OK, just talked to Fastdrmr, he is signing his life away insurance wise and currently both he and Dave just got into Vegas an hour or two ago...Seems as if all the bugs have gotten worked out of the truck and they are looking forward to a big day tomorrow...The first trophy trucks get off the line at about 11-11:30 AM West Coast time tomorrow 10/14 and the X won't be off the line till about 2PM West Coast time and Fastdrmr will be running in the passenger sear for the first lap.....Top trophy trucks and buggies were averaging 70+ MPH on the course today in qualifying...Will update here with any pics and info I can gather during the day tomorrow...

Its raining like a son of a gun... no dust today but the "dry" lake beds will be quite the place to be. Headin out to buy some ponchos... Vegas doesnt like this much rain... flooding everywhere.

I'll try to post from my phone from the race pit later.

Go Team Xterra!

Editted to add more info since my phone likes to double post.

For those of you following the race today we will be running number 1881.

The X still has the doors available for sponsorship. If anyone knows of a company that wants to participate in this series please get a hold of Dave.

Go Team Xterra!

Update: From what I have heard and read, conditions are atrocious!!! Numerous trick trucks and buggies suffered serious carnage due to tons of slick mud and running off the course...Numerous roll overs have been reported and the overall winner is Pat Dean in his class 1 buggy...will try and provide more info when I get it...Fastdrmr may call me with a personal update on how their day went...Stay tuned!!!

Update: And..............They're in!!! Ran every mile they could...The race organizers shut down the race course after the first overall winner came in, not allowing anyone back on the course after that....What they call a "grand prix" finish....So Xterraracer (Dave Blakely) and his co-driver (Fastdrmr) completed one full lap of approximately 100 miles in a total time of approximately 4 1/2 hours. Some basics of what occured are that they passed all the class 3000 trucks with ease showing them to be more than capable of beating any of them on any given day. They even ran up with the class 3100 vehicles at different points!! Issues with the truck?? Well, some of the same ones that have plagued it in the past...the radiator fan failed and 4WD is believed to have failed (though this is not 100% confirmed)...Given that each of these issues have come up each time in previous races you '05 owners may want to watch these parts!! HP was all and more than what was needed, suspension was soft. Both Dave and Fastdrmr and in one piece and very happy with how it performed...The Xterra was still running hard when the course was shut down....final results and times won't be available untill at least tomorrow but for now it looks like a very strong run and its possible they may have taken the Sportsman class victory, we will have to see...

Oh...and be on the lookout for some AWESOME pictures as Dave considered this a "test" run to prepare the truck for a full season of racing next year and really slammed the gas in front of each photog and reportedly got some massive air...Fastdrmr said he may post in here iwth an update and personal observations so stay tuned for more updates and pics and the final results over the next day or two!!

Here are some pictures we took during prep and start / finish. Enjoy!

X of the Week???

Well, back to reality and street driving! What a blast! This experience was a complete high in my life, and a precise definition of my screen name: FAST-DREAMER! Love to go fast... and we did lots of it.

As mentioned above we FINISHED! We managed to make 1 lap of the trecherous 90 miles but we surely had our fair share of problems. At mile marker 3 we lost 4 wheel drive and plowed ahead in 2 wheel - talk about slipping in the corners and working the X. Dave is an incredible driver at that! The brakes on this X were amazing... never failed us! We hit another problem around mile marker 20 - the radiator fan motor went out and the X started to heat up. After a couple stops to try to figure out the problem we decided to continue ahead watching the temps closely until we got to the Pit B. With no replacement fan available we got back on the road (if you could call it that - super wooped out, wash beds, rocks / boulders, etc) and not 5 minutes later we were back up to 220F. Fortunately Pit B found a fan from a fellow Pitter's Generator! and we headed back. After replacing and jerry rigging it to fit we were back out and the X rode trouble free the rest of the way.

Tires - we ran Goodyear's Wrangler - Desert Kevlars. Ran them at 50psi and hit some big rocks in some river beds! Spun them out at least every other turn and through the rocky areas... I kid you not... the tires looked brand new when we were done! We counted 5 dead BFGs abandoned out there and only 1 Goodyear.

The X was such a blast, words don't even come close to explaining what it was like. The suspension was like riding on a big pillow - almost difficult to tell if you were up in the air or just coasting over the bumps. Did we get air... more than you would believe. The X didn't quite behave like it does on pavement or rock crawling... we were tossed around, slipping and sliding... on 2 wheels (either side to side or front to back)... it was a fun roller coaster ride.

I'll post more as I have a bit more time...

Ahhh, the trophy trucks and buggies approaching and passing us was something I will never forget - those machines were SWEET... and X did a great job to run the same course as the million dollar rigs!

Those are some great...great pics!! If Carlton doesn't pic one of those for X of the week he should have his head examined!! Awesome that you guys finished all the miles you were allowed too and that the X was still running hard at the end...I will post all the pics I can find from the professional photogs in this thread when they become available...Again to both you and Dave...Well done sirs....Well done!!

Let us know what the next race is, I want to try and be there

For those readers that don't understand the classes at Best in the Desert(BitD). Class 3100 which the X is built for is a "STONE STOCK" production mini or midsize SUV class. Class 3000 you see mentioned is "UNLIMITED/OPEN" short wheel base SUV class. Class 1800 which we ran in this race is "SAFARI PRERUNNER" class. Which translates to anything can run this class, but there is no prize money, trophy only. Since I am not in the points chase we opted to run this class and put those valuable miles to testing use.

Class 1800 started next to last off the line, one class behind the 3100 class. This gave us the chance to gauge the 3100 compitition since we would be able to start so close to them. In the 1800 class we had a Ford ranger with unlimited supension and V8 power start in front of us, another ranger with a V6 behind us.
Right off the line it started out rough with alot of standing muddy water. With in the first mile we were runnig with the V8 ranger, together we came up on the first two 3100 Fords, passing them with ease in tandem. I tried to put the pass on the V8 ranger, he accept the challenge and hammered down. He surely had more travel and motor as he soon was out of sight. We were already starting to pass broken cars all over the place. We even caught and passed some of the not so fast, faster class trucks. Needles to say the X was handling great!!! Somewhere back around mile marker 3 I had noticed the rearend getting loose and following the ruts, Awh! no more 4wheel drive. So I reached down flipped the lever and forgot it was ever there. Now in 2 wheel I did have start driving the X. No more lazy corners, every corner had to have braking in and power my way through. Now I wish I had ran the MT/R's instead of the Wanglers. I had decided to run the Wanglers so I would get wheel spin and not break things like the front end.

We did have the old problems fixed prior to this race, but developed a new one in the same area. This problem came on at about mile 40 and we ran until the temp was to the damage point so we stopped and researched the cause at mile marker 47. I think we ran about 4 miles in limp mode before I stopped. I hate to stop and watch everyone I've passed go by, "it sucks". Anyways we found the brand new $300 electric fan motor had burned up. Pit "B" was at mile 52 so we decided we could run easy and make it there. While we were stopped the first of the overall leaders started to catch and go by us. I think this really amazed Robert at how rough the road was and how fast they would pass us. Understand, those have 800hp and 40" wheel travel to our X at 265hp and 8" travel up front.

At pit "B" we did the repairs and the X ran strong the rest of the lap. Only to get to the finish and recieve the checker flag. Bumber we want to go around again!!! Due to the weather and track condition race promoter had called a Grand Prix style finish, which stops every car as soon as the overall leader finishes. Well he finished a couple minutes before us, we were the next car on the road. So we did our stop on the podium and said our little speech that brings the story to an end. At this point I don't know how we placed, I believe 2nd in class 1800. I will have to check the website for results and post them for you guys.

Robert I hope you enjoyed yourself and guys thanks for all your support!!

OK...I contacted the BITD people today and got the results for the 1800 class and got this info from them though the "official" results won't be posted till Wednsday...There were 4 entrants in this class:

1) 1873 Jerry Fisher who completed 2 full laps before he was stopped in 6 hours, 6 minutes, and 45 seconds (an average of 3 hours and 3 minutes per 89 mile lap, for an average speed of 29 mph)

2) 4011 Robert Henderson who completed 1 full lap before he was stopped in 3 hours, 44 minutes and 49 seconds (for an average speed of 23.8 mph)

3) 1881 Dave Blakely who completed 1 full lap before he was stopped in 4 hours, 13 minutes and 11 seconds (for an average speed of 21.1 mph)

4) 1802 David Hall who was a DNF unable to complete a lap

I have requested some more info--such as the times on the winners of the 3000 and 3100 classes so that we can get an idea of how fast they ran but that may have to wait till Wednsday when the official results are posted. Excellent work by Dave here to be competitive with the other trucks that were running in his class on this day....Can't wait for the next race!!

OK...just got the info back from BITD on how the 3000 and 3100 classes finished....

In the 3000 class (which is the far more advanced class with huge travel and extensive modifications allowed) there was only one truck entered (and those of who went to the V2R event will remember it as the enormous Ford Explorer with control arms thicker than the Xterras frame) it is #3040 and here is a pic of it--
Well...he didn't make it....a complete DNF for this truck...So the X would have WON class 3000 had it been entered there!!!

Onto class 3100...here there were at least 2 trucks entered, likely more. The winner in this class was Rod Hall and his H3 Hummer, here is a pic of it, which we also saw at the V2R race...
His winning time for this class??? 5 hours, 16 minutes, 14 seconds---Thats right...more than an HOUR behind Dave and his X!!! So the X would have taken 1st in class 3100 as well!! If there were any doubters as to the X's capability or Dave's driving skill out there I would think they should be gone now!! Rock on Dave!!

Damnit, I can't wait to get to the next one. Keep us updated on the next race!

The Official results were just posted this morning...Dave finished 2nd in the 1800 class with a time of 4:13:11 (hours, minutes, seconds). Overall there were 86 "trucks" entered in the race...26 of them DNF'd...On a total combined basis it looks like the X would have finished 59th out of the 86 trucks...And congratulations to our fellow XOC'r and UXOC member Fastdrmr (Robert Pinion) for being listed as part of "Team Xterra" in the official results which can be seen here: BITD Las Vegas 300 Results

Great Job! Hope to get out to a race during the next season. No excuses for the AZXC, we are too close to the events not to attend one.

Still one race left this year for those who are interested in attending and helping out. The "Henderson's Terrible 400" will be held on December 1-3 in Henderson, NV. If you want in, make sure you post and contact Dave!!

Not sure if I can make the Dec race, but will discuss it with my other half, and the AZXC.
Definately gonna make plans for the Parker, AZ race in Feb.

Definately encourage others to go the Henderson race...they shut down the Main St. in Henderon and set it up with all the vendors and trucks running through there, have live bands there all day, basicly turn it into one big party for offroaders....

I already emailed Dave and offered to help, not gonna miss this one =P