At 6:05:30 AM on Saturday, April 19, 2008, Rumblegoat Racing's #7314 Goodyear Tire shod Ford Ranger (El Chivo) took its first green flag at Best in the Desert's Terrible's 250 at Primm. Our goal for our first race was very specific. We wanted to finish and, in the process, learn as much about the truck and the team as we possibly could.

Off of the start, Jose Ybarra was at the helm and I (Jim Moss) was co-goat running the mirrors, gauges, radio and therapist's couch. At around RM2, per our plan, we let the #3101 Ford Explorer of Mike Filkowsky by us so we could shadow him. Mike is a champion and a Ford teammate. He graciously agreed to let us follow him for the first part of the race so we could learn some tricks of the stock class trade. The dust was hanging in the pre-dawn air as we approached RM6 at our testing pace when a horn sounded behind us. It was the 1705 Jeepspeed being driven by Lance Clifford of Pirate 4x4 fame. He was a man on a mission pushing his truck to the limit. Jose quickly found a place to let him by, but El Chivo's tail swung back into the track at the wrong second. 1705's bumper crushed our rear quarter panel. Undaunted, we continued on getting the feel for the truck being passed by a few more Jeepspeed cars and the very fast Fusion C1L cars in the dust. Jose was doing his job of shaking down the truck perfectly.

After the long rocky canyon at RM18 a call on the radio came that Dave Blakley's 3112 wanted to pass so he could race with the 3101. We pulled over on the 90-degree right-hander at about RM20 and just cruised into pit 1 where we checked over the truck and did a Chinese fire drill to switch the driver and co-driver. Our crew and GREAT friends, Jafo and Danny, made it a very smooth transition and we were off in a minute.

At the end of the pit road, there was a Jeepspeed car turned on its side in the middle of the track. We confirmed that there was no one inside and called it in on the radio. Since it had blocked the course, we ended up on the wrong road for about 50 yards and had to make a quick u-turn to get back on track and avoid the vegetation. From that point until the big rock garden at RM41.6 we picked up the pace a little bit to see how the truck handled at speed. Everything was 5x5 and running perfectly. The course looked like a racecar-wrecking yard with a lot of people down for flat tires, but our Goodyear Wrangler MT/Rs didn't miss a beat. After the two mile rocky stretch, we decided to let El Chivo stretch his legs for the rest of lap one. We reeled in and passed several Jeepspeed cars as well as the 3112 and 3101. Through pit 2 we were fully on the pipe and got hard on the brakes just enough to float PRC2. Our 6 Sway-a-Way Racerunner by-pass shocks were tuned perfectly and showed no signs of fade over the huge whoops. The only car we saw (running) for the rest of Lap 1 was Gavin Skilton's Jeepspeed Open car that passed us just before the paved section leading to the quarry. After that we were able to keep the truck pinned for most of the rest of the lap across the dry lakebed and down the power line roads back to the bridge. El Chivo's top speed is classified, but lets say that he runs as fast as he needs to with the 4.0 SOHC motor SCREAMING at the top of its lungs. We ended lap 1 in 3rd place.

To start lap 2, Don Healy got in the driver's seat and shared the cab with "Fozzie" Walters. The second lap was much like the first, but the air was cleaner now that the cars were spread out over the track. At pit one, Jafo the pit boss noticed a pretty serious grinding noise coming from the alternator. Rather than risk locking it up, he decided to change it. With the help of the Foutz Pro-Truck team (THANKS GUYS), we were back up and running in about 25 minutes and managed to maintain our position. At this point, the leaders were out of reach so it was "steady as she goes" with Fozzie now driving. We vowed to keep the wheels on the ground and save the truck for 3rd place. The 7302 and 7301 trucks were way out in front, but we were maintaining a lead on 7399. Fozzie brought the truck back to the Main Pit safely, but he did have a little dust on his wingtips .

For lap 3, Don stayed in the co-goat seat and Jose got back in to drive. All systems were a go and we were really getting an understanding of the Ranger's potential. It was decided to have a "quick" lap and achieve our goal of finishing the race. Don and Jose switched spots again for our last driver change at Pit 1 and everything was going smoothly until. . .

About 25 miles from the finish the lead Trick Trucks and 1500 unlimited cars caught up to the RumbleGoat team all at once on their first lap. The guys were smack dab in the middle of an all out WAR. They were like a field mouse in the middle of a buffalo stampede for the rest of the race. Since 7399 had timed out, all we had to do was avoid being punted off of the course by these 800 horsepower fire-breathing monsters to lock up third place. Don Went into survival mode and Jose went full time into watching the mirrors. The unlimited class racers were consummate professionals and passed at the right times, in the right places while Don did everything he could to maintain momentum and stay out of their way. Don brought it home for third place!!!

At the end of the race, the MC commented that we were as excited as if we'd won the overall. I assure you that isn't the case. We were MORE excited than anyone that day. . .A third place finish in our first desert race ever? Give me a break, we felt like the luckiest people on Earth!!!

RumbleGoat Racing would like to sincerely thank Goodyear Tires, Ford Truck Motorsports, DJ Safety, State Transmission in Pasco, WA, the WONDERFUL RumbleGoat, Blakley Brothers, Foutz, and Gerber Racing crews and our families (especially our significant others) for their support and belief in a bunch of over-grown kids that live 1000 miles from the desert and their silly dreams of being pro desert racers. Additionally, I would like to personally thank my mom and dad, Maxine and Ron Moss, for infecting me with this disease and then coming down to pre-run the course with me so we could end up with a GREAT set of course notes that a rally driver would envy. Lastly, the BITD staff and volunteers really put on a great race and a great show. It is just one less thing to worry about when you have good people in charge.

Next is the TSCO Vegas to Reno in August. Suffice it to say, we will not be testing, pacing or doing Chinese fire drills when we come to the V2R. . .we will be RACING. Anyone that doesn't bring their A-Game will be eating a dust sandwich. El Chivo will be ready to lock horns and start a whole new era in stock truck desert racing.

Viva El Chivo. . .FEAR the RumbleGoat.

Awesome guys, thanks for the play by play, makes me feel like I was in the truck with you! So you had the truck pretty well tuned, what are your plans as far as the alternator goes? Upgrade to a performance? Not sure if it was or not, I understand if its classified. What about going for first, just practice in the seat?

The alternator is stock, but we're pretty sure we know what happened to it and it was before the race so we think we have it figured out.

We are still going to run "our race" at V2R, but our race will be much, much faster.

Cool!

Congrats guys. Great job finishing on the podium in a new truck!

Jason

Jim hit the nail on the head with his description of us being chased down by the TT's and class 1's. Those thing are MONSTERS when the rip buy you doing 100 mph. Going across the lake bed, peddling as fast as we could, 88mph, the TT's we passing us like we were standing still. I can't give enough thanks to the guys that helped us, especially Danny and Kevin. They got a real dose of working pit crew. I can't wait for V2R!!

I bet that would be crazy. I thought the top speed was classified? *wink wink* lol. Kudos to you guys for hanging in there with them flying up behind you, and to them for being professional about passing.

Jim missed a couple of the "finer" points of the trip :

Wednesday night we finally got entirely loaded and ready to go about 11pm. We made a quick stop at the store for some odds and ends, then hit road, only to realize we had forgotten the spare tire to the trailer and Jose's. We turned around and headed back to the house. Well, as we passed the fire station that is a block from Joses, one of Kennewick's finest took the liberty to pull us over IN JOSE'S DRIVEWAY for a trailer tail light being out!! Then he apparently felt the urge call one of his buddies the "help". So, we had two police cars with flashing lights in the driveway as they looked over my paper work and discretely gauked over the truck!! I'm sure the neighbors were impressed

Coming home was another adventure. We took our time getting out of Vegas, with a stop at our favorite greasy spoon in Jean for wholesom gravy covered goodness. Then stopped for fuel, worked on the trailer wiring some more and finally rolled out of town about 11am. We figured we'd be a little late, but the weather was good and we did not forsee an delays. It turns out we were WRONG. We got all the way through Boise, into Oregon and started through Cabbage/ Meacham pass and ran into freezing fog/ rain. The pass was completely glazed with iced. It was slooow white knuckle drive, with a couple of hair raising incidents to say the least. To add to the tension, as we were on the pass, the passenger front wheel on my Superduty started squeeking and grinding. We stopped to jack up the wheel and confirm what we already knew .. the wheel bearing was toast We decided we had to get off the pass, so we limped it down the mountain to Pendleton. At Pendleton, it was 2am and there was no way we were going get the truck fixed, so I made the call to slowly limp the truck another 2.5 hrs to Tri Cities. We finally rolled into Jose's about 6 am.

Now I'm off to change a wheel bearing ...

lol, nice. So I was just on DBR's website, and I saw that they took 1st? I didn't know they were there. I have been thinking about their long travel kit for some time now but cant afford it.

The Dixons race 7100. They rock that class. There long travel kit is REALLY nice. I've spend quite of time talking to Woolworth motorsports and looking at the Dixon kit on a couple of there trucks. It is definately worth the money.