"He's still Smiling"

"I don't think he'll ever stop"

It began when he crossed the finish line, continued on through the Award ceremony, where he received a long, loud standing ovation, and if the stories could be believed, continued to this very day.

As I entered Dan's office at Parker Motors, the man was in fact, sportin' one hell of a grin. How can you blame him? After all, he's fought tooth and nail for over 22 years to bring home the gold, and when he did, he did it in front of his home town crowd, on his home course, and on the 25'th anniversary of the event. Completing the 3 - 114 mile laps in a time of 6:54:50, he crossed the finish line to a crowd of cheering fans, and racers alike.

Dan Beaver walked away from a 7 truck field, including the likes of Glen Greer, Mike Ginnatasio, and Dean Whittaker. Fast company indeed, but not fast enough.One checkpoint official stationed at a steep downhill was herd to say, "I never saw brake lights! Every other car slowed to a crawl before dropping down that hill, but not Beaver. He stayed on it the whole time".

Driving the truck to it's limits and beyond took its toll on the 96 Ford F-150, and more specifically, the 351 C.I. - 650 H.P. NASCAR engine which powers it.

I've ran this course for years, and this course, especially the rough sections, were as rough as I can ever remember it. We didn't get any rain here in Parker this year, and the course looked just like it did after the last car ran through it last January. I couldn't believe it! When I started the 3'rd lap I said to myself "Thank God this is the last time I'll have to go through this pain!"

Dan's current ride is a 96 Ford F-150 created after a horrendous rollover at the 1996 Laughlin Challenge totaled his previous truck.

"I've been at this 22 years, and built every car I've ever raced.except one. Bill Stroppe built that one for me. I love the fabrication, hell I love everything about it! This is basically an all new truck. After the rollover. I went a full year without racing and built up this truck. It's a 96 Ford F-150 with a 351 NASCAR motor stretched out to 408 CI. We have our own race shop in a 40 x 70 foot building at my house. We don't do it here at the dealership because everybody wants to play with the race truck and no work gets done! I have 1 full time race employee, a lot of volunteers who work evenings and weekends. We do all of our fabrication, prep and maintenance in house."

The Parker racers are a close knit community, and always there to help each other out in whatever way they can. Whether it's lending a tool, turning a wrench, or giving advice, Dan's always there to lend a hand.

"I do some work on other vehicles here in Parker. We built the truck that Manny Esquerra is driving now. It's the 8s that won Laughlin, and took second here at Parker. It's had some teething pains though. It goes too fast for the stock components. It "is" a Class 8s, and it's got a 460 in it! That truck would go like heck, but it wouldn't hold.. It's coming along pretty good now and Manny's starting to dominate with it.

There's a couple guys here in town, Randy Merrit & Steve have a little shop here in town. This is Randy's second truck (8s) and more than anything else I just give them a little advice now and then. They're getting better all the time. Their truck ran flawless at Parker and they won! They are great guys, and I'll always be there for them. Now they're talking about building a new truck. You know how it goes, the next truck will always be faster!"

Despite the controversy that surrounds the continuation of the Trophy Truck class, Dan sees a need for the unlimited vehicles. Regardless, he's quite happy competing in Class 8 and has no intention of making the jump. Not that he'd mind some seat time in one......

"I hope the Trophy Trucks continue on. I'm probably one of the few (racers) who does. I'd like to see it get big again like it was 2-3 years ago. I think there will always be a place in Off-Road Racing for unlimited trucks. I like to see them run, and Hell, I'd love driving one of them, but I'm not going to build one. I don't have the resources to build and run one."

At this time, Dan has a full season planned in 1998, and will be competing in every race of the SCORE series......except for Laughlin.

"I will not be running in Laughlin. I've fully supported SCORE for many years, and I'll continue doing so, but I won't run Laughlin just because it is the race that replaced Parker. After last Januarys race, Sal told us that they (SCORE) may not be back, so we asked him what we had to do to keep the race going. Sal told us a few things, and we started scrambling around at the Chamber of Commerce, but he didn't respond to our actions. We tried to get him down here to meet with the COC and the BLM, but no one from SCORE ever showed up. We were just kind of left out in the dark. At that time I knew we were done, that he didn't really want to come back here with our help, or without it."

When SCORE pulled out of Parker, Dan was at the forefront of the effort to keep the race alive under the Banner of Whiplash Motorsports.

"About that time, Whiplash got wind that SCORE would not be returning and got their foot in the door. In fact, a lot of doors opened for Whiplash. The first thing they did was to get the community involved. We had meetings with Chamber and Tourism Dept. that lasted for hours to plan this thing. We had BLM's approval, and when Jay went to them, not only did he get one race date, he got TWO! The BLM worked very well with Whiplash. This community doesn't want to loose this race. If anything, we're going to build it bigger and better."

"Lets get realistic. We're never going to see 425 entries again. The sport has changed, it's a sigh of the times. I do think that 200 entries is realistic with a good race date and the right promotion. The things we did this year like the gauntlet, starting down town, running across the reservation, the block party,...these are things I've talked about for 4 or 5 years with SCORE, and it never got accomplished. No one really wanted to work on it, and it takes more than just me. This year, we accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish because everyone involved wanted it to be a success, and it was. Now we have something to build on."

"The Gauntlet", a short course style section allowed for some outstanding spectator viewing. One of Desert Racing's drawbacks has always been the fact that it hasn't been "spectator friendly". This addition to the sport is one that Dan hopes to see continued, no matter who the promoter.

" I think they should do it across the board. People don't like seeing a car go by every 10 minuets. They want to see something exciting, and the Gauntlet, and the "infield" at Laughlin give the people that excitement. Now people get a chance to see how these vehicles really work. There's 6 foot jumps, bumps, corners, cars flying through the air,...it gets the crowd involved and lets them see what it is that we do out there."

With his longtime dream of winning the Parker 400 now fulfilled, what does the future hold for Dan Beaver?

"Right now, I'm at a crossroads in my career. I've got a 17 yr old son chomping at the bit to get into one of these trucks. Class 8 is definitely NOT the place to start a racing career. What he needs is probably an 8s. At this point, I haven't really made a decision as to which way I want to go. Do I sell my truck and build up one with my son, or keep racing the 8 and build another truck as well."

Regardless of which path Dan chooses to take, he looks back on a long career of fond memories, good times and even better friends.

"20 years from now, they'll still say I won the Parker 400, but even if I had never won this race, I've accomplished everything in my career I ever set out to accomplish. A lot of guys say "well if I had this sponsor or that kind of..." ...not me! I'm happy just the way things are! I never wanted to race in the smaller classes against nobody. I wanted to play with the big boys, and I did. Walker, Parnelli, Scoop Vessels, Dave Shoppe...I lined up right there with them. We were never non-competitive. Some days they beat my ass, some days I beat their ass, but we were always right there. Maybe sometimes I ran my truck harder than it was capable of to run with them, and broke a lot of parts, but other days I gave those guys fits!

I've met some of the greatest people in the world because of off-road racing. I've made friendships that will last a lifetime. I don't have any regrets".