DIXON BROS. MOVE INTO CLASS 7100 POINTS LEAD AFTER ‘VEGAS TO RENO’

Reno, NV - August 25, 2007: The ‘Vegas to Reno’ off-road race is always tough and this year was no exception
with less than ½ of the entries able to make it to the finish line in Best in the Desert Racing Association’s 570-mile race
across Nevada. Aaron Dixon & Ed Ramirez started the race in the #7177 Dixon Bros. Racing Class 7100 Ford
Ranger and ran without problems, swapping positions in the top three, until
taking the lead just before the driver change in Goldfield (race mile 186). Ian
Dixon and navigator Phil Ramirez had only been in the truck for five miles
when the engine began cutting in and out before stopping dead on the course a
few miles north of Goldfield. After a few moments of probing, Ian and Phil
were able to get the truck running again but it continued to sputter whenever
they hit a bump. “We figured it was a loose wire or electrical component,” said
Ian. “ This became clear when we were on the dry lake bed at full speed without an engine miss but, the rougher the
course became, the more the engine stumble.” They called the crew and arranged to pit in Tonopah (RM 226) for
repairs. Aaron found a broken connection in the computer relay and once it was fixed the #7177 Dixon Bros Ford
Ranger was back on the course and moving through race traffic again.
“With the electrical connection fixed and everything working, I was finally able to drive”, Ian said. “The truck
performed great with the newly tuned Radflo Shocks and all the prep work Aaron has done since the Terrible’s Town
race. It’s a big step up from our old Stock Mini (Class 7300) in terms of fun-factor.” Night was falling as they passed
through Pit #10 at Redlich (RM 336) on their way to the next pit stop, forty miles further on. Several miles beyond
Redlich, the truck began to sputter, like it was starving for fuel. They managed to baby the truck another 10 or 12 miles
before it stalled and left them sitting in the dark at race mile 350. Based on previous fuel pump problems, they decided
to dismantle the fuel cell and found that both pickup hoses had again vibrated loose from the fuel pumps. After
spending an hour and a half getting the hoses re-attached, Ian and Phil made it to Pit #11 (RM 376) about 11:00 PM
where they turned the truck over to Aaron and Ed to take it the final 194 miles to the finish. It was shaping up to be a
very long night.
The #7177 Dixon Bros. Racing Ford Ranger was running up to it’s potential once again as an exhausted Aaron
Dixon took over behind the wheel at Pit # 11 with his sights set on the finish. Tim Lawrence, in the #7131 Ford Ranger
had taken over the lead while we were fixing the fuel pump problem but he was having troubles of his own, as were all
the Class 7100 trucks and everyone’s primary goal had become to simply make
it to the finish. At race mile 424, Aaron came into a corner too fast and damaged
his steering knuckle on a large rock. It took more than two hours to replace the
knuckle before the #7177 Ford Ranger was back on the road. With 146 miles of
rugged terrain remaining to the finish, Aaron was concerned that he was running
out of time to recover from any more serious problems so he set a conservative
pace the rest of the way.