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| The team recently acquired the crew chief talents of racing veteran Randy Miller, additional sponsorship from Thunder Express Trucking, and a new ATK/Gearhead race motor. These new additions allowed the team to work their way up to second place in points going into the last race. So, needless to say, the Four Wheel Parts/Gadzooks Racing team showed up in Henderson Nevada locked and loaded. |
Best in the Desert, the sanctioning body, decided to hold three races in the same day, over a fifty-mile loop. Bikes, and quads started at 6 am followed by the "middle" classes at ten and then by the faster class vehicles including the Trick Trucks at around 2 pm. By separating the various classes, they could avoid slower classes being out on the course with the unlimited Trick Trucks and Buggies. Promoter Casey Folks implemented a "Grand Prix" style event. This means that once the leader in a race, or grouping of classes, finishes their fourth lap, the race is over and you cannot start another lap. The Jeepspeed class was included with several classes that were considered much faster and the consensus was that the Jeepspeeders would not be able to complete the four laps in the allotted time.
Maybe three laps at the most. But this is racing. This is Jeepspeed racing. This is the last race of the year, and the Henderson course was fast.
Our Heiden and Reiter team started ninth in the field and we knew that time was of the essence. We had to get to the front of the pack, and do quickly. That sounds easy, in fact that sounds real easy, just hammer down, right? But, what if you run into dust, thick dust, and the type where you can"t see your hand in front of your face? What about trying to pass other vehicles in your class when you can"t see? What about vehicles from "faster" classes trying to pass you? What about staying on course? What if your GPS shuts down? Like when co-driver Josh yells that the GPS screen has gone blank.
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| The #1717 Jeepspeed is owned and driven by 4WP"s own veteran racer Eric Heiden and prepped by techs Josh Reiter and Jon Schneider at the Redondo Beach store. Josh also does double duty as co-driver, keeping the driver on track and "up on the wheels". |
What about the all the rocks, not just little rocks, we"re talking about basketball sized rocks, spewed all over, what about the Goodyear tires? Can they take this abuse? What about the Bilstein shocks, can they hold up? And the Rubicon suspension, how much pounding can it take? What about the gauges? Is everything ok? Can we even see them? What place are we in now... what about now? It"s a good thing we have helmet intercoms so at least we can talk our way through this mess. Hello! Hello?... the intercom is down so there"s no way to talk to each other either. We have a radio and we can talk to the pits and get updates and time splits. Then the radio decides to take the day off. That"s just the first lap. Starting to get the picture?
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| The season started in Parker Arizona, moved on to Primm Nevada, and then held two races in the Southern California desert in Bartow and Lucerne before ending up in Henderson, Nevada, just outside of Las Vegas. |
At the end of the first lap, we had worked our way up to second place. The only one left to pass was the race leader, Ray Griffith. Ray is the also the points leader. Ray is fast, very fast. But we didn"t know how we were doing. We just knew we had to keep pushing. Starting the second lap, the air began to clear as the field started to spread out. Visibility suddenly became a "non issue". We were able to really hang it all out and set a blistering lap. As we approached the end of the second lap, we came upon a slowing Ray, experiencing rear suspension woes. This is the break we needed. The pass was made and we were in the lead! A quick dive into the pits for a "splash-n-go" and we"re off to attack lap number three. Enthusiasm was high, very high.
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| The Jeepspeed Desert series is the ultimate proving grounds for "off the shelf" product durability while giving the average person on a tight budget a place to race with other equally prepared XJ Cherokees and TJ Wranglers. |
Here is where the plot thickens...
Scott Hartman, (third in points) the driver of the #1706 Banks Powered TJ Wrangler was one point behind our team going into this event. It was "do or die" for them as well. These guys are like junkyard dogs nippin" at your heels all season long. They were only five minutes behind and just hanging there. Another team had surfaced and was running a strong third, the new team of Cris Wacker. Who are these guys and how are they running a couple of minutes behind Hartman? I kept asking co-driver Josh Reiter throughout the lap about time splits, but all I could get was non-sensible hand signals. (unfortunately, we had not previously worked out a back up system for radio failure).
