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From left, Herman Motorsports
crew chief Lee Perfect, middle man Jimmy Messick and co-driver
Casey Jeffries. |
If Dorothy had any idea what she was talking about,
she'd be shouting out at the top of her lungs, "there is no place
like a desert race." Because, quite simply, there isn't.
After all the rock crawling we've
covered in the last month, the Best In The Desert Terrible's Town
250 is what we think of as a well-deserved vacation. Here, we think
of it as a return to our roots and a community we think of as
family.
Among the reported 200 entries,
word is Larry Roeseller will again take first shot at the driving
duties in the Herbst Class 1 truggy. LR's ride will be a practice
run for the Baja 500 in early June.
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Tough enough to make Rob
MacCachren worry, "Doc" Glass and "Cohort" Kenny removed the ice
chest from the rear of the 4WD Twin I-Beam Ford Ranger to lighten
the load and increase the speed of their suspected victory in Stock
Mini Class. The two pulled off an upset last year at the season
finale Las Vegas 200 that nearly cost MacCachren his fourth
championship of the season. Mac runs an A-Arm set up in his
Ranger. |
Looking closely at tomorrow's race, you'll notice
the Herbst crew began grooving their tires for both their Class 1
and Trick Truck entries, a technique others have successfully made
use of in the past. For the Herbst and this truck, it seems to be
the first.
According to Scott Steinberger,
who also grooves the tires on the PCI Radio/Off-Road.com Ford Trick
Truck, "It's because I got the jump on him at Laughlin."
Steinberger starts last in the nine-truck field.
Among the two race favorites mentioned above, last
year's Trick Truck champion Damen Jeffries is again in the mix.
According to Herman Motorsports Crew Chief, Lee Perfect, it's
business as usual for the team that won last year's BITD Trick
Truck Championship its first year out with a new Ford Porter-built
truck.
Moving up from a championship season
in their Class 8 Chevy last year, Kyle Taylor and "Shot Gun" Smokey
are in the process of building a new truck, but it won't be ready
for tomorrow's race. Instead, the team will race the same truck
that won them last year's Class 8 BITD Championship. They are
slated to start in seventh off the line.
Also moving up from Class 8 in another Chevy, Dave Westhem
enters the race in sixth. Starting first in class is Jason Baldwin.
The only Dodge in the pack appears to be that of Bruce
Greer.
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Keep you eyes out for a
full-blownfeature of the Off-Road.com sponsored, Scott Steinberger
Trick Truck in an upcoming edition of Off-Road Magazine. It's good
to see that the print world is recognizing the desert racing
community and all its cutting-edge contributions to automotive
technology. |
If any truck wants to finish first among the
four-wheel vehicles tomorrow morning, it will have a tough time of
doing it with some 29 Pro Dirt Class 1 unlimited buggies behind
them. Up for grabs is health purse that is sure to turn up the
heat.
Sam Berri starts first, followed by
Danny Anderson, Rick Wilson and then Brian Parkhouse. Troy Herbst
is listed as starting eighth, 2002 Parker 400 champ Doug Fortin
11th, Glen Helen owner Bud Feldkamp 12th. Take a look at the entry
list. There are some real heavy weights in the class. The class win
will be among the toughest battles of the race.
Nick Pearson will be the first Open Pro bike off the line just
after sunrise tomorrow morning. Aboard his Yamaha, he expects to be
the first to make his way through the roughest section of the
250-mile course, which is expected to be the rocky 20-odd mile
section shortly after the start.
The way
the course is laid out, the section also serves as the last 20-odd
miles that the bikes, quads, trucks and buggies will have to face
before their finish at Terrible's Town Casino. Other than that,
it's expected to be a fast race, with just enough rough stuff for
the bikes to overall the race on adjusted time.
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Kartek just finished pouring
concrete for the second floor of its new home off the 90 freeway in
Riverside. On the agenda is a venture into the truck aftermarket
scene as well as a possible deal with ORC to take part in its race
coverage. |
Brian Brown and Dave Pearson will start their
Kawasakis second and third respectively. Last year's champ and what
many say is tomorrow's likely winner is the bike of Honda riders
Steve Hengeveld and Johnny Campbell on an XR650 starting
fourth.
Said to be one of the major threats
to a Honda victory is the Team Green team of Destry Abbot and Shane
Espisito, starting fifth, who did nothing but leave Honda in the
dust at the last race in Adelanto.
Keeping
his name in the headlines this year with a podium finish at the
season opener in Laughlin, Ty Davis is thwarting off last season's
woes with serious talk of another win here in Pahrump.
Word is that he's been made an offer or two to
leave his current deal with Yamaha but has made just as many
declines, staying with a bike that Herbst Motor Sports tranny man
Chris Weisman says "can't stay together for more than three
hours."
Not to worry though, Weisman, who
works extensively with the Herbst in the offshore boat racing
market as well as its off-road racing effort, is on the job, fixing
an apparent problem with the OEM third through fifth gear blowouts.
He's saying the tranny is looking at a projected lifespan of an
entire season.
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Last year, the Duncan Racing
crew of Doug Eichner and John Gregory put the Open Pro pack in the
dust some 30 minutes behind their victory finish. This year, they
plan to perform much the same way on the Duncan Racing / Roll
Design 250R. After talking to the guys for a while, we learned
quite a few tricks of the trade we'll have to share with you quad
buffs later on. As DR's office manager Kevie says, "we build
performance." |
The young Honda team of Danny Cooper and Andy
Grider will start seventh, while Dayton Raper will be the last off
the line for the Open Pro class aboard his KX500. Raper had an
impressive showing within the top five at Adelanto even though his
bike suffered several through shock mount failure.
Mike Johnson will lead the Pro Quads off the line
first on his modified EX650. Leonard Duncan will start second for
Duncan Racing on his Honda 250R, while teammates and race favorites
Doug Eichner and John Gregory will start third on their 250R. A
lone Cannondale, with its fuel injected motor, will make a showing
tomorrow morning. We are uncertain of who will be riding the quad
at this time.
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BFG Radio Relay's Wild Bill and
Ellen finally got the set of wool gloves we confiscated from them
during the cold of the Laughlin race. Their two-wheel-drive
Cherokee has been just about everywhere in Baja in search of ultra
secret relay stations for communications of the SCORE races.
Because of this, the rear suspension on their Cherokee is
obliterated. We gave them a set of springs we had laying around the
shop in exchange for the thanks they owe us on the Baja.net message
board. |
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