The 31st annual SNORE KC HiLiTES Midnight Special race started this year in Jean NV. The start did not come without complications though.
The turnout for the race was so great that it caused the race to start an hour later than planned. It seems that some of the crowd parked too close to the start/finish line and all had to move their vehicles before the first truck could leave. Seems kind of fishy that a night race sponsored by KC HiLites would be delayed until it was fully dark
By 8:00pm when the sun completely set, Unlimited Truck competitor Cameron Steele started the race, and he made his way through the darkness to also become the overall winner with a time of 5:11:14. Now this did not come easy for Steele as the talented class 1 driver and winner of the Dusty Times 250 fought for 1st place the entire race. It came down to the last lap when Steeles co-driver Rick Geiser made a successful pass to take the win. Flores finished second with a time of 5:14:55.
Steele flew through the darkness on the first lap to an impressive time of 56.54 minutes. Hot on his tail was Flores a mere 60 seconds behind. When Steele and Flores crossed the finish line for the 4th of 5 laps Flores was ahead by only 35 seconds with a time of 4:11.11 for Flores and Steele had a time of 4:11:46. This shows you how hard Steele had to fight to become the KC HiLites Midnight Special 2008 overall winner.
For so many years this race was run in EldoradoValley south of BoulderCity, but due to land issues the event was moved to the Jean desert. Looking from the main pit you could see a line of traffic and the beams of HIDs as the racer headed down the front side of the mountain. Because of the recent rains that happened in the area a short time before the track was rough and pitted. Just past the Start/Finish line was a rough wash section of rutted out whoops that gave racers a jolt as they passed over the many ravines caused by the flood water crossing the course. Overall many racers said the course was rough, but you could not tell that from the impressive times made by the competitors, and the low number of DNFs.
SNORE put on a great race even with the small complications during the start. This must be why SNORE has such a great turnout of racers and fans.
Other class winners included 2008 SNORE Kar Tek points leader T.J.
Hutchins, Class 10; Jay Shain, 1-2 1600; Rob Fiege, 12; Monte Tibbets,
Heavy Metal; Mac Marmon, 16; Curt Leduc, 8; Richard Glaszczak,
5-1600; Brandon Hughes, 9; Wesley Stephens, 15; Tracy Fuller, 13; Joe
Stone, 7; and Louis Chamberland, TrophyLite.
