Part 1

This story starts back in 2008 when a post came up on an off road forum about a desert truck racing team looking for a “pit bunny”.  I thought it was right up my alley.  I had been involved in different types of racing since high school, and I had always been most fond of those desert racing trucks whose crews carried enough parts and tools out into the middle of nowhere to be able to swap out a transaxle just to finish a race.  So I applied and earned the position of pit bunny for a Best in the Desert stock mini class Ford Ranger race truck team out of Tri Cities, WA, RumbleGoat Racing.  My first race was the Tube Specialties Company sponsored Vegas to Reno 500 mile race.  I got the “bug” before the race was over and the shenanigans that carried on after our unfortunate DNF only seated it deeper.   

A couple years passed.  I was no longer racing with RumbleGoat racing, or any other team but I was able to get my fix by attending and filming a couple races near Goldendale, WA.  Finally an opportunity arose for me to get into the hobby myself.  I had been doing a lot of vehicle buying and selling after the purchase of my home and I was trying to decide on one vehicle.  For years I had wanted a Ford Ranger and a motorcycle.  I thought that was a good combination of work and play.  So I decided it was time.  But in the interest of being frugal, I started with the Ford Ranger.  After looking around at some stock Ford Rangers, I decided to dream big.  I chose not to limit myself and what would it hurt to buy a modified Ford Ranger?  I summoned Jim, one of the owners of RumbleGoat Racing to find me a prerunner.  I told him I did not know what I was looking for, so I was relying on his expertise in off road racing to find me a truck that could handle open desert and sand.  With my willingness to travel, I decided it was worth having a prerunner in the NW.  There were enough play areas to be able to go somewhere for the weekend almost as often as I wanted.  Within months I was flying a friend down to Los Angeles, CA to get in my newly purchased 2002 Ford Ranger prerunner to drive it home to WA.  The truck was a 2 wheel drive extra cab Ranger powered by a 2.3 liter engine with a 7.5 rear differential when stock.  As a prerunner, it is still 2wd but with a 4 wheel drive 5 speed transmission still mated to the donor single overhead cam (SOHC) 4.0 liter engine, and an open 8.8 differential swapped in.  The front suspension provides 10” of travel and consists of the Camburg Engineering 5.5” lift kit (with new upper control arms, race spindles, and new coils), 8” Radflo 2.0 reservoir shocks, Fox air bumps, and gusseted stock lower arms.  Inside you’ll find Crow Enterprises 4-point harnesses and a fully custom and welded cab cage which is some of the best craftsmanship on the whole truck.  The rear suspension provides 14” of travel and consists of Deaver leaf springs with Kartek extended rear shackles and drop hangers, and 14” Fox 2.5 reservoir shocks going through the bed to a Dixon Brothers bed cage.  The look is finished off with a prerunner style front tube bumper, Hannemann Fiberglass front fenders and custom cut and pulled bedsides.  I have since upgraded to a heim steering setup with custom tie rods and swapped out the rear differential with a trussed 8.8 pulled from an Explorer with disc brakes, 4.56 gears, and an Auburn limited slip.   

I soon joined the forum at www.nwprerunners.com and found some people with which to enjoy my hobby.  My first outing with the group was in Paisley, OR where Central Oregon Desert Racing Association (CODRA) has been planning a benefit race, the Paisley 400, for the school in Paisley.  I left after work on a Friday and arrived about 1am on Saturday.  I was not surprised that out of the 30-40 strangers there, I was the only girl.  Everyone was very supportive and welcoming.  Upon the close of the weekend, I knew I was into something great and I was right where I belonged. 

Part 2

Through all my racing experiences, I dreamed of a day when I could be the driver.  I didn’t imagine it would ever happen as finances didn’t allow and I didn’t know anyone that wanted to pay for me to be in the driver’s seat.  Of course I had some encouragement from friends and the desire was there, but the truck was my daily driver and I just couldn’t see spending my what-should-be retirement money on racing.  I continued to be involved in racing and private and public off road events until one of the events for which I volunteered got an overhaul and I started to get a little excited.  The 2011 Supertoys Adventures short course race series changed hands and the new promoters for 2012 were considering dropping some of the technical qualifications to allow more competitors to enter.  The new promoters are Central Oregon Offroad Race Park (COORP) and I was crossing my fingers that there would be a class without a fuel cell requirement.  That was the single most expensive modification I did not want to afford to be able to race.  Amidst everything else, it adds up.  By this time I had purchased a daily driver and retired my truck to occasional and weekend use.  I simply needed more than 2 days at a time to upgrade and maintain my truck and get back to work every Monday.  And besides, you play hard, you break hard.  So during one of my trips to Paisley with the CODRA crew, a few weeks before the first short course race, I stopped by one of the promoters homes and had my truck pre tech inspected.  I had read, printed, and highlighted the rules for the areas about which I had questions.  After reviewing them together, I only needed a few easy items and I was in!  The course is a .7 mile dirt track with lots of air time.  Since the 2011 race, they smoothed out some of the harsh jumps before the front stretch and added 700 yards of filtered dirt throughout.  It sits on the Deschutes County Fairgrounds property right in the town of Redmond, OR. 

3 weeks before show time:  Work commenced as soon as I got home from the Paisley run.  I was networking with everyone I could think of to collect a window net, a fire suit, a pit crew, fire extinguishers, a co-driver, a tow rig and a traction bar.  I had experienced a large amount of axle wrap at the 2012 Ultra4 series King of the Hammers race in February when my rear driveline yoke met the pinion flange on my rear differential while jumping the truck.  It wasn’t a good first impression for either party.  I had fixed the driveline and did the planned steering upgrades just in time for the Paisley run, but needed to fix the axle wrap issue before I took it out jumping again.  I half-heartedly asked Mike Ryan, Pike’s Peak semi truck competitor that I had ridden with in 2010, to co-drive for me.  I say half-heartedly because I knew if I couldn’t pay him, it was unlikely he would show.  And no Hollywood stunt driver can be cheap.  He appreciated me asking and said it sounded fun but declined due to the travel expenses and suggested a couple co-drivers that I had met at Pike’s Peak and stayed in touch with.  James Smith, a Hollywood stunt driver who actually lives within a couple hours from me was booked up.  Another choice was Sam Young, also a stunt driver who lives about 10 minutes from me.   He responded by text from Hawaii where he was vacationing and agreed to get back to me.  I also gathered some names for a pit crew and started an email chain with most of them to start planning and start some discussions.

Part 3

2 weeks before show time:  I collected the fire suit, secured Sam as my co-driver, and got the traction bar work completed.  The traction bar was built by Jason Weidhuner (Top Truck Challenge and KOH competitor) for a Suburban but was never used.  He was able to modify it and get it installed in a few nights.  I had some other work for him to do but I wanted the truck over the weekend for the Society of Automotive Engineers Mini Baja competition for which I was a volunteer.  So I agreed to get it back to him the next week.  I called a team meeting mid week to get everyone together to do some work and talk about race details.  We were in the shop going over tools and supplies and the conversation turned to my driving skills.  I started getting drilled about how I had drove my truck off road in the past, and if I had ever spun out or much less lost traction and how I handled it.  I got a bit defensive and found myself feeling like I had a lot to prove.  They looked at each other for confirmation of what I was saying.  At the end of the night, I felt like I wasn’t going to feel like I did a good job on the track until they validated it by saying so.  It was the first time some of them had met each other so it quickly turned to a guy’s social hour after I exited the conversation out of frustration.  I really didn’t want my racing experience to feel like this.

Part 4

One week before show time:  As I was driving out to the venue on Friday for the dynamic events of the Mini Baja competition, I heard some loud clangs in the running gear, especially in second gear.  I remembered hearing a little something like it a few weeks earlier.  I had thought maybe it was the pilot bearing, as the clutch was replaced not long before and it would be covered under a one-year warranty.  But it came and went in the same trip home so I forgot about it.  As I kept driving, it got worse and moved to other gears as well.  I was able to break away from my volunteer duties long enough to get the truck to a shop back in town, without using second gear, and got a ride back out to the competition.  The shop, Cottman Transmission, just happened to be a few blocks from my house.  I had been referred to them in the past.  Within a few hours, they called with bad news.  They had pulled a piece of gear tooth out of the drain plug in the transmission.  I needed a rebuild or a new transmission.  With the race one week away, I got a little worried that I wouldn’t make it, but I wasn’t ready to give up.  I spent a lot of time texting and making phone calls in between sessions of marshaling a maneuverability course researching my options.  I got less than desirable quotes on a rebuild and put out a message for anyone near a computer that day to help me find a used transmission on the internet.  I hoped that I could find some guys to help me throw it in one night during the next week in time for the race. 

I had dealt with seeking sponsorship in the past for various teams and projects, but I had never had a good handle on how it worked.   I didn’t know what I had to offer.  I had never competed before so there was no winning record.  And I wondered who got what in the whole deal, and how everyone came out happy.  And since I’m not always in the mood to be told “no”, I had never asked anyone to sponsor me.  But I knew that if I didn’t put my big girl panties on now and do it, I wasn’t going to be able to afford a rebuild or a new transmission install in one week.  I was barely pulling it together with a recently upgraded and working truck.  So I asked the shop what they could do to help me out and I told them what I did have to offer.  To my surprise, the owner, Kevin Safley, was very willing to make me an offer.  I asked to sleep on it and get back to him on Monday.

Part 5

By Monday morning I was still undecided about whether I was going to swap in a used transmission or go with rebuilding the old one.  After a short conversation and thinking out some scenarios with the shop, I decided to accept the sponsorship.  I had brought a 2 wheel drive transmission to the shop a year or more before to have them investigate swapping it in for the 4 wheel drive transmission currently in it.  That transfer case was just dead weight hanging there, for the previous owner had not swapped over the chassis wiring to be able to get low range in the rear end.  That is the only value the transfer case would have added to the truck.  There were too many sensors and it would be expensive and a wiring nightmare to try to make it work.  I had hoped that they could just swap out the transfer case for the 2 wheel drive tail housing.  But when they found that the output shafts were different lengths I would have needed a 2 wheel drive transmission, a new driveline and, although it didn’t need replacement, a new clutch since they would have the transmission out.  After I weighed all the costs and since nothing was actually wrong with the truck, I decided I had better things to spend the money on for the truck and I ditched the whole idea.  But now I had a new clutch, which had been replaced months earlier along with a leaking slave cylinder, and a new driveline due to the axle wrap issue at King of the Hammers.  So if I switched to a 2 wheel drive transmission, now was the time.  However I would still need another driveline due to them being different lengths, but that was not a big deal.  So we thought. 

Part 6

At the suggestion of a friend, I called a local used light truck parts business in search of a transmission and driveline.  They were able to locate both.  The driveline was to be ready for pick up by the end of the day, and the transmission, with only 17,000 miles on it, would be available after noon on Wednesday.  It was cutting it close, but I ordered both over the phone.  I got the driveline to the shop that evening, and then we waited.  On Wednesday I delivered the transmission and hoped for a good news phone call the next day.  But it never came.  There was an issue with the driveline.  The front yoke was too small and the spline count was lower than the output shaft on the transmission and the whole thing was about 4 inches too short.  With only one day left I had to act quickly so I called the first and only person I thought of to trust for driveline help and expertise.  That was Brian Stanton of Driveline Tech.  He had done the welding for one of my product lines in the past and consulted me about the driveline issue I had at King of the Hammers which I did not discover until I was more than half way through my 20 hour drive back home.  I explained the situation and from the desperation in my voice, he quickly offered to help.  He got in touch with the shop for a good explanation of the issue and worked to find me pieces that he could put together that night or Friday morning.  I got the pieces to the shop and we started mocking up this imaginary driveline and taking measurements.  But Brian did not know he had sent me to buy a driveline that was an inch bigger in diameter than what was in the Ranger.  He was to cut it down to the length I needed and weld on the yokes.  But it was so long, that it was the next size up in diameter and ran into my fuel tank.  It turns out it was from an F150.   

I was beginning to get sick to my stomach and a little emotional.  The week had been full of ups and downs.  Besides my truck’s issues, the tow truck, my friend Jake’s Cummins powered Dodge diesel, broke as well. Luckily Jake got his truck fixed a few days later but I was starting to feel like the whole racing thing was just a big tease.  I had worked to find some back up tow rigs, but even if I had to drive myself over, I was going racing.  I asked the shop if it was too late to rebuild the 4 wheel drive transmission, and at one day before departure, it certainly was.  As we were standing around contemplating the options, one of the technicians eyeballed a customer’s truck out in the parking lot.  It was a 2000 extra cab Ranger with a 5 speed manual transmission and a 3.0 liter engine.  Not a lot like mine, but in a last ditch effort we decided to pull its driveline and see if it would work.  For it was the previous generation of Ranger and had a smaller engine, but somehow it magically did!  The shop owner immediately got on the phone to order a used driveline for a Ranger matching the customers truck.  He could have it there the next day by noon.  I was very excited but still had reservations about it being the right driveline showing up.  My team was asking right up to the last hour of departure if we were still competing but I couldn’t tell them for sure.  All I could offer was that I was expecting to.  After work on Friday, I called the shop for the final word.  The driveline came in and it was right.  We were racing!  The decals were applied just hours before I picked it up and drove it the two blocks to my house and right onto the trailer.  I had the three pit crew members that were traveling with me there and we loaded up and rolled out of town within an hour.   We arrived late that night at one of the pit crew member’s homes in Bend, OR, about 20 minutes from the track, and got some sleep for race day.

Part 7

A 5:30 AM alarm sounded off and race day began.  I wanted to get to the track as early as possible to scope out the pit area, prep ourselves and the truck, get tech inspected and get as much practice in as possible.  Finally we were given the ok for practice.  Within a few laps I felt like I had got my money’s worth.  It was an awesome track.  Not smooth flying by any means, but I was feeling good about being able to take it seemingly fast for the terrain.  I could have stayed out there all day.  I asked Sam, “Should we go back?” and he said “I’m good when you are.”  I took that as a sign that he was good to go a little longer.  And finally he had to suggest, “Maybe we should go back and take a look at the truck.”  Sam had never been in my truck, rode with me, nor had he spent time being in the air in the same vehicle more than once.  He expected to have to tell me how to do it fast, and instead I was showing him how fast I could do it.  Within the first lap and a half, he had relaxed a little and accepted the low impact he felt.  An impact that his eyes and experience were telling him were going to feel much harsher.  A walk around inspection showed him that the truck was ok with it too.  On our second practice session, I wanted to get technical.  I wanted to focus on the line and the speed at which I should take each obstacle.  I wanted to drive in a manner that was fast for my truck, allowed me to keep the lead, and save the truck all at the same time. We experimented with the inside and the outside, the fast and the slow, the traction and the drift.  I apologized for not doing something that he said to do and asked him to keep telling me to do it.  He just said I was doing fine.  Just like in autocross, I needed help learning when to brake.  It was a big course for me to remember everything with only a handful of laps in.  After a few solo laps, we were joined by a Pro 2 truck manned by a couple of 17 year old boys.  They caught us after a few laps on the second to last turn, a large, sweeping and banked left hand corner.  There was room to pass on the inside, so they took it.  They were not bashful and neither was I.  This was my first off road competitive feeling.  I knew it was practice and I was not even going to compete against them that day, but why couldn’t I hold my own?  We drifted together, side by side and they took off on the straight, pelting me with dirt and rocks.  There was a risk of contact, and I’m not even sure who was responsible for maintaining control of that.  But at that moment, I didn’t even care if we touched.  I wasn’t stepping down.  They later got their hands slapped for being so aggressive against a little girl in her daily driver Ranger.  I didn’t see it that way, but I wasn’t going to argue with the ruling.

Part 8

Heat 1 

For the first qualifying heat there were two tough truck Rangers and an FJ Cruiser. One of the Rangers was driven by my friend Jake Campbell.  The FJ Cruiser was raced by my friends of Off Track Motorsports (OTM).   We were told that the starting position was first come, first serve.  It didn’t take me long to figure out my strategy.  Our heat was after the first UTV qualifying heat so I wanted to line up as quickly as possible after they started.  Before the UTVs finished, I pulled way up in the line and I was sent back a little.  The others lined up behind.  We were paced through one lap into a rolling start by the pace truck, a Chevy prerunner.  He exited to the hot pit on the left as I got a green flag on the right and put the pedal down.  I kept the lead right away and got into the second lap before I never saw anyone in my rearview mirrors again.  The FJ Cruiser, driven by John Matthews, got into 2nd position after lap 2 and was possibly gaining on me for the rest of the heat.  When I returned to the pit, the crew and some friends were waiting.  The first thing I wanted to know before I even got out of the truck was if I was going to win.  They said if I started out front, I could maybe stay ahead of OTM, but it wasn’t looking like an automatic win.  I had told others and myself before we started the first heat that I didn’t need to win it by a mile.  I was just going to keep a pace ahead of everyone else, just enough that they couldn’t pass.  That was all I needed and it was to help save the truck.  But that idea flew right out the window and not even an empty rearview reminded me of my intentions.  When I got out there, I drove like I was racing a sea of faster trucks on which they gave me a head start and if I could just keep the lead, I’d have more room for error if needed.  5 laps was just a short enough time for no one to catch me.  I pushed the truck harder, and we got more air than in practice.  Apparently some other people noticed and told Sam that we were getting big air on the back half of the course. 

Heat 2 

For the second qualifying heat, they reversed the order.  They put us 2 by 2.   With the two tough truck Rangers out front, then the FJ and I.  Again a rolling start and I pushed it.  But I was on the outside where the berm was soft and the line was longer.  So I let off, took 4th position behind the FJ and followed on the inside.  This was the second time I had to make a decision about making contact and I chose not to.  It was really important to me that I respected other race rigs and that I made clean and honest passes.  After all, I didn’t want myself pushed off the course to lose important time that I wasn’t able to make up.  And I didn’t want one huge scrape on the side of my truck either. 

I quickly found that congestion was frustrating.  It made the race slower and I found myself braking to avoid rear-ending my competition where I would be going faster if in the lead.  It became clear that there were not many places with a lot of time to make a pass.  I would come into corners hotter than my leader, and come out slower but make up time over the jumps and into every corner.  At one point I said to Sam as we flew higher over our eventually favorite jump, “Didn’t somebody say we weren’t supposed to do that?”  He responded with “Who cares?”  Sam was great.  He was such a cheerleader, which was motivating to me.  It was nice to hear about the race from his perspective.  He said things like “Great job, go go go, aaaand brake”, and an occasional “Yee haw”.   That was my favorite.  In 5 laps I was not able to pass the FJ.  I came across the finish line with a bit of disappointment and wonder about my starting position in the main event.  I had finished a qualifying heat in first and one in second.  The FJ had done the same.  But then, just after the finish as I was starting my cool-down lap, the FJ made a horrible racket and coasted to a stop on the outside.  I felt that the driver, Alex Riedo, had driven the FJ harder than it looked like it wanted to be driven.  So my amazement at his holding first place quickly turned to concern that he may have just taken the team out of the main event.  During my cool down lap, my check gauge light came on.  I was low on fuel.  I had planned to not fill the truck up for the race.  I wasn’t expecting to drive more than 40 miles the whole weekend, and albeit they are high fuel consuming race miles, I didn’t want to carry more fuel than I needed.  But I wasn’t going to risk losing the race due to something as simple as running out of fuel.  Before I got out of the truck back at the pit, I said to one of my pit crew members, Scott Schoenfelder, “I need gas.”  I wanted to make sure he had enough time to locate some, as we had not brought a can.  Shortly after I returned to the pits, the FJ followed in tow, on the wrecker.  We soon found out that they suspected the rear ring and pinion and were not going to be able to find a replacement in time.  So then there were three.

Part 9

Main Event 

For the main event, the organizers again put me in the back.  They wanted me to work a little harder and for spectator entertainment value.  They said I was too fast.  I’m not sure what their strategy was before, but those two tough truck Rangers had certainly brought their entire game, everything they had to the main event.  They hopped like jack rabbits in a cobra pit going over the jumps.  Jake used the whole track right away and was able to maintain speed through the soft stuff.  Sam and I got a good look at the undercarriage of Michael’s truck in the first couple of jumps.  I think he and the crowd thought he was going over.  But they closed me out of every attempt to pass.  I got close at the end of lap 2, on the front stretch.  That was the third time I had to make a choice about making contact and my willingness to avoid it was fading.  I didn’t know it, but Jake and I did make contact in the air, leaving blue paint on my rear passenger center cap and a trace of rubbing on the top of the wheel opening on the bed.  We later found my tire marks up high on his bedside.  I prepared for the upcoming corners, which put me back in third.  Jake and I were side by side again after only a few corners.  Both of the tough trucks had good acceleration and Jake continued to keep a closer following distance than I.  Perhaps where I thought driving the line would make me fast and find me the moment to pass; Jake was using every open line as his hope and prayer in securing first place.  By lap 3 I was getting disappointed and I said to Sam, “I don’t think I can do it”.  He said, “Just keep going!”  I decided patience was going to win, or at least look good.  Half way through lap 4, I came off a drop off a little sideways and lost time.  But I was caught up again within the next lap.  Just before halfway through lap 5, Sam noticed the floppy tailgate on the lead Ranger and told me to watch out for it.  Sure enough it came off in the back corner where Michael went really wide and lost it coming down the drop off.  Jake was right there to t-bone him off the course and that’s when I realized my opportunity.  With Sam yelling, “Go go go!” I was full throttle, taking both at once on the right.  Jake had already recovered and gave me a good run for my money through the next series of jumps.  But I had speed on my side from being unaffected by the spin out.  I held the line, drove clean, and came out in front.  It was never more important to drive well.  I kept my eye on Jake coming and going in my mirror through the corners.  I just had to make sure he was behind, and not beside.  I felt confident in my speed and handling to keep me ahead.  Just as long as I didn’t screw something up.  Going off course on a short distance track like that, with 1 minute lap times, wasn’t conducive to catching up before the checkered flag.  Throttling out of the back corner on lap 6, without warning, all I heard was the engine revving.  I hoped it was that it had popped into neutral and not that I was broke.  I was relieved as I grabbed the shifter and thrust it back in second gear, keeping Jake at bay.  I finished lap 6 and conquered laps 7 and 8 with the lead and the checkered flag.  I had done it.  After all the doubt, the truck issues just days before the race, the begging and borrowing of equipment, the competition, the organizers, and the persistent driving, the victory was mine.  And it felt very well deserved.  Now that the race was over, I was back to being conscious about my personal well being.  I realized that my throat was parched and my heart was pounding.  I asked Sam, “Do you feel like you just ran a marathon?” as we exited the track into the pit area.  As far as feeling out of breath, the last 10 minutes of my life felt like hours of physical activity.  A good friend of mine, Scott Strong, approached me before I even reached our pit to say “That was the best racing of the day.  That was awesome, you guys did great!”  He vowed to root for me in conversations we had in the weeks leading up to the race, but I sensed doubt in his voice.  He had never ridden with me or really seen my driving, but he said he was looking forward to seeing me compete.  I was glad he was right there to be the first one to congratulate me.  But Scott’s kind words were only the first of many.  A small crowd drew around our pit to see the damage.  Wait, did you say “damage?”  It turns out that my winning pass came with a small price.  Jake had launched his Ranger into my bedside over our favorite jump during my overtaking of first place.  Sam and I hadn’t felt anything and I did not know there were any dented panels.  Though I quickly decided it was worth the win as I laughed it off.

My truck handled really well.  I suspect that’s why a few spectators came into the pits to discuss with me how to build their project Ranger’s suspension; Rangers that I might surely be racing against in the next event a few months away.  Jake came over, head hung, ready to apologize for smashing up my truck.  But in seeing my ecstatic mood, he cheered up and invited us to see his new damage as well.  He had done most of the event with a floppy and broken steering wheel ring.  It turns out he had grabbed the center and the spokes to steer through the whole track.  He told me about the funny look he got at the gas station back in town when he mentioned that he was getting fuel for his competitor.  It somehow worked out that Jake had given Scott a ride to town to get the fuel I asked for before the main event.  Talk about sportsmanship.  Besides the win, there was one thing that made it all worth it.  As I was walking to the awards ceremony, there was a little girl peering from behind her mom as I passed.  She spoke but I did not understand what she said.  I asked her mom, and she said “She said you went really fast!”  That took a bit to sink in, but it made my day.  I now have a better understanding of how much the fans fuel the racing spirit.  I of course had a great time in the truck with Sam, but as I took in the spectator’s view of the race, spectators large and small, it really was a quite impressive feat.  So I’ve been waiting a long time for a moment to say thank you to all of those who supported and encouraged me, and were entertained.  You opened the door to a world in which I belong and set the stage for who I am.  Thanks for bringing me home.