It would be great if everyone could give their perspective on the race. I'll start:

RGR started with Fozzie in the co-goat seat and me driving. We did a drag race start next to class champion and points leader Carl Fitts. We battled back and forth with Fitts for the entire first lap and came through the start/finish less than a minute back. Not including the back and forth with Fitts, we passed 9 other race vehciles at race speed (3100 and 1700 class) and a few others that were stopped. Then, despite good co-driving from Fozzie, I hit the Team Ford Jump about 20MPH too fast and exploded a front tire at the landing. Fozzie fixed it and jumped back in only to have it go down again almost immediately. The knuckle had broken and ripped the rim off of the wheel. We got it back together in the infield within site of the pits, but rules don't allow the pit crews to come on course to help so we were on our own. Once we got it going and around to the pits, Don jumped in at Co-Driver and I stayed in the driver's seat while the pit crew made sure everything was perfect. We were down about an hour so we decided to just go for the finish. The last lap was a fun, prerun pace with no major obstacles other than the tranny acting up a little bit. We ended up gaining some ground on Fitts to finish 2nd place 16 minutes behind him. All in all it was a major victory for the team. We finished 2nd in the race and 2nd in points for the year. Our ROOKIE YEAR!!! No one on our team had ever driven in a desert race before 2008 (most of us have other types of racing experience), so we feel GREAT about the future.

Now the commentary part:

I had more fun last weekend than I can remember. Our team is just awesome. The prep was perfect, the attitudes were perfect, the enthusiasm was through the roof. Everything just fell into place. My job behind the wheel was easy. I just had to press the skinny pedal and do what the co-driver told me to do. I can't imagine what the crew was going through when Fozzie and I were out in the infield trying to fix the truck. It must have been terrible. Fozzie thrashed away on that repair like a man possessed and had the forsight to stay in the pits because he felt like a fresh body would be better if we were to have to make anothe field repair. That guy is a class act!! I really can't say enough about everyone.

Back home, our families and friends were pouring over this site, RDC, and the tracking sites all day long. Seriously, it is beyond words to have such a great support system. Without the support, we wouldn't be able to chase our dreams like a bunch of overgrown 3rd graders.

Last thing: For the first lap, I really felt like Fozzie and I left nothing on the track. We were doing everything we could (and I mean everything) to keep the truck in one piece while driving as fast as we could. We pushed braking zones to the limit, we power drifted 80MPH corners ass-end out and hammer down and we slowed to "stupid slow" when the terrain was over El Chivo's safe zone and we passed many, many other race trucks at speed. . .I honestly wish that every one of you could have been inside that truck with us. For a couple of Green Peas to make competetive passes on CHAMPIONS, it really was a miracle. I just kept thinking, "Bring it back to the crew. They deserve this. They deserve a victory." All your hard work paid off and I'm just glad that I could be a small part of it. RGR is an inspiration.

Great writeup Jim. Couldn't have said it better. I'm really proud of the RGR team!!!!!

Congradulations to a job well done. The TEAM performed like a well oiled machine. The attitudes were great and everyone contributed. My hat is off to the whole crew.

Thank you for inviting me. I had a great time.

Love you all,

Captain Poppy

Great debreif, Jimmy! Wish I could have been down there with you guys, but circumstance dictates otherwise. It is my great pleasure to be even a small part of the insanity! I am proud of all of you

This race was a little different for me. I couldn't get enough time off of work so I flew down friday afternoon. It was kind of hard to stay motivated thursday and friday. Especially friday because I knew the prerun and contengency were on friday. Around 10:30 I got a call from jose. When the phone rang my heart skipped a beat. I answered the phone "what did you guys break?" Jose said not to worry that everything ran out great but the race may run longer then expected and they left the off road lights in the shop. So I got to take 3 offroad lights down in my carry on. Getting through security was pretty interesting but they let me through. Trophygirl and twited picked me up at the air port just in time to make it to the hotel and get a couple hours of rest. Up early on saturday and to the pits we went. Put the finishing touches on the race truck. Wired up the lights and made sure they worked. Last minute inspection and half of the crew headed to the starting line. I got a call from Don that we needed a radio check. Come to find out there was a problem with the radio in the race truck. Those of us that were at the chase trucks headed off on foot to try and find the radio guys to try and fix our radio. After covering the entire pits we found that they weren't there. Danny threw his cell in the glove box of El chivo and made sure it had everyones numbers in it. As a some of the crew stayed to watch the start The rest of us headed off to find a spot to pit. We walked down through th pits and found a bike team that was finished an packing up. They were kind enough to let us take over they're pit. So we set up pit and started getting prepared. We had to be ready for anything being we had no radio contact. Dave kept us updated on there position calling every few minutes with updates on there position so we knew when to expect them. Then we could see em. Up over the team ford jump and bang the right front went flat instantly. Steve jumped out and made quick time getting the tire swapped. They were up and going again. But didn't go far. Another loud bang. Someone had binoculars that we kept passing around trying to see what was broke. Finally Don called the cell and Jim picked up to let us know what was going on. It was frustrating because they were close but we couln't help. They got the truck moving again and you could hear cheering from the pits as they went around and finally made it to us. We went through and douple checked everthing. A splash of fuel and two new spares and they were off. Then it was a waiting game. Not sure if they were gonna make one more lap before the overall leader or not we waited to pack pit back up. So as we waited we had bbq and watched the other racers. Got a call from Dave that they had been passed by the leader. We were done in the pits. We slowly packed up the pit and waited for phone calls to see how they were doing. We walked up to the finish line to cheer them on as they finished the race. We sat around and watched the rest off the race and traded stories befor packing up and heading for the hotel for showers and beverages. It was a great race. I can't wait for the next one.