The Big Race-Parker 450

The Parker 425 is one of the biggest and best of the desert races ever. It is 425 miles long run over a 160 mile loop three times plus 5 miles at the start. With no breakdowns it takes around 7.5 hours to win. There are many different classes from the unlimited class to stock the VW’s. I don’t know how many enter but it is huge.

Now if you want to run a car it will take deep pockets. First of all you will need a car. $250,000 please. Then it starts from there. You will need a semi truck to haul all of this, pay the folks who make up the pit crew, spend $25,000 to get the car ready for the next race, and by the time you rework the motor, transmission, buy new tires, (the list goes on and on) you will need at least $800,000 to $1,000,000 per year to do the job right. And what do you get if you win, bragging rights and that is it.

But before you continue on, check out this web site. http://www.off-road.com/dirtsports/Desert+Racing:+All/McMillin-Wins-Best-in-the-Desert-BlueWater-Resort-/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/580350. It will give you a very good idea as to what the race is all about.

So the first thing you do is check in a day before the big race. Lots of fun. Take a look. Credits: some of these pictures I took but a bunch were also taken by friends. We did a picture swap.

Take a look at this cockpit. It looks like a 747

And so the race. I have posted many pictures here, so you might get bored.  They are pretty good ones.

This guy is from Longmont, CO

Here is what happens when you loose some lug nuts. The wheel falls off.

Hey, how about a ride?

Well, anyway all went well until it rained. And rain it did. Many of the cars flooded out and all were slowed down. Not pretty

The race must go on. This poor fellow and his navigator hit this puddle pretty hard. Keep in  mind these cars have n o windshield.  I think they got wet.

And so that is it. Thanks for watching. Take a look at the other postings on the race. It sure was a fun time.

Parker 425 Time Trials

Ah the Parker 425 time trials. These are important. Only the big boys driving the fastest and meanest cars get to go to the time trials. After the time trials, the fastest car gets to start the race first. This is not a race like the Indy 500 where everyone starts out at once. The big boys, I think, start out in 30 second intervals. So first one out has the advantage of a smooth course, or as smooth as it can get which really is not smooth at all. The driver who has the fastest time wins. But the trials are fun to watch. You never know what is going to happen. And man, do these guys fly. Take a look at the pictures. A bunch of us took copious pictures and shared them all. So a lot of these pictures were taken by other folks. And so here they go

And here is a picture of the track. Not pretty

But not all goes well from time to time. A belt problem maybe?

I think it goes down here somewhere!

The driver said: I don’t care where it goes just get the thing on. We have a race to run.

And here is the peanut gallery

And the cheering section

Off To Parker For The Road Races

And so we headed to Parker after Quartzsite to attend the Parker 425 race. This is the grand daddy of desert racing. Take a look at the web site http://www.bitd.com/

But to do this properly, you have get there early to grab off the best spot to park the rigs to watch the race. Then you have to prepare your self mentally to enjoy the race and all of its glory. Take a look.

And so all of the rigs are parked and ready to go.

And so here are the more stately gentlemen of the group. The guy on the left is Victor. He has a foot problem. He hasn’t realized someone his age ought not be riding motorcycles

And so Happy Hour must occur

Well, Terry had to go out and buy a new Honda generator. And so it would only be proper to toast its arrival with champagne . What else do we have to do.

Quartzsite

Just a little blurb about the Quartzsite RV gathering. This has been an annual event, with the exception of last year, for us. Many rigs showed up from the Boomers group, I think there were over a hundred rigs. We had a great time but the event is slowly going down hill. The venders were not there in their usual full glory.

But it still was nice meeting new friends and seeing the old ones. That doesn’t sound good does it. Maybe the middle aged old ones is better. But the big event was the weather. Everything started off great but the clouds moved in and it rained for a couple of days. Then all hell broke loose. There were over 70 miles per hour winds and the rain fall, at some places exceeded 6 inches. The poor venders had a heck of a time. Boomerville was fine though.

We survived though. After the weather finally blew itself out, the wine supply was rather low. That is about it. No great pictures. Anyway it is always a great time.