JD Fabrication

We raced the 40^th anniversary of the SCORE Baja 1000 in the Regulators Racing class 8 truck. We started the race 7^th off of the line on Tuesday November 23, 2007 at 10:30 am. We finished the race in 4^th place on Thursday morning at 8:50 am. It took us 46:20:13 to finish the race. We could not have done it without the help of everyone that was involved. Thank you for everyone’s hard work and dedication. The help of everyone involved is truly what got us across the finish line. We could not have done it without our team.

Anyone that has never raced in Baja knows that it is filled with adventure and you will always come back with stories. We had an amazing adventure and we now have more Baja stories than ever. Jesse and Tbird started their adventure during that late night hours of Saturday the 10^th. They were towing the race truck down the toll road and they were pulled over by the police, an all so familiar story these days. Luckily they made it safely to our first destination, La Bufadora. We stayed in amazing two story house right on the beach. The sand literally came up to the back patio. In fact Rudy and Lillian were all set to go in the Jacuzzi, but it was out of water and filled with sand. The boys all decided to go to the bar down the street on Sunday night. They had a great time and pissed off the security guards while doing so. Surprise, surprise! Huge had an adventure of his own, which would not be his last. Then the night before the race Noah decided to make a delicious team dinner. Beware of Mexican lighter fluid! It poured out so fast Noah had it all over is hands. When he lit the fire, all the hair on his hand disappeared. Tuesday morning we had our last team meeting and went off our separate ways.

Noah Ostanik and Kevin Guevara started the race. They had no major problems well, that is besides Noah’s catheter. A few minor adjustments were made at race mile 204. Thanks to the help of Lin and Aaron we were done quickly. During this stop we received a little TV footage from NBC. Chad, Tiffany (AKA Momanger) and Huge put the tired dirty boys in the diesel and pressed on. The race truck was passed over to Dave Dinsmore and Brian Knight who had to get the truck to The Bay of LA. Lillian drove thought the night to get Jesse and Tbird to The Bay of LA for the next driver change. During this time we had limited radio communication with the race truck. So as usually we hurried up to wait. When Dave and Brian arrived we cleaned the air filter and sent Jesse and Tbird on their way. Brian was so wired from the ride he couldn’t sleep. Jesse and Tbird finished out the night and drove through the morning to pass the truck over to Sandman and Steve. Poor Jesse and Tbird came out of the truck beat and climbed into the Blazer with Thomas. They had a side adventure of their own. We met up with Sandman and Steve to clean the air filter again and give them some resurrections. The truck was just powering through the Baja peninsula. At this point we had not even had a flat tire. Amazing! All good things must coming to a screaming halt. The truck was passed over to Doug and Killroy. They were motoring along when all of the sudden at around 8:30 we received a radio call from the race truck. Doug told us his location and that he was not sure if the truck was fixable. At this point we were at race mile 1140 in first place. All of our hearts sank. I know I felt like throwing up when I heard him say that. Doug is not a quitter. He has always been the type of guy to do whatever it takes to finish a race. So, when we heard the doubt in his voice we were truly worried. Noah, Chad, Danny Renaga, Tbird, Dave Jesse, Lillian, Erik, Brian and Knight all charged the race course to get to the truck. When we arrived the truck was being drug off the course by a Bronco. As we walked up to the truck we could now see the concern. They had driven into a rut that came up to my waist. The driver’s side tire was completely ripped off. The whole front driver’s side of the truck had been completely tweaked. The spindle was ripped off; the suspension and exhaust were all out of whack. Dave, Jesse, Brian and Killroy immediately started describing how they could fix it. They were not about to call it quits here. Doug started to get his confidence back as well. The final call was left up to Noah. Noah stood quietly for a good five minutes before he said, “let’s do it, let’s finish this”. The boys began digging and pulling the truck out so that they could work on it. After about 9 hours of grinding, cutting and welding we were mobile. It was such a cool feeling to see everyone pull together and do the impossible to get the truck moving. Now Double Down Doug and Killroy had to make it through 3 large silt beds to get to the finish line. When we finally walked up to the finish line to see our truck on the finishing stage we were on the best high ever. We celebrated with the usual champagne shower and cold Tectates. We were fourth place out of thirteen class eight trucks. We were 189^th out of 424 vehicles.

During our celebration Jesse’s bag was stolen from the back of the truck in the parking lot. If you see a random guy wearing dickies and a JD shirt in Cabo it’s his. From there we went to Mike Jacobson’s house in San Jose. Talk about a great way to start the party. We all headed straight for the pool where the margaritas were flowing. Friday morning Courtney, Julie, and Jerry arrived to join the party. Friday night Mikey hosted an amazing dinner. The local taco stand set up in the driveway and began cooking flank steak and governor tacos. We all ate until we couldn’t move. I am still dreaming about those tacos. Saturday Tiffany and Kevin began their long drive home. They had a little side adventure too. They had a tire clip the edge of the pavement and went off they went off the highway. They luckily were all ok. They only suffered a flat tire. Danny Renaga, Thomas, Steve, Brian Knight and Jerry stayed in Cabo while the rest of us headed north to The Bay of Dreams. We stayed in another amazing house right on the beach for a couple days. I can’t even begin to explain the amount of fun we had there. Several meals, pools and beers later it was time for us to head home too. Tbird and Chad flew home at this point. The rest of us Dave, Huge, Lillian, Noah, Courtney, John Nelson, Todd, Julie, Doug, Killroy, Erik and Brain drove to the Serinidad in Mulege. Once again we enjoyed an amazing meal and more margaritas. The following morning we pressed on to The Old Mill. Of course we didn’t forget to stop at Mama Espinoza’s along the way. We finally crossed the border and made it home the afternoon before Thanksgiving. We all had a great time and can’t wait for next year.

We would like to thank everyone that braved the Baja peninsula with us; Dave Dinsmore, Jesse Nelson, Noah Ostanik, Kevin Guevara, Brian Knight (Joe Dirty), Erik McNary (Tbird), Danny Renaga (Mynaga), Steve Wilcox, Todd Sanderson (Sandman), Dylan (Huge), Chad McGarrity, Hugh, Thomas, Erik Reynolds, Brian, Rudy, Doug Rose, John Nelson, Papa Carl and the only two ladies Tiffany Guevara (Momanger) and Lillian Hebert. We could not have done it without you!

We would also like to thank all of our sponsors Riding Dirty Clothing, Dragon, Neo Synthetics, BFG Tires, Aurora, King Shocks, Bonsall Petroleum, Sign Art, KLR Bobcat, Pascal Steel, OSAK Inc., Tek Steel, Richards Performance Muffler, Ironclad, Miggie Motorsports, Sanderson Maintenance, and International Racing Consultants.