Chuck Hovey qualified fastest, but it was Steve Raskett who took the overall win in the race.

Best in the Desert’s Bilek Silver State 300 is typically a sleepy race through the small towns of Nevada outside of Las Vegas. In 2009, however, excitement was off the charts with sand, silt, water, rocks, fire and tight racing.

Once again the race opened with Time Trials on a private ranch in the Copper State (Arizona). The course wound its way through the ranch with a tight, technical buggy friendly layout and featured grassy fields, graded dirt roads and sand – lots and lots of sand. The sand became the defining factor in the time trials. Racer after racer got buried in the sand and had to be pulled out by BITD officials on both the recon and hot lap. In the end, Class 1500 speed demon Chuck Hovey put down a clean lap time of 6 minute 18 seconds to take the pole, followed by Steve Croll 22 seconds behind.

The start for the 320-mile race took place 130 miles northwest of the host hotel in Alamo, Nevada. The scenic course would head northeast up to Pioche before working its way south through Caliente and Carp. The final 70 miles went northeast to Lookout Mountain with a southeastern sprint to the finish at Maynard Lake south of Alamo.

Chuck Hovey had a solid race but had to settle for third place.

Class 1500 was first off the line, and Hovey jumped to an early lead on course in his Jimco and ran in clean air for most of the day. As the race progressed, the team of TJ Flores and Kevin Colan took the physical lead on course in their Bunderson buggy with Steve Raskett in his Porter also in the mix. The three would battle all the way to the finish. Colan was the first across the line, with Hovey and Raskett hot on his heels. After time corrections were made, Raskett took the Class 1500 and overall win with a time of 5:58:44, while 1 minute 10 seconds back was Kevin Colan followed by Hovey in third who was another 2 minutes 51 seconds behind Raskett.

TJ Flores and Kevin Colan finished second in Class 1500.

“The race was great, we did not have any problems,” Raskett said after the race. “I was in some dust for a while but it was not too bad. The car ran perfect all day. We did not have any flats. iit was a perfect race for us. The course was very good, it had lots of high-speed graded roads and it did not beat you up too bad, and the scenery was awesome, but it was still a challenging course. Jake Johnson got in the car at pit six and took it to the finish. We really did not know that the times were that close.”

In its first race, Jason Voss' new Trick Truck burnt to the ground after a transmission leak.

While the buggies dominated the field, the Trick Trucks put up a valiant effort. This race would see the debut and demise of the brand new Voss Jimco Trick Truck. Through most of the race, Voss was in the mix with the Class 1500 front runners and had a healthy lead in the Trick Truck class. Near race mile 252 the new truck suffered a problem and caught fire. We spoke to Jason Voss while hiking back to his crew after the incident. 

“We had a transmission leak and the oil caught fire,” Voss told us. “The truck is basically a total loss; we might be able to save the rear end.”

Jesse Jones took the Trick Truck win, splitting driving duties with Bryce Menzies.

Earlier in the race, another race vehicle burned to the ground in a frightening fire. Prior to Pit 4, Al Hogan, running in 7200, hit a power pole hard enough to knock it down. The live wires sparked and the truck caught fire. Luckily, Hogan and co-driver Bob Brunkman were able to escape the fire. Due to the danger from the live power lines, BLM and other rescue personnel stayed back and would not fight the fire. 

Bryce Menzies took on a double shift in the Silver State 300, starting the race in the 76 Trick Truck before handing it over the Jesse Jones and taking over his Class 10 car from Larry Job. On the clock, Jones/Menzies had a tight battle with Scott McMillin (driving for Andy) and Mark Weyrich (in a former Jones truck) for a three-way Geiser chassis battle to the finish.  Jones held on to the lead to win the class in 6:12:46. McMillin was second 1:59 back, with Weyrich filling out the podium just 26 seconds behind McMillin.  This finish leaves Andy with a very solid lead in the points heading into the final race at Henderson in December.

Mark Weyrich finished in third behind Scott McMillin in Trick Truck at the Silver State 300.

“Bryce started the race and got out at the halfway point,” Jones said. “It was his first time driving a Trick Truck and he did a great job. When I got in the truck we were 10th on the road and I just ran everyone down. I had one flat tire one mile from the finish and had to drive it in on the flat. I know we gave up a minute driving slow to keep the tire together but I did not have enough of a lead to stop and change it, if I did we would have lost.”

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Bryce Menzies gets into the Jones Trick Truck prior to the race.

Jones also felt the course was challenging but enjoyable to race.

“It was a good course, tight and twisty in some areas and the rest was wide open 120 mph roads. I really liked it,” he said. Jones’ last win was Vegas to Reno in 2006.

“It was great to break the drought. I have been so close to winning so many times and it was great to put it all together and get the win.  I would like to thank Geiser Brothers, Ford Trucks, Fox Shox, Vision X lights and BFGoodrich for the great tires.”

This was only the second race in Jones’ new Geiser truck, which had been sitting un-prepped in the Geiser shop after Vegas to Reno. In a last-minute deal with Menzies, the truck was put on the trailer and brought to Mesquite with zero prep other than a fluid change – it even had the same front tires from Vegas to Reno.

Menzies took another podium in class 1000 by finishing second, as he was 12 minutes behind class winner Todd Elam who finished in 6:33:54. Corey Keysar finished in third place about 30 minutes behind Elam.

In Class 1100, Lee Banning and his son Lee Banning Jr. were dominant throughout the day.
“We had no problems and had an awesome day.,”  Senior said at the finish line. “No flats and we never got out of the car. We did a driver change at pit five where Junior got in and brought it home.” 

Bryan Folks finished the race in third place behind Jake Jones and winner Lee Banning.

The Bannings finished the race in 7:04:05, and they crossed the finish over an hour ahead of second-place Jake Jones, but on corrected time Jones was just 12 minutes back. Bryan Folks (son of BITD Promotor Casey Folks) finished third in another Banning Motorsports chassis, and he was 1 hour 24 minutes behind teammate Banning.

Greg Parker at a water crossing en route to his Class 2000 win.

In Class 2000 (commonly known as 1-2/1600), Greg Parker finished in 7:19:40 with Paul Kurz only 20 minutes behind him. Kevin Smith finished third in the class 48 minutes behind Parker.