Heidi Steele and Rene Bruger Continue the Desert Assassins Mini Truck Domination of 2008 at the 40th Annual SCORE Baja 500.

Heidi Steele and Rene Bruger continue the Desert Assassins mini truck domination of 2008 at the 40th annual SCORE Baja 500.





The boulders of the infamous “Summit” and the silt beds of Uruapan proved worthy challenges as did the entire field of 7sx drivers at the 2008 SCORE Baja 500 but nothing could stop Heidi Steele and Rene Bruger from topping their class in the Lucas Oil/Yokohama Tire sponsored Ford Ranger at the 40th annual event.



Steele has been battling the desert elements and competitors since 2005 when she won the Baja 500 and Baja 1000 in the Sportsman Buggy class on her way to the class championship. Since that time the AccentCare Vice President of Human Resources has accelerated her program and in a short amount of time has transformed it into a winning effort. In 2008 Heidi has raced in five events and has not only finished in each effort but has won three times, made the podium in one other effort and has never placed lower than 4th place.



“We started racing in this truck in 2005 when we purchased it without knowing some of the limitations it had,” said Steele, who continued “We were blind for much of 2005 and 2006 until we sorted out what needed to be done to land on the top of the podium.” Through the hard work of Tim Lawrence at TLR Fabrication, Jerry Zaiden at Camburg Engineering, Chris Vano at Camino Real GMC, everyone at Alloy USA, FOX Racing Shox and Currie Enterprises the team has created basically a new truck for 2008.



More recently the West Racing team led by driver Rene Bruger, Alan Trimble and Danny Street Jr. took over the prep of the race truck and their hard work combined with all of the sponsors changes led to another top finish by the DA “Mini Trophy Truck.”



For two of the wins in 2008 Tim Lawrence was Heidi’s driving partner and with work getting busy for him Heidi chose Bruger to partner with based on good industry feedback and the championship effort Rene and West Racing has put forth in the CODE racing series in Mexico. Rene was born and raised near Ensenada and now makes his home and living in Chula Vista, CA. The talented Bruger proved his fortitude previously with the team when he drove the first section of the 2007 Baja 1000 with the DA and had to overcome massive problems to clear the first two check points before they closed.



Heidi and her team came into the Baja 500 as their class point’s leader and leave with a wider margin with two races to go in the SCORE desert series including the SCORE Baja 1000. Heidi is also leading the Best in the Desert racing series points after winning the Parker 425 and finishing third at the Terrible’s Town 250.



The DA Mini TT will next appear at the longest off road race in the United States the BITD Vegas to Reno event August 22nd where Heidi will be racing on the day of her 10th wedding anniversary.



The team would like to thank their sponsors Lucas Oil Products/Yokohama Tires/ATX Wheels/FOX Racing Shox/Damzl/Trackside Performance/Camburg Engineering/Alloy USA/Currie Enterprises/Alpinestars/Camino Real GMC/UNI/ Lightforce/ Deaver/ Dirt Bagz/ PCI Race Radios/ Bosch Power Tools/VP and West Racing.