When the dust settled after a long 2012 6-race Best In The Desert season, seven KC sponsored Dirt Tribe athletes sat at the top in their respective classes. No other lighting manufacturer even came close. Since 1970, when KC pretty much invented the off-road lighting industry, the top names in off-road racing have chosen KC HiLiTES to light their way to victory.

Leading the KC Dirt Tribe championship charge was the Trick Truck team of Steve Sourapas and Rob MacCachren in their Geiser Bros. built Ford truck. It was a tight battle that was finally settled at the Henderson “250” just south of Henderson, NV. Doing the driving duties at this race, Rob MacCachren started the weekend off right by winning the “Team Ford” Pole Award at the time trials. Starting in front, Rob fell briefly to second place on corrected time, but then reclaimed the lead to take first overall for the race and the Trick Truck Class Championship by a close 3 points margin of victory.

In Class 8000, for modified production full-size trucks, Macrae Glass dominated the class all season long in his signature yellow KC HiLiTES Ford F-150. Coming into Henderson, about all Macrae had to do was start the race to secure the championship. Being the fierce competitor that he is, that wasn’t quite in his game plan as he ran a hard fought race for the win and coasted to the class points title.

Tim Casey scored his third consecutive championship in Class 8100 for stock production full-size trucks. Tim has used KC-POD HID lights on his LaPaz Cocktail Mix Ford F-250 to light his way to each one. The trucks in this class tend to take a real pounding do to the limitations placed on their suspensions, which proves just how incredibly durable KC lights are.

What was originally the Trophylite R8 class has evolved into Best In The Desert’s Class 6100 in 2012 for Trick Trucks running spec engines. Regardless of name, Jim Riley has been the most consistent racer in the class in his Azunia Tequila R8 truck. And his consistency paid off as he claimed the first championship awarded in the new class. The little brothers to the R8 are the Trophylites. KC has been the official light of Trophylite since they were first introduced. Troy Messer of Kingman, AZ pretty much ran away in the points standing this year to take the championship crown.

Banning Motorsport’s driver Bryan Folks capped off a great year in his Ford powered Class 1100 buggy. Bryan relied heavily on his KC-PODs to light his way to victory at Vegas to Reno, “The Longest Off-Road Race In The United States”. He also scored the class win and the Henderson “250”. Both of these races are double points events, which gave Folks a very comfortable year-end lead and the championship.

In his first year running the entire Best In The Desert schedule, Steve Alexander drove his bright yellow KC Baja Bug to the Class 5000 championship title. Steve experienced a year that most drivers can only dream about as he raced to the class win in 5 of the 6-race series.

Randy Merritt nearly handed KC its eighth championship by just missing the Class 7200 title by a margin of 22 points. After having taken the Class 8100 championship in years past, Randy built a new Ford truck to campaign for the first time in the class for unlimited mid-size trucks. Coming into the Henderson “250”, Merritt sat third in points with a shot at the championship. When the green flag dropped, he immediately pushed his KC yellow Mongo Racing “mini-trick truck” to the front of the pack only to encounter a flat on the tough and rocky course. By the time he got restarted, all the other 7200s had passed him, so he threw caution to the wind as he charged back towards the lead. At the finish line he fell just short of the win, taking 2nd in both class and year-end points.

All in all, it was a great year for the KC Dirt Tribe. And with the success they experienced, it’s easy to see why champions choose KC.

KC Dirt Tribe Best In The Desert Class Champions:
Steve Sourapas – Trick Truck
Macrae Glass – Class 8000
Tim Casey – Class 8100
Jim Riley – Class 6100
Troy Messer – Class 6000
Bryan Folks – Class 1100
Steve Alexander – Class 5000

About KC HiLiTES
KC HiLiTES has been pioneering higher quality off-road lighting since 1970. Since the beginning, KC’s involvement with motorsports has been critical to the process of designing, engineering and manufacturing the most advanced auxiliary lighting available. Inside and out, KC has never accepted anything less than the highest quality materials and workmanship for their products. It is this absolute commitment to total quality that allows KC to back every KC product with their industry leading 23-year warranty. www.kchilites.com