The Henderson Fabtech Desert Classic race marks the end of a great season of racing for the Best in the Desert Racing Association. At the close of last years season there was a press release stating the Eldorado Valley was to be closed to Desert Racing. Well be it his charm or his business savvy Casey Folks managed to put this race on one more time, with a bit of a twist.
This year racers would only have one pit area that surrounded a large Grand Prix style finish. Most of this land seemed to be private property, it also made it great for spectators to get closer to the action than every before. Some fans got a little too close and didnt know that you dont stand close to the outside of a turn. Well how could they? Like I said this race gave fans the best opportunity to see the action like we do in the Media.
This race was broken up into 3 races mostly due to the limited lap mileage of 48 miles. With such a short course lap there is a risk of the slower cars and trucks getting mauled by an 800 hp Trick Truck.
The first race was the Motorcycles, Quads and UTVs. They started at an early 6am battling the cold and darkness of the morning. The worst part of an early start this late in the year is it makes it impossible for us to shoot pics or video of these dedicated racers. Its simply too dark.
At 9:15 staging started for the slower vehicles. This included Classes 1100, 1700, 1800, 2000, 3100, 3700, 4100, 5000, 7100, 7300, 8100. After all racers were staged, the race began at 10am. What got the crowd so rowdy was the way the race started. Two racers side by side would leave the line heading for a tight left hand turn with only room for one vehicle. This made for an exciting drag race to be the first to the turn. This was true for 2 JeepSpeed racers as you will see later in this article.
Staging for the 3rd race started at 1:15 for Classes 1000, 1200, 1400, 1500, 7200, 8000. The crowds swarmed when they heard the roar of the 800+ hp motors take life.
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Taking off first was Andrew McMillin in the #31 Trick Truck, and this proved to be the ace in the hole as he ended the race with the overall win and the Trick Truck class win. Their overall time was just 3:28:38. |
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Charley McDowell in the #1551 Class 1500 almost had a rough day of racing from the scene in this pic, but he pulled out the win in Class 1500 and took second overall with a time of 3:35:20. |
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Taking third overall and 2nd in class was the Speed Technologies #1528 car of Chuck Dempsey. Beating Chet Huffman by only 3 seconds with a time of 3:42:20. |
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Fourth overall saw another Trick Truck, #42, skillfully driven by Chet Huffman. Taking 2nd in Trick Trucks with a time of 3:42:23. |
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Kory Scheeler in the #51 Trick Truck took third in class and fifth overall with a time of 3:45:18. |
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Will Staats in the 42 Trick Truck took 6th overall and 4th in class with his time of 3:51:04. |
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Finishing just under the four hour mark was Gary Weyhrich in the #1588 car. This was enough to take 3rd in class and 7th overall with a total time of 3:56:41. |
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The 8th overall finisher went to Steve Raskett in the #1546 car. This gave him a 4th place finish in Class 1500 with a time of 4:00:00:562. |
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Ninth place overall went to the #57 Trick Truck driven by Scott Kincaid. Scoring 5th in class with a time of 4:00:42. |
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Rounding out the top 10 for the 3rd race saw the #1220 ProTruck of Ryan Staats. This also gave him a class win with a time of 4:05:08. |
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Other top finishers in their class saw Curt LeDuc take the win in Class 8000 in the #8001 truck with a time of 4:09:05. |
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Class 7200 winner with an overall time of 4:29:47 saw the #7212 truck driven by Richard Blunk. |
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Danny Ashcraft in the #1009 car took the win for Class 1000 with an overall time of 4:39:10. |
Here are the top finishers from the second race.
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Taking first in Class 1100 and first overall for the 2nd race was Sigal Greenberg in the #1111 car with a time of 4:06:03. |
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The Class 2000 winner finished second overall in the #2006 car driven by Matt Gumz with a time of 4:08:45. |
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Aaron Dixon in the #7101 Ranger took first in Class 7100 with an overall time of 4:26:03. |
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Taking home the win in Class 5000 was the #5012 car of Eric Anderson. His overall time was 4:37:17. |
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The Class 1700 class winner was Eric Heiden in the #1717 Cherokee, passing the #1714 Cherokee and getting a little air for our cameras. |
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4100 class winner for the day was #4111 driven by Chad Hall with an overall time of 5:28:23. |
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Finishing a mere 5 seconds after was the Class 8100 Stock Full-size Truck winner Josh Hall with a time of 5:28:28. |
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Class 3700 winner was #3717 driven by Gale Pike with a time of 3:56:09. |
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The #3111 H3 of the Legend Rob Hall took first in Class 3100 with a time of 4:00:07. |
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Rounding out the top finishers of the day was the #7301 truck driven by Carl Fitts taking home 1st place in Class 7300 with a time of 3:51:23. |
We mentioned earlier that a JeepSpeed racer lost the drag race at the start, well check out the Off-Road Racing Carnage to see all the action of this Jeep Speed Roll-over.
Here are some more highlights of the race.
As usually Casey Folks did an excellent job for the season closing race. We cant wait to see what he comes up with next year.
