MDR Mojave 250
April 1, 2006
Race report, Jeepspeed 1722
Gspeed Racing
Driver: Greg Szymanski
Co Driver: Matt Szymanski

Gspeed racing entered back into the fray of off road racing after a year and a half rebuild and upgrade.

Saturday, Race day, though I would have the old butterflies in the stomach since it had been so long. I didnt though and as we took off from start finish I could feel the reason why I worked so hard to get the jeep back in race condition. We ran the first lap at our own pace since we had zero test time on the car before bringing it out to Barstow. The one lap pre run from Friday though made me feel better since the vehicle was handling great, definately better than before the roll over. We let several cars pass us on the first lap and turned in 1:16 lap. Not bad after being on the sidelines for over a year. Not good enough to win though and I knew we would have to pick up the pace. So on the second lap which was very uneventful, we turned in a 1:11 lap time. Better than our first lap but even yet felt we needed to pick up the pace. The car seemed to be holding together quite well and was handling great. I started to hear little noises but didnt feel any changes in how the car was handling so I decided to keep on keeping on.

Well when you start feeling the pressure to push things, you start taking bigger risks. I decided to push it a little coming through the first wash crossing. On the previous lap we had crossed to the right but decided to go to the left. That was a mistake. Not sure what speed we where going when we hit that first bump but the next thing I know we are looking at blue sky for like 30 seconds. Then the truck came down and hit another of three rollers in front of that first bump. We came down so hard on that second bump that it stuffed the left front tire up into the fender where the King shock hose was sitting. The tire pulled on the hose and all the shock fluid sprayed back over the side of the car. As we rolled out of that disasterous area I felt the front end and knew that it was bad. We stopped and got out and considered what to do. We decided we had been gone from Jeepspeed for to long to just drive to the pits and call it a day. So we limped it around the track for the other two laps.

We finished the day and finished our first race. Not a pretty finish but a finish none the less. We started 13th and finished 16th and out of 24 entries. We are determined to win a race this year and feel very good about how the new improved car handled.

Even when things where going rough our BF Goodrich Baja Ta's stayed strong and puncture free. Its amazing to me the kind of punishment we deal out to these tires and at the end of the day they look like we drove them on a road trip to San Diego and back. Unflawed and unparalelled performance. Thats BFG!

Thanks to:
King Shocks, BF Goodrich Tires, American Racing Wheels, FullTraction Suspensions, Racer X, KC Hi Lights, Moser Axles, PRP Racing Seats, Scotts Coachworks Autobody,National Spring, Baja Bro's,Show No Fear Fabrication and Phat Offroad Jeep.

A full prep is underway and the car will be ready for some prerun fun at the end of April.

Look for Gspeed Racing to start at the inaugural Desert Rat 250 in Rocky Point, MX, May 6th 2006.