This is the 9th year of racing the Parker 250 for us and the start of our 11th season of off road racing. Parker AZ is in our back yard, so over the holidays we took the initiative, and pre ran the course that we know pretty much by heart. We had done some work to the race car as we have been having some boost issues and wanted to put some miles on the car at race pace. Well, with Eric, Trevor and I, every time we go our for a ride, it’s a race! This time we added our good friends, the Spielmans to the mix as Travis would be co driving for 3P Off Road in the race and seeing the track would be good for him. We had a great time racing around the track and found no issues with the T924 race car. Boost temps were normal and the car behaved as it should. Happy with our results, we went home and began to prep the car. A Set of freshly greased RCV axles were put in, fluids changed and bolts torqued. Trevor, who normally does the prep work, went about it a little happier this time as I planned to put him in the car for the last lap! Tech day came and breezed through as usual. The car looked amazing with her new wrap from Union Graphics and Trevor had her all clean and shiny! The boys took the car back to camp for the last minute checks and I headed to the drivers meeting. The drivers meeting was bitter sweet for me as 2 years ago was the last time we would hear Casey say Booyah! to us. We miss him lots but are so proud of the Best in the Desert staff that keep our races going and continue to grow the sport. This Parker 250 is for you, Casey! Race day came, and lucky for us, we didn’t start until 1PM. That gave us lots of time to hang out, take pictures and be nervous! We had an excellent draw and Travis Herzing and I started in the 4th row. We lined up at the green light ready to take the hole shot. The light turned green, I mashed the gas pedal…..and the car fell on its face. NO! She gained speed but the hole shot was not going to happen. We continued on, but noticed that we were only getting about 7500 RPM. Boost temps were normal as well as the oil temps, engine temps and oil pressures. We weren’t sure what the issue was, but we pressed on trying not to get passed by too many competitors before we made it back around 80 miles to main pit. About 10 miles outside of the mid way pit the car started getting loose. I told Travis that I thought we had a broken axle. We radioed in and the crew made quick work of removing the axle and putting a stub axle in its place hoping that we would make it to main pit in 3 wheel drive. ( we had not given midway a spare axle) Unfortunately, it was not be and about 5 miles before the next road crossing the other rear axle broke. We radioed in and together with crew chief Eric we devised a plan to stop at the next road crossing where they could us the parts we needed to fix the car. We knew we would never make it through the rock garden and the sand pile with only front wheel drive. Our favorite BITD course workers helped us out and brought us 2 fresh axles and our Pro Eagle jack to help make the job easier. Travis had already had all the bolts loosened and the car ready for the replacements before they arrived so the job went quickly and before we knew it, we were back on course! Of course, we were at the end of the line, but we still had 2 laps to go. We made it through the rock garden with ease thanks to our Shock Therapy Fox shocks and into main pit. Trevor was dressed and ready to climb in and I climbed out. While we were out, the crew found that fuel we put in the car may have been some of our low RPM issues. Fresh axles had helped some and as Trevor took off, he said fresh fuel helped a little as well. Trevor took off hoping to make up some time. Just outside the rock garden, he got a flat. It was not a good spot and as they were changing the tire, the car fell off the jack and jammed the jack under the trailing arm and mud flap. It took them what seemed like forever to get back going as we were watching from the tracker. Finally they were moving again. Trevor made great time, but the leaders crossed over the finish line before he could make it back around and the he got the checkered flag. Though we each only got to go 1 lap it was a super fun course. I enjoyed seeing Trevor in the driver seat almost as much as he enjoyed being in it! Look for him to share that seat with me in a few more of our up coming races!. Travis Spielman got a little more than expected in his co driver seat with 3P Off Road. As they were headed into the main pit area on lap 1 the spare time caught fire! The Best in the Desert Safety team made quick work of putting it out and they were able to continue on to finish the race! Thank you to all our sponsors that make race day possible, 3P for helping us out with co driving, and our crew for always being there for us! Next up for Rockstar Racing is the Mint 400!