May 12, 2008
4/22
CORR: Pomona Event Schedule
1/23
BITD: Official Parker 425 Course Map
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Team HUMMER® Sweeps The BitD/McMillin 'Nevada 1000'
 AM General’s John Klatte |
John Klatte is a Field Service Repre sentative for AM General and has been a key member of Team HUMMER since the 1993 Baja 1000, when AM General first began the desert racing program in the civilian HUMMER. The 61 year-old Klatte joined the Army fresh out of high school and was working in Army Research & Development in 1984, assisting AM General engineers develop the HUMVEE to meet military standards. About this time, John was approaching his 20 year retirement age and was considering his options when AM General offered him a job working in their military vehicle program as a Field Service Representative. Naturally, John lept at the opportunity to further his career and has been with AM General for 21 years now. He worked in the HUMVEE division until 1992 and transferred into the new HUMMER civilian division in 1992. He was assigned to assist Rod & Chad in the race program in 1993 and has been a member of Team HUMMER ever since. John’s a crusty old gearhead but he has a heart of gold and knows the H1 probably as well as any man alive. When he’s not helping Team HUMMER to win races, he can be found setting up a mobile shop at HUMMER club events around the country or trouble shooting problems at dealerships. It is hard to imagine that Team HUMMER would have been as successful as we have since 1993 without the help and dedication of John Klatte. John lives in Colora, Maryland and has been married 43 years to Wanda. They have a 42 year-old son, Benton. |
Tonopah, NV - July 10, 2005: The Team HUMMER crew gathered
at the Suncoast hotel, in Las Vegas on Wednesday and was greeted by afternoon
temperatures
of 105 during tech inspection on the
blazing asphalt in the hotel’s massive parking area. 
The trucks were in decent
shape, although some last
minute cracks had been discovered in the H1’s frame rails and
there wasn’t enough time to replace the damaged units. Brad & Brent Falin spent
the last few days prior to the event welding and repairing the chassis as best
they could and were optimistic that the H1 could survive the pounding of the
BitD/McMillin ‘Nevada
1000’, particularly since the race was spread over a span of four days in a Rally
style format. At the end of each stage the teams would be allotted one hour to
prepare the race vehicles for the
next day’s racing before they were each impounded for the night. After having
the trucks inspected, they were trailered up to the starting line in Beatty,
NV, about 100 miles to the North. From Beatty, the first 
stage of the ‘Nevada
1000’ would cover a 220 mile course taking them to the central Nevada mining
town of Tonopah, which was to serve as the start/finish area for the next three
stages.
The first stage on Thursday morning started just after
9:00AM with the H1 first to take the green flag for Team HUMMER. We had no
problems with either
truck as we passed Checker Pit #1 at Pioneer Road, just over 50 miles into
the race. It was a warm day,
in the mid-90’s and easily tolerable for racing but shortly after clearing the
first pit, Sam Cothrun became ill with what we took to be motion sickness. It
was not a pretty sight and Josh called ahead to the fuel stop at Cottontail Ranch
(MM 124) to have Thad stand by to take over as co-rider. 
After a fuel and driver
change was taken care of at Cottontail (Pit #4), the H2 left the pit with a lock
on first place and finished that way in Tonopah. The #4103 Team HUMMER H2 SUV
seemed to be the only truck in the 4100 class that had a clean race as Josh finished
34th overall and first in class with a seemingly insurmountable lead of 6 hours,
25 minutes over the second place #4101 Ford Expedition driven by Mark Stein,
who had blown an engine early in the day. The Team HUMMER #8102 H1 pickup was
also running up front with a nine
minute lead over Dave Morrison’s #8107 Ford F-250 but broke a rear halfshaft
as he was coming into the finish line. Although the timing was perfect for the
broken half-shaft, the problem confirmed that we still had not overcome the ongoing
half-shaft failures that have plagued the H1 since the Terrible’s Town 250 in
April. The rubber accordian boot, which retains the grease on the CV Joint, seems
to be splitting from the inside for no apparent reason. Once the break occurs,
the grease is thrown out and the CV joint fails shortly thereafter. Fortunately,
we anticipated trouble with the half-shafts and brought quite a few replacement
units with us. We used one of our spares and after prepping both vehicles, checked
the trucks into impound
for the night with time to spare.
At the conclusion of each day’s racing, each team is allowed sixty minutes
in a designated work area to prepare their vehicles for the next stage. 
Crews
are vital during any race but nowhere can you really appreciate how good our
crew is than in this sort of event where everyone comes together in a common
cause. At the finish line, the cars are directed to a holding area where no
work can be performed on the vehicles. When the crews are set up and ready
for the trucks, they are released to the work area and the clock starts. Any
time
spent over the alotted sixty minutes is added to
that day’s total time on the course. We brought 25 crew members to this race
and chose to concentrate all of our resources on each truck, so while one truck
remained in the holding area, we focused our full attention on the other truck
so we could get it fully prepped and into impound within the time limit.
Friday, stage #2 left out of Tonopah and would form a 331
mile loop, Northwest of town as it traveled through the ancient mining towns
of Luning, Mina and
Gabbs, before returning to the finish in Tonopah. The Team HUMMER trucks were
scheduled to start 34th (H2) and 35th (H1) off the line and they ran within
minutes of each other most of the day until late in the race when the #8102
H1 Pickup broke an upper shock mount about five miles from the finish. Chad
nursed the truck into the finishing line and still managed to add another 22
minutes to his lead over the #8107 Ford of Dave Morisson. 
We brought the H2
into the work area and prepped it for Saturday while we gathered the equipment
that would be needed to repair the H1. We only carry battery operated MIG welders,
which are not powerful enough to provide a lasting weld on the heavy shock
mount, so the Checkers brought their big stick welder over. We were ready when
the H1 came rolling in and every crew member had been assigned a job. In 54
minutes the shock tower was back in place, new half-shafts were installed and
the truck was serviced and ready for another day of racing. The crew applauded
their collective effort as the H1 left the work area for impound.
It’s difficult to imagine a team that works together better than the Team HUMMER
crew. These guys are the best!
 H2 Team Leader - Thad Stump |
Our H2 Team Leader is Thad Stump, Project Engineer from the GM Development Group at the Desert Proving Ground in Mesa, AZ. Thad grew up in Pennsylvania and during his early years developed an interest in circle track sprint car racing. In fact, one of Thad’s ambitions was to become a race car driver. In pursuit of that dream perhaps, Thad graduated from General Motors Institute, now Kettering University, with a degree in engineering. In 1975 he relocated to Michigan and went to work for the Pontiac Motor Division. In 1986 Thad moved to Arizona to work at the GM Desert Proving Ground in Mesa in the GM Development Group. He worked on ride and handling development on the Saturn program and in 1992 began working on suspension development for all full sized trucks. During this time, Thad was also involved with the very successful MacPherson desert racing program. In 2001, Thad took the reins as project engineer in charge of suspension development for the HUMMER H2. He has been an important part of Team HUMMER since the beginning starting off as project manager for the design and construction of the H2 Full- Stock SUV race truck. Thad trades off as co-rider in the H2 with chief mechanic, Sam Cothrun and along with Driver Josh Hall, has guided the H2 to victory in seven consecutive races. Thad lives in Gilbert, Arizona with |
In spite of the last minute failure of the rear shock mount,
Both Team HUMMER trucks posted very good times on Friday and came into the
third 
stage
in 16th (H2) and 18th (H1) overall positions. Josh was having a flawless
race and had
built up such a commanding lead in Class 4100 that he had redefined his goal
to finish ahead of all the production classes. Chad had a 31 minute lead over
Morisson in the #8107 Ford and a 53 minute lead over Foutz in the #8101 Ford
V-10 and
his mood could best be described as ‘cautiously
optimistic’ as he prepared for day three!
Saturday, stage #3 left from Tonopah and would form a 323 mile loop, Southwest
of town as it traveled through the ancient mining towns of Silver Peak, Coaldale
and Goldfield, before returning to the finish in Tonopah. Around mile 40, Josh
pulled off 
the course in a low visability area to allow a Class 7 truck to
get by and was rewarded by picking up two flats in a rockbed, a right rear
and a left front. After spending a few minutes changing the rear, he cautiously
proceeded to Checker Pit #2, located in a dry lakebed east of Silver Peak.
As the #4103 H2 pulled into the pit to replace the front tire and the flattened
spare, the #8102
H1 pitted for yet another half-shaft failure.
The H2 was out first but the H1 required a bit more time
to swap out the half-shaft and got back on course a few minutes back. At
the Coaldale pit (#4) at about
racemile 138, both trucks stopped for fuel. A damaged boot was discovered on
the H2’s front half-shaft and the axle was changed. Both trucks stopped to
refuel in Silver Peak (Pit
#6), at race mile 238, which was a “gas and go” for the #4103 Team HUMMER H2
but it appeared that the H1again needed both rear half-shafts replaced which
cost us another 20 minutes of downtime. Meanwhile Morisson in #8107 Ford and
Foutz in the #8101where both making up some of the time they had lost during
the first two stages and by the end of the day, 
Chad brought the H1 in to the
finish still in the lead but his margin had been cut to 19 minutes over Foutz
in the #8101 truck and 21 minutes
over Morisson in #8107.
In the work area on Saturday night, Brad cut a bit off the rear springs hoping that lowering the ride height may help the rear half-shafts on the #8102 H1 Pickup to live longer. He also wrapped electrical tape around the CV boots for added strength and installed our last two spares on the rear of the truck. Due in part to the unfortunate engine failure that Marc Stien had on day one in the #4101 Ford Expedition, the H2 had a huge lead in class 4100 and was also running well in front of all the other production class trucks. Being the competitor that Marc Stien is, he was still out there running hard each day and had a flawless stage three performance finishing four minutes in front of Josh on the day.
 H2 Crew Member Doug Moore |
Team HUMMER’s H2 Chase crew leader is Doug Moore. The 42 year-old Moore was living in Colorado in 1988 when he received a call from his father-in-law, a GM employee at the Desert Proving Grounds (DPG) in Mesa, AZ. He offered Doug a job at DPG and he packed up his truck and moved his young family to Arizona and never looked back. After spending some time as a ‘contract tech’, Doug is now a Senior Engineering Technician with the development group and in 2001 was assigned to the H2 program working on H2 suspension and handling. Doug was part of the MacPherson Chevrolet desert racing team for almost nine years and worked closely on Mac’s Class 7 production program. He was part of the original team at DPG who built the Team HUMMER Class 4100 race truck and is one of the hardest working and most innovative crew members on the Team HUMMER crew. On raceday Doug can be found at the wheel of one of the H2 chase trucks chasing Josh along the course in the #4103 Team HUMMER H2 SUVdoing whatever needs to be done in the pits to keep the SUV running in front. Doug lives in Queen’s Creek, Arizona with Linda, his wife of 23 years. Doug’s daughter, Shannon, is also a valued member of the Team HUMMER crew and works with our Communiucations Director, Rick Grabowski running the radio relay on raceday. Doug spends his spare time working around his house, gardening and tending to his animals, which include a horse, which he occasionally rides in the desert near his property. |
Brent Falin was scheduled to be in the second seat of the H1 on the final day, giving Cort Stoskoph an unusual day off. Brent will be leaving his job at Amazon.com soon to take over as Manager of the parts department at Winkel/Rod Hall HUMMER in Reno and has been a key member of Team HUMMER since 2001.
The final Stage of the BitD/McMillin ‘Nevada 1000’was a 119 mile sprint south to Goldfield and back. Certainly anyone that had anything left could be counted on to use it in this round. Chad in the #8102 H1 Pickup needed to protect his lead against a very determined Greg Foutz in the #8101 Ford F-250 and could only hope that the changes we made to the ride height would permit our only remaining half-shafts to go the distance.
Josh was first off the line in the #4103 H2 SUV and Chad
followed a minute later in the 8102 H1 Pickup, just after 7:00 AM on Sunday
morning. The first
part of the
course was slow going as it wound it’s way through through an unpleasant variety
of silt, rocks and sagebrush. These conditions prevailed throughout much of the
of the race but the second half of the course seemed to allow for more high speed
running. This was good news 
for Chad, who lost eight minutes to Foutz by Pit
# 2 (Goldfield West) but turned up the wick on the return portion and was actually
running 68MPH to
Foutz’ 66MPH at Pit #4 (Klondike) about 24 miles from the finish. At the end
of the day, Chad took the checkered flag for the win seven (7) minutes in front
of #8101 (Foutz) and 25
minutes up on Morisson in the #8107 Ford.
Josh had also given up some ground early on to Stein in
the #4101 Ford Expedition and was running in his dust all morning. Finallly,
the H2 began reeling him
in and it seemed for a time that he might be able to win the day, but the truck
succumed to a broken idler arm about five miles from the finish. Although this
did not keep the H2 from winning the race, it slowed the truck down enough
that Josh’s goal of finishing this stage in front of Stein was not to be realized.
The #4103 Team
HUMMER H2 SUV took the win in the BitD/
McMillin ‘Nevada 1000’, the seventh consecutive victory for Josh Hall/Thad Stump/
Sam Cothrun in the H2.
The # 4103 H2 finished 15th overall and was the fastest production vehicle in the event followed closely by the #8102 Team HUMMER H1 Pickup which finished 16th overall. On the season Josh Hall is leading the class 4100 points chase by 16 points and Chad Hall is second in class 8100 points by one point over Dave Morisson and is 18 points behind Greg Foutz.
Team HUMMER’s next race is the ‘BitD/ TSCO Vegas to Reno’, October 6 – 9, 2005 which will start in Las Vegas and finish in Reno, Nevada.
For more information, call or write:
Best In The Desert Racing Association
3475 Boulder Highway
Las Vegas, NV 89121
(702) 457-5775, (702) 241-6431 fax
www.bitd.com
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