January 31, 2006
Reno, NV: The 2006 off-road racing season is about to get underway
for Team
HUMMER. Currently the crew is busy wrapping up last minute details
in preparation for the opening race of Best in the Desert Racing
Association’s Silver State Series, the Blue Water Resort
& Casino ‘Parker 425’, February 3-5 in Parker,
Arizona. In spite of the fact that it has been two months since the
final race of the 2005 racing season, a lot has been going on at
the Team HUMMER shop, in Reno, Nevada and at the GM Desert Proving
Ground in Mesa, Arizona, where the new H3 was constructed and is
maintained between races.
We had planned to have the new H1 Alpha Class 8100 Race truck ready
in time for Parker but the lack of availability of various
suspension parts caused us to move back the scheduled debut of the
new H1 until the ‘Terrible’s Town 250’, in late
April. So we have delayed the retirement date of the #8102 H1
Pick-up and will ask the 9 year-old race truck to respond to the
green flag one more time. H2 Chief Mechanic, Sam
Cothrun, has taken over the duties of preparing the H1 for the
Parker season opener, replacing Brad Falin who left the team at the
end of the 2005 season to pursue other opportunities.
After finishing last season second in the BitD Class 8100 Points
Championship, the H1 was not too far off it’s winning form.
Cothrun did a detailed inventory of the Pick-up, reworked the
entire brake system, which caused us considerable downtime at the
‘Henderson 400’ while replacing the transmission, the
turbo and anything that looked like it might be worn in any way.
The Parker course is as tough as they come and
if anything is overlooked during the preparation phase, you can
count on downtime during the race.
The H2 was in pretty good shape after winning Henderson in
December, having suffered only a broken idler arm late in the
event. Considering the fact that the H2 is on an eight-race winning
streak, you are faced with the old adage, “if it ain’t
broke, don’t fix it”. Still, some major maintenance is
called for at the start of a new season so both differentials were
rebuilt and the transfer case received an inspection and a new
chain. To complete the maintenance, the transmission was replaced
and the shocks were revalved and rebuilt. Driver Josh Hall feels
that the #4101 Team HUMMER H2 SUV has a good chance of repeating as
Class 4100 points champion in 2006 but acknowledges that to repeat
as class points champion will take even more hard work and
discipline than it took to win the title in 2005.
Coming off his Class 3100 victory at the ‘SCORE Baja
1000’, in November, Team owner Rod Hall is anxious to get
back behind the wheel after a three month layoff from competition.
The #3111 H3 SUV went back to the Desert Proving Ground after the
‘Baja 1000’ and received a new, more powerful engine,
adding about 40 horsepower to the Vortec 3500 powerplant. The
wizards from Fox Shox have come up with a new
configuration for the shocks which has improved the handling even
better then it had been. With Rod Hall at the wheel, a more
powerful Vortec engine and the improved handling provided by Fox
Shox, the Team HUMMER H3 will be a hard truck to beat at the
‘Parker 425’.
In fact, every one of the Team HUMMER entries are in top form and
ready to start the 2006 racing season. We are looking forward to a
very successful event once the dust settles and the Checkered flag
drops on Saturday evening, at the Blue Water Resort & Casino
‘Parker 425’, on the banks of the Colorado River...
- grt -
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