Hi there race fans, and happy 1999!! Our first race this season was the Parker 400k. We had done alot of work before this race, and were looking forward to a good showing of 5/1600 cars.

The Ragged Edge Racing machine was looking pretty "ragged" after the long 1998 season. We ran 7 grueling races in 1998, without a single DNF. The car had been rolled in Snowflake, beaten to death in Gila Bend, sand blasted in Mexico, demolition derbied in the Apache Gold race to top things off. It was a mess. I had hoped to have it completely rebuilt for the 1999 season, but we ran out of time for the Parker race. The race car did get a new transmission from Pat Hughes, a new roof, a new driver door, and repaired fuel cell. Unfortunately, the fiberglass hood still had the scars from the McNeil ranger incident in Globe, and I didn't have time to get some fresh paint on the car before Parker. None the less, we had preped the car as best as possible, painted the inside, and gave it the TLC it needed. We were ready to race in Parker.

The RER team arrived in Parker on Thursday evening, and made our way out to the main pit, and the "gauntlet" area. The Finishline Motorsports boys were there, and had reserved us a fine spot on the front stretch. With a yummy dinner at Manny's that evening, we called it a night.

On Friday, we embarked on the pre-run. Nicole, Todd, Krista and I piled in the RER Wrangler, and joined a wagon train of some fine pre-runners to tackle the rough Parker course. It touched the odometer at 73 miles, and was as rough as last year, and then some. We had taken almost 4 hours to pre-run, and returned to the pit to get teched, jetted, and ready to race. We returned to the pit area to a full-on, Sahara desert style sand storm. It was miserable. There was dirt in my eyes, ears, and some other non mentionable areas. We loaded up the car and headed for tech, hoping for some relief from the wind in town.

Contingency and Tech this year was similar to last year, and was wonderful. There were a number of new contingency vendors, and quite a few people taking in the sights. We saw a number of KILLER race cars in Tech, and made our way through. The car Teched fine, and again, we headed back out to the pit area to do some testing and jetting. The wind was as nasty as ever, and again, we were miserable. We put in our "usual" jet, and tried the jet loop. The car wasn't running very well, and was down on power. We let it warm to temp, and checked the #3 plug. It was as white as could be - too lean. We also found that we had a spindle problem as well, after running the jet loop. The big snap ring on the king pin had snapped out of the groove, and had slipped up to the link pin. This was a major problem. We had wrestled with this problem the previous week, and this was disappointing to see it again. We hammered the ring back into the groove, changed the jet, and again tried the jet loop. The wind was HOWLING - and it was very difficult to see where we were going. I will say that inside my helmet was the best relief from the dirt and dust possible. Todd didn't take his helmet off all afternoon. Again we returned from a few runs on the jet loop, and inspected the plug and the spindle. The score was spindle 2 - RER 0. Again, the spindle had separated, and was really dirty. The jet looked OK, and we left it in the car. We hammered the snap ring back into place, and began searching for a welder. We found a brave soul a couple of cars down, and he welded the snap ring onto the king pin. It was the best fix we could think of.

Now, we were wondering if that would hold up to the pounding of the Parker course, so Nicole and I put the gear on, and headed into the wind, and the Gauntlet to test the spindle. We made our way to the far end of the course, and couldn't see 10 feet. We headed out in the direction of the course, and found a clear area. The course had partially cleared. I hammered the throttle, and we ran the Gauntlet. Todd checked the spindle, and it had held, so we put the car on the trailer, and were ready to race.

Race morning came really early, since we were up half the night preparing all of the little things for racing. We were tired, but were ready to race. My co-pilot for the first lap would be the usual RER crew chief Dana Andrews. It was my way of thanking Dana for getting me into this sport. Dana and friends campaigned a SCORE Class 11 car, and they invited me to my first race in 1995 - the Parker 400 to help them pit. Anyway, a in '95 I saw my first 5/1600, and the rest is history...

Anyway - Dana and I strapped in, and headed for the start. It was still early, and it was clear and cold. There were a number of cars staged, but a disappointing only three 5/1600 racers. It was our lowest turnout in over a year. We had drawn the #1 starting spot, and it was where I wanted to be.

The same as last year, we started on the highway, and hung a left at Obey's pub. We took the green, and raged down the highway. There was a cone obstacle course set up before the turn, so I carefully negotiated the corner, and headed into the dirt. The dust wasn't too bad, but the course was really soft. We made our way into the Gauntlet. The Gauntlet this year was a full 3 1/2 miles of race course complete with soft dirt, small jumps, big jumps, and a huge tabletop jump. We blasted through the Gauntlet, and really aired it out for the home crowd. The #2 starting Woodruff racing car was already making up ground on us, and was not far behind when we left the Gauntlet.

We were catching the vintage cars very quickly, and caught the first one just out of the Gauntlet. The dust was as thick as mushroom soup, and was right in our faces. We were able to catch that car, and make a pass. Even in front of that car, the dust was still really bad. Dana and I concentrated on just staying on course, and didn't worry about going fast. The course was tricky, and the dust made missing the boulders in the track nearly impossible. We hammered along, and picked our way through. We passed an additional vintage car just before the goat trail in the dust.

The Goat trail is the roughest, toughest race course that I have ever been on. It was worse than last year, and the bumps were huge. We could negotiate only 1 bump at a time, and going fast was not an option. We continued to pound the car, and ourselves in the goat trail. We were able to catch a class 3 Bronco on the goat trail, and made the pass. We continued to press on. We were really getting beat.

We finally exited the goat trail, and crossed Shea Road. Somewhere on the Goat trail, my Parker Pumper system failed. For you non racers - the Parker Pumper is a motor that draws air through a filter, and pumps it into our helmets. It keeps the dust out, and gives you relatively clean, cool air to breathe. When it quit working, my glasses were fogging up, and I couldn't see a thing. I was running at a slow pace, and nearly stopped a couple of times to try to get the fog to clear. I ended up opening my helmet an inch, to let cool air flow into my helmet to keep from fogging.

The other side of Shea Road is no picnic either. It is a wash, with more 4 foot whoops. We were still getting beat, but the dust was much better. I was still fighting the fogging glasses, and the dust was sticking to the fog. Needless to say, things were not going really well. I stopped once or twice to let the fog clear. It was a losing battle.

We completed this section, and hit a graded road across the CAP canal. It was fast running, and allowed me to catch my breath, and allow the fog to clear off my glasses. Apparently, all the trouble I was having allowed the Woodruff Racing machine to catch us. We turned off the graded road along the CAP canal, and Woodruff racing was right behind us. John and Shane were really pushing, but I was holding them off. With all the problems we were having, I was looking for a good spot to let them by. In the mean time, we caught the 888 truck of Ray Bluff. Ray was running off the pace, and in the rough stuff, the 5/1600's ate him up quickly. Ray did his best to let us by, but I did clip him in the rear fender to add another scar to the fiberglass hood of the bug. Woodruff racing followed, and again was pushing. We continued to hold him off for a while, and I finally pulled over to let him by. Apparently, John was on autopilot, and was simply honing in on the amber light of my car... Anyway - John followed us right off the course, and positively RAILED us. It really caught me off guard, and we were not in the best spot for that tap. The car launched off the side of the hill we were on, and started sliding down the slope sideways. I cranked the wheel, and fortunately, the car got traction, and climbed back up. It was nearly a disaster. I spoke to John after the race, and sure enough, he was following the amber in the dust, and had no idea we had pulled over to let him pass. Anyway - no blood, no foul.

We continued to follow John, and with the dust and the fog on my glasses, we couldn't keep up. John's car was working really well, and I was off the pace. We let John go. From the CAP road, we jumped on the graded road to Mineral wash. It is normally a high speed road, but the dust was just hanging on the course. It was 3rd gear at best, and seeing from corner to corner was a challenge. It was a scary ride, nearly blind. Dana and I weren't talking much, and I knew this was a dangerous section. The dust was really thick.

We continued to keep John in sight, although we were following at a distance to keep the dust down. The Finishline Motorsports guys were at Midway, and we radioed ahead for an unscheduled pit stop to have the Parker Pumper motor checked. We flew down the Swansea road and into Midway. We missed our crew, and had to make a u-turn to find them. We found them, and asked them to check the Pumper. They checked the ground, and the power, and the Pumper motor was surely dead, with no quick fix in sight. We thanked them for the help, and headed back out, still fighting the fogging helmets. We exited Midway again, and made our way onto the power line road. It was also fairly rough

We were caught here by the 1604 car of Hansen/Knupp. We continued to follow in their dust, and made a major mistake. We caught some real rolling whoops, and launched off of 1 bump, and onto another with a huge crash. It hurt... BAD. I had a hard time catching my breath, and Dana was groaning. I kept asking him to say something - but nothing. I kept asking if he was OK, but no response. He managed a little - So -So wave of the hand, but nothing more. He was gasping for air - I could hear that. When he finally regained some breath - he explained that the shot had knocked the wind out of him, and he couldn't get wind to breathe, or talk. Once he regained his full breath, he seemed fine, and I resumed race face. It was a scary moment. I thought he was dead. Dana later explained that the shot had caught him off guard, and had really knocked the wind out of him. We continued to hammer down the course, chasing Woodruff.

Osborne Wash was friendly this year. We passed the ailing 1600 car of Fisher/Brown, and we were moving really well. We blasted through the wash, crossed Shea road, and headed back to the Gauntlet.

We entered the Gauntlet, and could see Woodruff racing was still there. We weren't far behind. We made our first scheduled stop, Dana jumped out, and Todd jumped in. We got the once over from the RER crew, and resumed the chase. We flew the car over the jumps, and back into the desert. The dust this time was not bad, but the whoops were bigger. We pounded through the rock garden, and the Goat Trail. Near the middle of the Goat Trail, we found the Woodruff car - broken. The tranny had gone south, and their day was over. ( I told John to call my buddy Pat Hughes - His trannys are the very best...)

Anyway - With Woodruff out, and no sign of the Stuart Baxter machine - it would be a smooth sail into the winner's circle. I was on cruise control. I was thinking to just keep it on all 4 wheels, and keep going, and we'd win....

I cleared the Goat Trail - crossed Shea road, and was thinking that the worst was behind us. there are 3 big bumps right on the other side of the road crossing. We took them at less than hammer pace, and on the third bump.... BANG.... The torsion bar on the right side of the car snapped. The car was really banging until I could get it to a stop. The suspension was completely collapsed on the right side... Todd jumped out, and inspected the car. We pulled it off the course and onto a flat spot, and parked it. We immediately got on the radio, and called Nicole at the Main Pit. She got my call, and after a little explaining - she understood, and told us she was on the way.

Meanwhile - Todd and I got to work, in getting the broken torsion bar out of the car. We had some of the tools necessary, but not all of them. We did as much as possible, and walked to the Shea road crossing to wait for our chase truck. Nicole showed up about 30 minutes later, with Adam McCollum, the Sandlizrd, Jerry and Brian Nielson in tow. Everybody grabbed a box, and we hiked the 100 yards to the crippled car. The team immediately went to work, and within 2 minutes the broken torsion bar was out of the car. I dug through my boxes and found my spares. I had one concern, and I was right.... The spare torsion bars were too short. I was really disgusted. There we were, in the middle of the desert, with the car apart, spares in hand, and they were too short.... Just our luck.

Anyway, there was still hope, so I jumped back in the big blue chase truck with Jerry and Brian and Sandlizrd, and we hauled ass back to the main pit to see if someone had a spare torsion bar. I searched and searched. The 5/1600 guys didn't have one, Fisher Brown team didn't have one, the Knupp team had a spare that was TOO long... and that's the closest I came to finding one. We radioed back to the car, and told Todd to put it back together. I hooked up the trailer, and again it was history in the making. Our first DNF....

On a couple of brighter notes... Congrats to Stuart Baxter for being the sole survivor in the 5/1600 class, and picking up the victory. They also had their work cut out for them. Stuart survived a broken front spindle, and a broken rear trailing arm. The trailing arm broke in such a way that the CV was rubbing metal to metal to the broken arm. That caused a little heat, and ignited the CV grease... I guess Stuart had to use the fire extinguisher to put it out... Somehow, he got it back moving again, and took the win. Nice job, Baxter/Woodruff team!!

More good news to report... The Ragged Edge Racing team picked up two new sponsors within the last couple of weeks. RaceShock and Signs Now have joined our team, and we're really happy to have them on board. Welcome to the family guys!!

As for the next race... We're still kicking that one around. With my schooling in full swing, and the 5/1600 racers dwindling in Whiplash, we may decide to try something new. I'm still working on San Felipe in March, the Baja 500 in June, or possibly a MDR race or SNORE race. If any of your racers out there race these other organizations, drop me a line. We want to race against some fast guys.

Keep checking back!!! See you later!!!