|
For many, "Barstow" is synonymous with the SCORE / Laughlin "Fireworks 250" - a 250 mile event filled with rocks, ruts, and temperatures that have put more than one racer out of the action and into an ambulance. There's little doubt that while it may be one of the shorter events in the series, it's certainly one of the toughest and most demanding. Finishing the Barstow race is impressive enough, but winning it? Well, then you've really accomplished something. When SCORE decided to rename an event in honor of the 25'th anniversary of the "Checkers Off-Road Racing Team", Barstow was the natural choice. For much like the Barstow terrain itself, the Checkers have a way of chewing up and spitting out anyone and anything that doesn't make the grade. For a quarter century now the Checkers have gone into battle in the deserts of the American southwest and Baja, with the will to win, and the desire to have as much fun as possible doing it. Along the way they've made some friends, made some enemies, and been a part of some of the greatest rivalries in the sport's history. Like the one with Jerry and the Herbst boys.....perhaps you've heard of it? Over the years, words have been hurled, helicopters have landed, tents have flown, Wahzoos' have been accused, and Competition Review Boards have been convened. At times it's been ugly, at times it's been hilarious, but it's worked it's way deeply into off-road racing's mythology as one of the all-time greats. So when Sal Fish re-named the "Fireworks" 250 to the "Checkers" 250, you just KNEW Terrible Herbst Motorsports would be there with bells on. Barstow Lite? When O' dark thirty rolled around in the city of motorhomes, trucks and tents, temps were in the mid 60's - definitely unusual for Barstow in July, but great for the racers and the fans. A slight breeze built steadily as the day wore on, and conditions in the Stoddard Valley OHV Area built up to nearly perfect. An estimated 12-15,000 friends and families took advantage of the ideal weather, picked a spot in the open OHV park, cracked a cool one and settled in for their daily dose of dirt and dust. (which has been proven by 9 out of 10 doctors to be high in vitamins and minerals - well, at least minerals). From the drop of the flag, it was clear that Team Herbst was on a mission to win. While the points totals were important to the red racers, it was the all important "braggin' rights" that really mattered. To win the Checkers namesake race on their 25th anniversary would be the ultimate "gotcha". Trophy Truck Ed and Tim Herbst led the Trophy Trucks from start to finish, with a time of 4:32:02, an average speed of 52.052 mph., and a minimum of problems. Hard work and preparation paid off in spades as the big red F-150 proved rock solid and reliable, with only a flat tire marring an otherwise flawless run. Kreg Donahoe and Steve Kreiger teamed up in the Class 8 Kreiger Chevy, moved up a class, and persevered their way into a Second place finish. Racing the 4'th truck in as many races, Donahoe has managed to hold his second place standing in the Trophy Truck's season points championship simply by being there at the finish - no small feat in the high speed, high breakage world of off-road racing's première class. Dan Smith and Dave Ashley made several loops to their main pit with a troublesome power steering system that robbed the rapid Ford of a higher standing. Coming off an utterly dominant win in the BITD "Silver Stare 300", and a hard fought 2nd to Ivan at the Baja 500, expectations were high for team Duralast's all new 4 valve F-150; but if ya gotta break, Barstow's as good a place as any. Lonnie Helmbolt and co. survived a friday night pit fight, only to be beaten hard by the Mojave. Despite a collection of Evans Trophy Trucks and the former MacCachran rough Rider Ford, Helmbolt has repeatedly snatched defeat from the jaws of a finished race. Class 1 Truggy! Fear it. Once again, Troy Herbst found the winner's circle in a blistering 4:19:16 at 54.615 mph. If you can imagine an "average" speed of nearly 55 mph. through 3 foot deep ruts and around basketball sized rocks, you've probably got a good idea of what Troy went through on his way to the overall and Class 1 victories. With no mechanical failures to slow it down, Truggy beat the desert into submission for the 3rd time in as many years, setting what we now believe is the official speed record for this or any other Barstow race. The battle for second and third place in the Unlimited buggies came down to mere seconds with former SCORE champ Damien Jefferies and Doug Fortin Jr. crossing the line less than half a minute apart. As the unlimited class has grown, so has the competition, and the budding war between the Jimco and Chenowth factions, with each chassis manufacturer claiming bragging rights at one time or another, but today, the 2nd slot belonged to Jefferies Jimco, with Fortin a very close 3rd. ProTruck Ivan Stewarts Protrucks have proven to be a firtile breeding ground for young and not so young truck pilots, and have have gone a long way toward fulfilling their mission in making high-level performance more available to the masses. Witness if you will the performance of Larry Plank at Barstow. Plank's Fleshgear sponsored Protruck sports enough flash to make even the most jaded affectanido stand up and take notice - and then Plank goes out and drives the wheels off of it. With a time of 5:07:42 @ 46mph, Plank took the win away from Class 7 and Protruck vet Scott Stienberger, who finished nearly 20 min back with a time of 5:26:51@ 43.3mph Plank and Stienberger set a pace that none could follow, with Hardaway, Johnson and Sarconi finishing well behind. Finishing being the operative word there, for in the second time in as many SCORE races, Ivans Protrucks stood alone with a 100% class finisher rate - at Barstow no less. Color me impressed! Class 10 Finding Las Vegas' Danny Anderson in the winner's circle isn't exactly unheard of, but consider that Anderson's all new Jimco 2000 Class 10 car also took 6th overall....Many industry insiders have long predicted a Class 10 overall, and the rugged terrain of Barstow is the perfect match for their high horsepower / agile handling abilities. Unfortunately this wasn't the year for it to happen, but it's unlikely you'll be hearing Anderson complain. With a time of 4:58:24 and an average speed of 47.453 mph, Anderson took the win from Rick Ellison's Chenowth Millenium (coming soon as a feature vehicle here on Off-Road.com). Ellison posted a competitive 5:22:43 time and 43.8 mph average speed, to 3rd place Harold Brown's 5:29:05 - 43.0, rounding out the top 3 slots in the ultracompetitive Class 10. SCORE Lites The 1200 car of Dave Callaway took top honors in Class 12, just over 10 min ahead of second place Dan Worley's 5:16:33 / 44.7 mph. Another frequent visitor to the winners circle, Callaway took the flag with a time of 5:04:36, and an average speed of 46.4 mph. A short time later, SCORE Lite vet Jerry Penhall crossed the line in a time of 5:28:21 / 43.1mph.to round out the class. Once again the subject of the Class 10/Score Lite split came up at the award ceremony, and again many wonder about a class reunification. Will we see the two become one any time in the near future (metaphysical sounding huh?)? So far SCORE has remained silent, but for all intents and purposes, these classes are just as much racing each other, as themselves now. Maybe it's time to change the rules back, and boost up the prize money. Ya think? Class 1/2-1600 Not to be shut out by Herbst' domination of the upper class, Checker young gun Dan Martin eeked out a win for the white and black in the most competitive class in the desert. Martin had a near flawless run, soiled only by a low speed rollover near a Checker pit. Talk about luck. A few good shoves later, Martin was back on course and headed to victory with 1/2-1600 vet Jim Dizney and 99 Champ Bekki Freeman completing a 2-3 finish hot on his heels. Activity in the Checkers hospitality tent came alive as Martin crawled out if the car, dusty and thirsty, but little worse for the wear. Winning has a tendency of lifting your spirits, regardless of how hard the desert just beat them. With the floodlights on and the video cameras rolling, Martin proceeded to thank everyone but the academy during the interview - not the least of which were the Checkers, or the guy who handed him a cold beer. Hey, what would you do? Class 5-1600 "Big Air Bob" Wright and Tom Dittfeild made it a 1-2 Checker finish in the 5-16 class, building on Martin's upset victory. With Wright locking up 1st place, Dittfield gunned down 3rd place Daniel Fresh and 4th place Dave Gasper to clinch the #2 slot for Team Checker. Class 5 While George Seeley was thought to be a shoe in for the Class 5 slot, Larry McCallum had other ideas. The father son team put the sofa dude on the couch, turning in a time of 5:45:36 to Seeley's 5:47:11. Sources within the Checker pits theorize that excess drag created by "Yen" disrupted the airflow over Seeley's "Yang", thus causing increased turbulance behind the Trophy Bug. Seeley's comments cannot be printed in a family publication.........except for the one about it being a "damn good race". Class 9 Rough day in swing axle land. Eric Fisher and Jesus Luna stood alone on the podium after Barstow took it's toll on the rest of the field. Fisher posted a time of 7:58:46 to Luna's hard fought 8:25:27, taking the win, and braggin' rights for the littlest buggies. (Say that in a Class 9 pit and I won't be held liable for your beating <G>) Class 7 Jeff Lewis. Need I say more? Unless someone steps up soon in class 7 and builds another truck from hell to compete against this hellspawned S-10, there's little point in telling you who won - you'll already know. Unlike it's big brother "The Beast", Both this S-10, and it's predecessor have so thoroughly dominated the class that no one seems to be able to catch up. MacPherson Motorsports has done one hell of a job taking the little Chevy and turning it into an unstoppable force of nature. And the Beast? Experiment failed guys. Hopefully it was good for R&D work. Class 8 Brian Collins and Dale White walked away from Fred Nelson in Class 8 to skate to a rather rapid win. Averaging over 47 mph through the rocks and ruts of Barstow with a stock frame is an impressive accomplishment to be sure, but the lack of competitors in Class 8 has surely taken the luster off an otherwise stellar run. With the factories gearing up for the 2000 races (yes you read that right, and here first) White Lightning is rumored to be getting even more deeply involved with GM, and with the failure of MacPherson's Trophy Truck program, one is left to wonder what's in store. Class 7s Jarred Hardin, Corey Susang, and Bruce Landfeild made up the top 3 slots in the semistock mini truck class, with Hardin posting a lightning quick time of 6:49:43 at 34.5 mph. Bill Markel took the 4th spot in the 8 truck field, and proved to be the classes final finisher. Stock Full Bob Hailey was the top man on the Stock Full pole at the Checkers 250, followed closely by Marc Stein, and the F-350 juggernaut of Greg Foutz. With Ford dominating the top 3 slots at Barstow, it proves without a doubt just how different things could have / should have? been at the BITD Silver State 300. With Hailey back in SCORE and Foutz tuning the monster 350 closer and closer to perfection as the races go by, the brotherly rivalry that is Andataco Motorsports will be seeing a lot more competition as the days wear on. Stock Mini Things were looking pretty empty around lap 4 in the mini ranks, but Rob Rinerton and Tim Casey went at it tooth and nail for the first 3. In the end, Rinerton's Ranger emerged victorious in a time of 7:12:45 to Casey's 7:37:13. Class 3 Darren Skelton bested John Kearney for 3 laps, taking the top slot in the short wheelbase Class 3, with the old Bronco of Kirk Kovell giving up the ghost early in lap 1Averaging over 31 mph, the little Kia has consistently pounded the class 3 field - or broken in the effort. We're still waiting for all you class 3 drivers to come out and play. you'd think that with 80 billion SUV's on the market, someone would wanna race one.... Sportsman Truck It's big, it's bad, and it's a coilovered 4x4 - That's Mark Cline's Sportsman Chevy K-10. all alone in ST, Cline completed 3 out of 4 laps before calling it a day. Sportsman Buggy "General" Doug MacArthur and Walter Prince Jr. went to war in a 2 car battle that left Mac victorious, and the world's only edible race car - the Checkers "Candy Cane" in a not too distant second. Oh, and the Herbst / Checkers rivalry? Shortly after Ed brought the Trophy Truck home, Jerry Herbst took a stroll over to the Checkers hospitality tent to see his old friend and Checkers patriarch "Uncle" max Norris. Being a man of few words, he got right to the point. "We gotcha' Max".......and proceeded to grin like a schoolboy all the way back to his motorhome. Why do I have the feeling this is far from over? Stay Tuned for the Checkers 250 on Speedvision |