Coming into Valle de Trinidad

Kreg Donahoe, owner of Team Donahoe, is thrilled with the trucks win!  “I am so excited that our Toyota FJ Cruiser won its first race. And I am equally thrilled that we got the first desert win for Nitto Tire.   We ran this race on off-the-shelf Terra Grapplers and not race tires; we did not have any problems with our tires. Overall we had a great, fun, relaxing race, and just drove our little FJ around the course and came home with a win, it can’t get much better than that!”

The Toyota’s day started off at Avenue Ruiz on the north side of Ensenada.  With over 400 entrants in the race, the wait for the green flag was a long one.   While the Toyota FJ Cruiser was sitting at the start ready to take the green flag at 12:02pm, some of the motorcycles that started the race hours earlier, were already taking the checkered flag 216 miles away.  

Team Donahoe's Toyota FJ Cruiser taking off from Pit Stop

Dylan Evans took the Toyota FJ off the line with co-rider Garrett Russo beside him.  He deftly wove his way through the first 15 miles of the dusty, silty, tight, winding course littered with race vehicles leading to the first road crossing.  As Dylan hit the highway he was in second place driving at a great pace and having no problems.  He beeped the horn and blazed past his pit crew just up the road.  Dylan just kept on truckin’ and by the next highway section he was in first place.  Dylan continued in first, lengthening his lead to 15 minutes at the drivers change, located at race mile 112 near Valle de Trinidad.  As Dylan and Garrett got out, Steve Krieger and Damien Skutt got in.  With a splash of fuel, a new air filter and a good check of the truck, the Toyota FJ was on its way down the road still in first place.  Steve, a racing veteran, was able to capitalize on Dylan’s lead, lengthening it to 26 minutes; taking the win at Santo Tomas.   The sun had set as Steve drove across the line, and the KC Hilites HID’s lit the way to a flawless finish and Victory at 6:14pm.

After his leg of the race, Dylan Evans said, “We took a safe and conservative pace off the start to see how our new FJ would stack up next to our competitors.  This philosophy helped us get through the first 50 miles of mayhem and once we were clear, we started to have some fun.  The FJ Cruiser worked great and was fun to drive. The Nitto Terra Grapplers provided great traction and getting through the graveyards of stuck trucks was a breeze. The Toyota was very nimble carving down the Goat Trail into Trinidad where we handed the FJ off to Steve with a 15 minute lead and every aspect of the truck running at 100%.”

Steve Krieger said at the finish line ‘This is the new Class 3 Toyota FJ.  It’s the first race for this truck, and it’s great to get a win on the first race.  Perfect day!  Dylan Evans drove the first half and I don’t think he had any problems, I got in at Valle de Trinidad and we just had a clean run.  We could have turned on the air conditioning, the radio, the heater, or used our windshield wipers to clean the windows.  It’s all stock except for the suspension.  The interior is all stock except for our MasterCraft 3G seats.  The engine, the transmission, and 4-wheel drive is all stock.  Everything worked perfect. It’s just amazing that this little Toyota beat all the big V8 powered Fords and Chevys in our class!   It was a lot of fun.  This is Nitto’s first class win in desert racing and that was our biggest goal today - to get them their first victory.  The car works better than I expected and faster than I expected by about 45 minutes. That’s the best part - I didn’t think we’d be done until about 7:30(p.m.) so it’s a nice surprise.”

Effrain Viveros, Senior Staff Engineer for Nitto Tire North America, had this to say, ”On behalf of Nitto Tire North America, Inc, I would like to thank TEAM Donahoe, Dylan Evans, and Steve Krieger for the class win this weekend.  As you all know this was Nitto's first class win in the desert!  In our companies' short history together, we have already had great success and we look forward to building on this momentum throughout the year!  Thank you for all your dedication in making this win possible.”

Nitto Terra Grapplers run great both on and off-road

Along with being Nitto Tires first desert win, this was also the first desert win for Light Racing and their Jounce Shock and for the Toyota in the FJ Cruiser.  And with just this one race, Team Donahoe is currently in second place for the points championship! 

The Team Donahoe/KC Hilites/Nitto Tire Toyota FJ Cruiser is also sponsored by Banks Power, Norwalk Toyota Off-Road Superstore, MasterCraft Seats, KMC Wheels, Total Chaos, Currie Enterprises, Precision Gear, Light Racing, Anaheim Hills Auto Body, ADS wiring and Kartek Off-Road.

Team Donahoe is looking forward to the rest of the season with the new Class 3 Toyota FJ Cruiser.  Look for a full line of FJ Cruiser suspension products, as well as fenders and hoods coming soon from Donahoe Racing Enterprises. 

For more information on Team Donahoe, please contact Team Donahoe at 951.279.8000.

More Photos:

Team Donahoe's Toyota FJ Cruiser under the famous Tecate SCORE arch

This race vehicle runs on Pemex pump gas

Team Donahoe's Toyota FJ Cruiser doing some Pre-Running in Baja