Trophy Truck Prerunner

When building a prerunner your only limit is really how much you want to spend. Now this does not mean you have to spend a gazillion dollars to have a nice prerunner, but if you do have deep pockets you might want to consider the Luxury Prerunners built by Stewart’s Race Works

When you hear the name “Stewart” in reference to desert racing you might think of Ironman Ivan Stewart. When you think of prerunners or trophy trucks think of his son, Craig Stewart. Craig Stewart has over 20 years of race experience from the ground up. Just because you are the son of one of the most famous drivers in desert racing history does not mean you get a free ride, no Craig has “put in his time”.

Craig started his journey at the age of 15 when he went to work for his mentor, Johnny Johnson. Prepping race cars then eventually co-driving them Craig learned what it takes to build an amazing prerunner.

In 1995 Craig and his wife Sherrie decided it was time to jump in to building prerunners and desert racing trucks when they opened their shop, Stewart’s Race Works.

This leads us to our feature prerunner you see here. I don’t even think Craig’s prerunners should be called that. They are more like Trophy Trucks with glass and AC (two of them to be exact).

Craig starts with completely CAD drawn and water cut parts for the build. He uses Kartek uprights, hubs and brakes with 3” coilovers and 4” by-passes by King Shocks. This gives Craig’s prerunners 26” of travel in the front.

The rear is set up for abuse. Not only from the pounding his prerunners will have to take from the terrain, but also from the 600HP, 442ci SB Fuel-Injected Ford engine by Patton Racing. Taking on this brutal task is a Chrisman Ford rear-end with a 10.5″ Ring & Pinion. It is suspended by a link suspension giving this prerunner 32” of travel in the rear. Putting all this power to the ground is handled by tires normally seen on race trucks, the infamous BF Goodrich Projects measuring 39” in diameter.

Now that you have seen what the outside of this prerunner is like, let’s look at how comfortable you will be enjoying all this pillowy soft travel.

With the engine set back to allow room for the front a-arms, and 600 HP of screaming Ford power, you would expect to have a miserable time driving this prerunner. You could not be farther from the truth.

Stewart’s Race Works uses Rhino Lining and Dynomat to suppress the noise and insulate the cockpit from the heat. Stewart’s Race Works options the interior with 2 Beard seats in front and either a full bench in the rear of a single seat to give you more storage space. There is also dual AC, motorized flip up GPS, headphones with MP3, stereo, and race radio piped in, as well as cup holders. Then they coordinate the upholstery to match, usually stretching soft leather over everything.

OK enough blabbering take a look at the pictures of this work of art and see for yourself, this truly is a “Trophy Truck Prerunner”.

Along with building these almost unreal prerunners Stewart’s Race Works also builds Trophy Trucks and can build any type of race car or truck from other manufacturers like Jimco, Protruck and Chenowth. Stewart’s Race Works recently built the Jimco Class One car for TSCO. So if you need a race truck or car to get you to the finish line then be sure to contact Stewart’s Race Works today.

Editor’s Note:
In upcoming issues we will be featuring more of the Luxury Prerunners built by Stewart’s Race Works, so be sure you subscribe so you don’t miss them.