Primm 300: Great win after 300 hot miles

The start. From here it's all or nothing

Dear Friends, Partners and Sponsors,

This year's Primm 300 was hot! And the heat was on shortly after I checked into my hotel in Nevada. First I felt really hot, then I began to shake badly. I'd picked up a bad cold somewhere along the way from Europe to the States. Before the start of the race I spoke to Martin Christensen: “Martin, it could be that I'll fall out of the car after the first lap. Then you have to take over.” Martin replied with good humourt: “Okay, after what we've coped with during this last week, that sounds quite easy to me.”

What Martin meant was that the US customs had taken a very close look at our cars after they returned from the Baja 300 Powerdays Germany. And when the US customs take a good look that can take some time. Only on the Friday before the race week our Buggys were released. Our team had just four days (including the weekend) to get the cars ready to race. The crew's performance was simply stunning. They reminded me of a perfectly running gearbox. Everything ran perfectly. For this I want to thank you all at AGM!

Desert express, bound for class victory

The day of the start: A healthy 42 degrees centigrade in the Nevada desert – my body temperature wasn't much less than that. I drove the start and had almost an entire Grand Prix distance to tackle on Nevada's most brutal desert tracks. And friends, I can tell you it was tough! Above all, I'll never forget the “Powerline Service Road”. That is a dirt track used by a power company to check on the power lines in the desert. The rest of the time the wind, sun and torrential rains play havoc on the track. These 25 miles of the worst jumps and hardest landings almost made me give up. It took my breath away. I saw many competitors sidelined at this early stage of the race. The route was hard, and I have the feeling some of the guys were too hard on the accelerator.

But during the second lap I felt much better. I'd found my rhythm. The organiser had banned any pre-running, so we had to improvise. And that was obviously to our advantage. Our navigator Bryan Lyttle again did a super job. I finished the second lap leading our class. Martin leapt in the car and brought victory home after the second half of the distance of almost 280 miles in his unique way: ultra fast and unbelievably smooth.

Our class win was super. Third in the overall classification caused a furore. We were only 11 minutes behind overall winner Robby Gordon in his 800 hp Trophy-Truck. Again we proved that with a good handling racer you can beat most of the horsepower monsters. I strongly believe, that Class 1 Buggys are potential overall winners at the Primm. I hope we can prove this in 2010.

The winning three: Martin, Bryan, and me (l-r)

One thing became clear again on those tough miles. You can only succeed in an event like the Primm 300 if you have the best partners. It's unbelievable what the BF Goodrich tyres withstood, and what the Bilstein shocks and Eibach springs can take. The exhaust system from Remus worked perfectly without problems, just like the K&N Filters in the thickest dust. And with Liqui Moly we have a partner onboard that supplies only the best quality when it comes to everything from cleaning products to gearbox oil. Ingo Bender, the boss of Stammcut, brought 20 guests to Las Vegas and into the desert. And it was brilliant how their enthusiasm and fun were contagious. Several of them asked if we could organise something at the Baja 1000...

Now we rank second in the championship, just five points behind the leader Hurley Letner. Ronnie Wilson is breathing down our necks. One of us three will be Class 1 champion after the Baja 1000 (19 to 22 November).

Back here in two weeks with all the news from our preparations for the highlight of the year.



Until then
Best regards,
Armin Schwarz