Rainy Day, Dream Away

That was the case for Andy McMillin who crossed the finish line first to win the Best in the Desert season-opening BlueWater Resort & Casino Parker 425 in Parker, Arizona, today.

Attrition was high as a rough track and steady winter rain played havoc with some of the best teams in desert racing. Among the early victims were after Team Ford Pole Award winner Rob MacCachren, who bowed out about as early as anyone could when his borrowed Steve Sourapas buggy dropped a CV joint just one half mile into the race (MacCachren quickly retired Sourapas’ Corona-backed car and made it back to the starting line in time to start Class 8000 in his new Ford F-150 SVT Raptor ride), defending BitD Champions Chet Huffman and Jerry Whelchel, who suffered a broken transmission on the first lap. Other first-lap victims included General Tires/Vision X Chevrolet driver BJ Baldwin, who broke a shock, General Tire/Team 71 Ford driver Rick Johnson, who broke a transmission, Sourapas in his new Alumi Craft Class 1500, and 2008 Bilek Silver State 300 winner Sam Berri, who was in the hunt for third place when his Unlimited buggy dropped a CV joint just past the first checkpoint on the last lap.

Several accidents also took place in the race the most severe among them being the one involving Class 1500 driver Josh Daniel, who had to be airlifted from the event to receive medical attention.

The 21-year-old McMillin was able to avoid both types of misfortune as he piloted the McMillin family’s Ford Trick Truck on all three laps of the torturous 142-mile Parker course, finishing with a time of seven hours, 31 minutes and 14 seconds to claim his second consecutive BitD victory, having won the 2008 season finale Henderson Fabtech Desert Classic. Starting third, he took the physical lead on lap one by passing the stopped Class 1500 (Unlimited buggy) team of Chuck Dempsey and Johnny Herder after the first pit. From there McMillin steadily pulled away from the field, building a six-minute lead over Dempsey by the end of the first lap. Despite a long second pit stop to change a plugged air filter, the talented young racer and his co-driver, Brady Thompson, never relinquished the physical lead, and they finished over 10 minutes ahead of the second overall car at the finish.

“We just had a great race, McMillin said. “Herder was stopped by Race Mile 40 when we went by him, and we saw Rob was out right after the starting line, so we knew that all we had to do was keep our pace, keep people behind us and not have any down time. That’s what you have to do to win out here. Going back to back feels pretty good.”

If you do have a problem, you have to fix it fast, McMillin said. He had one at the end of lap two, and fortunately for him his team did fix it fast.

“We had one long pit stop at the end of the second lap, probably seven or eight minutes, when we had to change the air filter,” McMillin said. “The thing wouldn’t rev past 5000 rpm about halfway through the second lap, so we knew something was wrong. We pulled into the main pit, and we’re just thankful that we found it fast enough. My dad was actually supposed to get in and do the last lap, but I felt fine and I wanted to make sure that we had this thing.

“After Rob went out, we just wanted to stay with Herder because we knew he’d be running pretty hard,” McMillin added. “We actually passed him in the first pit after Midway, and we never looked back. When we came into the pits, we knew we had 15 minutes on the next Trick Truck, and we changed that air filter, like I said. When we were pulling out, I think we saw the Herbst truggy coming through the infield, but I’m not sure who was where.”

To further complicate matters, McMillin and Thompson lost radio communication with their crew and then later with each other during the third lap.

“We just had to wing it on the last lap,” McMillin said. “Two in a row, man. I can’t believe it. We’re going for the championship this year. What a way to start off.”

Harley Letner drove his Letner Roofing Alpha-Chevrolet across the line second for the runner-up finish overall and the win in Class 1500 after sharing driving duties with his cousin, Kory Halopoff. After missing out on the victory at the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge two weeks ago, Letner came to Parker and Halopoff were gunning for a win, and they got one.

“We never had one problem all day,” the 25-year-old Letner said. “It was just gas it and go all day. After the last few races, me and Kory sat down and decided that we just needed to get it to the finish and not worry about setting the fastest lap of the race every time. If we get to the finish line, we usually get good results. That has been working for the last few races, so we’re just going to keep trying it.”

Letner had high praise for the course and said that the Parker 425 is a race with which he has a personal connection.

“The track was awesome, and this race is awesome,” Letner said. “I’ve been racing this race since I was 15, and it just gets better and better. It has the best of everything. It’s fast, it’s rough, it has sand washes and rocks. It has all the old tried-and-true stuff, like where you come up Osborne [wash] under the bridge. That was the way my dad and my grandpa raced it, and I love that they brought that back. I just love Parker, and I don’t think I’ll ever not come here.”

Chuck Hovey was definitely the man on the move all day at Parker. The 2007 BiTD Series Champion and Class 1500 Champion knew he would have his work cut out for him after a crash in Time Trials relegated to the 65th starting spot, last among the cars that attempted to qualify. On race day, however, Hovey swam through traffic like Salmon spawning up river to bring his Danzio Performance Engineering-backed Jimco-Chevrolet home sixth across the line and fourth in Class 1500, although he may be as high as second in class, pending the official time adjustment by BitD officials. Hovey was lucky to avoid a second crash in the race as he was forced to race without his face shield while on the last lap.

“My visor went bad, so I ran with it open, and I couldn’t go very fast,” Hovey said. “I think that I could have run with the leaders. Anyway, we’re second on our clocks, but we’ll see how it works out on Casey’s clocks. I couldn’t see, and I could barely get out of third gear.”

Randy Wilson erased the bad memories of a crash that took him out of the hunt in the 2008 edition of the Parker 425 by bringing the Wilson Motorsports Class 1500 entry home fourth overall and third in Class 1500 in 2009. Randy took over from brother Ronny, who took over from brother Rick after Rick qualified the started the race. The team had a trouble-free day.

“We saw where we crashed last year, and when we went by there we just kind of waved at it,” Randy Wilson said. “It was good. We had a great time. There was no dust, and we had no problems. When Rick gave the car to Ronny, we were seventh on the road, and then Ronny got the car up to fifth, and we ended up finishing third [overall]. It was a good day. The car worked perfectly.”  

The 2007 BitD Trick Truck Championhip-winning team of Steve Olliges and Wayne Lugo crossed the finish line to claim fiftth overall and second Trick Truck in their team Ford entry. Olliges drove lap one, with John Swift taking over for lap two before handing the truck off to Lugo for lap three.

“Everybody got their adrenaline rush today,” Lugo said. “The truck ran beautifully, and our crew is awesome. We stopped to take on fuel every lap and change tires every lap. The weather put a twist in it. We just couldn’t see, but that made it a great adventure.

Lugo crossed the line on a flat right front tire, but he said it was the only tire the team lost all day.

“We got it on the way in,” Lugo said. “I told my co-driver, ‘If we get a flat tire inside of 10 miles from the finish, I’m going in on the rim, I don’t care.’”

After starting 10th, Scott Schovajsa drove laps one and three and Danny Ebberts drove lap two in the S.S. Constructors Porter-Chevrolet to unofficially finish sixth overall and fourth in Class 1500. Schovasja and his co-driver had to stop and change one flat tire 20 miles from the finish.

“We also had a hitch in the motor, and we were kind of down on power in the heavy washes,” Schovasja said. “We could go on the hard dirt, but it would bog down in the soft dirt. But really the car ran great. I mean, I saw MacCachren broken down right off of main street and Whelchel right after that. Within the first 50 miles I saw four or five cars go down, but I wasn’t surprised. This is my third year running this race, and it’s the first year that I have finished it. It’s a tough course. When you come to Parker, you had better be prepared to do battle.”

Right behind Hovey, Darren Ebberts brought Steve Croll’s Porter-Ford Class 1500 car home seventh overall and fifth in class. After starting 25th, Croll drove the first two laps, working his way through the field, despite having to stop twice, before handing the car to Ebberts for the finish.

“It was a pretty good race,” Ebberts said. “Steve had the brakes lock up five miles before the main pit on the first lap, and then he had a big flat tire that took a while to change. Then we had very little brakes for the last 40 miles – just enough to stop. That made it entertaining, but it would have been more fun to catch a couple of these guys ahead of us.”  

Nils Castillo was behind the wheel of Kevin McGillvray’s Ford Trick Truck when it crossed the finish line to unofficially place eighth overall and third Trick Truck. Not bad, considering it was the 47-year-old’s first time racing in the truck that McGillvray previously shared with Larry Roeseler.

“Kevin did half the race, and I did half,” Castillo said. “It wasn’t too bad, but my fogged all up, and I had to change helmets. It was just a muddy, slip-and-slide, keep-it-together kind of thing. I only had 40 miles of testing in this truck, and I’m still learning what it can do, but it is really good.

Reigning Baja Protruck Champions Rich and Jason Voss made his Trick Truck debut in the ex-Clyde Stout/Cameron Steele “Prophy Truck,” which Voss Motorsports purchased from Clyde Stout less than two weeks before Parker, and Voss and they put together a surprisingly strong run to finish ninth overall and fourth Trick Truck even after the truck’s engine lost all of its oil and suffered an overheating problem after papa Rich handed the truck over to son Jason for the second lap of the race.

“We had a rough day,” Rich said. “We could have finished second.”

Jason, however, was happy to finally be behind the wheel of a Trick Truck, and he obviously made the most of it.

“I’m cold, and I want to get out of here, but it went really well,” Jason said. “We could have been a little better, but it was a good day. I only had 20 miles in this truck before the race today, so we kind of learned as we went. I really like this.”

Bilek Racing’s Mike Bilek crossed the line 10th overall and seventh in the Bilek Racing HMS-Chevrolet Class 1500. He was followed by Pierre Lavie in a Penhall-Chevrolet, Berri in the number 1549 Class 1500, Tom Gilchrese and Kyle Conlan, both men in Class 1500.