We departed Phoenix on Monday March 7^th for San Felipe to begin our preparation for the race on Saturday March 12^th.   On Tuesday morning we were out pre running early and ran the first 90 miles of the course two times with no problems.  The course was just as rough and ugly as we had remembered it, so there were no surprises. 

On Wednesday morning we were off again at about 7am, and our plan was to run the bottom part of course two times from race mile 90, and then to the finish at race mile 250.   About half way through we came upon a downed bike rider (Jim Dizney) who had crashed on a big rock and broken his ankle.  After a lot of discussion, we determined that our only option was to try and get Jim into San Felipe for medical attention.  We loaded Jim up in the pre runner and Chris put on his helmet and rode the bike out. This took up most of our day. After dropping Jim off we determined there was no time left to return back to the course to complete our pre run. We decided to go get the race car and bring her out to the course for planned testing and to check the jetting. This all went well and the car was great.

Thursday morning we were off to complete our pre run of the last section of the course.  We found no surprises.  The course was rough and the washes were full of big rocks creating a great place for flats and getting stuck! We completed the day of pre running and returned to camp to prepare our race notes and begin our last preparations for race day. Friday morning came and the team headed downtown for contingency and tech inspection, where everything went well. We returned to camp to load the chase trucks and go over all the chase plans for race day.  We have had a great week, all is done, and we are ready for the upcoming race!

Saturday morning came with nice weather and everything needed for a great race.  All the teams headed out to their assigned pit locations and awaited the arrival of race car 1208. We got off the starting line at about 10:30 am, and were ready to attack the course.  Upon entering the beginning of the rough section of Zoo road, we discovered that for whatever reason the course had changed and our chassis set up was off, which really slowed our pace right from the start.  We stopped at RM 24 for shock adjustment and the car was much better.  We stopped again at RM 48 for more adjustments and we were getting better but still not where we needed to be.  We stopped again at RM 72 for more adjustments then headed onto the dry lake bed. We had improved the car but had fallen back to about tenth place because of the stops and not being able to charge hard with the car.  There were no surprises that the course was rough all the way to RM 124.  We took back a couple positions and I gave the car off to Rick where they headed onto the finish.  The guys passed several cars along the way and had no flats or any other issues.  The car was not perfect but manageable.  Rick and Chris brought the car across the finish line 3rd in class by at least 10 minutes.  The SCORE website is showing us in 5^th but they are closed, so we are not sure what's up. We won 3^rd for sure. I want to thank the team for a great job: Andy, Rick, Chris, Tim, Levi, Dennis, Scoop, Panayiotis, Brad, Cooper, Kyle, and Lee.

Another great job by all, thanks for everything!! A big thank you to all our sponsors: BFGoodrich Tires, KC Hilites, Fox Shox, Select Glass, Foddrill Motorsports, Neo Synthetic Lubricants, and Sunoco Race Fuels. 

Our next few races are as followed:

1. Silver State 300: April 30^th - May1^st
2. Baja 500: June 4^th -5^th
3. Vegas to Reno: August 20^th -21^st
4. Primm 300: September 10^th -11^th
5. Parker 250: October 15^th -16^th
6. Baja 1000: November 19^th -20^th
7. Henderson 250: December 3^rd-4^th

This is pretty much our race plan for the balance of the year. We will have a 4th of July party at our cabin in Mormon Lake, and were planning some kind of a lake trip towards the end of July first part of August to Havasu or Powell, so mark your calendars.

Sincerely,

 Lee Banning