1722 PARKER 425 RACE REPORT

Well we arrived in Parker, Thursday afternoon, thinking that we had everything under control.


Then Friday came. What a difference a day makes. We started out having a calm day adding the necessary contingency decals to the vehicle. We then towed the race vehicle over to the contingency line and waited. Starting and stopping several times as the line slowly crept forward, we noticed that the vehicle cranked a little excessive on each start up. Then as we rounded the bend to the down hill portion of entry into contingency the vehicle started to run very rough and started to back fire. I was floored and a little stumped. It started and ran a few more times like this until suddenly it became a crank no start issue. I checked the fuel pressure gauge and it read 20 psi. This is a little low so thought it might be a clogged fuel filter. It was fairly new but took it apart nonetheless. We proceeded to remove the fuel filter and it looked brand new. So we reinstalled the filter. Now we had a reading of no fuel pressure. We are doing this all the time while trying to roll the vehicle forward. So we push the 4000lb pig all the way to Jeepspeed tech. We roll the jeep onto the scales at Rubicon Express and it weight in at 4061lbs.

I turned around to check on my crew only to find that one of them was down and was suffering from a pulled muscle in his leg. It seemed more serious at the time cause he didn’t look all that well. So a big thanks goes out to the Jeepspeed tech guys and Mrs. Nissley from Nissley Racing for the first aid.


From there we diagnosed that the fuel pump was not working. We bought the car from another racer and have not been faced with this issue before so we where not sure if the vehicle was equipped with two fuel pumps or not. We dissembled the fuel cell and found, after 40 minutes of hard work that there was indeed another fuel pump there. We proceeded to switch things over and fired the truck up. AWESOME! Where back and ready to travel through tech. We string our way through contingency and finally reach tech. Everything goes well through tech and we all climb onto the jeep to head back to the trailer and to get some dinner. We no more than reach the outer drive of the Blue Water Casino and the Jeeps second fuel pump craps out. Now we are frustrated. We flag down a ranger that is with a protruck team and he obliges us with a tow to our trailer. After loading onto the trailer we head over to AutoZone for a little research and development on fuel pumps. After about an hour of pulling the pump and trying to match numbers we found 2 fuel pumps that they had in stock that would work for our application. We bought those and started to get to work replacing them when a girl shouted to us that the guys down at Bad Attitude Boats had an open shop. So we packed up out stuff and drove down the street. When we arrived I have remembered helping Ron a few years back with and emergency order for BFG tires. He welcomed us into his shop and provided us with anything we needed to get the pumps replaced. We finished installing the new pumps in the car about ten o’clock, thanked Ron for his hospitality and headed to the gas station for some fuel for the race and then back to the pits. If you have a boat in Parker or






Race Day! WOW what a line of cars and sitting there waiting to take off was little bit of a drag. Off road racing is alive and well in Parker, AZ. We started off twelfth off the line. We made a steady pace through the first couple miles. We were heading towards the drop off at mile three and my co-driver said jeep coming up fast. Within second Mike Schaffer gave me a nurf the send me off to the left and out of his way. I was a little concerned with how that affected my rear end, but on later inspection appeared to have been a clean hit and no damage was noted. We raced several vehicles and jeepspeeds through the next30 miles or so. We then came through mile 36 and onto 37 as we came through the close rollers and hit the big one at the end we launch ed the vehicle high into the air and came down on the pass side front wheel. I thought we where going over again but the vehicle righted itself and landed on all four tires, but sitting sideways on the course. We started the vehicle and tried to get unstuck but it was buried to the axles. Then along came a BITD assistance truck and strapped us up and out of the wash and onto the Bouse Rd. Surveying the damage it appeared that the track bar took the brunt of the load from the hit and bent it pretty severely. The pass side front tire did not fair well either and had been pushed off the rim. Just then a local gentleman named Pete, came over and ask how he could help. I said can you build me a new track bar? He replied pull it off and I will take it over to my shop and fix it for ya. Well Hell ya! We took the track bar off and took a couple of measurements and off he went. Within twenty minutes if not less he was back with a remodeled track bar and a remounted tire. We thanked him for his handy work and reinstalled the parts on 1722 Gspeed racing truck.


From some kind of advise from the BLM Ranger we drove down to the first wash and entered back in and onto the racecourse. We continued to race all the way around and back to main with no further incident. Well except the trick trucks passing us and shattering our lenses on the HID’s we where running.


We entered into the Parker Python, main pit area, and proceeded to rev the every loving life out of the engine to get through the course. It was so tore up and sandy that we could barely make it through to our pits. Finally we entered the Hostyl Motor sports pit and my brother ran over to Kevin Davis and borrowed and new track bar. Thank you Kevin. The Hostyl team installed the new track bar and topped off our fuel and away we went on to lap two. We cruise the course and battle the changing terrain. The course looked completely different from the first time we had been there, it was much much rougher. As the sun sank into the west we turned on the Hid Dominator by Lazerstar lights we run and raced into the night. The lights are awesome and reasonable in price. They are highly recommended. Not only does Lazerstar sponsor us but Larry Rosselors class seven runs them as well. About mile 69 I noticed that there seemed to be some sort of electrical fire happening right in front of my dash so I hit the brakes to stop and realized that we had no brakes. So we slowed to a stop and pulled off the course. We opened the hood to find that the brake fluid spilled out and onto the wiring for the brake master and started it on fire. We pulled the connector and cut the wire and set it to the side. Then we checked under the car and found that the pass side front brake line had been pinched. So we cut the hard line and pinched off the end and hammered it closed.




That did the job we now had brake again. Back onto the course and motored up to midway for a final splash of gas and off to the finish. We raced as hard as we could through the rocks and rough of those last miles. Somewhere along the way thought the drivers side rear tire had started to loose air. We where getting close to the finish and could taste one of our second finishes ever. After what we endured this weekend we needed it. Then we rounded and corner in a sand wash and the truck fishtailed and I corrected and we careened off the course and onto a sandy burm. We tried to push the truck off the burm and noticed that the driver’s side tire had come off the wheel. We where checking this out when we noticed some from under the truck. Suddenly flames erupted from under the vehicle. We grabbed the fire extinguishers and sprayed them wildly under the vehicle trying to stop the vehicle from burning. From out of the darkness came a buggy. Not sure who they where but they volunteered their extinguishers and left us. Thank God for those guys because their extinguishers where enough to stop the burn. After surveying the underside of the vehicle and making sure all the fire was out we installed a new tire on the rear and started tried to start the vehicle. The engine would just crank and crank, no spark. It appeared that the fire melted all the wires on the under side of the vehicle. We tried to figure out a way to rig ignition to get the engine running but could not think of anyway to do so. With that our Parker 425 ended. Eight miles from the finish. We called iritrack and announced that we where out of the race. We waited by our campfire till 1:30 am for a tow out. PCI Bob showed up in his wrangler and gathered us up and towed us out to Shea road where our chase truck and trailer where waiting.


Although the result was a disappointing DNF, we are excited to have gotten as far as we did and besides the shortcoming we experienced the truck held together fabulously. We look forward to Primm and much more Jeepspeed racing.


Special thanks go out to:


Gspeed Racing would like to thank everyone who helped us at Parker this year.


To name a few first of all would be our crew Gary Zempich and his daughter’s boyfriend, Matt Szymanski my brother and co-driver and the Hosytl Motor sports crew for Bryan Dodge.


The Jeepspeed tech crew for helping my team member that over exerted himself pushing the heep thought contingency. Their support and medical assistance was awesome.



The parts guys at AutoZone for their patience with us as we asked them to search different part numbers for the two fuel pumps that failed going through contingency.


BAD ATTITUDE BOATS, for the use of their shop and power, while we replaced the two fuel pumps in our car till 10:00 at night. Thanks Ron.


The Voss Protruck team member for towing our jeepspeed out of contingency.


Thanks to The Best in the Desert assistance truck, which yanked us off the course, at mile 37 after the endo.


Pete the local that took our bead blown tire and bent track bar to his shop just up the road from where we were broken down and re-bent our track bar and reseated the tire and brought them back to us repair! HE ROCKS! If we could find out more about him we would send him something.


Banning Racing –for welding our frame at the steering box back together at midway.


The Weatherman for pulling us off the course at 2 AM after our car caught fire and left us disabled 8 miles from the finish. DAMMIT!


Iritrack for letting BITD know we were out and where we were.


If I miss anyone else sorry but thanks




Gspeed Racing

Greg Szymanski

1722@gspeed-racing.com

602 763 7914