Eugenio wins big at BITD

Kyle Conlon of Campo drives his Class 1000 car in the Best in the Desert Racing Association’s Vegas to Reno race this past weekend in Las Vegas. His navigator was Cameron Butcher of El Centro. The two, along with co-driver Steven Eugenio and navigator Jake Velasco of Holtville, won the class by more than an hour to build a strong lead in the class championship.

LAS VEGAS — Going into the longest race the Best in the Desert Racing Association has to offer in the season here this past weekend, El Centro’s Steven Eugenio and teammate Kyle Conlon of Campo were leading the 1000 class.

The two, racing under BEA-CON Racing, were only looking to finish and follow up with a win in the final two races of the season.

Instead, the two blew away the competition in their class, not only winning, but finishing an hour ahead of any other 1000 class vehicle.

“We were just running a good pace,” Eugenio said. “We weren’t pushing it.”

The team only had one flat tire throughout the 457.5-mile race, during Conlon’s half of the race. He had a short two-minute lead when he and navigator Cameron Butcher of El Centro went down with a flat tire.

They quickly changed the tire and fell behind only about four minutes. By the time Conlon handed the car to Eugenio, Conlon had built up an 18-minute lead.

Eugenio and his navigator Jake Velasco of Holtville had no problems the rest of the way to win the race.

“We were just all pumped. We had no intentions on winning the race, all we wanted to do was finish,” Eugenio said. “We knew we ran well all day, we knew we had the win and we were stoked.”

In the same class, Mike Lawrence of Brea was in second in points going into the race. He was registered to race, but his finish was not known.

BITD only published the top seven finishes in the class and Lawrence was not among them. James Hodgson of Edmonton, Canada, was in third in points going into the race and he, too, was registered. He also didn’t finish in the top seven.

Although official points standings haven’t been released by BITD, Eugenio and Conlon are sitting atop the class comfortably.

The win for both adds to an already-stellar debut season for the pair.

“This is great. We’ve won two out of three races … I say we’re doing an awesome job,” Eugenio said. “The car is working perfect and both drivers are doing a great job of getting the car to the finish line … I don’t know what more I could ask for.”

Next in the series is the Bilek Racing Silver State 300 in Mesquite, Nev., in late September.

The group will look for a win at Mesquite to pretty much secure the class win.

The team then just looks to finish at the Henderson’s Fabtech 400 in early December in Henderson, Nev.

“At the Mesquite race, being a smaller race, we’ll try and go for a win there. If we get the win, then probably just cruise at the 400,” Eugenio said. “I think we’ll have the championship locked up.”