As racers came across the finish line at the Best in the Desert Parker 425, Judy Smith asked each team to describe their day. This is the order in which they crossed the line and here’s a view from the drivers seat.
#9 Mark Weyhrich: “Pretty ill handling truck all day believe it or not – if we got into rough stuff had to back off – stickin’ throttle, couldn’t push it, but only one flat.’ Ryan Williams navigated.
#21 Tavo Vildosola: At the end of the first lap as he neared the finish area,, he saw all the markers meant to direct drivers so they wouldn’t accidentally go to the finish area rather than the pit area, and he momentarily panicked, thought he’d made a wrong turn, and “spun a big turn and headed back. Then I saw Voss coming, so I turned around again, and went the right way.” Tavo hadn’t raced at Parker since 2007. He had no flats and no mechanical problems.
#1 Jason Voss: “It was a good day, I kept pace with Tavo. I just had to keep him in our sights. “ He said the truck set up was “pretty much the same as they’d used last year, and he had no flat tires.
#3 Chris Kemp: Kemp drove all the way, he said the throttle stuck, but added “good time, rough out there, people in slower cars got out of our way.” He added he’d run the final 100 miles on a rear flat because he’d had no jack, since it had fallen off the truck.
#91 Troy Herbst: “Love the course.” Troy said there was a lot of lapped traffic. And he’d had a “small tire issue, my fault.” Ryan Arciero started in the truck, and J.T. navigated. Arciero did just the first lap, and he said the “suspension’s set up wrong.”
#28 John and Jonathan Swift: Jonathan did laps one and two, John finished. His daughter, Lauren, navigated the third lap. They said they’d had “no flats all day.” But they had “a problem with a sensor” that cost about two-and-a-half minutes, and otherwise had a clean run.
#1814 Lee Patten: See this story here.
#98 Gary Weyhrich: “The wind died – we lost time in the dust – beyond that, super rough.” Justin Blueber navigated.
#59 Craig Potts: “Tough day out there . . . I just got my ass kicked.” He apparently had two flat tires.
#80 T.J. Flores: “I should have qualified a little better – started way back. Course is brutal, truck ran flawless.”
#97 B.J. and Bobby Baldwin: (Bobby, B. J.’s dad, was driving on the last lap.) He said B. J. “had a little pain in one of his legs.” A limit strap tore out the rear brake line and it cost 15 minutes for repairs. Willie Valdez navigated.
#1520: Corey Keysar did all the driving. He said he’d had ‘. . . one flat – lots of dust on lap one – not usual.” His navigator was Kevin Sullivan and this was Sullivan’s first race in this car. They called it “on the job training.” The flat was a torn sidewall. On the second lap Keysar said it was “so dusty we went 30 mph on 110 mph roads. We had a lot of time to make up on laps 2 and 3.”
#16 Cameron Steele: Said he’d “Qualified poorly – not aggressive enough and made some bad decisions and got into the sand.” So he started 28th in the lineup. Had a flat on lap 3, also one “early on when passing someone”. This is the 2012 truck. Cody Stuart navigated. He’s the co-driver who was injured when Steele’s transmission blew up during the 2012 Laughlin race. His leg was badly torn up.
#19 Tim Herbst and Larry Roeseler: Roeseler did the first lap and Tim finished. Tim said his section was “just dust and one flat – the truck ran really , really good.”
#62 Ryan Poelman drove all the way. He blew a right rear shock nine miles from the finish, so “the ride was bad for the end.” He had “no tire troubles.” His navigator was Garrett Poelman, his brother.
#25 Carl Beal started, Kevin Allen finished. Robert Stamper and Matt Parks navigated. They said they’d had “a great day – no problems all day – not even a flat.” Carl is the one who rolled and stopped up Beer Bottle Pass in the Henderson race in December.
#1529 Larry Job, Scott Bailey and Brandon Bailey each drove a lap in this brand new Alumicraft. This was the team’s first race in a car (except for Job who’s got years of experience)Brandon and Matt Salgado navigated. They had torque convertor problems 20 miles from the finish – ‘It got hot and wouldn’t shift out of fifth gear. “ They were down to 20 mph, but had no flats all day. They had to stop at Midway each lap for a splash of gas, because their full tankful at each lap end wasn’t quite enough to ensure they’d make it all the way around. They estimated they were getting three miles per gallon.
#1537 Lalo Laguna started and Justin Matney finished. He said they were “Gettin’ warmed up for the year.” Charlie Holbrook navigated all the way. They broke a wheel. Matney said they “broke the center out.” But the “car ran solid, course got rough. And the jack didn’t work right.”
#95 Scott Whipple and Scott Gailey Whipple drove laps one and two and Gailey did the third. They said they’d “stuffed it in a hole and broke the hood.” At Mile 122 of lap three they got “stuck behind Lalo’s truck, six or eight cars lined up . . “ They had no flats, “nothin’ else.
#1527 C. J. Hutchins, Kreger. He drove all the wayand said it was “Brutal – the dust the first lap was horrendous.” On the second lap they had to weld the exhaust, but it broke again and had to be welded again. Cameron Woodward navigated all the way. They reported they’d seen Ray Griffith sitting, two miles out from the finish.
#46 Troy Vest drove all the way with Gino Licitra navigating all the way. They said their front bumper “got ripped off on a Class 1 car.” They also reported that Robby Gordon was stopped and blocked the course on the first lap, and when Troy went up on the bank to go around him he got stuck. They had to dig, then moved four feet, then got stuck again . . . All told they lost about a half hour there.
#1528: This team is from Australia, and shipped their Jimco over so they could race here. It’s not a brand new car, they’ve had it for a while. Matt Hanson drove all the way, and said, “That was stupid, it’s a long way.” It seems that their longest race is 500 km, and they do only 250 km each day. He did some quick figuring and said the Parker race was about 700 km, much longer than what he’s used to. Laegh Walls and Brad Chasemore were his navigators. They said the “car ran faultlessly all day.”
#1507 Garry Simpson and Darren Hardesty, in an Alumicraft. This car, and Simpson were from Australia, Hardesty is a local boy. Simpson did one lap, Hardesty, who did two laps, went to the finish. Kevin Attery and Marc Randazzo both navigated. They finished with no oil pressure for the last five miles. Also – the clutch had gone away and it was stuck in third gear. This car has the steering on the left, or U.S. side.
#6106 Steve Sourapas started in this car, did one lap, then handed over to his son, Christian, aged 17. Christian said it was “Awesome, no flats – just kept moving.” Steve had got the car up to first on the road when he handed it over to Christian. He said he’d been “taking no chances in the dust.” Conor Jackson navigated all the way.
#1568 Daniel Folts did a lap and a half, and Shelby Reid finished. Greg Goltz nd Dean Horn did the navigating. Folts had a flat and the shocks “faded out.” The last fifteen miles was done with no power steering, so Reid’s navigator, Horn, had to add some muscle to help turn the wheel in the sharper turns.
#6175 Jerry Whelchel did all the driving, and he said he’d had two flats at once in the mornng, then had to be extra cautious because he had no spare. He also had a flat five miles before the finish late in the race. This is a brand new truck, and it’s “Way faster than the old one – I’m really stoked to have new parts! That was rough!”
#1501 Jon Walker rolled his Kreger at Mile 94 of the first lap – “ran out of talent.” “Not a dang thing went wrong with the car – I’d like to blame it on somebody, but this one’s mine!” He ended up on his side and a course worker was close enough, so he could help get it back on its wheels, using a hi-lift jack. Brad Barron was the navigator for this trip, and they had no flats. They stayed seated in the car for this conversation, explaining, “Our catheters fell off, and we can’t get out of the car.”
#47: This is a right-hand drive Jimco truck, driven by Steven Sanderson from Australia. It was the first race for the truck, and Sanderson’s first trip to the United States, as well as his first race here. He said it was “Rough as hell, but it went good.” He had one flat. Braedon O’Cass navigated for him.
#1510 Dustin Miller and Brandon Dawson shared the driving in their Desert Dynamics car, with Randy Scheck and Rob Matthews doing the navigating. They said they hit a tree in Shea Wash in the first 15 miles of the race – just drove into it. Then they tried to back up and sank into the sand. It took a while to get out of that, but they had no other trouble, and no flats.
#6158 Tony Smiley started, and he said it was “pretty effortless – lots of dust.” Eric Gaunt , Bubba Jimenez and Jeff Wycoff all navigated. Jeff Geiser finished, doing laps two and three. He had a flat.
#1035: This team came from Colorado. Paul Nafziger drove laps two and three and Mitch Armstrong, the car owner, did lap one. Their navigators were Murray Awn and Jason Nrvelli. They said they’d had “A good off!,” sliding off the edge (of the course) at one point during the first lap, but he said, he didn’t do it on the third lap. Their car has a sealed Eco-Tech motor, which is 2.4 liters, a bit bigger than the unsealed ones. They finished at about 4 p.m. And as they rolled off the podium ramp they’d just run out of gas.
#1724: Rob Seubert did all the driving in his JeepSpeed, and said he’d had some “steering issue”, and the car died once, but restarted. He had no flats. “Just motored – stopped once to check the steering, but it was o.k.” Nick Neal navigated. This class did just two laps.
#1583, the father and son team of Bill and Danny Wingerning, had Glenn Strateff navigating for them. Bill’s the dad. Danny drove laps one and two and he got stuck in a sand wash at Mile 80 for ten or 15 minutes. They “jacked and pushed” to get out, using a Howe hydraulic jack. Their first navigator got something in an eye and had to get out midway, so Danny helped navigate also. Bill did the last lap.
#6140: Brothers Chase and Matt Borden teamed in this truck. Matt did lap one, and Chase finished. They broke a wheel and had one flat and some “shock issues.” They said, “It was rough.” Steve Covey navigated the entire distance, and they said he did a “great job.”
#1553: Ray Griffith, who drove all the way, with Tony Sato navigating, was stuck in a pileup in silt on the second lap, and broke a front wheel off. Actually, first he hit a hole at “about 100 mph” and later the spindle broke and the wheel and tire went away. He drove the final three miles to the finish with just three wheels.
#6119: Brett Sourapas did the first two laps, and his dad, Steve, did lap three. They had no flats. Steve said, “it took a lot of patience.”
#1717: Josh Reieter and Dylan Cochran each drove a lap, with Mark Linder and Willis Henson navigating for them. They ran out of brakes about ten miles before the finish, because a shock had broken and took out a brake line. At that point they’d been passed, losing their lead.
#1844: Kevin Brown and David Hyland, each drove a lap and navigated a lap, switching seats. They said they had no problems, and “had fun.” The car was an Alumicraft three-seater.
#1084: Father and son Todd and Matt Winslow had Zack Summers and Dave Jones navigating for them. Matt, the son, did laps one and three and Todd did the middle. They got in a bottleneck on the last lap, but said it was “pretty smooth otherwise”. Matt had a flat on the third lap, and they had no reverse gear on the last lap. Zack Summers and Dave Jones did the navigating.
#1563: Tommy Kirkmeyer drove the first lap and Richard Boyle did the last two laps. They had Hyles Hersley and Corey Phillips navigating for them. They had two broken springs up front, and broke their shifter and were stuck in third gear most of the last lap.
#1053: Brad Wilson started and Kyle Quinn finished. Each did a lap and a half. Jeremy Munyon navigated all the way. They had a couple of flats and broke a brake line, which cost them ten minutes. They also spoke about the bottleneck on the last lap, which they said was caused by a JeepSpeed that got sideways and blocked the road at Mile 121.
#1046: Matt McBrde drove laps two and three, and John Hsu did the first lap. Ronnie Stockwell navigated. They had just one flat, and “ran good all day.”
#1514: Mike Mitchell drove, with John Lee and Chris Larue navigating. He said he’d had two good laps, but spent 40 minutes in a “blockage” on laps two and three, and had a rear flat and a broken limit strap.
#1599: Todd Tuls did all the driving, with Keith MilaDelarocha and Brad Richards navigating. They lost their right rear rotor and caliper on the first lap, so had only three brakes for the rest of the day.
#1547: Robert Smith did lap one, Rob Harman did lap two and Langley Kersenboom did the last lap, with Rob Morgan and Nick D’Avila navigating. They said they had the sun in their eyes on the third lap. Also, they were stuck twice at Mile 22 behind “roadblocks.
#1574: was so totally engulfed by family and friends we couldn’t get near them.
#1721: George Mortis drove all the way, with Rob Ranken navigating all the way. They broke a shock at Mile 25 on the first lap and had to limp in for repairs. They said the course was “chewed up” and “horrible” on their second lap.
#1002: Bryan Freeman drove lap one and got out, and the crew learned he’d thrown up in his helmet. Cody Freeman did lap two. He had two flats, but only one spare. He said that Prescott, in #1032, who was stuck, gave him a tire. He lost about eight minutes with the transaction. Meanwhile, Bryan’s wife washed out the helmet, so he could get back in for the third lap. Then he lost the power steering pump at Mile 3 and limped to Pit 1 for a new pump. Two miles later he had an electrical problem that shut the car off over 2500 rpms. He said the “highlight” of his day was when his three-year-old son got on the radio and told him he needed to “go faster.” (Another Freeman racer coming along.)
#8025: Macrae Glass did all the driving in his Ford truck, with his 15 year old son, Walker, navigating for him. They had no trouble, “It was a real dusty day” they said, and added that the “truck is really good. Macrae said that he’d “tested a lot.”
#6103: Dave Kleiman, who drove laps one and two, and Brian Shaleen, who did the third lap, said they’d broken “some shock springs”. Jason Tulley navigated.
#1023: On the first lap Lee Banning had no problems. Gary Williams drove laps two and three, also with no trouble, and Chris Godfrey did all the navigating. They said it was “just a good day.”
#42: Wil Staats and Robbie Pierce. Pierce did the first lap and Staats went to the finish, with his daughter, Emily (a glutton for punishment) navigating. Staats said the steering wheel locked up on the third lap at Midway and the truck rolled over. But a whole bunch of people came to help upright them quickly. “What a rough race!”, he said.
#1808: Matt Magleacno drove both laps, with Jake Minden and Chuck Kelly navigating. They had one flat and tossed one belt. When asked about the vehicle, they said they “Don’t really know what kind of chassis it is. . . .”
#1594: Dennis Boyle started and did two laps, and Frank did the last lap They had torque convertor problems, and fuel pump problems, but no flat tires.
#1047: Carrie Smiley did laps one and three, and Perry Vincent did lap two. Rick Gunn and Glory Vincent navigated. They had to change an alternator.
#1001: In what they call a “custom chassis”, Cody Reid and Cory Goin each did a lap and a half each. Goin starting, Reid finishing. Ryan Golson and Greg Golz navigated. They lost an alternator, had two flats at the same time, both rears, and had only one spare. They put the spare on one side and a front on the other, and one rear flat on the front, and carried on – for 30 miles.
#7222: Pete Sohran drove all the way in his three-seat truck. He sits in the middle with navigators, mechanics or just plain tourists sitting on either side of him. They broke a sway bar at Mile ten and it went through the tire. They drove the rest of the day with no sway bar. On the third lap he developed a transmission fluid leak. A seal in the underdrive leaked, and let it run with sump oil only. When they had 20 miles to go they smelled fuel, and had a loose fuel line spraying gas. And on the last lap they had to ad transmission fluid.
#7226: Al Hogan did the first lap and Jimmy Nuckles went to the finish. At Mile 123 Nuckles hit a buried rock and broke two wheels on one side, but had only one spare. They said, the “Race Gods are not with us.” They ran on three good tires and one flat with a broken wheel until it fell apart, then put the other broken wheel and tire on and went on, doing a total of 20 miles that way The crew wasn’t at the main pit when he got there, and there weren’t any spare tires, because the crew had taken them to wherever they’d gone out on the course to try to help.
#1039: Jason LaFortune did laps one and three and Allen Russell did the second lap. They had Loco Jones and Karl Armbrust navigating. They had “limp mode” issues, and had to add oil. They got stuck in a couple of bottlenecks, which cost them “maybe 15 minutes” total, and had one flat.
#1888: Gema Ptasinsky and Jeff Cepielek, her husband, split the driving evenly, with John Kremp navigting the whole way. They were hit by a late-running Trick Truck which did some damage to their chassis, and they had electrical problems, and c.v. problems.
#3002: Tim Brown, Alonso Cota, and Vincent Farley had a tight battle with the #3019 car, but then 3019 rolled. After that they had a flawless race with no problems, except that it was “incredibly rough.” It was their first Best In The Desert race. The car, a bit odd looking, started its life as a pickup.
#6044: Andrew McLoud drove the first lap and Jacob Andrew did laps two and three, they said they had “a few little problems. ”
#6002: Todd Jackson drove all the way. He’s an ex-JeepSpeed racer. He rented this truck, and finished with no brakes, which he lost about 20 miles before the finish. He also had two flats. Mike Slater navigated all the way, and Jackson said it was “too much fun.”
#6048: Chris Wacker and Jeff Mortis split the driving, with Brett Young navigating. They lost six or seven minutes in a “traffic jam”, but had no mechanical trouble.
#1062: Michael Decker did laps two and three in the Kreger, while J. J. Schnarr did lap one. Schnarr had no flats and no accidents. Decker had two flats, and blew the side panels off the motor, and then the oil plumbing got broken. The fix took 30 minutes.
#1048: Carey Chrisman and James York both drove with Kelly Chrisman and Danny York navigating. They were stuck in silt, and rear-ended “a couple times”, and had a flat tire. The car, freshly repainted, is the old “Lucky Sperm” car of Cam Theriot. These guys bought it just three weeks ago. It’s a Racer chassis, and this was the first race for all on the team except Danny York.
#1593: Morgan Langley did lap one an he had a crank sensor failure at Mile 40. He got to Pit two and got a part from another team, Ray Dugan’s, who brought it out to them, but it cost them two-and-a-half hours. Zak Langley got in and did the last lap, this was their third Parker race, and the first one they’ve finished. Mike Howell and Josh Balko were the navigators.
#1160: Rick Poole and Mike Malloy shared the driving, with Malloy in for the second half. They had a good day, but did get bottled up in Robby Gordon’s traffic jam. Then in the last five miles of the race had to fix a CV in the dark. Other than that they had no issues with the car, which is an “old Jimco.” It’s also a “no-GPS single seat” VW powered car.
#1722: Raymond Grey broke a tie rod and had an electrical short. Matt Manuelos navigated.
#7269: Robert Ford drove all the way with Timmy Smith navigating. They were stuck on lap one and Timmy had to dig himself in under the truck to get to the rear end to dig it out. This was at Mile 79. They also had an alternator that didn’t charge. So they turned everything off and got a fix at Midway. It also hiccupped a couple of times, but they had no flats.
#66: Mike Palmer drove laps one and three and Spencer Steele did the second lap. Jason Fish and J. T. Taylor were the navigators. They broke a transmission pan, and used Gorilla Glue to fix it on course. They had enough fluid left to get to a pit for a real fix. They had no flats, and said they were “very happy” to be at the finish.
#1157: didn’t stop
#1855: Matthew Basion was driving only his second race (the first was the Mint 400), and Ty Berkler navigated. They had some shock problems, and the shifter came out, and “everything was great!” The car is a ’67 VW, probably a 5-1600, with a surfboard mounted on the roof rack. It took them two years to build it.
#7207: Preston Schmid did lap one, Steve Kovach did lap 2, and Kyle, his son, did the last lap. Navigators were Kyle, Keith Jaeger and Schmid. They were stuck in the wash and lost two hours. They “dug and dug” and a Class 1500 car drove up on top of them and got them “really stuck.” Then the BITD came and pulled them out. It was a clean race otherwise.
#1786: John Brannon did all the driving and Brendan King navigated. They were stuck in the silt at Mile 79, had a flat, and said the “course is brutal.”
#1056: Johnny Buss drove all the way in his Jimco, and said it “was really a lot of fun.” This was just the third race for him. His navigator was Ron Satter. They had no flats, nothing broke and they “never got out of the car.” They said the race was “uneventful.”
#6132: Steve Croll drove laps one and two and Tim Weston did the last lap. Mike Malenda and Jeff Richardson navigated. A starter broke off and wore a hole in an oil line, so they had to get oil and fittings to make repairs. Baldi racing gave them stuff for the fix, but they lost three hours. The truck had only three miles of testing before the race – and they decided they really liked it.
#2026: Justin Brinkerhoff and Jasper Dyer shared the driving, with Cole Sieiber and Bill Shaw navigating. They said they’d had the lead on the second lap, but they tore a lower arm off the front of the car going down a wash. They patched it together and ran with no shock on the right front corner, to get to the finish.
#7257: Claire and Rose Pedregon, Krisha Beal and Trey Palheiro shared the driving in their truck. Krisha started, Claire did lap two and Rose and Trey both drove on lap three. They had brake and radiator problems along the way to their finish.
#8118: John Webster drove all the way and his 17-year-old son John navigated all the way in their truck. They changed a couple of tires, and fixed the tie rods. They’d been stuck in a bottleneck for 15 or 20 minutes also.
#1121: Rick Siefried drove all the way and Bud Sturgess did all the navigating in their VW powered homebuilt chassis. They had a left rear flat on the first lap, and bent a tie rod. The second lap was good, but on lap three they threw a belt. This was Rick’s first race. They discovered they didn’t have enough lights, once it was dark. But soldiered on to finish.
#6060: Ben Abatti III drove the first and third laps, and brother Braden did lap two. They got out in front pretty early, but then a lower A-Arm ripped off the mount and it was a three-hour repair job. Then the other side broke and 16-year-old Braden limped to the pit. Roger Pereira navigated all the way and he’s also their chief mechanic.
#6125: Arturo Tomas Benavides and Arturo Nicanor Benevides, just switched from Class 8 and a truck they never got to the finish, into Class 6100. They destroyed two rims, lost both fuel pumps and the transmission was hot, but they got to the finish.
#7281: R. J. Merritt, age 17, lives in Parker. He must have been horrified on race morning when his dad, Randy, went to start moving forward in staging and the balance bar for the brakes snapped. That sent them on a mad run throughout Parker to find an appropriately sized bolt to use as a replacement. And they started very late. It was R. J. ‘s first time driving in a race. His dad drove the first lap, with R. J. riding, and then, as R. J. said, “We were so far behind they decided they might as well let me race.” So he did the final two laps, with Chris Golding navigating. They said, “It was a lot of work to keep it going.” They finally got moving about an hour after the last Sportsman car took the green flag.
#1558: Finishing at about 9 p.m., it was Dean and Joel Van Dam whose day started badly. At Mile 7 of the first lap a trailing arm bolt broke. Repairs took two and a half hours. They also had two flats. Their chassis is a Get Bent Metalworks chassis, and the team is from Clovis, New Mexico, from where they usually race on the Beal’s very nice Texas race course.
#1562: Ladd and Sean Gilbert were both in the car all the way, Ladd driving and Sean navigating. They said they “had some breakdowns.” They “burnt up” a CV, mae a temporary repair and then did another temporary repair, and then did a real repair in a pit. They had only one flat.
#7298: Josh Rigsby drove the final lap and Jordan Brenthal drove laps one and two. They said they had “a number of little problems, but the last lap was flawless.” Jordan had a couple of flats and rolled once, and “other issues.” Ryan Coey navigated.
#1032: Chip and Taylor Prescott and Ben Himel, a navigator, spent over eight hours getting their first lap done. They thought they had a short, and they kept bump-starting the car, and ultimately they discovered they had different problem, and then they had to wait a long time for repairs and then they had to charge the battery. By Mile 80 they’d lost their radio , their GPS, and the tach and intercom were going away. As it happened, the alternator bearings had seized, and each time they stopped they’d slowly cool and then they’d think things were o.k. for a while. They also had an incident when someone backed out onto the course without checking, and hit someone, and Prescott stopped to avoid the incident, and the guy behind him, ran into him.
#34: At 10:25 p.m., Rob Martensen finished. He’d had to change a ring gear in Ken Losch’s truck. Ken had a kidney stone attack on Friday, and ended up in the emergency hospital, so Rob got to drive. He said lap one was dusty, and they changed the ring gear on lap two. Steve Stroud drove lap three.
#1061: It was the sixth race, and first finish for Race Richie, who drove the third lap. Jeff Scott navigated for him. Jeff Offutt started the race, Mike Parker drove lap two, and Brandon Mitchell navigated for them. They broke a rear control arm bolt, and lost the shock, and axle and pulled out the CV. Best in The Desert towed them to a pit, and it was four hours all told before they were going again. But actually only a 30 minute repair.
#6025: Jeff Proctor started, Kevin Davis helped drive, Jason Revere and Justin Grossmann both navigated. They had to swap out a transmission, and said they were in first place when it went.
#1178: Steve and Hayden Melton drove, while Brad McFarland and Mike Dewitt navigated. Hayden broke a rear trailing arm and they said it “took a while to get parts.”
#2043: Joey Gandy and his son Butch both drove and so did Jeremy Aiken. Chase Breton navigated and Joey navigated for his dad, while Jeff Fowler navigated the second lap. They had a broken caliper and one flat, and no radio all day.