us". He was anyway the fastest the reverse running order in that Solberg's cause but after stage 18 loop. Guerra was now secure in driver now on the stages. Al At- Tanak, the third lowest Pl driver, he had overtaken the non cham-the lead and eventually finished tiyah was still in the results charts, was made to run first car on the pionship Ogier, and was up to over four minutes ahead of sec-but slipping downwards at the rate road. 35 drivers left pare ferme seventh (sixth Makes' champion-ond placed Fuchs, with Gorban of five minutes a stage. By the for the final day. A late withdraw- ship). Mads Ostberg was getting third. Ligato eventually managed end of stage 11 Solberg (who made al was Oliveira (terminal engine worried, "The car is almost uncon- to finish fourth in PCWRC after fastest time every stage in the af-failure). The uncanny consistency trollable. Just lucky I do not have having the power steering break ternoon) had started his upwards of the drivers continued. Neither to push it, I couldn't!" Martin in the first stage of the morning, move, passing Al Attiyah into the of the Citroen team drivers made Prokop was lying fifth and get-but n,early 13 minutes behind the top ten and after stage 12 was only a top six time on the long stage ting really excited, the highest category winner. 0.6 second behind Araujo. On but they finished the stage with he and DMack tyres -had ever In the VW-Skoda camp, the the final orthodox stage of the Hirvonen just 1.2 second faster been. Nasser Al Attiyah, whose battle was as intense as ever. On day Oliveira struggled to the end than Loeb - over 65km! It was a rally had never been particularly the long first stage 3.2 seconds of the stage, dumping a lot of oil cloudy morning with none of the speedy, was going even more care- separated the Skoda of Mikkelsen on the ground at the stop con-predicted fog. After the breath- fully, keeping his tyres in as good in front of Ogier, who was just trol. The Citroen drivers however taking dramas on the long stage as possible condition for the final 1.8 second in front after the were a class apart. Driving under in Mexico, it all turned out to be Power Stage. Just when the only stage. There was drama when orders not to challenge each other, a disappointment. Drivers were cause worth discussing was the Ogier arrived at the end of the Loeb beat Hirvonen on the 39km cautious, having made their pace- Power Stage, which was assumed long stage, furious that he had stage - by 0.1 second! Neuville was notes in foggy conditions, and to be a gift for the flying Solberg been given a misleading mid-stage fastest on the final Superspecial of many had their positions protect- (fastest on every stage of the day) split time, and volubly critical of the day, his second such win both ed by big time buffers. First car one final drama unfolded. Go- his team! Then came disaster for scored in Latin America! Loeb th~ough the stage again was Tanak ing into the Power Stage Dani Mikkelsen, again with suspension ended the day with his lead over who reported patches of ice on the Sordo had an electrical problem, trouble, losing over five minutes Hirvonen standing at 7.2 seconds. road and cows straying on to the and in the middle of the stage the and he dropped down to tenth, Fuchs lost his lead in PCWRC track. Sordo admitted to a spin car stopped for good. A terrible Mikkelsen: "6km into Guilio to Kosciuszko on the opening and having to reverse. Solberg disappointment for Ford, when Cesare we thought we had a punc._ stage of the day with a differential was quickest, up to ninth. Then Sordo was looking like providing ture, then a damper punched itself problem but struggled on, ben-he benefited from Mikkelsen's re-some saving grace. It was the through the bonnet in front of efiting from his rival Kosciuszko tirement, he was up to eighth. By second 1-2 for the Citroen pair-our eyes." Rally over. reporting a loss of engine oil the time the rally arrived at the ing of Loeb-Hirvonen. Ostberg For Citroen-Total their 1-2 pressure and stopped, elevating Guilio Cesare stage it was a glo- was again pn the podium, saying result saw their lead in the Makes' Guerra to second. Guerra: "I am rious cloudless day. Then came once again with heartfelt feel-championship increase from 12 still saving my car for tomorrow". the traditional two stages, Guilio· ing that he was really sorry for to 45 points. In the Drivers' Ligato was back in the rally after Cesare and El Condor. Hirvonen Dani. Ostberg wasn't the only championship Sebastien Loeb was suffering steering and suspension was 0.2 second behind Loeb in person to benefit from Soi:do's re-dominating once again extending trouble the day before, reporting second place, but it was all under tirement. Prokop fjnished fourth his lead to 18 points with just six that the front suspension on his Citroen control. and really could not believe how points covering the next three car was still unstable. Oleksii It was stilt far from over. Sec- things had worked out, ahead of drivers Petter Solberg and Mikko Kikireshko (oil cooler) and Sub-ond time through Guilio Cesare Neuville fifth and Solberg who Hirvonen, who had now got back han Aksa (tie rod) both stopped and BOTH the Portugal team had eventually risen to finish sixth ahead of Mads Ostberg. There on the stage. Bertelli stopped on Minis stopped, both with sus- overall-and fifth (as predicted!) in was a lot of change in the PCWRC the road section from stage 9 to pension and steering damage the Makes' championship line-up: standings following retirement for service while Linari was 14 min-within 2kms of each other, which In PCWRC, there was dis- Kosciuszko, who lost his lead in utes late arriving at service and meant of the four cars from the appointment for DMack, when the series to Benito Guerra, who Trivino 24 minutes late (power-Ralliart Italia and Motorsport Fuchs struck trouble on the had now won the category on both steering). Linarr was now running Italia camp which came to Ar-long first stage with a broken qualifying and successive, South last car on the road but Trivino did gentina,. three were now out -but turbocharger and then had a American rounds, while Nicolas not start stage 10. Campos had the fourth car was still running broken braker caliper on Guilio Fuchs and Gianluca· Linari had central differential trouble. Fuchs -and its driver Benito Guerra was Cesare. There was one further re-got ahead of the Ion~ 26~~ was six minutes late leaving ser- handsomely leading the PCWRC tirement from the category when Louise Cook. uuc:=1.,,,,,,;. vice (60 second penalty), 32nd PhHips RaltyArventina (RA)V111a c-. Paz26/29.04.2012 WRC round 5, PCWRCround 3 wc points "We had to change all the 1 (1)Sebastien LOEB/Doniel Elena F/MC Citroen DS3 (M) WRC CA9~ZW (F) :.034m.38.8s. car at service, it seems!" 2 (2)Mikl<oHIRVONEN/JormoLohllnen FIN CttroenDS3(M) WRC BF911XB(F) 5".34m.54.0S. But it was worthwhile as ! l~~I ~~n°i,=~-=~~;,...,.. ~ ~=~==~)~/ ::g ::~i~:l ::~~:~::~:: Guerra had been dos-: l!l~:7:0~~~~~~:~:;!:I ~/GB =ie~!3~~\M> ::g ~~~fil~B> : ::e~:~ :ci•J~l ing fast. After stage 10 7 (15) Sobutien Ogler/Julien Ingrassia F Skodo Fabio S2000 (M) 2 H-VM138 (D) 5h.47m.04.1s.# Guerra was 21.8 seconds : l~l~=~~~~:~a~;:;:e~acc111n1 ~ ~~ie~:3~t/M> ::g =~~~\~~> ::~::6~:::l!I behind Fuchs but then :~ l~~TAN~~~u~~aRouda ~~ ~:u~::f i~~kvox(M) ~3c 6~\~clfB> :::!:::!::<3> fochs speeded up to con-:~ (52) ElisaoSalazor/MarcMarti ~~~ ~~.;':~,=:~\~l ~;3c ou11HJZ(GB) : :\~:~ :~:: solidate his lead. On 14 l!!l :~~s~-~=":~~:!ano UA MitsubishilaneerEvolX(M') PC3 ~~:i1in~) 6h.18m.45.2s. the Superspecial Guerra ;~ l!~I ~~~ ~~=1'::=: ~ ~::~ :;~: ~<i~> :g~ ~=1!~<~/ ::::;::<2> beat Liga to by 2. 2 sec-17 (49) Ezequlal Campos/Christian Winkler RA Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (D) PC3 JMY687 (RA) 6h.47m.27.4s.(5) 18 (45) Subhan Aksa/Hade Mboi RI Mitsubishi lancer Evo X (M) PC3 1 DHK 690 (WA.AUS) 6h.47m.44.9s.(4) PC 25 18 15 12 10 25 18+2 15 12 10 8+3 6 4 2+1 1 onds. Heading into the 23 (34) Lorenzo Bertelli/1.orenzo Granai I Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX (M) PC3 DH759JJ (1) 7h.35m.06.4s.(8) final day Fuchs' overnight :~!~ca~:,;~:=·o!!r~t!'g~~cj;~she+':i,::u:i:;,i;:n'i:.~:i~":;~,!:':;_ D=DMack, M=Micheiin, (M•)=Michelin but with Pirelli stickers. (Missed stagas or road sections) lead over Guerra in the category was of 50.3s. The VW Skoda team battle was as intense as ever. On the long 39km stage (stages 9 and 12 -which neither Mikkelsen LEADING RETIREMENTS (3) Dani SORDO/Carios Del Barno (9) Daniel OLIVEIRA/Carios Magalhaes (12) ArmindoAraujo/Miguei Ramalho (14) Pauk> Nobre/Edu Paula (18) Andreas Mikkelsen/Ola Floene (31) Mk::hal Kosciuszko/Maciej Szczepaniak (41) Oleksll Kiklrashko/Pavto Cherepin (42) Ricardo TrtvtnolAlex Haro (44) Ramona Kartsson/Mlriam Walfridsson . E BR/P p BR N PL UA MEX/E s FOC"d Fiesta RS (M) WRC FOC"d Fiesta RS (M) WRC Mini John Cooper Woc1<s (M) WRC Mini John Cooper Woc1<s (M) WRC Skoda Fabia S2000 (M) 2 Mitsubishi Lancer Eva X (M) PC3 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX (M' ) PC3 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (D) PC3 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X (0) PC3, nor Ogier, who had been RALLY LEADERS P.Solbarg stages 1-3, Hirvonen 4, Loeb 5-19. the rally leader last year, 6~~cL~E~~~:r~~~~~'.0~I:9e~~:t~1!:/~~~= :~~: ~':; 1~~139 Guerra 14-19· LAST STAGE COMPLETED PX61AYL (GB) electrical 18 PX61AXV (GB) engine (1) 12 OU12CZF (GB) steering arm 16 OU61DW (GB) suspension (8) 16 H-VM135 (0) suspensk>n 17 DS705PC (I) engine 9 AA 26221X (UA) angine 6 V6545BBC (E) gaarbox (9) 15 CRF869 (S) road section accident 0 had ever competed on ... before) their S2000 cars were one minute slower The Route Special Stages Day 1 Villa Carias Paz (Thursday 1943) -Total D~tance 6 gravel-204.00km Crews Restarting 631.59km (1~) Villa Carios Paz• Villa Carlos Paz • Villa Carlos Paz (Friday 1951) than the rally leaders but ~~{{i there was just 0.1 second between them. There ~i13e, were no team orders for Villa Carlos Paz (Saturday 06-42) -Villa Carlos Paz - Villa Carlos Paz • Villa Carlos Paz (Saturday 2103) Villa Carlos Paz (Sunday 0652) -VIiia Carlos Paz • Villa Carlos Paz (Sunday 1644) 7 gravel-166.54km 6 gravel-132.19km their drivers, apart from 19 stages-502. 73km 1770.92km instructions for them to i,i.;.~~;,;~t-~~-,j~_-;;~~i,;~,;.;.:~_-································ enjoy themselves as they could. Day 3 - . Sunday - 6 Stages -Gravel - 132.19kms When Dani Sordo gradually lost touch with the Citroens through the Leading Special Stages positions P.Solbarg 11 3 2 Loeb 44 4 1 Hlrvonen 3 3 4 4 Neuvtiie 12 2 3 Sordo 4 2 4 Novikov - 3 1 1 Ostberg 3 1 AJAttlyah 1 1 Tenak 4 PCWRCICLASS 3 Ugato won 8 stages, Guerra & Fuchs 3 each, Kosduszko, Campos & Gorban 2 each. CLASS 2 Ogler won 13 stages, Mikkelsen 6. 638.47km 40 486.15km 35 2 4 1 5 1 3 4 5 Saturday stages, so the Positions in Wor1d Championship for Rallies (WCR): Citroen Total 151 points, FOC"d 106, M-SPort FOC"d 81. Qatar 37, Citroen Junior 30, Adapta 27, Mini WRC 26. Brazil 10. excitement of the event ~=s;,:C:\~';,8,:fu"'~'~~ ~~-;;•%~,:;i°l8~': =~=n~,.:,s,:;i>~;;, ~rvi:;:~~~=o 6!,NFC:::•:i:\:;~•~~-2~"':'ia~t AJ Atilyah 23, Sordo 21, Tanak 16, etc. began to wane. All 14 World Rally Car drivers ~;':!(~~~~~-e~::;:,?s'1o/.;:~)~:2"~~~~·;~~Y~~~t-!:-~y1ng@oompuserve.com 25 18 15 12 10 6 6 4 June 2012 Dusty Times

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more Trail Notes ... From Page 7 purse for the contestants. A $50,000 purse will be split among the top three finishers at each event. If that isn't enough to entice the best off-roaders to compete consider the overall SST points Champion will walk away with $500,000 for the series. Scheduling for the full season has not been set but Gordon stated he has a world vision for the series that will begin in 2013 where stadium off-road racing began, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, April 27 with another date set May 18. Look for other events to be held at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium and Gordon added that he is working to include the Long Beach Grand Prix and a special event in Las Vegas. SST is not a duplicate format of previous stadium racing. Gordon saw first hand how the teams with deep pockets ruled in the previous events and now has leveled the playing field with Spec Trucks built and maintained by SST Racing. Each truck is built the same and each of the V8 motors are dyno-ed before each race to ensure this to be a driver's event. On Friday each driver will draw for his chassis for that event. Drivers will then install one of the three supplied body kits that are fully decaled with their sponsors to the chassis. Since SST maintains the spec trucks drivers need a minimum crew so each driver is allowed only two crew memoers. The driver's team of two is allowed to adjust their shocks, springs, steering and seating position. Any other unapproved adjustments to the trucks are deemed detrimental to SST Racing and not to be tolerated. The short wheelbase vehicles were designed for the tight stadium courses. Gordon pointed out the chassis three months ago was simply a drawing but that he now has three complete vehicles. The SST crew have built the templates and laid out a production line needed to build a chassis every three days so he is sure to have enough chassis available by next season. He also added the design is a work in progress to see where changes are needed to ensure driver safety. Although Gordon promised plenty of action he does not intend it to be a free for all. Especially when it comes to nerfing, would be drivers were warned that a 200 pound sensor attached to the front bumper will automatically put the competitor's engine in limp mode for a few seconds for rough nerfing. The sensor could eliminate black flags as a driver's own rough driving will do the police work. The intended event format will be an elimination process building into a 25 minute main event for the SST trucks. Bob Chandler, the original designer of Big Foot, has signed on to help out with the Big Foot challenge that will have a seven moto elimination run for the those contestants. The amateur side by side racers will also have an elimination process in their stock production vehicles. When asked if he would compete i~ the SST event Gordon didn't hesitate to say, "Hell ya!" So that he would be shown no favoritism and bring about a fair playing field for all the contestants Gordon brought aboard USAC Racing (United States Auto Club) as the sanctioning body of Stadium SUPER Trucks. Former MTEG racer Glenn Harris showed his enthusiasm for the new sport by adding, "This is my kind of racing. Count me in." Mike Jenkins ofTraxxis told Robby, "I'm in for two of the SST's." When it was Rick Johnson's turn at the microphone he told Robby, as only Rick can say; "I can't wait to get out there and whip Robby's ass. I'm in." The younger drivers also showed their interest but were a bit more subdued in the comments. Until now no dominant personality from the off road community had stepped up to promote any type of stadium event. If a dominant personality is needed then Robby Gordon should prevail. Gordon however says that having a good team behind him is the key. Besides his crew Gordon has partnered with Justin Matney of RPM Offroad fame to help keep SST focused. Robby Gordon's racing career started in off-road where he has won multiple championships. He moved on to OTO and Trans AM road racing. He almost won the Indy 500 (but was not able to squeeze a bit more fuel out of the tank) and competes in NASCAR to mention just a small bit of his racing resume. In all these endeavors he has excelled. He has opened a new chapter in his life as stadium racing promoter. Looking at his past accomplishments one must believe that Gordon has what it takes to revive stadium racing. K&N FILTERS LAUNCHES INTO SUPERLITE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES FOR HIGH VELOCITY AIR TIME -In a move to increase air flow and boost the performance ante for its field of short course off-road racers who land upon the podium, the Super Lite Championship takes on K&N Engineering as a series sponsor and deploys_ its high-velocity air filter lineup to its fleet of Super Lite Arrive & Drive race trucks as well as its entourage of support vehicles. "This a win for the series, its trucks and its racers," said Super Lite Championship General Manager John Harrah. "K&N is an automotive and powersports icon for performance. SuperLite is the off-road racing gateway for crossover motorsports pros and action sports athletes. The partnership will improve our results on and off the track." Featuring exclusive K&N product and branding, the top three finishers of each round of racing at the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series will earn product vouchers as well as advertising and promotional opportunities that reach its global audience. Benefits of the partnership will extend to leased as well as racer-owned race trucks. The MazdaSpeed-powered fleet of stadium-style race trucks will now feature K&N Wrench-Off Canister Oil Filters (HP-3001), chosen for its high-flow rates, superior filtration and fast removal capabilities during pit stops. In addition to its high-flow oil filters, the spec-class trucks will benefit from the K&N High-Flow Air Filter (RF-1025), a large conical open element air filter, which provides more surface area for a massive increase in airflow that translates into horsepower. K&N Power Kleen (99-0621), the high-performance cleaner and degreaser, will be used to remove grease from K&N's cotton-based high-flow air filters, while the specially formulated K&N Air Filter Oil (99-0621) will be used to recharge the filter. The SuperLite Championship takes its thriying truck series to Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah on June 22-24 for Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Rounds 7 & 8. There, leading the charge for the season points chase, 15-year-old Sheldon Creed of San Diego, California will fend off a fierce field of rivals in his quest for the coveted championship. Racing the Trench Shoring/BFGoodric'h Tires-backed truck with five podiums on the season, Creed stands 14 points ahead of series standout Drew Britt of Peoria, Arizona, driving the Person Racing/Mickey Thompson/ Majerle's Sports GrilVUniversal Technical Institute SuperLite. A scant 27 points off the lead in third, Metal Mulisha's Ryan Hagy of San Clemente, California, behind the wheel of the General Tire/Metal Mulisha/Vali Motorsports/4 Wheel Parts machine, aims to snipe the glory and capture his first win after finishing second and third during the last two rounds of racing in Surprise. Why aren't you a Dusty Times Subscriber? It's so much easier to receiv_e Dusty Times in your mailbox each month, getting all the latest news and race and rally reports, written by the best off road journalists in the business. Don't miss an issue! Subscribe now/ Foreign Subscriotions 1 Year .............. ~$25.oo: 2 Years ............. $40.00 1 Year ............... $55.00* 2 Years ........... $110.00* 3 Years ............. $55.00 3 Years ........... $165.00* *Prices are in U.S. Dollars Air mail rates ori request. See complete subscription form on page 3. DUSTY TIMES, 20761 Plummer Street, Chatsworth, CA 91311 Dusty Times June 2012 Page 17

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Sargent Takes Cl~ss 1 Text & Photos: Troy Robinson Lots of rain meant lots of work and the driving wasn't the best but Ryan Sargent made the best of it and took the win in the Class 1 contest. • What a great day of off-road racing short course style for the 2012 season opener. Action packed 12,lap motos on the shortest track yet to be run at Prairie City at about a half mile down from the nor-mal mile or longer configura-tion. Looking back at the suc-cess of last falls double header championship weekend VOR-RA has scheduled both spring and f~ll races at 'Prairie City as double headers. The story line of the race weekend that had everyone talking was the 5-straight days of rain that sopped the Sac-ramento area in creating so much mud that track condi-tions were horrible, so sloppy that even 4x4 jeeps weren't able to get around the track. Hours of track work on Fri-day went to waste as more rain Friday night flooded the track out and races on Satur-day were moved to Sunday. Track conditions were pretty good come green flag time but there were still a couple of areas that were pretty muddy and getting just one wheel off line would suck cars in and by the last race on Sunday; dust. For whatever reason be it Jim Carius applies a bit of opposite lock as he slides around a comer, Jim took top honors in the class 9 contest at Prairie City. the economy, gas prices or just not being ready to race the car count for the weekend was very low. This did not make for less action on the race track however as the classes were split into 2 groups with each group racing for 12-laps in 6 motos. The morning 3-motos would count fot Sat-urdays postponed races while the afternoon 3-motos would comprise Sunday's race. While many VORRA regu-lars were not seen there were some returning racers and many new racers in various classes. One such team caught the off-road fever at last years Baja 500 at 14 years old and in September 2011 Paul Nauleau along with his best friend and classmate Ryan Crook began their quest to build a class 11 car. The pair finished the bug with enough to make it just race able and they were on their way to Sacramento. Paul· got his learners permit the week prior and neither Paul nor Ryan has their driver's license! These kids worked on that bug non-stop right up to race morning where they blew the 'dog house' cooler warm-ing the motor up. Another VORRA newcom-er was Steve 1.a Roza. Internet racing was abuzz the week With some mud flying here and there the Red Team Racing group took the Class 10 honors, they're seen here hustling towards the checkers. before with some new Ford Ecoboost twin turbo in a Mason truck that was racing somewhere for the first time. That turned out to be the VORRA short course race. La Roza plans to run the entire VORRA series this year. The first group to line up for racing was class 11, 9 and UTV with 3-quick green flag drops. UTV's took off the line first and Dennis Jean (1959) and Dave Eul-beg (3646) were in a heated battle that went back and forth'. until the checkers where Eulbeg took the win. Class 9 had VORRA newcomer Don Hamilton (999) take the moto win over Jim Carius (908). Class 11 had a great race with Jerry Ornellas (1106) taking the hole shot over another VORRA newcomer David Meeks (1142) and Jim Graham (1107). By mid-race Meeks worked his way to the lead and took it to the checkers. Next up the second ·group of Class 1, 10, Group T and Sportsman classes. Unfortu-nately classes 1 and 10 had just 1 entry each and Ryan Sargent (159) in class 1 and Red Team Racing (1029) class 10 were the winners in each. In Group T Steve La Roza (7 204) showed some muscle to the bigger class 8 truck of Don and Chris German (801) while another v8 truck of Nick Harvey (851) got in the mix also. German out pow-ered La Roza and moved into the lead but just a couple of laps later German got caught behind a lapper and La Roza got around and went on to · the moto win. Harvey fought overheating issues all day and dropped off after just a cou-ple of laps. The ~portsman class had Max Bagget (42) take the moto win over Ton Bonds (1007), Ben Varozza (4612), Erich Reinhardt (21) and Robert Gray (21). For moto 2 in Group 1 it was the survivors that beat could beat attrition winning the race. In Class 9 Jim Carius edged out Don Hamilton for the win. During the class 11 race Jerry Ornellas went up in flames sending the track crew into action to put out the fire. The kids Nauleau and Crook finally got some laps in after their morning oil cooler is-sues. David Meek went on and took the win in class 11. Jon Crowley finished all the laps in UTV for the moto win .. In the group 2 moto 2 race Don German checked out for the Group T win. Red Team Racing was 2nd overall and 1st in class 10. Tony Bond edged out Max Baggett for the Sportsman win and Ben Varossa placed 3rd in. class. Steve La Roza hooked wheels with Sportsman class racer Erich Reinhardt (21) and that cost them about 5 laps to get ,, untangled. Final moto for group 1 for round 1 and Jon Crowley narrowly had the win over Dave Eulbeg. Crowley also captured the overall win for round 1 in UTV. Class 11 had Jim Graham in a good fight for the lead with Dave Meek until Meek got around when Graham suffered a broken stub axle. Nauleau/Crook fin-ished 2nd in the moto. Over-all results for class 11: Meek, Graham, and Ornellas. Jim Carius won moto 3 in class 9 and the overall as well. Final moto for group 2 round 1 and Red Team Rac-ing scored the top spot and class 10 win for the round. Don German had a sizable lead over La Roza at the finish giving the overall to German with La Roza 2nd. Ryan Sar-gent was stuck in 3rd gear but hung on to finish 4th overall taking the class 1 win. In the Sportsman class Max Baggett was the winner over Bond and Varozza that would be the overall positions as well. Jon Crowley lands in the soft stuff as he navigates the course at Prairie City, Jon took the gold medal in the UTV action. Dave Meek, showing the effects of a muddy track was the Class 11 winner at Prairie City, Dave beat out his competition for a nice win. After the lunch break and track maintenance it was time for round 2. In the UTV class Jon Crowley was the class win-ner while Eulbeg had issues and dropped out for the day. Crowley parked his UTV for moto· 2 and 3 having already won round 2. In class 11 the return of the Green Booger, Gary Herrod (1112) gave chase to Meek but settled for 2nd at the finish. Neaulau/Crook Page 18 June 2012 Dusty Times

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r Don Hamilton had to settle for second place honors in the Class Dave Eu/beg took the silver medal in the UTV competition at Prairie Steve La Roza had a really fun day, he's seen here slipping and sliding 9 race, he's seen here doing his best to get to the checkered flag. City, Dave is seen here fighting the turn and the slippery mud. through the goo on his way to a silver medal in Group T. happily took home 3rd in the moto after Graham suffered electrical issues and dropped out. In the second group Don German and Red Team Racing had a great race going and in the end German went on for the overall moto win. La Roza was 2nd with Sargent 1st in class 1, still stuck in 3rd gear. Max Bagget was the sportsman class winner over Varozza. Jim Carius entered his 9 car in class 10 to gain points for the class 10 seasons as he is work-ing to enter the class at the next race. Group 1 moto 2 for round 2 had just the class 11 's run-ning now with 5 of them on the line. Great race as Ornel-las had the lead early then was overtaken by Meek. Graham and Herrod were fighting for 3rd. 3 laps into the moto and Meek broke a front spindle taking him out for the day. This left Ornellas holding off Herrod but Herrod was able to get around and went on for the moto win. The kids Nauleau/Crook-finished in 3rd place. Group 2 moto 2 and Red Team Racing was out front until the motor went south taking them out of the race. German was able to hold off La Roza for the Group T win. In the Sportsman class Bond was the winner over Varozza. Jim Cari us was the class 10 winner. In the final Class 11 moto Herrod led flag to flag over Ornellas and Nauleau/Crook. This would be the final. over-all results as well as the kids went from not making a lap twice on Saturday to placing on the podium and taking wood home to boot. And as the dust started kicking up for the final group 2 race Ryan Sargent managed to keep 3rd gear rolling and took the overall moto win and class 1 title as well. Ger-man once again held off La Roza for the moto and overall win. The Sportsman class had Bagget over Bonds and Varo-zza for the moto and overall wins as well. Congrats to all the winners of this condensed day of rac-ing an-d thanks to VORRA and the staff for pulling off what looked to be an impos-sibility of racing on a track that was beat into submission to race on. Next race up is the staple of the VORRA series in Yerington on the traditional Memorial Day weekend. • Results: Round I Class 9 Jim Carius Don Hamilton UTV Jon Crowley Dave Eulbeg Dennis Jean Class 11 Dave Meek Jr Jim Graham Jerry Ornellas Class 10 Red Team Racing Class 1 Ryan Sargent Group T Don & Chris German Steve La Roza Nick Harvey Sportsman Max Bagget T9ny Bond Ben Varozza Erich Reinhardt Robert Gray Round 2 UTV Jon Crowley Dave Eulbeg Class 11 Gary Herrod Jerry Ornellas Paul Nauleau· & Ryan Crook Class 10. . l.Jim Carius Red Team Racing Class 1 Ryan Sargent l1r Group T Don & Chris German Steve La Roza Nick Harvey Sport1?man Max Bagget Tony Bond Ben Varozza Mud? What mud?. So says Don German as he slips and slides around a long comer, Don and Chris took the Round#1 Group T gold medal at Prairie City. Max Bagget did his share of slippin' and slidin' at Prairie City but he managed to take the gold medal in the Sportsman category. Having a bit of sorta dry track to race on, Tony Bond raced to a silver Jerry Ornellas had to settle for a third place finish in the Class 11 Ben Varozza took home third place honors in the Sportsman Class, medal finish in the Sportsman Division, /ookin' good. contest at Prairie City, he's seen here looking kinda clean. he's seen here racing towards the checkered flag. Gary Herrod took the gold medal in the second round of Class 11 Paul Nauleau and Ryan Crook were the third place finishers in the Leaning into the left hander, Don & Chris German took the Group T action, Gary is seen here at speed on a dryer than usual race course. Round #2, Class 11 contest, seen here heading for the finish line. win in the second round at Prairie City, beating out their competition. Dusty Times ·June 2012 Page 1·9

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',I, ••••#•, I I • , f I • f I f f ~[ll)Ul:I]~ S S '900 ~ACING ASSOCIATION ILVER TATE .. BJ Baldwin overall By ] Preston Bradshaw Photos: Trackside Photo Robby Gordon is usually a winner in a race car or truck, at the Silver State he took the Class 1 win in his Geiser and he was 26 seconds in arrears. BJ Baldwin and Johnny Nelson took the Trick Truck gold medal and they were the overall winners as well, seen here in their Chevrolet. 131 cars and trucks took to the Nevada desert on the fifth of May for a somewhat grueling but fun off road race. There were 96 finishers in 18 classes, a 73% finishing percentage, quite high in off road racing. In Class 14000, the Trick Truck class, it was BJ Baldwin taking the class win in his Chev-rolet with a time of 5:25:56, and BJ was the overall race winner as well. The second Class 1400 The Freeman brothers, Cody and Bryan took Class 10 honors at the Silver State, they had five mintJtes in hand when they took the checkers. truck to finish was a Ford driven by Steve Sourapas and Rob Mac-Cachren, they were 14 seconds in arrears at the finish, Jason and Rich Voss were the third place finishers in Class 1400 in their Ford, Juan Carlos Lopez was the fourth place Trick Truck finisher, he too in a Ford and Mark Weyhrich was the fifth truck to finish in Class 1400 in his Tube Specialties Ford pickup. Ryan and Garret Poelman were the sixth place finishers in Class 1400 in their Ford Geiser, they were 15 seconds out of the top five, Steve Olliges and Jonathan Swift came along less than two minutes later, they too in a Ford truck, Rick Johnson and Brian Sallee finished in the eighth spot, another 32 seconds back in their Ford, Adam Householder The Class 7200 (Class 7) win went to Eduardo Laguna in his Chevrolet, he's seen here in perfectly level flight on his way to the checkers. Troy Vest took the gold medal in the Pro Truck action, Troy had five minutes in hand when he took the checkers, seen here in yet another Chevrolet. was ninth to finish, he too in a a Ford truck. In 11th place in Ford and Shawn Croll rounded Class 1400 was Will Staats in his out the top 10 in class, also in Jimco, Scott Whipple made it an ----------------------'------. even dozen, finishing in 6:20:32, Troy Herbst had problems and he finished in 13th place, he The gold medal winner in the Class 4400 fracas was Hal Deschamp, Hal Steve Sourapas and Rob MacCachren took the silver medal in Trick Truck It was a second place finish for Chuck Hovey in the Class 1 contest, he is seen here at high speed on his way to the checkered flag. at Silver State, they were 14 seconds out of the overall win in their Ford. was two minutes in arrears when he took the checkered flag. The two Mikes, Johnson and Majesky took the silver medal in the Steve laRoza took second place honor:; in his Ford in the Class 7 contest, class 10 conflict, they were 5 minutes in arrears at the checkers in A second place finish in the Class 8 contest went to Kent Kroeker, Kent Steve was about five minutes in arrears at the checkers. their Alumicraft. was three and a half minutes in arrears when he finished in his Dodge. Page 20 June 2012. Dusty Times

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i, . • ',' Macrae Glass was the big winner in the Class 8 competition, he's seen here at high speed headin' for the checkers in his Ford piqkup. The Class 10 Light win went to Bryan folks in his Ford, Bryan had 22 minutes on his competition at the checkered flag. · The Banning buggy of Cory Boyer performed flawlessly at the Silver State, he took the Class ½-1600 win by two minutes at the flag. Curt Potts drove his Trophylite vehicle to the Class 6000 gold medal, but it was close, Curt only had 44 seconds in hand when he finished. 16th place in his Tube Special-went to Justin Davis in his Chev-ties Ford, Michael McGinn spent rolet, Todd Jergensen finished nine hours out there and finished first off the podium in his Smith Built Ford and Mike Childress took fifth place honors in his Por-ter. Old buddy TJ Flores finished in the sixth spot in his Bunder-son, Justin Loftin was lucky sev-enth in his Jimco, Pat Dean was the eighth place finisher in his Bunderson, Corey Keysar, Jimco, was the ninth car in and Gar-rick Freitas, Jimco, rounded out the top 10 in Class 1500. Ray Griffity, also in a Jimco, was the 11th car to finish in Class 1500, Vince Galewick made it an even dozen in his DuneBuggy, Shelby Reid finished in 13th place in a Custom, Richard Boyle was the 14th finisher in class, he too in a Custom and Max Thieriot fin-ished in 15th 'place in his Jimco. In 16th place was Erick Jacobs, he too in a Jimco, Sam Baldi was 17th to finish, he too in a Cus-tom, Kevin Curtis was the 18th finisher in Class 1500, he was driving an RPS, Harley Letner, who had big problems finished 19th in his Custom and Travis Chase was 20th to finish in his Ford and was the last of the fin-ishers in the class. Sam Berri was an unusual dnf in his Jimco, Jon Walker came over from Guam to race and he was a disappointing dnf in his Kreger, Tracy Graf was a dnf in his Racer Engineering vehicle, Mike Bilek was an out of character dnf in his HMS and Zak Langley recorded a dnf in his Racer Engineering vehicle. The Class 7200 (Class 7) trucks saw Eduardo Laguna take Continued on page 22 in the 17th spot in his Chevrolet .----------------------------and he was the final finisher in the Class 1400 battle. Jimmy Nu-ckles, Ford, was scored as a dnf in the Class 1400 battle, Steve Croll never made it to the fin-ish in his Ford, Jerry Zaiden also failed to finish in his Ford, Adam Ray Lunn also failed to finish the race in his Ford. So much for the Trick Truck guys. The BITD Class 1500 group saw Ropby Gordon taking the class win and finishing third overall in the race, Robby was 26 Nie Bayes takes a comer rather hard as he hustled to a first place finish in the Class seconds out of the overall race 3000 fracas, he had 17 minutes in hand at the flag. win in his Geiser, Chuck Hovey Tim Casey piloted the ever good looking La Paz Cocktail mixes Ford to the Class 8100 gold medal, seen here headin' for the checkers. too in a ford, Greg Nunley was in Class 1400, he was driving a was second to finish in 1500, he 14th to finish in class and James Chevrolet. Gary Weyhrich didn't was less than two minutes behind W Price was the 15th finisher have a good day, he finished in Gordon in his Jimco, third place .------------------------------, Keith Waibel and Jeff Vetter took the si er medal in the Class 3000 Aaron Hawley really chews up the silt as he drives to a second place Joey Ritorto and Thadius McBride took second place honors in Class conflict, they're seen here nicely airborne on their way to the checkered finish in ½-1600, seen here at speed in his Seagroves. 1100, they are seen here at high speed headin' for the checkers. flag. · ;:::::'.::=====================;:;:=::=:;;;:;==:;;:::;:;;;;;:=::;;;;;; A.. Eric Heiden was the second place finisher in the Class 1700 conflict at David Kincaid took second place honors in the Open sportsman division, It was a bronze medal finish for Jason Voss in his Ford Trick Truck, Jason Silver State, Eric is seen here just at liftoff on the way home. David is seen here at high speed heading for the checkers. is seen here with the power on, heading for the checkers. Dusty Times June 2012 Page 21

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Justin Davis and Jordan Kundert finished third in the Class 1 contest, Third to finish in the Class 7 contest was the Ford of David Kincaid, Phillip Isabelle drove his Class 10 Porter to a third place finish in class, they're seen here cornering hard on their way home. seen here with the right foot floored on the way to the checkered flag. Phillip is seen here in the soft stuff headin' for the checkers. Jason Markham, Lothringer, took the bronze medal in the Class ½-1600 Michael Vemak drove to a third place finish in the JeepSpeed 1 conflict, Jacob Fielding took third place honors in the class 8 battle, he's seen battle, Jason is seen here fighting his way through some of the soft stuff. he's seen here slightly airborne heading for the finish line. here flying his Ford pickup to the checkered flag. The JeepSpeed 1 class win went to Perry Coan, Perry took the win with 20 minutes in hand, he's seen here at speed on the course. The Class 5 win at the Silver State went to Steve Alexander, it was a long day but a win is a win is a win. a really nice win in his Chevrolet, Steve LaRoza came in five min-utes later in his Custom trµck, David Kincaid took third place honors in his Ford, fourth spot went to Randy Merritt, he too in a Ford and Jeff Holmes Jr. took fifth place honors, he too in a Ford. Al Hogan was relegated to a sixth place finish this race, driv-ing his Ford, Shawn Giordano, also in a Ford was seventh to finish, Barry Karakas finished in eighth spot in his Toyota, Gary Dixon finished in ninth place in his Ford and· Dallas Luttrell The Open sportsman win went to Darrell Kahre in his VW, Darrell had 16 minutes on his competition when he took the checkered flag. Bill Bunch took the Class 3700 win at the Silver State race, Bill is seen here on his way to the glorious checkered flag. rounded out the top 10 in his Jeep. An 11th place finish went to Travis Bozzano, Chevrolet, who was the final finisher in the class. Bryce Yarbrough Ford, was a dnf in the race, Rick Backus also failed to make it all the way in his Ford Adrian Diaz Sr., Ford, failed to finish the race and Sean Backus, also in a F.prd failed to finish the race. In the Class 1200 (Pro Truck) action it was Troy Vest taking the win in his Chevrolet, Larry Trim took the silver medal in his Ford and they were the only finishers in the class. Ryan J. Staats failed to complete the race in his Ford. The Class 1000 (Class 10) race was won by Cody Freeman with some help from brother Bryan in their Custom car, Mike Johnson finished in second place, he was less than five minutes in arrears in his Alumicraft, Phillip Isabelle took third place honors in his Por-ter, Cody Reid took first off the podium honors in his Custom, Greg Parker came in 43 seconds later, he too in an Alumicraft. Tony Smiley finished in sixth place, four minutes later in his Custom car, Tim Scott was the lucky seventh in his Custom, Lee Banning Sr. took eighth place in'' his Ford, Mike Rumsey was ninth in his Lothringer and Phillip Heynan finished in the 10th spot in hls Custom. Carrie Smiley was 11th to finish in a Tatum, Brian Potts made it an even dozen in his Lothringer, Norris Brown was the 13th finisher in class and Mark Talla was the 14th and final finish-er in the class. Michael Lapaglia was a dnf in his Racer Engineer-ing car, John Langley also failed to make the required laps in his Racer Engineering car and David Schweigart was also a Class 1000 dnf in his Bunderson. The Class 8000 (Class 8) full size truck class was won by none other than McRae Glass in his ever good lookin' Ford truck, Kent Kroeker came in three min-utes later in his Dodge truck a.nd Jacob Fielding took third place honors, Jacob was the final fin-isher in the class. Class 2000 (!/2-1600) saw Cory Boyer taking a really nice win Dwayne Reinert and Dorie Savage took third place honors in the Class Tyler Denton drove his Trophylite to a third place finish in the Class James Burman took the gold medal in the Class lS battle, James is seen 1100 battle, seen here just at touchdown on the way home. 6000 fracas, the saying on the door kinda says it all. ere hustling across the desert to the sometimes elusive checkered flag. Page 22 June 2012 Dusty Times

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Larry Trim and John Koeth drove their Pro Truck to a second place finish Jim Riley drove his Trophylite to the class win in the Class 6100set-to, Troy Messer took his Trophylite to a second place finish in the Class in the Pro Truck contest, they were five minutes out of the class win. Jim is seen here sans fiberglass on his way to the checkers. 6000 altercation, Troy is seen here in the soft stuff on his way home in his Banning, Aaron Hawley Chasen Gaunt was a dnf in his the other car in the class but he Hal Deschamp in his Custom And so it ended, another Best missed by less than two minutes Ford machine and Keith Growe was a dnf. vehicle, he was the only finisher. In The Desert race is in the record to take second place honors in also was dnf in his Ford. The Class 7100 (Class 7S) was B!ll Bunch was shown as a dnf in books. Next up is the BITD Gen-his Seagroves, Jason Markham In the Class 5000 (Class 5) won by James Burman, he was his Jeep. eral Tire Vegas To Reno race on finished in the third spot in his action it was Steve Alexander driving a Ford, and, as the only Class 3_700, Jeep~pee~ 3 was August 16 -18, 2012. Better get Lothringer, Ryan Mattox finished taking the class win in his good entrant was a shoo-in. won by Bill Bunch m his Jeep, signed up now or miss out on all in fourth place in his Alumicraft, looking VW. Jacob Meurer was The Class 4400 win went to Brand0n Berge was shown as a dnf the fun. ~~ Hank Winter had some problems in this class, also in a Jeep. N u A and finished in fifth place in his Bunderson and Brandon Norris was the sixth and final finisher in his Custom buggy. The Class 1100 (Class 10 Light) battle saw Bryan Folks taking the Class win in his ford, Joey Ritorto was a long second place finisher in his Ford, Dwayne Reinert took third place honors in his Custom and was the final finisher in the class. Rick Poole was listed as a dnf, Michael Decker, ditto, and that was all she wrote! The Class 6000 (Trophylite Trucks) win went to Curt Potts, vehicle unknown, Troy Messer, Trophylite, finished in the second spot, just 40 seconds later, Tyler Denton, also in a Trophylite had some troubles and finished in third place, an hour and a half in arrears. Steve Hengeveld, also in a Trophylite had major problems and was listed as a dnf. There was only one entry in the Class 6100 contest, Jim Riley and he obviously won the class in his Trophylite. The Class 3000 (Desert Lites) was won by Nie Bayes in his Cus-tom machine, Keith Waibel took second place honors, he was 17 minutes in arrears in his Custom machine. Class 8100 (Stock Production - Full Size Truck) was won by Tim Casey, the La Paz Cocktail Mixes Ford truck always looks like it was just built, brand new, he was the only class finisher. David Winner was a dnf in his Ford truck. In the Class 1700 OeepSpeed 1) conflict, the win went to Perry Coan in his Jeep, Eric Heiden took second place honors in the class in his Jeep, Michael Vernak finished in the third spot, less than three minutes out of the silver medal, Tom Richardson finished first off the podium in his Jeep vehicle, Rick Randall was the fifth place finisher in the class. Bill Frey took the sixth and final finishing position. Jason Vander Tuig was a dnf in his Jeep, Mike Shetler joined him in the dnf cate-gory, Brian Davidson was another dnf, George Mortis was unable to finish the race, Tim Martin was unable to finish his laps, Bruno Zvirzin Jr. was another dnf, Eric Helgeson was unable to finish the race and Todd Jackson's name was added to the dnf list. The Class 1800 race was won by Darrell C Kahre in a VW, David Kincaid was second to fin-ish in his Custom, John Harris was the third place finisher in his Toyota. John Griffin is shown as a dnf in his AM General machine, Dusty Times •#ri;i•ihii [I] t1JC ~TORSPQflTS 6-FOllCI! -c•••-Dry lreak Tower • 100 Gallon Capacity • Single or Doable Dry Breu: • BZSetUp • Affordable IndyCar Fl Technology ·Dump Cans • Hose • Reducers • Filler Necks & Caps ..... • Snell SA 2005 Forced Air Helmets • Wired for Communication & Ear Bud Ready • Racing Optics Tear Offs • Universal and Custom Molded Ear Buds • Helmet Skirts • Shields ...... llntra,a.• • Highest Flowing Systems I • 105, 135, 150, 235 and 250 CFII Ratings • High Flow Filters & Custom Hoses • Trophy Kart Kits for Driver & Clutch Cooler • co-uloaUo• SyatUII • Vertex 5 to 110 Watt Radio Syswms • Hi-Fl Intercom Systems • Chase & Race Pa.ckages • Base Station Packages • Crew Chief & Kart Packages laCarCaaerat,ne• • EZ 1 Button Operation • Exclusive Racer X Motorsports Package • 5.7 hours of High Resolution recording time • Up to 12 hours of operation on 4AA Lithium Ion Batteries • Can be Interfaced to Intercom for full audio experience JCtll• • 411/2 Gallon Capacity • SCORE/ BITD / FIA Approved • Tapered Destgn Provides Increased Ground Clearance & Ma.ximizes Usable Fuel • Fuel Level Sending Units Available • Caps, Necks, Hose, Filters and Pumps Available YOUB SOUBCB l'OB PBOFBSSIONAL BACB PRODUCTS 10815 Wheatlands Avenue, Suite K • Santee, CA 92071 619-258-RACE (7223) • Fax 619-258-0883 • www.RacerXms.com June 2012 Page 23

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•.. .... ... ... M.O.R.E. CALIFORNIA 500 Romans Takes Class 1 And overall By Steve Ruccick Photos: Trackside Photo .. The Class 1 win and the overall went to Rick Romans, Rick is seen here at high speed on the course on his way to the checkers. Aaah yes, Race Fans. 'Tis the time of the season for long-distance off-road racing in the dusty deserts of southern California; the Mojave. I'm on assignment here at Soggy Dry Lake off Bessemir Mine Road in the Johnson Valley OHV for the M.O.R.E. California 500. It's the middle of May-so the temp's aren't apt to give you or your race car hyperthermia, but 500 miles of ac-tion can still be hot and heavy when just to make it to the Finish Line is a win. 115 vehicles are entered in 14 different Classes; 85 made the start. Fifty-four Pro Class racers in six different Classes, and 31 Sports-man racers in eight Classes. Five hundred miles of fun in the warm California sun. 500 miles of ground and pound on some of the bad-est dirt around. WooHoo! This is part of the Johnson Val-ley the Marines want to take over - to conduct Live Fire! desert tank • warfare exercises on, so who knows what the future holds for off-roading of any kind. The Marines want it to practice blowing up things with Live ammo. Duck and cover. I mean -the U.S. MIL already owns ten percent of the state. There are other OHV areas that co-exist within military bombing ranges -but you do not want to get off the designated trails lest you encounter an unexploded Live round. Yoikes! On the other hand -"No wonder the Marines want it. IT IS a War Zone !!" Lucerne, and Barstow, keep getting worse every year, which proves people are using them. BLM won't allow any remedial mainte-nance, so it just keeps getting more tom up. I don't think the demand for off-roading is going to diminish. So giving Johnson Valley OHV to the Marines means the demand for off-roading there will be redistrib-uted to other existing OHVs in the southland of the Mojave. User rates will increase commensurate with demand, and so will wear and tear. You can still see the scars of where General Geo. Patton practiced desert tank warfare exercises for the North Africa campaign in WW2. In the meantime -we race on. The course for the 2012 California 500 is 57 miles long. According to the GPS coordinates there are 56 different course changes. That usually translates into faSt. It did last year when the Overall Winner averaged 56 mph and hit a top speed of 115 mph. Woohoo! And it did in 2012 too when last year's Overall Winner repeated the feat: Rick Romans in car #22. Not many racers do that so chalk one up for The Record Book. There's a 13-hour Max time limit, and no cars will be allowed to continue if more than 60% of your Class is done or DNF'd. It's a race of artrition. I usually cruised along at out 60-75% power until artrition took its toll and thinned out the competition. It takes true grit to get through 500 miles of fun in the Mojave in the middle of May. That's a lot of desert. I mean - the odds of having a problem-free and no flats race are not in your favor, Race Fans; much less finishing. 85 started and 36 finished. The Mojave is not very forgiving. Remote Pits were located at MM25, MM34, MM42, and MM49. Spectator Areas were set up at MMlO, MM34, MM50, and at S/F. I applaud M.O.R.E. and BLM for setting up Spectator Areas 200 feet back from the racecourse to al-low racers to do their thing > speed. The only 'speed zone' was at S/F, so it was flat-out open desert racing in between. WooHoo! This is bare bones and bare roots desert racing at it's core, Race Fans. This ain't the Big Boys in their big and fancy and expensive toys. This is where rubber meets reality. There aren't many open desert racing venues like the M.O.R.E. series - where budget-challenged people can still compete and have fun doing it. Oh yea, Race Fans. This is the real thing. As 'basic as it gets; right down to the real nitty gritty. Cheap thrills. One team said they average tlll lllllll\11 1111m10~ Engine OH Gear Oil Motorcycle Oil Greases Cooling & Marine products Page 24 June 2012 The gold medal in the Trophy Challenge went to Vincent Dudash, he was the only finisher in the class, he's seen here on his way home. 3.8 MPG with a 302ci motor that DNF put Barbetta in second spot in runs on pump gas. Their Class did car #121. Romans kept up the pace 8 Laps and burned through 120 gal-and #22 was out in front by 4m:46s lons of gas or $500. They won. I can at the half way point in the race; only imagine how much their beer after Lap 4. tab was. Gas weighs 6.6 pounds-per-Romans had issues on lap 6 gallon. So if you're running a 30-gal that slowed his lead to 12m:49s. fuel cell to make it through 2 Laps DNF's changed things in between. without refueling, that's like carry- Mike Pacewiczh gave up the chase ing another 200 pounds around. after Lap 4 in car #135, and Travis Fill 'er up. Chase did too in car #1595 after Eighty-five racers made it to the Lap 5. Allen Lee made it through starting line to see the green flag Lap 6 before car #1517 DNF'd for fly. Thirty-six made it to the Finish the day. Alex Gonzalez got seven Line to see the checkered flag wave. laps of fun done before car #1596 That's a 60% DNF ratio, Race DNF'd too. Lucerne is a war zone. Fans. Ouch! It is a war zone. The 500 miles takes it toll. Parts and last racer to finish all the required carnage everywhere. You could start laps within the Max time limit a small 'slightly used' off-road parts was Greg Sunds in truck #1425 store with all the stuff that racers who did it in 12:26:27 - to win the lost or came off: fenders, hoods, highly coveted Dusty Times Con-roof panels, lights and light bars, tingency Prize; a free lY subscrip- jacks, spare wheels/tires, GPS unit, tion. WooHoo! Everyone else wins radio antennaes. Cha-Ching! I lost True Grit Honors for giving it a go. the entire fuel cell once. The course was mostly fast and of-Romans was back on the gas fered every type of desert terrain to after Lap 6 in #22 but Alex Cody traverse. I suggest lots of Lock-Tite. was in hot pursuit in car # 122. CLASS !:Eight laps; 456 miles. Cody actually outpaced Romans Seventeen starters; 7 Finishers. I on Laps 7 and 8 and narrowed the love the smell of race gas in the gap, but then ran out of race course mornings; the rumble of raw horse-on the way to the Finish Line. Rick · ' power. A whole herd of Class 1 Romans got all the laps done in race cars. Allen Lee was the first 7:53: 10 to win First Overall and car to start in #1517, follbwed by First Place in Class 1 in car #22, Alex Cody in car #122, Jim Knox and by a 12m: 14s margin of victory. in car #144, and Mike Pacewiczh And that's a repeat of what he did in #135. Rick Romans started in lastyear. "Wehadaprettygoodday" line after Pacewiczh and was at Romans said. "It was real dusty in the front of the line by 32-seconds the beginning with so many cars on ahead of Knox in# 144 at the end of the course, but we worked our way lap l. Meanwhile - Shawn Barbetta to the front. The course was real fast in #121 was running in third spot but it got real rough at the end. We 9-seconds behind Knox. had one flat, a fire in the car, and Romans gave it more gas on lap alternator issues. It was so good, we 2 in car #22, and increased his lead still managed to finish first". Ro-to 3m: 14s. The race for next-in-line mans average speed was 58.8 mph. was closer. Barbetta was still 9-sec-Alex Cody from Yucca Valley lost onds behind Knox, and Alex Cody 5rd and 4th gears on the first lap in car # 122 was 9-seconds behind in the Empire Destructive.com car Barbetta. Adam Householder also #122 and still pulled off a Second gave it the gas on lap 2 in car #124 Place win in 8:05:24 at 57.4 mph. to win Fast Lap honors.at 67.2 mph. "The clutch was slipping but the Jim Knox did three laps in car #144 car ran really well", Cody said. No before he DNF' d for the day. That Cantinued an page 26 Allan Byma was the big winner in the Ultra Truck battle, he's seen here just at takeoff on his way to the coveted checkered flag. Dusty Times ·11

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A nice first place finish in the Class 5 contest went to Wendy Belk, she is seen here just at liftoff for one of many off the ground trips. flats"; (except during the interview drove Lap 8. Shawn Barbetta had a after the Finish). "The most fun was 3-hour long last lap in car #121 and going 119 mph apd our first finish still got it done in 10:25:06 to finish in a year in a Class 1 car." Sounds in Fifth Place at 44.5 mph. Adam fun to me. Todd Tuls got all the re-Householder had a pretty good day quired laps done in 8:07:33 at 57.1 in car# 124 -until the last lap. Being mph to win Third Place in Class 1 down 3-1/2 hours, and getting it in car #1599. That was only about fixed and to two minutes behind # 122. Tuls the finish line -is true grit, made it a race on the last lap at 66.6 Race Fans. Householder did it in mph. That's dang fast on a chewed 10:53:47 to finish in Sixth Place up, tom up course, Race Fans. in car #124. Kelly Mather didn't Pat McCarthy finished in Fourth give up either after 4-1/2 hours of Place in car #142 in 8:54:34 at 52.l down time on Laps 6 and 7, and mph. "Awesome!", said McCarthy. got it done in 11:18:54 to finish ""We had a great day and did well. in Seventh Place in car #102. Alex This is our second race in a new car Gonzalez fried the alternator in car for us. We had a couple of flats. The # 1596 and DNF' d after Lap 7. course got rougher the last few laps Travis Chase had a good day -and we ate a bead-lock." Pat McCar- and a not-so-good day, in car #1595. thy drove Laps 1-4, Robert Harman It was a not-so-good day because drove Laps 5-7, and Craig Diller #1595 caught on fire and DNF'd af-Larry Antura flew his Class 5/1600 Bug to the win in the class contest, he's seen here just at takeoff on his way to the checkers. ter Lap 5. It was a good day because no one got hurt and the car didn't bum to the ground. Here's the sto-ry, in their own words: "This was an interesting race to say the least but we had an absolute blast given the circumstances. The main reason we ran this race was to give 'Pops' some seat time. He hasn't driven the car at all this season. We started the race with me riding shotgun which was a blast in itself. I have never rid-den with pops in a race situation. We ended it with me catching on fire closing in on the leader. There was plenty of lapped traf-fic out there so we were picking our way through it when main radioed in that BYMA reported our car on fire with 6 to 7 foot flames shooting out the back and that it definitely was not a backfire. We were mo-toring along picking through cars when the call came across. Jeff, my co-driver, was communicating with main and looked in his mir-ror confirming that we were in fact on fire yelling FIRE FIRE FIRE! As I got the car stopped it caused a backdraft of sorts. All the flames came forward up through the cab. I pulled the pins and both flame out knobs (drivers area and motor area), killed the battery and jumped out. I get to the back of the car and realize the engine compartment flameout didn't go off. So I ran to the passenger side and grabbed the fire extinguisher and used it up. There were still flames so I run out into the course and savior number two comes buy. Ventura Racing 9 car. They gave me their extinguisher and I was able to put the rest of the flames out. It was a scary deal but for what-ever reason I stayed calm enough to remember what I had to do. I also have to thank RDC and all the people that put up their stories and steps on how to survive such a deal. So once again THANK YOU BYMA. If it weren't for you guys we could have continued on potentially burning the car to the ground and giving us little to no time to get out safely. And THANK YOU Ventura Racing. If you hadn't stopped we could have lost the entire car." CLASS 10:Eight laps; 456 miles. Eight starters; 2 Finishers. Adam Tjelmeland got the front start at the green flag in car # 1088, followed by Allan Lindsay in car # 1096 and Kathy Kirkmeyer in car # 1021. Steve McMullin started toward the back of the pack in car # 1022 and was out in front of the pack at the end of Lap 1 by 32-seconds ahead of Mike McGee in car #1011. Kirkmey-er was 42-seconds behind McGee. Tjelmeland DNF' d after Lap 2 in car # 1088. McGee gave it the gas on Lap 2 and took home the Fast Lap hon-ors at 62.8 mph in car #1011, and narrowed tha gap on McMullin to 12-seconds. Kirkmeyer gave it the gas on Lap 2 and narrowed the gap on McGee to 17-seconds. Car# 1022 got an owie on Lap 3 that sidelined McMullin for 2-1/2 hours doing repairs. That allowed everybody else to get the pass and reshuffle the rack pack order. Kirkmeyer got the pass on McGee on Lap 3 and was in the lead by 1-1/2 minutes at that Alex Cody took home the silver medal in the Class 1 contest, Alex is Bryson Hopfe was the second place winner in the Ultra Truck fracas, seen here just at takeoff in his really neat lookin' car. he's seen here at takeoff in his extended cab truck. Guy Savedra had some problems on the second lap but he rallied and came back for a second place finish in the Class 5/1600 contest. It was a silver medal finish for Jorge Ventura at the MORE California Cody Jeffers had a rather slow third lap but he soldiered on and took In the Class 78 contest it was Ralph Potts taking the silver medal for 500 event, Jorge is seen here at high speed on his way to the checkers. second place honors in the Class 10 contest. his efforts, he's seen here at high speed heading for the checkers. ~ .,.,, -~, •• ""'~ ;.~ -... ;,~:. .. ,., "' ___.t-. • Guillermo Herrera took the silver medal in the Class BB contest, he is Earl Fraser drove his good lookin' buggy to a second place in the BC Ron Weddle was a bit off the winning pace in the ½-1600 contest but seen here just at liftoff as he heads for the checkered flag. class conflict, Earl is seen here at high speed on his way to the checkers. he did manage a second place finish for the class, here just landing. Page 26 June 2012 Dusty Times

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L-point. McGee played turnabout and got the pass on Kirkmeyer on lap 4 and was out in front of #1021 by 5-minutes at the half way point in the race. Allan Lindsay DNF' d after Lap 4 in car # 1096, and Steve McMullin DNF'd after Lap 5 in car #1022. Kirkmeyer caught a case of the slows after lap 4 in car # 1021 and fell off the race pace, and DNF'd after Lap 7 was done. Meanwhile, Mike McGee just kept motoring along in the Pony Expresso Racing car # 1011 and completed all the required laps in 8:07:33 to win First Place in Class 10 at 57.1 mph and by a 2h:40m margin of victory. "It was Awesome fun", McGee reported. "The car ran good between 4000-6000 RPM, but there was nothing there -no power -otherwise. It made for an interesting race". McGee's co-dog Kathy added: "The berms were the most fun". Cody Jeffers motored his way to the Second Place win in 10:47:33 at 43 mph in car #1092. CLASS 12:Eight laps; 456 miles. Six starters; 4 Finishers. Ralph Potts got the pole position start at the green flag in car #1117, followed by David Hill in car #1259. Mike Buschman was out in front with a 39-second lead in car #1205 after Lap 1 was done, ahead of Ryan Pa-quette in car #1207. David Hill was running in third spot in car #1259, and DNF' d after his first lap. Potts was running in fourth spot, behind Hill. Paquette stayed on the gas and got the pass on Buschman on Lap 2 and was out in front by lm:33s at Tyler Peterson had a great race, he took the Class 9 contest with ease, he's seen here on his way home, here just at liftoff. the end of the lap. Paquette stayed on the gas in car #1207 and increased his lead to 7m:40s ahead of Buschman in car # 1205 after Lap 4 was over; and Buschman had a 15m:20s lead in front of Potts in car #1117. Bus-chman fell off the race pace after lap 4 and Potts closed tha gap and got the pass on #1205 on Lap 7. Potts gave it more gas on lap 8 and tied Buschman for the Fast Lap honors at 56.9 mph, but Buschman took home the prize in car #1205 with a faster lap time. That was some consolation for Buschman, but it was Potts who won Second Place in Class by a 9m: l ls margin of victory in the BP Air race car #1117. Potts did it in 8:47:43 at 52.8 mph. "It was rough out there", Potts said. "It was a blast!", his co-driver said. Mike Bushman, Jason Walk-er and David Callaway did it in 8:56:54 at 51.9 mph to win Third Place in the Team Callaway Motor-sports car #1205. "We had a good time. The car was down on power but it was all good and no flats. This is so much nicer than Barstow", Team Callaway reported. Marland McKinney got all the laps done in 11:58: 19 to fin-ish in Fourth Place at 38.8 mph in car #1211. Meanwhile - Ryan Paquette maintained momentum in the RPi car # 1207 and was first on the scene in Class 10 to see the checkered flag fly in an elapsed time of 8:39:39 to win First Place by a 8m:04s mar-gin of victory. That was also good enough to win Fifrh Overall, too. "This was my first race driving", re-Mike McGee was the gold medal winner in the Class 10 fracas at the MORE 500, he's seen here at not one of his best landings. ported Ryan Pacquette. "The course was fast at first, but got rougher near the end. We only had one is-sue when the lower-arm sheared off on Lap 7". Here's the dirty details: "Father/ son race team, Rick Paquette (dad) and (son) Ryan Paquette teamed up for their first race together ever. This was Ryan's first race that he drove his "dad's" car. Rick Paquette drove laps 1,2,3 and Ryan Paquette drove Laps 4-8. Navigator/ co-dawg Jeremy Munyon rode the.whole race and did an excellent job getting us through it. Rick had no problems except it was very dusty and didn't see much of lap 1. Ryan took over on lap 4 and on lap 7 broke a front end thru rod at mile 33 and drove in to pit 34 for repairs. We had 20 minutes of down time while Check-ers welded on the front end for repairs. Thank u Checkers! On the last lap all went good. The car ran perfect. We couldn't have asked for a better ending. Dad (58 year old) said: "I'm proud of Ryan (18 year old) turning good consistence laps times and keeping a good head on himself driving. I think I found a co-driver now! Thanks M.O.R.E. for putting on a great race!" CLASS 5 unlimited:Eight laps; 456 miles. Three starters; one Fin-isher. Wendy Belk got the front spot start in car #5011, followed by Clyde Stires in #517 and Scott Mold-enhauer in #501. Moldenhauer jumped out front for the early lead on lap 1 by 4-1/2 minutes ahead of Belk. Belk cranked it up on lap 2 and narrowed the gap on #501 to C■ntiou■ d an ,,11 28 Todd Tuts drove hid really good lookin' car to a third place fioish in Not too bad a day for Josh Williams, he took third place honors in the Giti Gow/and gave it his all, he finished third in the Class 9 conflict, Giti the Class 1 competition, he's seen here at high speed on the course. Ultra Truck Class, seen here at speed on the way home. was out of 2nd pldt:e by 10 seconds after 11 hours of racing! Mike Buschman took third place honors in the Class 7B contest, Mike is seen here at speed as he hustles to the checkered flag. The Depue crew took third place honors in the highly contested ½-1600 Pat McCanhy finished first off the podium in the Class 1 action, Pat is fracas, seen here nicely airborne and ready to land. seen here on one of many launches into the ether. Chris Gillin took a fourth place finish in the Ultra Truck Class, he's seen Mike Brown had a long second lap in the Class 9 contest but he still Marland McKinney had a terribly long second lap but he still managed here at launch time, heading into the air. managed a fourth place finish, seen here lifting off. a first off the podium finish in the Class 78 action. Dusty Times June 2012 . Page 27 -

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-Mike Cote only got in one lap at the MORE 500 but it's always worth mentioning the toughest class to run in the off road racing world. · 58-seconds at the end of the lap. Belk applied more accelerator on Lap 3 and won the Fast Laps hon-ors at 54 mph; and got the pass on #501 in the process. Moldenhauer DNF d after that. Belk maintained her momentum the rest of the race and took home the gold medal and First Place in Class Su in 9:28:55 at 48.9 mph, and by a 55-minute margin of victory. Clyde Stires maintained a steady pace to win Sec-ond Place in car #517 in 10:28:17 at 33.5 mph. CLASS 1400:Eight laps; 456 miles. Fifteen starters; 5 Finishers. It's a lot of roadside carnage when two-thirds of the starting field don't finish. Two racers recorded no laps. One racer DNF' d after Lap 1. An-other two racers DNFd after Lap 3. Four racers got in four laps of fun before they DNF d too. One racer · completed 7 laps and eleven hours of fun before his race day was over. We're out here havin' fun - in the warm California sun; in the Mojave. Meanwhile - back at the green flag - Josh Williams got the front start spot in truck # 1407, followed at 15-second intervals by Craig Reynolds in truck #1418 and Chris Gillin in truck #1426. Greg Sunds was in the front spot in truck #1425 at the end of Lap 1, with a 3m: 18s lead in front of Allan Byma in truck #1433. Craig Reynolds was in third position about 2-1/2 min-utes behind Byma. Sunds ran into problems on lap 2 and fell off the race pace. Reynolds picked up the pace on lap 2 and recorded the Fast Lap of the day at 55.8 mph in truck #1426. That speed propelled Reyn-olds into first spot with a 6m:22s lead ahead· of Byma. At the same time, Chris Gillin in truck #1418 was only I-second behind Byma in # 1433 at the end of lap 2. And then - Reynolds ran into serious problems on lap 3 and was sidelined for almost 5 hours. It was DNF for truck #1426 after that. That DNF shuffled the deck and saw Allan Byma in truck #1433 out front by 5-seconds ahead of Gillin in #1418 at the end of lap 4, and Bryson Hopfe in truck #1401 just I-minute behind Gillin. Byma ac-celerated the race pace after that and left the competition in his dust. Chris Gillin had a 2m:35s lead ahead of Hopfe going into the last lap when # 1418 had a major misfire and was sidelined for almost 3-hours making repairs. All that back-and-forth action made for an exciting race. Allan Byma emerged the victor with a First Place win in truck #1433 in 9:59:50 at 46.4 mph and by a 30-rriinute margin of win. "It was a good race and .superfun", the By-ma's said. "It was an epic battle 'with Gillin in #1418 all day; lots of fun. We had ignition problems on lap 4, broke a 4-link btilt on lap 6, and no fan clutch and overheating prob-lems on laps 7 and 8." Tom (dad), Alan and Thomas Byma all took ---...... -""l'l:!l_r"""'" ___ ~-Ryan Paquette took top honors in the Class 78 contest, Ryan is seen here at high speed on his way to the sometimes elusive checkered flag. turns driving, and Nathan Stratsma and Alan Rockwood shared the co-dog duties. Bryson Hopfe got all the laps done in 10:29: 13 at 44.2 mph to win Second Place in #1401. Josh Williams got the pass on Giffin on Lap 8 while #1418 was down to win Third Place in 11:28:41 at 40.4 mph in truck #1407. Gillin was down on Lap 8 but not out of the race, and went on to get it fixed and to the fin-ish line for the Fourth Place win in 11:56:26 at 38.9 mph .. Greg Sunds had issues all day in truck #1425 but that didn't stop him from finishing in 12:26:27 to win Fifth Place in Class - and the highly coveted Dusty Times Contingency Prize for finish-ing absoluetly last in all classes in the max time limit. Congrats! Here's the way the race day went for Greg Sunds in truck #1425: "I'm sooooo bummed, but glad we still finished; placed 5th. I just can't catch a break mis year. Plagued by one problem after another, even after 2 test sessions for this 500. Thought I had everything worked out, guess that's never the case with this** jAy, caramba!**** Started 4th off the line and made my way up to 1st pretty quick. Stopped in the pits to top off the fuel and hydrate. Fig-ured I had a long day ahead of me so I took my time and relaxed until I heard the crew say the rest of the class started coming thru. Kept the lead until mm34 when I lost steer-ing due to a broken heim; Peeled it open like a banana. 2nd time that's happened to me. Took about 2 hrs of down time to find one (thanks to Hassim and Engage, I think thats who we got it from). Thankx to everyone that was at that pit that helped too!" "While changing out the heim I noticed the left front coilover was leaking oil. Then went on our way cruising to main because the truck felt all loosey goosey. Set the toe, took a good water and food break, tightened a loose upper link bolt, gased up and went on our way. Next few laps were pretty much cruising for the finish with a blown out shock, stopping every lap for gas, food, and water. Had to stop and tighten the upper link bolt 3 other times. Not sure why it kept coming loose. On the last lap I didn't want to go again since I was the only truck running still. Trever Leach talked me into letting him cruise the truck for a finish, and he brought it home. Had a good time, wasn't as exhausting as I thought it was going to be, but I still don't want to do it again. lmao" Honestly - where else can you have this much fun? . CLASS 1/2-1600 Eight laps; 456 miles. Five starters; 4 Finishers. Joe Castrey .started at the front of the line at the green flag in car #1649. Depue was staged up next in car #1697 and Mike Ward followed in car #1673. Depue was at the front of the line at the end of Lap 1 with a 47-second lead ahead of Mike Ward in car #1673. Ward was 4m:25s ahead of Ron Weddle in car #1603. Castrey was running back in fourth spot, followed by Christy Sizelove in car #2025. Castrey broke the steering box on Lap 2 and DNFd in car #1649 after that after being down for 3-1/2 hours. Both Depue and Ward recorded the same exact speed on Lap 2, and Weddle kept pace in #1603. Ward slowed up a bit on Lap 3, and Depue didn't and increased his lead to 4-minutes by the end of the lap. Ward gave it more gas and closed the gap on Depue to just 24-seconds at the end of Lap 4. Depue gave it more gas on Lap 5, and so did Ward and #1673 narrowed the gap on #1697 to just 45-seconds after Lap 5 was done. Depue slowed his pace on Lap 6 and Ward held a steady pace to get the pass and overtake Depue by 4m:43s after Lap 6 was done. Depue fell further off the pace on Lap 7 and that allowed Ron Weddle to get by in car #1603. Mike Ward motored on to win First Place in Class by a 4lm:34s margin on Victory at 48.5 mph in car #1673. Ron Weddle won Sec-ond Place in car # 1603 in 10: 16:05 at 45.2 mph. Depue got #1697 fixed and to the finish line in 10:30: 14 to win Third Place in Class at 44.2 mph. Christy Sizelove completed all her laps in 10:45:14 at 43.l mph to finish in Fourth Place in car # 1649. CLASS 3000:Eight laps; 456 miles. Five starters; 2 Finishers. Ryan Frisby was staged up at the front of the line at the start in car #3053. Richard Scott was next in line in car #3074, followed by Earl Fraser in #3068 and Richard Scanlan in #3019. Mike Frisby got the rear start in car #3030. Richard Scott blasted his way to the front of the line on Lap 1 and set the Fast Lap pace of the day at 53.9 mph on the way. Unfortunately for ~• Scott -that's all she wrote and # 3074 DNF'd after that. That DNF put Fraser in the lead in car # 3068 by lm:53s ahead of Scanlan in #3019. Fraser fell off the race pace on lap 2 and Scanlan increased his pace. Both Ryan and Mike Frisby encountered major malfunctions on Lap 3 that sidelined them both Christy Sizelove ran in the ½-1600 class, she finished in the fourth spot Shawn Barbetta is seen here just after one of many takeoffs, Shawn Greg Sunds was the fifth place finisher in the Ultra Truck battle, a Christy is seen here at high speed heading for the checkers. was the fifth place finisher in the Class 1 action. horrendously long second lap didn't help, seen here at takeoff. Randy Ward took fifth place honors in the Class 9 conflict, three long Finishing sixth in the Ultra Truck action was Thomas Chamlee, he's Richard Scott only finished one lap in the Class BC action before disaster laps sealed their fate, seen here headin' for home. seen here nicely airborne in his really good looking truck. took over, he's seen here at liftoff on his only lap. Page 28 • June 2012 Dusty Times Ii '

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for almost five hours each. At the halfway point in the race after lap 4 - Scanlan was out in front in car #3019 by 1-hour ahead of Fraser in car #3068. Mike Frisby DNF'd after Lap 5 in car #3030, and Ryan Frisby DNF'd in· car #3053 after Lap 6. Scanlan Qacked off the rpm's on laps 7 and 8 and cruised to the First Place win by a 1:08:20 margin of victory in 9: 13:48 at 50.3 mph in car #3019. "Everything went good. No problems. We just kept a steady pace. The track was extremely rough at the end", Scanlan and co-driver Baroc Dudley said. Earl Fraser got all the laps done in 10:22:08 at 44.7 mph to win Second Place in car #3068. CLASS 5/16:Seven Laps; 399 miles. Three starters; 2 Finishers. Guy Savedra got the front start in the ATS car #569, followed by Larry Atuna in car #570 and Charles Guy in #558. Savedra and Atuna both clocked in at 47.7 mph on lap 1 and tied for the Fast Lap honors of the day. That honor went to Atuna in car #570 who did it 3-seconds faster. Savedra backed off the pace after that, and Atuna maintained the pace. Charles Guy did three laps in car #558 and DNF' d after that. Atuna pushed the pace and was out in front by about 8-minutes after Lap 4 was done. Savedra gave chase but it wasn't enough to catch Atuna, and #570 motored on to win First Place by a 24-minute margin of victory in 9:07:57 at 44.5 mph. "Beautiful!", Atuna Said. "The car ran great. We had a clean race. The course was fast but got soft the last three laps. Not having 35-mph speed zones was great for all-out racing". Ruben Garcia, Osmond Sanchez and Steve Fuentes got to share in the fun. Savedra completed all the required laps in 9:32:03 to win Second Place in the ATS car #569. CLASS 900: Seven Laps; 399 miles. Ten starters; 5 Finishers. Jorge Ventura was staged at the front of the line at the GO Line iun car #984. Tyler Peterson was next in line in car #904, followed by Giti Gowland in #992 and Mike Brown in #924. Randy Ward started fifth in line in car #916 and was out in front by 4-minutes ahead of Peter-son in #904 after setting the Fast Lap of the day at 4 2.1 mph on Lap 1. Ward pushed the pace on Lap 2 and increased his lead to 11-1/2 minutes. And then - #916 ran into forward motion problems on Lap 3 that slowed his progress. That allowed everybody else to get the pass and put Peterson out front in the lead in car #904 by 16-minutes ahead of Gowland in car #992. Ven-tura was running in third spot in car #984, about 9-minutes behind Gowhmd. Peterson maintained a faster race pace than his competitors did and finished all the laps in 10:38:38 at 38.1 mph to win First Place by a 28-minute margin of victory in car #904. Jorge Ventura and Giti Gowland duked it out in the desert for Second Place and it came down to the last lap and only a matter of seconds. Ventura pulled off the win by 10-seconds in 11:06:36 at 36.5 mph. Gowland finished in 11:06:46 at 36.5 mph to win Third Place in car #992. lt doesn't get much closer than that after 399 miles through the Mojave desert, Race Fans. Mike Brown made it around in 11:36:13 at 35 mph to finish Fourth in Class in car #924. Randy Ward lead the race early on and won the Fast lap award before running into forward motion problems in car #916. Ward Dusty Times Massim Mendez drove his Toyota to the gold medal finish in the Class 88 contest, he's seen here at high speed on the course. Karl Scanlan was the big winner in the Class BC contest, he's seen here on his way• to the checkered flag at the MORE 500 event still got all the dirt done in 12: 18:31 to finish in Fifth Place in Class for the day. True Grit. CLASS 13:Six laps; 342 miles. Three starters; one Finisher. Rich-ard Dormack started in the pole po-sition at the GO line in car #1336. Jared Sallenbach started next in car #1312, followed by Vincent Dudash in # 1367 in the rear start spot. Sal-lenbach jumped out front to take the lead by 34-seconds ahead of Dormack at the end of lap 1, and Dudash was running 57-seconds be-hind Dormack. Sallenbach picked up the pace on Lap 2 and set the Fast Lap of the day at 42.1 mph. That feat of speed increased #1312 lead to 17m:25s as Dormack slowed down in #1336. Sallenbach stayed on the gas on lap 3 in car #1312, and Dormack fell prey to the got-cha's as #1336 was sidelined for about 2-1/2 hours making repairs. That allowed Du-dash to get the pass and move into second spot in car #1367. Sallen-bach increased his lead to SO-min-utes ahead of Dudash at the end of Lap 4, and then #1312 DNF'd. That had to suck dirt clods. That DNF put Dudash in the lead in car #1367 by about 47-minutes ahead of Dor-mack in car #1337 going into lap 5. Dormack mashed the gas pedal harder on lap 5 and closed the gap on Dudash to 30-minutes; and then -# 1337 DNF' d. Ouch* Vincent Du-dash was the sole survivor and got all the laps done in 10:06: 12 to win First Place in car #1367. CIASS 1450:Six laps; 342 miles. Seven starters; 2 Finisherti. The Sportsman Truck Class seems to log the most carnage and DNFs of all; 72% in this case. Nonetheless - it counts as hard core dirt and true grit when people do it for a trophy and bragging rights; and for the fun of it. WooHoo! Val Young got the early lead after setting the Fast Lap pace at 39.3 mph on Lap 1 in truck #1489. That speed put Young 3-minutes ahead of Hassim Mendez in truck #1478. Andres Nicolaou was running in third spot in truck #1464 about 6 minutes behind Mendez. Young took a slower line on Lap 2 that allowed Mendez to get the pass in #1478 and take the lead by 10-minutes at the end of the lap. Nicolaou drove truck #1464 into a ditch somewhere and was stuck for 3h:45m getting out. That al-lowed Rhonda- Parkhouse to move up into third spot in truck #1496, about 2-1/2 minutes behind Young. Young took even more time to complete lap 3, and Parkhouse got the pass to put #1496 into second spot. Mendez increased his speed on Lap 3 and increased his lead to 30-minutes. And then - Parkhouse DNF'd after lap 3 in #1496. That DNF reshuffled the race pack order. And then - the race leader Mendez took a 3-hour break making repairs on the sidelines in truck #1478 on lap 4 that reshuffled the deck again. Who's on First? Guillermo Herrera in truck #1455 by 12-minutes ahead of Mendez. Meanwhile - Kenny Flowers moved up into third spot in truck # 1474 about 5-minutes behind #1478. That didn't last long when Flowers (#1474) and Young (#1489) and Nicolaou (#1464) all DNF'd after lap 5. Lap 5 also saw Mendez get #1478 fixed and on the roll again, and actually got the pass on Herrera to take back the lead by 1 m:46s going into the last lap. That's a lot of·DNFs and spot swapping going on. Mendez didn't wait to give it more gas on Lap 6 and drove away from Herrera on his way to the finish line to win First Place by a 34-1/2 minute margin of victory in truck #1478 in 11:36:39 at 30 mph. Guillermo Herrera finished all the laps required to win Second Place in 12:11:06 at 28.6 mph in truck #1455. ,. ,,,~ It was a long day of rating in the warm California sun, in the Mike Ward ran trouble free in the Class 1600 contest, he had 42 minutes in hand when he took the checkers, here just at takeoff. • Mojave in the Johnson Valley there werl! a few bruised ego's and OHV. Eighty-five racers topk up other miscellaneous body parts. the challenge of competing for I mean -how far can you drive 500 miles on some of the badest with a collection of sharp pointy dirt around. The course offered a rocks in the bottom of your car variety of different racing condi- seat? Butt rash. Ouch* The next tions and terrain for everyone: M.O.R.E. race is the Freedom 250 fast, slow, rough, and fun. Thirty-on July 21 in Barstow CA. I'll be six racers made it to the finish line there to bring you all the good dirt to claim victory. No one was seri-and dusty times from inside the ously injured or killed, although winner's circle.30 M.O.R.E, we would Like to congratulate M.O."R.E. New Yea,s 200 1st Place . Randy Jones/Johnny su,ns l/~·11100 1.e~ us t:e~ You on The Pod/un,t Call Jeff or Johnny 818-998-2739 9763VARIELAVENUE, CHATSWORTH, CA 91311 June 2012 Page 29

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~iii~-~ fiamtners f lt,t,ultl __ ._. Erik Miller Takes The Gold By Steve Ruddick Photos: Trackside Photo Erik Miller came from Cumberland, Maryland to compete in the King Of The Hammers, and compete he did: he took the crown with 13 minutes in hand. Hello Race Fans. You know by now that Du§ty Times magazine is committed to "covering the world of competition in the dirt" for our readers. DT brings you race news from across the country and from around the world covering all forms and venues of off-road racing -from the deserts to ral-laye racing to short-course events. With that in mind -I'm on as-signment out here at Means Dry Lake in the Johnson Valley OHV in sunny southern California to cover the 2012 King of the Ham-mer event. KoH is a type of off-road competition that mixes both open desert racing with sections of rock crawling, in one epic race. The KoH event covers four days· of competition. ·The vehicles that compete in the KoH series are an interesting hybrid of rock crawlers and their open desert counterparts. The Ultra4 Class vehicles are basically unlimited 4X4 Jeeps with monster motors, solid axles with trailing arms that are linked front and rear, coilover and bypass shocks all around, and 39-inch tires. Scary fast. Right out of S/F, the course climbed up a long and slick sec-tion of steep hillside that caught my eye -and each racer was up and over like a mountain goat on steroids. That's impressive power and traction. Recognizing the grass roots ap-peal Qf off-road racing, this year KOH promoter Dave Cole created the Smittybilt Every Man Chal-lenge for two new classes - Stock and Stock Modified -to allow enthusiasts a chance to test their skills and vehicles against the famed Hammers terrain. Unlike the unlimited anything-goes na-ture of the Ultra4 class, the rules for the Stock and Stock Modified classes are quite restrictive. Stock Modified vehicles are limited to mechanical steering, two 2.5-inch diameter shocks per corner, and no larger than 37-inch DOT approved tires. Compare this with the fully fabricated Ultra4 race cars for KOH that regularly utilize 3.5-inch bypass shocks, full hydraulic steering, and 40-inch tall race-specific rubber. The Stock class is even more restrictive, re-quiring factory engines and trans-missions, full frames and bodies, and DOT-approved tires no larger than 35-inches tall in· addition to mechanical steering and a single 2.5-inch shock per wheel. "The spirit of the Stock Class is to allow OEM and aftermarket vendors the opportunity to show-case their products while provid-ing a venue for teams to compete in a true drivers class in vehicles that closely relate to street driven versions," Cole explained. The 77-mile course through Johnson Valley OHV Area contained all of the elements of King of the Ham-mers, and surprisingly even much of the same terrain tackled by the unlimited cars. The Smittybilt. Everyr Man Challenge required teams to navigate as quickly as possible through not only uneven desert terrain but also the notori-ous boulder strewn trails known simply as "The Hammers." I'm looking at the race course topo map and there are some re-ally knarly rock crawling sections - steep, narrow, twisty, and rocky; and remote. It ain't quite like open desert racing where there is rela-tively easy access to the course if you break down; not here. In fact, each vehicle is required to carry an on-board locator beacon so race and emergency response officials know where you're at. It's a long course and a lot of desert dirt and dust in between. But for the die-hard Race Fans.-there were a couple of remote spectator viewing areas set up at spots named Chocolate Thunder and NAME. lf you wanted to see rock-crawling racing at its extreme Rick Mooneyham drove his Trick Toys Fabrication vehicle to a second overall finish, Rick was 13 minutes in arrears at the checkers. - these were the places to be. I was impressed by the shear veracity and velocity by which the racers attacked these linear rockpiles. I mean -. Dang! Brute force. Moun-tain goats on steroids. For the not-so-diehard Race Fans -They had live digital TV streaming in to a stadium-sized Spectron jumbo screen in the S/F area and 100+ people standing and sitting watching that. They had a TV-equipped helicopter showing live race action from different spots around the course, too. I'm usually the only 'print' media at the race events I go to, but there were about 200 'media' at KoH; mostly photographers. Suffice it to say - the KoH race .course is huge and includes every type of terrain and obstacle the Mojave desert is known for. It's brutal. It's a test of endurance. Quite the challenge. Once I found the Media tent, I flashed my Press credentials and signed the usual liability release forms; I was wristbanded and I was in. I hung out with the TV crew because they had the prime spot and medi;i coverage gig. The top winners actually stayed around after their TV interviews so I was able to get some good dirt right from the drivers and their co-dawgs. The winning Ultra4 race ve-hicles were beat up after surviving the gruelling terrain and competi-tion known as "The Hammers". I saw cracked trailing arms and links and mounts; over-heating problems. A testament of how tough KoH racing is. The Overall winner said he doubted his ride would make it back to his pit -and he was right. All I can say is that these Ultra4 race machines are built tough, and they need to be to finish the challenges that KoH puts them through. There was damage a-plen-ty between the top three winning rides, and from what I saw -none of them had much more 'race' left in them. Add more gussets next time. Seriously, Race Fans. The Top 3 winning rides were thor-oughly Thrashed and trashed. The only action I can report is what I saw on the big screen TV -and there was plenty of it. The 'rock crawling' sections were just simply knarly. Steep, twisty, rocky, narrow, and nasty is what I saw. The 'open desert' sections were full of sand and whoops and the usual hurdles and hazards. You don't win KoH without 4-wheel drive and these solid axles were beefy and built to take a beating. Shock control included coil-over and by-pass shocks on each corner. The hydraulic steering rams used to control the massive 39-inch tires were huge. The winning vehicles all had big superbad VS motors that pumped out the ponies and torque -similar to the power plants that trophy trucks and Class 1 rac-ers use. Here's the nitty-gritty of what went down: King of The Ham-mers Oohnson Valley, CA) -at 2:03 p.m. on Saturday February 11, 2012 Erik Miller crossed the finish line to be crowned the 2012 King of the Hammers. Considered' ' the toughest one day off-road race, Miller beat out 134 competitors to win the coveted title and $25,000 prize purse. "There are one thou-sand opportunities to make mis-takes out there," Miller explained at the finish line, "and we just try to make as few as possible." Miller finished the grueling race at an average speed of about 27.5 mph - covering 2 laps of the 76 mile course in just 6hrs 3min 51sec -and under 13 minutes faste,r than "EZ" Rick Mooney-ham in second. "I could not have done this without the help of my friends. We have been in John-son Valley for the past twelve days getting ready for this race," the Maryland resident explained. Miller is no stranger' to success; he was the 2010 International Endur-ance Champion and came in fifth at last year's Griffin King of the Hammers. "I added Fox bypass shocks this year and they really helped me carry speed through the desert," Miller revealed. He is the first East Coast competitor to win the prestigious title in the event's six year history. Shannon Campbell, Gilbert Arizona, took third place honors at the Hammers, with Derek West came from Springfield, Missouri to compete in Hammers, Derek "It really helped to qualify well," Miller said at the finish. "That was our plan from the start, to break the top ten and get some .clean air. I'm happy that Dave moved to a qualifier for starting position, I be-lieve it's a more fair way to give the faster guys a real run for the win. The car was near flawless all day, no flats but right there towards the end we were dicing with EZ Rick and we lost power steering. My co-dog get out and fixes it and L take a overall time of 6:33:40 for the event. finished in a respectable first off the podium finish. Page 30 June 2012 Dusty Times

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Loren Healy brought his really good looking vehicle from Farmington, New Mexico to takes a fifth place overall finish. off without him. I chased Rick's dust trail and caught him on the dry lake. So from there we took chances, coming down resolution I lost all power steering and had to drive it in like that. Then the car wouldn't idle and would only run wide open, but that probably worked in our favor." Finishing second was Rick Mooneyham of Trick Toys Fabri-cation, thirteen minutes behind Miller. "I just can't seem to get this monkey off my back." MoOF1ey-ham joked. The Havasu City, Ari-zona resident placed third in '08 and '09 and fourth in '10, making him one of the most consistent Ultra4 racers of all time. Mooney-ham qualified first in the 4Wheel Parts Time Trials, putting him first off the line. He was near the front of the pack for the entire race, but the two-lap format meant the first turn this morning," said Campbell. "I saw a few arrows and followed them and ended up going in circles; then I saw Robby (Gor-don) followed me and few others. By the time I got back on the track it was so dusty I beat up my car try-ing to stay on pace, broke a bunch of junk, got flats, lost a brake line, it was a hard day. I could've slowed down a little and saved it some, but it sure is fun going fast! ·We're here and we had a good time and · that's all that matters. Erik did a good job, congrats to him and his team." 49 Official Finishers of the 2012 Griffin King of the Hammers l Erik Miller 4421 Cumberland MD 6:03:51 2 Rick Mooneyham 554 Lake Havasu City AZ 6: 16:48 3 Shannon Campbell 5 Gilbert AZ 6:33:40 frontrunner had to deal with traf- 4 Derek West 4420 Springfield MO fie in the infamous Hammer trails 7:20:24 regardless of starting position. 5 Loren Healy 4428 Farmington NM "It was fast and dusty!" Said 7:22:05 2nd place winner Rick Mooney- 6 Brad Lovell 232 Colorado Springs ham. "We had all kinds of prob-CO 7:26:23 lems, mostly flats. I wasn't use to 7 Brian Shirley 18 Dodge City KS driving the car fast and hit rocks 7:31:53 and broke wheels. We did most of 8 Rusty Bray 4498 Richmond KY our testing just to see if everything 7:31:54 worked and no time getting use 9 Mike Klensin 4431 Tucson AZ 7:40:58 to going fast. A few g-outs caught us off guard and it's hard to stop these cars. I basically just ran out 10 Casey Currie 2 Anaheim CA 8: 16:04 11 Ben Dinkins 4403 Annopolis MO 8:24:49 of talent when going fast and made 12 Jon Cagliero 27 Paso Robles CA a few mistakes. Next year I'll be 8:27:17 more prepared." 13 Brandon Watson Third. place went to last year's 4488 Carbondale CO King Shannon Campbell in his 8:32:54 single-seat IFS buggy. Campbell 14 Jeff Russell 4427 overcame· issues throughout the Shadow Hills CA 8:39:10 day and at one point was as far 15 lvan VanOrtwick back as thirtieth, but he never 4466 Whittier CA 8:41:08 gave up and finished in six hours and thirty three minutes. Like Mooneyham, Campbell drove a vehicle he fabricated himself. "I guess I am going to have to build something new for next year," Campbell quipped. He is the only driver to have won two King of the Hammers and was the 2011 Ultra4 16 Ben Napier 4461 Sydney AUS 8:42:00 17 John Webb 4468 Concord CA 8:50:28 18 Levi Shirley 81 Dodge City KS 9:03:20 19 Jason Schere; 76 Danville CA 9:05:36 20 Alan Woodson 86 Kirlcland WA 9:27:33 modified class in a heavily modi-22 Jeremy Dickenson 4419 Cedar Park fied Poison Spyder JK. While the TX 9:34:49 Griffin King of the Hammers 23 Harold Fijman 777 San Ramon CA (KOH) demands not only incred-9:38:50 ible driving prowess but cuttirig-24 Alex Hardaway 4481 Santa Rosa CA edge technology, Currie demon• 9:40:59 strated the EMC is truly a driver's .25 Nick Finch 2228 Dean Park NSW race. Currie completed the course 2761 Australia 9:46:51 in under three hours, besting many 26 Lucas Murphy 816 Easton MA teams with more expensive vehicles 9:47:20 and more horsepower. Currie's 27 Ritchie Keller 202 Elkland MO stock Jeep was similar to what 9:47:24 you ·would see on 4WD trails all 28 Cottin Rodd 4407 Cortez CO around the country, with full sheet 9:47:48 metal and 35-inch Falken tires. By 29 Scott Ward 4438 Lake Havasu City winning the Smittybilt Every Man AZ 9:57:40 Challenge, Currie earned a place 30 John James 28 Fresno CA 10:17:58 in the main event at the Griffin 31 Jason Shipman 4414 Farmington MO King of the Hammers on Friday. 10:22:00 Smittybilt Every Man Chal-32 Hunter Sparrow 72 Arvada CO lenge RESULTS: 10:23,20 l 4688 John Currie - Stock -2:44:51 33 Mat Noualy 328 Mt Albert ONT, 2 4581 Larry McRae -Modified CA 10:32:45 - 3:00:22 34 Chris Garrison 4494 Rancho Cor- 3 4515 Mitch Funk - Modified - 3:08:09 dova CA 10:45:50 4 4558 Brandon Heyes - Modified 35 Dave Bovich 50 Shasta Lake CA - 3:16:35 10:51:37 5 4588 Mike Johnson -Modified 36 Les Figueroa 4478 Henderson NV - 3:lti:51 10:59:24 6 4577 George Evans -Modified 37 Fabio Manno" JOO Rome Italy -3:35: 11 11:21:07 7 4535 Kevin Sacalas -Modified 38 Doug Evans 4457 Hayfork CA -3:51:07 11:24:58 8 4538 DJ Harmon - Modified - 3:59:02 39 Larry Anderson 742 Dixon CA 9 4646 Ferris McCollum -Stock 11:52:39 - 4:31:10 40 Matt Peterson 212 Colorado Springs 10 4612 Ben Yarozza - Stock - 4:34:22 CO 11:54:41 11 4669 Shawn Passmore -Stock 41 Robb Kaufman 22 RockyView Coun- - 4:38:31 ty CAN 12:05:47 12 4531 Shawn Rants -Modified 42 Paul Gamer 4409 Queen Creek AZ - 4:57:29 12:21:57 13 4678 Jason Kaminsky -Stock 43 Bart Dixon 26 San Diego CA - 5:15:28 12:57:47 14 4569 Jason McAtee -Moqified 44 Curtis Warner 4410 Armstrong BC - 5:19:31 12:59:05 15 488 Josiah Begay - Stock -5:47:22 45 Brandon Heyes 4558 Rancho Cu-16 4621 Bret Scheiding - Stock - 6:23: 19 camonga CA 13:02:45 17 4680 Cody Addington -Stock 46 Jesse Haines 4499 Sparks NY - 6:23:56 13:05:48 18 890 Jonathan Terhune. - Modified 47 Warren Thomas 257 Morr& Bay CA -6:~8:41 13:19:25 19 4555 Stephen Caproni - Modified 48Tom Wayes321 SanJoseCA 13:33:45 - 6:29:12 49 Stan Haynes 4408 Ft. Wayne IN 20 4699 Chris Marquart -Stock 13:38:55 -6:35: 19 . Earlier in the week of competi- 214674 Matthew Rager - Stock - 7:03:45 tion -John Currie won the overall 22 4580 Jordan Townsend - Modified Smittybilt Every Man Challenge -7:19:30 (EMC) in an impressive and inspi;-23 4623John Williams-Stock- 8:12:50 ing victory in a stock class Jeep KoH is quite ah awesome Wrangler. Larry McRae won the event. It was a veritable vil--------, lage of RVs-and Series Champion. "I got lost down there in the Charlottesville YA 9:20:43 Larry McRae took the gold medal in the Smittybilt Challenge, his campers and ven-dors and pegple -known as "Ham-mertown". Signifi-cant additions were made tis year in, eluding a new short course and hot pit area. In an effort to increase safety and expand the race day experience for spec-tators, the promot-ers built a cutting-edge wireless cam-. era to microwave system the 21 Jason Blanton 966 modified Jeep had a time of 3:00:22, seen here in action. vast course to bring true live coverage to the fans in camp via jumbotron and a nine and a half hour webcast to fans across the country and globe. · The crowd this year far exceeded expectations. I'm t'.3-lking about mass qua~ti-ties of people, numbering in the multiple thousands. KoH estimates there were 17,200 people in attendance by their records, and the Sheriff and CHP and BLM estimate there were 30,000 people throug_hout the week long event. That's a small ci!)'. To _give you some idea of just how popular KoH is -there were 240 competi-tors from 20 different states, and from canada, australia germany, iceland, italy, and mexito; and about a hun-dred vendors. Wo W! I was pretty imF_ressed by the size of the KoH event. It was big and Hammertown covered a lot of ground. It takes a lot to manage and coordinate the logistics of off road competition on this scale, and over several days, and KoH did a great job. KoH 2012 also included races for the dirt-cycle and UTV crowds. Each day was its own event. That's a lot of logistics, and a lot of fun. KoH expanded their venue this year to include two ad-ditional classes: stock and stock modified - for the more budget-challenged competi-tors. The word I heard was that this year's KoH was twice as big as before. It keeps growing. It all depends on what Race Fans want to see (de-mand) and market share (supply). I saw a lot of ven-dors that cater to both KoH and open-Oesert racing com-petitors. Are there enough com~titors and spectators and TV viewers, and spon-sors, to make it add up to the bottom line? From the way KoH is growing : it looks like they have the marketing and promotion in motion and on the right track to future success and more competi-tors who want a piece of the action. Jeeps are popular. People on the assembly line are working 60-hour weeks, and they still can't keep up with demand. I can inVIsion a 'Tough Truck' type com-petition in future events. It would be really wild to hook u__p with M.o.R.E. or SNORE and include a day of open-desert style racing. Sounds like fun and a win-win to me! Mitch Funk took second place modified honors in the Smittybilt Brandon Heyes took the bronze medal in the Smittybilt Modified Casey Currie was the 10th place finisher in the King Of The Hammers Challenge, Mitch is seen here working his way around the course. contest, his time was 3:16:35, he's seen here in his Jeep. event, he's seen here slightly askew as he heads for the finish line. Dusty Times June 2012 Page 31

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AT 5PEEDWORLD 0FFROAD PARK Fortin Takes Two By ] Preston Bradshaw It was a great turnout for the Lucas Oil off road gang, 140 of them gathered for the two day affair at Speedworld Off Road Park in beautiful downtown Surprise, Arizona. As usual, the racing was stupendous and most said they had a great weekend. The Pro Buggy troops, there were 17 of them really had a shootout. On Saturday it was Doug Fortin taking a really nice win, Steven Greinke took second place honors, Garrett George took home the bronze medal, Mike Porter finished first off the podium and Jerry Whelchel took fifth place hon-ors. Geoffrey Cooley finished in the sixth spot, Larry Job was lucky seventh, Lonny Hart was eighth to finish, Robb Harvey took ninth place and Ken Stout rounded out·the top 10, he was the last -of the 16 lap finishers. 11th place went to Eric Fitch, he completed 15 laps as did John Holmes making it an even dozen, Rino Navera finished in 13th place, he too had 15 laps in, Jeff Darland was 14th, he nad 10 laps complete, Wade Wyman was 15th with 9 laps completed, Cameron Steele was shown 16th with 8 laps done and Rich Ronco was penalized for a rules infraction and was shown-in· 17th place. The Sunday Pro Buggy Un-limited race saw. Doug fortin once more taking a really nice win, Geoffrey Cooley took sec-ond place honors, Steve Greinke dropped a spot into third place, Larry Job moved up into fourth place and Mike Porter was fifth to complete his 16 laps. Sixth spot went to Rob Harvey, Rich Photos: Trackside Photo Ronco finished in seventh spot, Lonny Hart took eighth place, Eric Fitch was ninth in and he was the last of the 16 lap finish-ers. Rino Navera was 10th car in, he completed 15 laps, Ken Stout was 11th with 15 laps in, Garret George was 12th with 15 laps in, John Holmes was shown ,13th with 14 laps completed and Jerry Whelchel was shown 14th with 14 laps completed and Wade Wyman was shown 15th with nly three laps completed. Cameron Steele and Jeff Dar-land did not complete a lap. The Pro Lite Unlimited race on Saturday had 22 entrants all ready to go for it! They had 16 laps of really hot racing and when the checkers flew it was RJ Anderson taking a really nice win, Chris Brandt was a close second place finisher, RJ Anderson took the gold medal both days in the always competitive Pro lite Unlimited action, seen here taking the lead in the pack. Sheldon Creed took top honors in the Super Lite Main on Sunday, after doing a dnf on Saturday it was a welcome relief. Casey Currie took third plac~ honors, Austin Kimbrell fin-ished· first off the podium and Jimmy Stephensen was fifth to finish. Sixth place went to Chad George, Shannon Camp-bell was lucky seventh, Aaron Daugherty was eighth in and Ryan Beat was the nitw:h and last of the 16 lap finishers. Bradley Morris was shown 10th with 15 laps completed, Justin Smith was shown 11th, Kyle Lucas was shown 12th, Jacob Person was shown 13th, Bubba Gray was shown 14th and Noah Fouch was shown 15th and he was the last of the 15 lap finish-ers. Doug Mittag was shown 16th with 14 laps completed, Matt Cook was 17th with 12 laps finished, Jerett Brooks was shown 18th with 9 laps completed, Todd Cunningham was 19th with 8 laps done, Sheldon Creed was listed 20th with only 2 laps done, Brian Deegan-was shown 21st with 2 laps completed, John Dempsey . only completed 1 lap and was' ' shown 22nd and Curt Geer was shown 23rd, not completing his first lap. The Sunday Pro Lite Un-limited action was another 16 lap event and· 13 contestants finished the required laps. RJ Anderson doubled down and Casey Currie took home the bronze medal in the Saturday Pro Lite Steven Greinke took the silver medal in the Saturday Pro Buggy Unlimited Chris Brandt flew his Toyota to a second place finish in the Saturday Pro Unlimited scramble, Casey was up a spot into second place in the race, Steven finished third in the Sunday scuffle. Lite Unlimited race, Chris finished fifth in the Sunday event. Sunday action. ==================::::; Jessie Johnson took second place honors in the Super lite race on Saturday, Jessie was shown ninth in the Sunday affair. Page 32 Todd LeDuc goes left into a comer in Pro 4 Unlimited for a second place Greg Adler finished in second place in the Saturday Pro 2 Unlimited race, finish on Saturday, Todd was shown seventh in the Sunday action. Greg took third place honors in the Sunday fracas. June 2012 Dusty Times

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Garrett George flie~ nicely to a third place finish in Pro Buggy Unlimfted Bradley Morris was the 10th place finisher in the Pro lite Unlimfted action It was a third place finish in Super lite on Saturday for Dawson Kirchner, on Saturday, Garrett was shown 12th in the Sunday action. on Saturday, Brad came back on Sunday to take a nice third place finish. Dawson took fourth place honors in the Sunday fracas. was lucky seventh place finisher and John Gable was the eighth place finisher and last of the 12 lap finishers. Jessie Johnson was shown ninth with 11 laps completed, Sheldon Creed com-pleted 10 laps and was shown 10th and Cody Rahders fin-ished seven laps and was shown 11th for the race. In the Sunday Super Lite race, 12 laps in length, with 11 entrants and nine official finish-ers, it was Sheldon Creed taking the big class win, Jessie Johnson took second place honors, Ryan Hagy coupled his third place finish with his second place fin-ish on Saturday, Dawson Kirch-ner was fourth to finish and Garrett Poelman was fifth to take the checkered flag. A sixth .. place finish went to Drew Britt, Wyatt Kirchner took seventh place honors, Brent Fouch was eighth to finish and John Gable was the ninth and final finisher. Cody Rahders finished 11 laps and was shown 10th and Bryan Osborn also finished 11 laps and was shown in 11th place. The Pro 4 Unlimited group on Saturday had 11 starters, they had to complete 19 laps for their race and eight of them made it all the way. When the dust settles down we had Kyle LeDuc taking home the gold medal, less than a second later his brother, Todd came in for second place honors, eight sec-onds later, Corry Weller came in for a third place finish, Ryan Beat was fourth to take the Broo Dickerson flew his way to the gold medal in the Saturday Kart Jr 1 fracas, Broe · was a super close second place finisher in the Sunday race. checkered flag and Eric Barron was fifth to finish the race. Jerry Daugherty finished in sixth place, he was 12 seconds in ar- . rears to the leader, Travis Coyne took the seventh finishing spot and Carl Renezeder was eighth in and the last of the 19 lap finishers. Greg Adler only got in 18 laps and was shown ninth, Curt LeDuc, father of the first and second place finishers was shown 10th with 13 laps com-pleted and Josh Merrell was shown 11th with 9 laps under his belt. In the Sunday Pro 4 Unlim-ited fracas we saw Kyle LeDuc once mor~ making it a double header with a very nice Class win, Travis Coyne took second place honors, he was well back, almost 13 seconds behind the leader and Jerry Daugherty was the third place finisher. Greg Adler was shown fourth, he was one lap shy of the necessary to complete, Curt LeDuc was shown fifth, he only ·had J2 laps completed, Corry Weller was shown sixth, he had 10 laps completed, Todd LeDuc only got eight laps in, he was shown seventh, Eric Barron was shown eighth, he too had eight laps completed, Carl Renezeder was shown ninth with five laps in and Josh Merrell was shown 10th with three laps completed. They were 18 strong in the Pro 2 Unlimited race on Sat-urday, they had to complete 21 laps for their race. When the Bradley Morris took top honors in the limited Buggy affair on Saturday, he had to settle for second place in the Sunday action. checkers waved-it was Rob Mac-Cachren taking a really nice win, Greg Adler was less than a second in arrears to take sec-ond place, Carl Renezeder was another two seconds back in the third spot, Nick Tyree came in for fourth and Rob Naughton rounded out the first five finish-ers. Jeremy Stenberg was sixth to finish, Trevor Cooper was seventh in and he was the last of the 21 lap finishers. Brian Deegan was shown eighth, he had 20 laps completed, Jeff Geiser was shown ninth, he too with 20 laps under his belt. Marty Hart had 19 laps complet-ed and was shown 10th. Jeremy McGrath was shown 11th with 15 laps completed, Rodrigo Am-pudia was shown 12th, he too had 15 lap~ complete, Patrick Clark was shown 13th with 11 lap~ done, Justin Davis had 10 laps completed and was shown 14th and Myan Spaccerelli was shown 15th with 7 laps done. Ryan Hancock only finished 6 laps and was shown 16th, Robby Woods also finished 6 laps, he was listed at 17th and Jeff Seifert finished 2 laps and was recorded at 18th. The Sunday edition of the1 Pro 2 Unlimited action saw· 18 vehicle·s attempting to run 20 laps at speed, but only 10. of them would make it all the way. When the checkers flew on Sunday it was Marty Hart tak-ing home the gold medal, Rob MacCachren was right on his Continued 1n p111 36 Corry Weller took third place honors in the Saturday Pro 4 action, Corry Carl Renezeder took third place honors in the Pro 2 Unlimited race on Dillon Ayers finished third in the Saturday limned Buggy affair, and he was the sixth place finisher in the Sunday action. Saturday, Carl was a dnf in the Sunday activities. repeated the third {place finish in the Sunday event. Sheldon Creed leads some competition as he heads for a third place In the Kart Jr 1 event on Saturday ft was Travis Pecoy taking third place Travis Pecoy took third place honors in the Kart Jr 2 Saturday event, finish in Saturdays Kart Modified event, Sheldon finished second in• the honors and Travis finished in the same spot in the Sunday affair. Travis took the silver medal in the Sunday action. Sunday event. · Page 34 June 2012 Dusty Times

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Robert Gregg Symonds August 24, 1921-May 28, 2012 Gregg died peacefully, surrounded by his loving family, in his new home in Pasadena, after moving from Agoura Hills, CA his home for the last 40 years. Born in Oklahoma City, OK, Gregg traveled to Southern California with his parents and younger brother and sister. In 1941 he met tµe ·love of his life, Davida Ingram, and they were married on August 31, 1941. He worked in the airline industry until drafted to serve in the 13th US Naval Construction Battalion (Seabees) during World War IL His first daughter, Marilyn was born shortly before he shipped out overseas. His second daughter, Carole and son, David, were born after his return. Upon his return from overseas Gregg joined his father, Robert C. Symonds in real estate and development in the San Fernando Valley before formidg his own constrnction company. He worked in construction and real-estate development throughout the rest of his life. Gregg lived .an adventurous life. He raced motorcycles and cars, both off road a,nd Nascar Circle Track from 1966-1979. He_ flew his own airplane and travelled extensively with his wife, b9th by air and in their motor home. Their motor home travels took them all over the United States where they met and visited with many of their friends. After giving up racing in 1980 at the age of 79, he took up golf and then added another hobby in 1984 by taking up portrait painting. Gregg is survived by his wife of 70 years, Davida Elizabeth Symonds; his daughters Marilyn Buchanan (Gene) of Pasadena and Carole Daly Qim) of Eugene, Oregon; his son David Symonds (Lisa) of Sparks, Nevada along with ten grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren; two brothers, William W. Symonds Qune) and John S. Symonds (Karen) and numerous nieces and nephews. Funeral services will be private, Future arrangements for a Cel~bration of Life will follow. In remembrance of this remarkable man the family asks that donations be made to the American Cancer Society . Long time off-road racer, ·class winner and champion, Gregg Symonds, passed away Monday, May 28th succumbing to Leukemia, which he had been battling for years. He died at home near Dee his wife of almost seventy years and his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Symonds started racing late in life, he was thirty, racing bikes in the desert and eventually moving up to cars and joining the Checkers Off, Road Team. He was a tenacious competitor and raced until SCORE and HDRA could no longer insure him. So he went out and got his own insurance poli~y; naming both promoters as co-insured; thus continued racing in the desert. Then when he reached 80 years-old he started racing in the local NASCAR circuit. He held the distinction for being the "Oldest NASCAR Racer" still active. Besides being a great racer he was also a great painter, who took up the art of painting portraits at age 80! Before that, he had never lifted a paint brush! A number of people now proudly display his paintings. He was President of the Checkers and led the great Club by example, always· competitive and ready to take on the challenge. He is survived by his wife Dee, three children and countless grandchildren and great grandchildren. The family is planning a memorial and as soon as it is settled, the Checkers will put out 1:he word. Dusty Times June 2012 Page 35

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::-Jeremy McGrath didn't have a good Saturday in the Pro 2 Unlimited Kevin McCullough finished fifth on Saturday in the limited Buggy event, Parker Darland was the fourth place finisher in the Kan Jr 1 event oo event, but he did take a fourth place finish in the Sunday event. Kevin finished first off the podium in the Sunday contest. Saturday, Parker finished in the fifth spot in the Sunday battle. the seventh spot, Keaton Swane was eighth to finish, Jim Price took the ninth finishing spot and Lindsay Geiser was the 10th and final 14 lap finisher. Chad Graham finished 6 laps and was shown 11th. There were 15 entries in the Kart Jr. 1 event, they had 10 laps to run for their race and a dozen of them did just that. When the checkered flag flew it was Broe Dickerson taking the cherished gold medal, Conner McMullen came in just a second later in second place, Travis Pecoy was the third place finisher; Parker Darland was fourth in and Ricky Gutierrez took fifth place hon-ors. Lauren Knupp finished in sixth place, Barrett Nunley was lucky seventh in, Matt Crowell was the eighth place finisher, Blaze Nunley was ninth in and Ray• Rohen was the 10th place finisher. Rayce Geiser took the 11th spot and Jayon Win bury was the 12th place finisher and the last of the 10 lap finishers. Darren Hardesty was shown 13th with six laps completed, Kamrin Dickerson was shown 14th with no laps completed and Allie Spaccarelli was shown 15th with no laps completed. The Kart Jr. 1 event on Sun-day had 10 laps to run for their race and a dozen of them would complete their required laps. Darren Hardesty claimed the gold medal for the day, Broe Dickerson was a very close sec-ond place, Travis Pecoy was a close third place finisher, Con-ner McMullen finished first off the podium and Parker Darland was the fifth place finisher. Ray Rohen was sixth to finish, Matt Crowell was lucky seventh to finish, Allie Spaccarelli was eighth in, Kamrin Dickerson finished in the ninth spot and Blaze Nunley rounded out the top 10. Rayce Geiser was 11th to finish and Jaydn Winbury finished 12th and was the last of the 10 lap finishers. Barrett Nunley was shown 13th with 9 laps completed, Ricky Gutierrez was shown 14th with no laps done and Lauren Knupp was shown 15th, she too with no laps completed. Kart Jr. 2 had 18 entries on Saturday with 10 laps to com-plete for their race. Wonder of wonders, all 18 entrants com-pleted their 10 required laps. Broe Dickerson was taking no prisoners this day, he went home with the coveted gold medal, Shelby Anderson was right there in the second spot, Travis Pecoy went home with the bronze medal, Dylan Winbury finished first off the podium and Darren Hardesty was the fifth place fin-isher. Hailie Deegan took sixth place honor.s, Weston Schuck Dusty Times was seventh to finish, Sammy Gutierrez was eighth vehicle in, Parker Porter took ninth place and Parker Steele was the 10th finisher. Eleventh place went to Ronnie Anderson, Philip Win, bury made it an even dozen, Trevor Briska was 13th to fin-ish, Hayden Cling was 14th in and Bryce McDaniel was 15th to take the checkers. Alyssa Fortin was the 16th finisher, Jeremy Davis was 17th in and Eliott Watson was the 18th. and final finisher. The Sunday Kart Jr. 2 event had 18 entrant~ going for a 10 lap finish and fully 16 of them would complete the required laps. Dylan Winbury was the big gold medal winner this day, Travis Pecoy was very close in the second spot, Eliott Watson took third place honors, Shelby Anderson was the fourth place finisher and Jeremy Davis fin-ished in the fifth spot. Sixth place went to Weston Schuck, Parker Steele was seventh to finish, Parker Porter finished in the eighth spot, Trevor Briska was ninth in and Hailie Deegan took 10th place honors. Ronnie Anderson was 11th to take the checkers, Alyssa Fortin made it an even dozen, Hayden Cling was 13th to finish the race, Philip Winbury was 14th to fin-ish, Bryce McDaniel finished in 15th place and Sammy Gutier-rez finished 16th and he was the last of the 10 lap finishers. Broe Dickerson only had one lap un-der his belt and was shown 17th· and Darren Hardesty was shown 18th with no laps completed. The Kart Modified group had 15 entries and had 12 laps to run for their race, 14 of them made all the required laps. When the smoke cleared it was Brock Heger taking a re-ally nice win, Kyle Hart finished 2 seconds in arrears, Sheldon Creed took third place hon-ors, Blake Lenk was fourth to take the checkers and Bradley Morris was fifth to finish the race. Sixth place went to Scotty Steele, Myles Cheek was lucky seventh, Brooke Kawell took the eighth finishing spot, Jeff Hoff-man was ninth in and Gavin Harlen took 10th place honors. Eliott Watson was the 11th place finisher, Cole Mamer was 12th in, Isabella Naughton was the 13th place finisher and Co-rey Geiser finished 14th and he was the last of the 12 lap finish-ers. Preston ·Rohen was shown 15th with 11 laps completed. The Sunday Kart Modified race was another 12 lap event, Brock Heger (rear) took first place honors in the Kan Modffied Saturday race, Brock had to settle for a third place finish in the Sunday scuffle. Marty Han was shown 10th in the Pro 2 Unlimited race on Saturday, Marty took the Pro 2 Unlimited win on Sunday, here saving tire wear. June 2012 there were 15 entrants and 13 of them made it all the way. First to take the checkered flag and the gold medal was Blake Lenk, Sheldon Creed finished in the second spot, Brock Heger took third place honors, Cole Mamer took the fourth place spot and Myles Cheek was fifth to finish the race. Sixth place went to Kyle Hart, Jeff Hoff-man was seventh to finish the race, Brooke Kawell finished in the eighth spot, Isabella Naugh-ton took ninth place honors and Eliott Watson was 10th to take the checkered flag. Gavin Harlen was the 11th to take the checkers, Preston Rohen was 12th to take the checkers, Bradley Morris was the unlucky 13th place finisher and he was the last of the 12 lap finishers. Corey Geiser was only able to complete five laps and he was shown as 14th. Scotty Steele was dq'd for a post tech violation. So, there it was, another fun and thrilling weekend with the Lucas troops. Next up on June 23 at Miller Motorsports Pa k. See ya all there! Broe Dickerson swept the ·field on Saturday in the Kan Jr 2 contest on Saturday, he was only able to get one lap finished in the Sunday race. Blake Lenk took fourth place honors in the Saturday Kart Modffied action, he came back on Sunday and he was the class winner/ Da"en Hardesty only finished 6 laps in the Saturday Kan Jr 1 event, on Sunday he roared back to take the gold medal for the class. Page 37 -

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STEVE & THE BLM Mciny ouestions By Steve Ruddick Reporters NOTES: Let's face it, Race Fans. BLMs Cost Re-covery Fee is exorbitant and expensive. It averages out to 35% of the total Entry Fee. BLMs normal rate is $38/hour. As far as I can figure, it jumps to $120/ hour under the Cost Recovery Fee schedule. How can that pos-sibly be? I haven't seen anything from BLM that remotely justifies the price. BLM says the CRF is used to "monitor and enforce" the race rules so no one gets hurt or killed. That adds up to very expensive observers. I've observed what BLM does for the money: they sit in their big expensive a/ c truck~ with binocs and take notes of each and every race rule infraction they see. They invent ridiculous cocka-mame Rules that have nothing to do with safety, but which makes their job easier to do. Over-priced cops, IMO. Show us the spread-sheet BLM; what service are we getting for the price being paid? It makes it that much more ex-pensive for the promoter and for everyone who does race. It prices people out of the competition who just can't afford it. It adds an additional $850/year per racer per race season. That ain't cheap change, Race Fans. It's a wad of hard-earned money that is paid to BLM. What service are we getting for the price being paid? That $850/year/racer to BLM equates to the basic entry fee for four races in the Sportsmans Classes. That's a hefty price to pay to play. What it means is that BLM is price-gouging budget-challenged racers and promoters out of the sport by charging exhorbitant and expensive fees that result in higher costs and fewer entries. An additional $145 per racer per race ain't chicken feed. It is real money. BLM hasn't shown how hard they work for the money they charge in CRF. I want to know. DT will print the CRF spreadsheet if BLM will provide . it, so that everyone can see it and know. · I mean -that $145 BLM CRF per entry will buy 35 gallons of pump gas. 35 gallons of gas will propel me for 135 miles of race course, or 600 mile1, on the free-way; two tank fulls. That same $145 BLM CRF per entry would also buy two dozen (24) 6-packs of beer. That $145 BLM CRF per entry per race ain't cheap for the budget-challenged racer. The big boys with their fancy and expen-.sive toys can afford it, me thinks. It's•another added cost that pric-es many people out of the hobby because they can't afford it. It just sounds rather pricey to pay for BLM to "monitor and enforce". For the CAL 500 race -•it totaled up to $12,325 in BLM CRFees. That is money out of racers pockets that goes directly into the coffers of BLM. BLM "monitors" the Rules they impose (color-coordinated Pit Crew shirts) and "enforces" any infractions they observe upon the race promoter for not enforcing BLMs rules. · Compare that $12,325 in BLM CRF to the $25,100 col-lected in -basic entry fees by the race promoter to put on the CAL 500 race. I can't begin to imagine how much a Liabilty insurance policy costs these days for a high-risk event, but it can't be cheap. The rates went sky high after a crash at the 2011 Reno Air Races killed nine people in the viewing stands. Paybacks, and trophies, ~~--:--::-----,TYi~::;::::--2111 lESAl IA / IATEB RllllETB,. ---l~Cll Br 1111'11#1 9~KENWOOB .,,.. June·2012 comes out of that $25,100 col-lected by the race promoter. Mark and OPS the course. Set up and tear down: Start/Finish, timing devices, port-a-potties, main race radio, Road Crossings (RX), Check Points (CP), remote pits, and Spectator Viewing Areas. Whew* That's a lot of work and manual labor. It's a family business, not a corporate enterprise. The pro-moter relies largely on volunteers to help monitor and enforce the Rules that BLM imposes. The promoter provides reflective safety vests to all volunteers. The promot~r was required to pur; chase a trailered fire rig for the S/F area, while individual pits are· only required to have Class B-rated fire extinguishers. I can't recall a single incident where a race car ever caught on fire in S/F. They usually catch fire on the race course. The point is -the cost of those BLM CRFees are equal to half of the amount the promoter gets in basic entry fees. That's a lot of money to pay out to BLM to monitor and enforce their own Rules. It makes it that much more expensive to race and for the promoter to make enough profit to do it. If it don't pay the bills ... why do it? It is the rac-ers and the promoter that must eat the CO$t of complying with whatever cockamame rules BLM imposes (e.g. - color-coordinated Pit Crew shirts). More money. The primary safety issue is keeping spectators out of harms way, despite their desire to do otherwise. :Y-hat issue has been resolved by setting up designated Spectator Viewing Areas ap-proved by BLM. Since then, it seems BLMs focus has turned to the racers ·and promoter: moni-tor and enforce what they do. Misplaced priorities. I mean - I've read about 4-6 people in the last year alone that have died at·Stod-dard and Johnson Valley OHVs while driving/riding their recre-ation vehicles for pleasure, and it wasn't race-related. I'd like to see an analysis comparing the safety records of desert racing with those of people just out OHVing. The simple fact is - it is a dan-gerous hobby/sport. The desert is unforgiving. The odds are you are more likely to die or be seriously injured just out riding your rec vehicle for pleasure in an OHV than you are driving in a sanctioned high-speed off-road racing event. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time at a high-speed race in the OR,en desert can be deadly, no matter where you are on the course. Be smart and be safe and get out of harm's way. I mean - I know how we did carerra rescate (nice rescue) down in baja back in the heydays -where there was no BLM; just Federales with uzi's. We all car-ried full trauma bags because we were the only lifeline. The teams medical director was stationed at S/F, just like the ambulance is these days. We had other medi-cal teams positioned at the more dangerous parts of the course. We had a rover to cover the other parts. There was no crowd con-trol and most of the injuries we treated were locals; too close or on the course. It makes me wonder what kind of training the BLM people get for doing CRF duty. Is there a training course or a handbook? I hope they get a copy of The Rules they are there to "monitor and enforce". "How to observe and take pictures and notes of infractions on CRF duty" (while sitting in your taxpayer provided a/ c vehicle). I mean - I saw two BLM vehicles (one with a small enclosed trailer) hightailing it on Bessemir Mine Rd - away from the race course, on my way to the CAL 500. I got the impression they were done for the day. What service is BLM rendering for the price of the CRFees paid? The price is hefty and has a negative impact on budget-challenged racers and the race promoter because the overall number of entries is down. $12,325 to BLM in CRFees for the CAL 500 -is mucho money. BLM charges a basic fee of $38/ hour to review a race ,permit ap-plication. After 50 hours of time -the CRF kicks in. Even if you pay double the basic BLM hourly rate -$12,325 translates into 160+ hours of time at $75/h, and 320+ hours at $38/h. If a race is 10-hours long, that CRF money pays BLM very handsomely to "monitor and enforce". Follow the money, Race Fans. It all goes directly into BLM's coffers. I mean -if $12,325 in Cost Recovery Fees is any example of how much it costs govt to "moni-tor and enforce" their own rules, sounds like a ponzi scheme to me; also known as off-highway robbery. It certainly reflects the image of fat lazy govt bureau-crats feeding high on the hog at the public trough of taxpayers expense. Paying anyone $125 an hour to monitor and enforce their own Rules is just ludicrous. How much does it cost if they do any real work? If it was a private business charging that kind of money~' they'd be broke and out-of-bis quick because no one in their right mind would pay that price. But it's BLM; and they can charge it and get away with it because they are 'The Govt' and can make their own rules that we have to pay and play by. I certainly don't make $125 an hour observing and re-porting what BLM does for $125 an hour in Cost Recovery Fees. What a rip-off. Boss - I need a raise. That would be like A.R.T.S. charging $ 125 to tech inspect each race car. But it's BLM. I repeat: What a rip-off! It's price gouging. BLM writes the rules that require it: Paying BLM to monitor and enforce their own Rules. Paying the fox to watch the hen house. It makes it easy for BLM to pass the buck of respon-sibility to the race promoter. That BLM CRF pays for a lot of BLM man-hours. What services are .we getting for that kind of money? All I'm asking for is some govt ac-countability for how much BLM charges and what they do to earn $ 125/hour. The devil is in the details, and BLM doesn't provide a cost-breakdown spreadsheet. How many BLM does it take to change a light bulb? I'm serious, Race Fans. Com-pare the number of entries per race before and after BLM started charging $14 5 per racer per race in CRF. The numbers don't lie. The number of entries is down. It ain't cheap to race or promote, and the CRF is too much money to pay BLM to "monitor and enforce" their own rules. 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just pass the buck of responsibil-ity, ,md the cost, to the race pro-moter. It's the promoter who pays the Liability insurance policy the BLM requires. It's the promoter, and the racers, who pay the price of complying with any cockama-me rule the BLM can dream up (e.g. -color coordinated Pit Crew shirts). That is pretty good evi-dence that BLM is price gouging off~road racing out of business because nobody can afford the Cost Recovery Fee. Can you ima,gine how much Entry Fees would be if the race promoter adopted the same cost-recovery method that BLM uses? Cha-Ching! Nobody could afford to enter. What the CRF boils down to is BLM covering their butt: BLM is liable because they issue the race permit and write the rules. I mean - I can take my race truck to any BLM OHV and go as fast as I want - as long as I comply with the Vehicle Code requirements for operating a vehicle within an OHV: reduced speed within 150 feet of any "so-cial gathering". Meanwhile - 4-6 people die every year in the Johnson Valley and Stoddard OHVs while simply riding or driving their recreation vehicle for pleasure. Driver error. Where is a BLM when you need one? Do you think the BLM on duty during non-race OHV ac-tivities get paid $ 125/hour like they do when the CRF kicks in during sanctioned racing events? I picked the wrong low-paying job of Ace Reporter. I coulda had a BLM job! Drat. How -can this be? Because you are liable for your own reckless behavior whenever you enter an OHV, at any time, for any reason, under any and all circumstances and conditions. Get out of the way. So -more people die every year while simply riding or driv-ing their recreation vehicle for pleasure in an OHV, than there are compared to people who die at BLM approved offroad rac-ing events. It usually isn't the racers who end up dead at BLM approved offroad racing events. But it is ESPN cameramen, and dirt bike riders who are out on the race course, and even specta-tors - all in the wrong place at the wrong time -who do die. I do remember one racer who did die behind the wheel of their race car -due to a heart attack. What a way to go out -doing what you enjoy for fun. When they pry my cold dead fingers from the steer-ing wheel. There isn't a price you can put on someone's life; except a Life insurance policy. What is the risk factor applied if you drive in a sanctioned offroad race event, compared to that of simply rid-ing or driving your recreation vehicle for pleasure in an OHV? There isn't a price too high to pay to prevent even one tragedy; self-inflicted or not. I guess BLM can justify the CRF they charge because not one life has been lost since· it has been put into effect. A racer and their co-dog were seriuosly injured at the Plaster City race in Month when their race car crashed and broke apart -because they weren't wearing their required shoulder harnesses at the time. How do you enforce a safety requirement when knuck-leheads don't strap up? Random safety belt inspections during the race? Would you rather be DQ' d Dusty Times or in th·e ICU whh a broken sternum, internal injuries, and neck trauma? Don't be stupid; buckle up or become your own bobblehead. Yes -they rewrote the Rule-book on safety for high-speed offroad racing events. It needed doing. They also upped the price for BLM to monitor and enforce their own Rules from nada to $145 in CRF per racer per race. I don't decry BLM for doing their job - I just question the price paid in CRF to do it. How can the price go from $38/h for the first 50-hours of BLM time -to $145 per racer in BLM CRF? That's a 300% increase! Cha-Ching! The promoter wouldn't be in busi-ness very long if they adopted the same CRF metric. So how can BLM do it? Because their own Rules say they can, is how; Pay to play. Go figure. So - I did. I went digging try-ing to figure out the BLM Cost Recovery Fee and the dirty details of the hoops and hurdles a race promoter must navigate in ob-taining a Special Recreation Per-mit from BLM to hold a competi-tive offroad race in the Mojave. Here's the document that spells it out: http://www.blm.gov/ pgdata/ etc/ me-dialib/blm/ ca/ pdf/ caso/publica-tions.Par.23962. File.dat/Special-RecreationPermit. pdf Here are the relevant high-lights t_hat give some idea of what BLM does for the money: "BLM has discretion over whether to issue, or deny, a SRP. The decision is based on the fol-lowing factors to the extent that they are relevant: (a) conformance with laws and land use plans, (b) public !.afety, (c) conflicts with ·other 'users, (d) resource protec-tion, (e) the pub-lic interest served, (f) whether in the past the ap-plicant complied with the terms of a permit or oth-er authorization from BLM and other agenc'.ies, and (g) such other information that the BLM finds appropriate." "Limitations on cost recovery. Cost recovery charges will be limited to BLM's costs of issuing the permit, in-cluding necessary environmental do.cumentation, on-site monitor-ing, and permit e n f o r c e m e n t .• Cost recovery is a charge based upon the actual personnel, ve-hicle, travel, and materials costs re-qui red to issue, administer, and monitor a SRP. If Cqst Recovery is used, it shall be actual costs to the government for processing the permit and moni-toring all pre, actual and post permitted activities as reflected by charges, including: salaries (direct and indirect costs), vehicle mileage, per diem, and admin-istrative costs, made to a special account established to track event processing costs." "Direct costs: Examples of direct costs may include person-nel costs (including law enforce-ment support directly related to the event) in the form of wages paid to BLM personnel working on the project, with allowances provided for fringe benefits and BLM's leave surcharge rate and any overtime associated with processing the application; travel expenses; and any miscellaneous supplies and equipment of a spe-cialized nature." If that sounds like a cash cow waiting to be milked -it is: "Sala-ries; wages; overtime; fringe ben-efits; leave surcharge rate; mile-age; per diem; ad min costs." Sign me up, too! How many BLM does it take to 'process, monitor and enforce' an SRP? $12,325 worth. Holy Cow, Batman! June 2012 That's not all, either. What are the minimal liability requirements for insurance? "At a minimum, the permittee shall have in force public liability insurance cover-ing: ( 1) damage to property-in the amount of thirty thousand dollars ($30,000), (2) damage per occurrence (persons, bodily injury or death) in the amount of (mini-m um) three hundred thousand ($300,000); and (3) a minimum annual aggregate limit of six hun-dred thousand ($600,000). The coverage shall extend to property damage, bodily injury, or death arising out of the permittee's operations under the permit, including, but not limited to, the occupancy or use of the lands, structures, facilities, or equipment authorized by the permit." And those are just the "mini-mums" required. In the case of a "High Risk: speed record event" like desert offroad rac-ing, those "Minimums" increase to: $1,000,000 per occurance, and an Annual Aggregate of $2,000,000 -$10,000,000. Holy Mackerel, Batman! That is some serious money to shell out for a non-refundable Liability Insur-ance policy. Cha-Ching. Here's the interesting part and the good news: "Monitoring the Cost Recovery. The applicant is en-titled to a thorough accounting of the use of cost recovery funds. Staff charging time to the project must maintain a log of the time spent on the project and a description of what tliex were doing during that time. FO s will use the Individual Employee Charge to Proffer to track staff time {attached). Time logs, copies of receipts, vehicle reports, and any other ctocumen-tation that reflects charges to the project must be maintained by the project manager." "The applicant is entitled to a thorough accounting of the use of cost recovery funds." WooHoo! -Race Fans. Show me the accounting spreadsheet! I would think this goldmine of info would be included as part of BLM's post-event Report to the Permitee, just so the promoter knows what services they are be-ing charged $12,325 for in BLM CRF. I'll dig a little deeper and ask. Stay tuned. Attention M.O.R.E. racers !! My e-mail is bajaracr@verizon. net I do interviews in the Tech Area at S/F after the checkered flag. The easy way to get your race story printed in Dusty Times is to st!nd it to me·. Those who do get the ink. Page 41

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2012 Volume 29 Number 6 Dusty Times Magazine

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