2008 Parker 425 Race Report

“The Legend Lives On” is tag line that the Best in the Desert Racing Association attaches to The Parker 425 off road desert race. Twenty two years after my first Parker race in 1986 this legend surely continues for me! Legend has it that I finished 3^rd place in 1990 and to this day is my best Parker finish. However I do remember how proud I was of this finish because I had come back from a complete rollover right off the start and fought my way through the fifty five car field in my class for 3^rd place.

This year for me was filled with high hopes of a win because Parker is one of the races I consider right up my alley. There is something about the combination of speed, length and terrain that suits me well. What it is specifically I am not sure but I do know that the course is deceiving in nature. You think its fast but it’s dusty, you think it’s smooth but it gets chewed up and on top of this there are many sand washes that get deep and their rocks become exposed.

For some reason Parker bites and normally half of the field has a problem on the first 138 mile lap of three. In my wildest dreams I never thought that I would be bitten and one of the first lap victims. Normally the casualties are driving mistakes and I knew that wasn’t going to happen to me even though Jake and I lost the GPS right off the start. What did happen was the transmission let go at only fifty six miles into the race and we were dead on the road. Fortunately one of my team members Kellen Cox was only a couple miles away and was able to come retrieve us for a trip back to the main pits. One bright spot of the day was we were able to cheer Matt Niles on competing in his first off road race in which he finished very well. Congrats to Matt!

I hate it when I have to write a short race report but that’s the facts of the 2008 Parker 425. I will be back next year with the same plan and hopefully better luck!