Doherty Motorsports at the Baja 250 2002

Doherty Motorsports

Snowflake 150

Labor Day 2004

Another great Snowflake race has come and gone. One that the competitors will long remember, like the year at Parker when it snowed. This was the tenth Snowflake race for the "Old Girl" and she always remembers her way around that place. Our weekend started early on Thursday, as we tried to beat the Memorial Day crowd, typically headed to the AZ White Mountains looking for a cooler climate, and to escape from the sweltering heat of the Southern Arizona desert floor. After setting up our pit, and settling in our temporary home for the next four days, we are meet around midnight by some of the most dedicated, and die-hard pit crew members a team could ask for. At this race we had people from Yuma, Phoenix, Tucson, and Douglas AZ. Friday was kind of a free day. We got to work first on arranging all the the trucks and trailers, pounding stakes and putting up the caution tape, (that is intended to keep some of the 500 bike racers that show up on Saturday, from infringing on our "area"), raising the radio mast, and of course Bench Racing. After discovering a frayed rubber brake line, we replace it, and attempted to bleed the brakes, and find we have a bad GM caliper. A LOT of time was spent in the area auto parts stores trying to find a replacement. Meanwhile a light rain drizzle started to fall. Up went all the awnings. No BBQ dinner Fri night because of rain. Saturday morning we awoke to a dark and cloudy sky. The ground was "damp" which would make a perfect race surface, and the lack of dust would be pleasing to the crew. Drivers meeting held 8 AM. Race to start at 9 AM, as a very light drizzle began to fall. The Snowflake course is around 6500" and everyone was looking for warmer clothes.

The race starts close to on time, and we leave the start line 1st in class, by luck of the draw. Mark Beeler, recuperating from a 2 1/2 year battle with illness, starts 3rd in his old '66 Ford. We run a very comfortable pace, until RM 10, and then the sky opens up. It is now raining Cats and Dogs ! The in-car-camera shows the windbreaker I wore over my fire suit, start to shine. The raindrops are clearly visible on the video. We are in for a mess. I hit a tree on the drivers side door, and the 10 car I had just passed, and Beeler, go by (seen on the video). The race goes from bad to worse. Our biggest problem are our tires. We choose to run what I deem the best tire I have ever used, the 37" BFG Projects, but I have problems with them in the mud. I had given thought to rain, and re-grooved these tires in hopes of a compromise. It doesn't work. We spin out NASCAR style, and I have stand on the gas to bring it around and make a 360 out of it. Multiple times. I hit another tree. I cannot see worth a dam. On lap three, (90 miles) we stop for our planned fuel stop. The crew has a hard time lifting off the fiberglass hood off to add a qt of oil. It must now weigh an additional 75 lbs. Finally, there is SUNSHINE. I decide we need to make up some major time on Beeler, and show my new co-driver, what me and the Old Girl are REALLY capable of. We have a great, high-speed, exciting, 20 mile run going, hell I know all the turns......and then it starts to rain again. No, not just rain, downpour. Into the mud again. Cars and trucks everywhere, slid off the course into the pine tree's. Off camber turns negotiated at 5 MPH. Fiberglass everywhere on the 30 mile course.

At our last pit stop to add another quart of oil, I tell the crew to just leave off the unbelievable heavy hood, before it breaks in two. The crew tells me we have no bedsides left. Off we go into the drizzle, and the last lap. Beeler has now finished. We loop it again. I hit another tree. The motor is now running on 7 cylinders for some unknown reason. We cross our fingers we make it to the finish. The leaking oil is now starting to send a few puffs of smoke up every now and then. The main pit area is now in sight, and the horse is smelling the barn. Easily clearing the two infield jumps for the last time, our poor old muddy steed brings us over the finish line. What a sight.

We finish in 4th place. The Old Girl sits there smoking. My brother climbs in to take out the tape. All the kids are scraping off the wet mud to make mud balls. We get into street clothes and head to the motor home to replay the tape. I wanted to show everyone how hard it was raining 15 miles away, while the sun was shining back here at the pits. A good laugh is had by all. I need to thank all my crew for working on the truck for me, RAIN OR SHINE !

On a sad note, I heard there was a quad racer killed Sunday AM in the quad race. Reports I heard was he had passed away instantly before the first person stopped to render help. I believe he was a young kid, someone said 16 yr. Godspeed quad racer