WOW - Definitely one of the most fun races all year. It was said to be the first race entirely on Indian Reservation land... Here's how it went.

The fun began on Friday afternoon. Nicole and I were joined by 5-1600 comrades Adam McCollum and Mike Leung for a leisurely pre-run in my '92 Wrangler. It was a blast. Those 2 guys were a crack up. The course was rough, and had some real challenges, but the company was terrific, and the ride was fun. We saw some rough desert out there, and put a couple of dents in the Jeep's underside, and Mike's head. It was a blast. It was also nice to see the course through a couple of fellow 5-1600 racer's eyes....

After a couple of brewskis, and the position draw, Nicole - Team RER's designated gambler did some damage, and we went to bed. Start time was 8:00 am and it wasn't far away.

Race morning came early. It was DAMN cold, and there was still mucho work to be done. The car was in good shape, and was extremely cooperative starting right up. It also found a way to idle - which it hadn't done all week. It was going to be a good day.

Team RER drew the No. 2 starting spot behind our good friends Woodruff Racing. There was alot of trash talk before the race, and I couldn't wait to get a piece of them. I restrained from nerfing them on the start - saving it for the race.

The start was a 300 yard straight shot into a 180 degree corner that was lined with spectators, and the pit on 1 side. After the 180, it came back the same way, with a couple of 4' jumps for the spectators. The Class 7 trucks started right in front of our class, and we watched them leave. The truck starting in front of Woodruff raced down the straight. Just as Woodruff racing took the green, I watched the truck flip onto its side in the 180 corner. I could see that this would be trouble. Woodruff took green, and accelerated down the straight. Just as he got to the corner, the fans had swarmed the truck, and righted it as Woodruff Racing made the corner. John took it way inside, and passed the truck with no problem. Meanwhile, we took the green and I hammered down the straight. Just as we got to the corner, that truck got started, and led us down the return straight, and through the jumps. I was doing my best to stay with him, but the course was flat, and there was no getting around him. Bumper to bumper, we blasted through the jumps and onto the course. The first mile was rolling jumps, and we followed as close as possible. I had hoped to make a pass attempt in the first corner, but the Ranger wouldn't yield to us. The course here had some big bumps, and I knew from the pre-run that the first hill of the course was the nastiest. As we turned the corner, I could see the first hill, with a car stuck at the bottom. I could tell that it was already chewed up, and would be difficult to climb. The truck made the next corner and started to climb. I was hot on his heels, and could think of only 1 way to make the hill. I downshifted to first and buried the throttle. The truck was spinning big time, and we were closing ground fast. He was losing momentum, and I knew if he didn't make it, neither would we. I kept the throttle pinned, and rammed that truck going up the hill. I had hoped to push the truck up the hill, and make it. As we neared the top, the truck continued to spin, and we continued the push, with the engine wrapped out. We both slipped off the course left into the trees. He made it, we didn't. I was really mad at that time, as the car backed down through the trees. We continued backing through the brush, and as we neared the bottom of the hill, we hit something solid that stopped the car. I asked Todd - "So NOW what the heck do we do?" Todd calmly said, "Make a U-turn through there, and try it again!!" I fired the car, and swung left through the desert. At that time, the purple machine of Allan Schaible passed in front of us as we retook the course. Allan hammered up the hill, and was on his way. We jumped back on course, and tried the hill again... It was a snap this time, without that Ranger slowing us down. We crested the hill, and raged down the course. I had a SERIOUS attitude at this point, and was driving like a MADMAN. We caught Allan right away, and he let us by. We bounced past, and continued down the course. The course jumped into a wash, through a couple of big bumps and corners, and into a larger wash. From there, it got into the only high speed section of the course, and here we caught the Ranger again. He let us by, and we hammered on.

The course passed through a "no passing out of respect" area that was about a 1/2 mile long. Apparently while scouting the course, some ancient Indian ruins and artifacts were found here. No passing, and no acceleration was permitted in this section. We passed through in top of third gear, and carried as much speed as possible. At the "OK to Pass" sign, I was on the gas again, and we blasted on. The next challenge was a 150 degree hairpin that was super tight. We negotiated it without a problem, and entered a narrow, winding wash that was scattered with boulders. It was nasty territory for sure, and the first cars had torn it up even worse than during the pre-run. This was seemed to go on for a long way, but I believe that it was just a few miles. From there, the course made another series of left handers, and got into some smoother roads. Somewhere in here, I caught the McNeil Racing Ranger. We were surely quicker in the rough stuff, and we caught him on a narrow goat trail going up the side of a mountain. We tried to give room to pass, but it wasn't quite enough, and we rammed him in the rear tire. I could see the rear of the Ranger directly above the hood, and thought for sure there would be fiberglass hood flying everywhere. We bounced off the tire, and made the pass. We could see him following us, so no damage was done.

The course continued to climb, and reached a small plateau at the top end of the course. From there, the course was invented by Whiplash, and went "cross country" It was a rough ride down the plateau, and through the brush. We had a good view up ahead here, and spotted the first car on the road, the Woodruff Racing Machine. John was moving well, and would be tough to catch. From there, the course crested a few hills, and entered another "no passing" area. This section was rougher than the first section, and we pressed a little harder. The course made a 5 foot drop off into a wash as it exited the "no passing" area. This was another rock garden, but was a little faster. It continued through the wash, and made a right hander up and out and then took a high speed road back toward highway 70. It was a section of smooth graded road, with big sweeping corners. Fun driving. Woodruff racing was well ahead of us, and was keeping a good pace. The graded road made a left sweeper, and then again dove onto a newly invented road. This one was silty, and rough. The Woodruff Racing machine was making alot of dust, and a pass here would be risky. We decided not to push it, and let him lead us into the stadium section. We completed the first lap, with Woodruff racing ahead of us.

We had taken a nasty hit on the left front in the final section, and made a brief stop to get checked out by our pit crew. The Hyperactive Motorsports crew pitched in, and with everything in order, we hammered into the second lap. We could see the "Triple Nickel" car of Mike Kellogg on the way in, as we were on the way out of the pit. He had us on time, so we were flying. We hammered down the course, and again negotiated the loose hill. I was on the gas, and we caught Woodruff racing just before the first "no passing" area. I kept my distance behind John through there, since it was a "non competitive" area. John thanked me by really roosting up a cloud of dust at the first turn. We were blinded, and had to fall back to avoid losing the course. We continued to fight the dust, and try to catch those guys, but they were on the gas. We negotiated the hairpin corner, and were just a couple seconds behind them. We could see John ahead, really tearing through the corners. Around the next blind corner - we caught him. The Woodruff racing car had blown the corner, and was just half on, and half off the track, pointed into a big tree. The sand was soft, and there was no stopping the race car. I cranked the wheel hard left, and hammered the throttle, but the car didn't turn. We positively BLASTED Woodruff, and sent the silver race car skyward, and into the tree, where it stayed. I couldn't believe my eyes, and the force of the impact. Now, we were stuck, too. I threw the car into reverse, and gently gave it some clutch, and it started backing up. Once clear, I revved it up, and began crawling forward. Woodruff racing's fearless co-driver Shane was on the rear bumper, pushing for all he was worth, and we gradually got some momentum, and got going again. I couldn't believe what had happened. Todd and I thought about stopping to help them get going again, but decided that "that's racing" and hammered. We radioed the Woodruff crew, and found out that they were fine, and had been moving soon after the incident. John later told me that they actually stayed in that corner for about 15 minutes trying to get free, and had been hit several more times before getting out of there.

Anyway, we raged on, and were making good time. We were still first on the road, and there was no sight of the field. We were at about the halfway mark in the lap, when a new problem arose. We were climbing a high speed hill, when the car began to "miss". I was really robbing power, and there was no continuing with this problem. We pulled over at the top of the hill, and Todd jumped out to try to solve the problem. Soon after we stopped, the purple 556 car of Allan Schaible came by, followed by the 555 car of Mike Kellogg hot on his heels. Todd had found that the #1 spark plug wire had come off, so he reattached it, and jumped back in. We got passed by another car, before getting going. I was on the gas, and really wanted to catch Allan, to try to apply a little pressure to see if he would crack. However, in the dust of all of these cars, it was tough going, and we didn't catch him.

We continued as best as we could, and tried to make up time where possible. We continued to pass cars, but still could not catch the leaders. We finished the second lap without too much problem.

The third lap gave us another new problem for the RER team. We continually have trouble with our radio, either channels deciding not to work, or antenna falling off, or shorts in mic's, but this time, we had the antenna wire come off behind the radio...? As we were bouncing along - no possible way to put it back. We also had that same darn spark plug wire come off again. This time, it happened at the same exact spot on the track - in fact, we stopped in the same tire tracks as we had stopped on lap 2 to put it back on. With all of these little glitches, Allan and Mike were pulling away all the time. But we soldiered on, knowing that the race was not over yet...

During the parade through pit row after lap 3, Todd reattached the antenna cable, and communication was restored.

Into lap 4, there was nothing to lose, but we were too far back to catch the leaders. We hammered through the course, and occasionally past stranded cars and drivers. The course was taking a different shape each lap... getting better in my opinion. The ruts were really deep, and most of the boulders had been tossed aside by the racers. It was really turning into a fun course.

Somewhere around mid lap, we had another problem. It was our first flat tire. I had always wondered what it would feel like, and now I know. The steering got tight, and the car wouldn't corner for anything. The front driver's tire had a giant dent in the rim, and was completely deflated when we stopped the car. Todd jumped on it, and I bailed for the first time too. Todd had a start on the hood before I got out of the car. I jumped out, and began retrieving the jack. It was really easy to remove since RER Crew Member Barry Defer reworked the attachment pins. It slid off with ease, and I was really happy that we had changed it. THANKS BARRY!!! I began jacking the car, and Todd loosened the lug nuts. He removed the tire, and I handed him the spare, and began strapping the flattened tire back in. Todd finished quickly, and I put the jack back in its place. We put the hood back on, but one of the mounts was broken, so I fetched a zip tie to keep it in place. We've got to fix that thing one of these days.... Also, while I was out of the car, I pushed that darn plug wire back into place. It was literally "hanging by a thread".

Just as soon as we got back on the road, the motor again began to "miss" badly. We both knew what it was, and it was extremely aggravating, since we had just stopped. We pulled over again and Todd jumped out. He sure did get practice buckling and unbuckling those seat belts. He grabbed some duct tape, and somehow taped the lead in place. Back on the road, and quickly, we were caught by Tom Struttman on a mission. We pulled over, and Tom went zipping by in his "one" car. He was really stirring the dust, and never really did seem to "leave" us as class 1 racers usually do. We caught him about 3 miles down the road - Tom was missing a front tire and was running only on the rim. He pulled over, and let us by in an big corner.

We pushed the last half of the lap, and finished in third place. It seems to be a pattern... Not a good one. Congrats to Mike Kellogg for again showing us how it was done. You are one fast dude - Mike. In the second spot was Allan Schaible. Allan had a good day - especially since series points leader Dave Sundquist failed to complete a lap. Based on my unofficial points calculations, Allan was the big series points winner, in 5-1600, and in the OVERALL points race. The RER team should be second in 5-1600 and overall as well. It was a heck of a year.

In celebration - the RER crew hosted a small party in our hotel room after the race awards presentations. A good time was had by all, and a few brewskis, marg's, and a little bit of rum flowed. In fact, the Hotel security showed up, and rousted us all out of there - escorting us to the cars with the remaining party beverages. Who knew that it wasn't allowed - even in your hotel room...!? Oh Well, no damage done, and nobody got arrested. It was a good time. I should also mention that representatives from EACH 5-1600 team showed up to celebrate... that's outstanding. Definitely, the funniest quote of the party went to Mike Kellogg.... I can't tell you the context of the conversation, but we were all laughing pretty hard, when Mike announced "I just swallowed my gum!!" and the laughter was uncontrollable. It was definitely a night to remember.

Team RER would like to say thanks to everyone that helped us out this year - and at this race. It wouldn't be possible without all of you. We're looking forward to next year, although I don't know which races we're going to run. I'm toying with the idea of running Parker, and then San Feliepe. It would be alot of fun to race against 20+ 5-1600 cars. We'll see how it goes.

EVERYBODY have a good holiday - and check back often. I'm planning to put MUCHO people pix up on the web. We collected a ton over the year. Look for yourself there.

SEE YOU IN PARKER!!!

Mike