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Desert Assassins Win In Baja!

by: Cropley | Tuesday, June 7, 2005 | 1 comment

The 2005 Baja 500 goes down as one of the greatest off road races to date, with 345 entries the sport continues to explode and the Desert Assassins were there with three vehicles to help expand the excitement.

Baja 500 winning buggy #1401

For this years event Cameron Steele drove in both the #16 trophy truck, which he is driver of record on, with partner Clyde Stout and Rick Taylor and he also started the race in the #2 trophy truck of Pete Sohren. However it was the third entry of the team, Heidi Steele and Justin Smith, that did the team proud and brought home the win in sportsman buggy in a time of just over 16 hours, bringing them across the finish line at 3:30am Sunday morning.

While the trucks were racing the pit crews made sure every Mexican local had plenty of etnies stickers.

Trophy Truck #16 is a newly created beast that is now engineered by Tim Carroll, formerly of Rivera racing and team owner Clyde Stout. The truck was basically cut off at all four corners and built since the San Felipe 250 in February. The great news is that the team was in the mix as they continued through the 286 mile marker at Valley Trinidad, timing is still coming in but it is estimated that they were inside the top 8. A broken sector shaft in the steering box would put them down two and a half hours at the top of the goat trail and they would then cruise home for 15th. The new set up is awesome and the FOX Shox were spot on. There was not one failure in the new set up.

Clyde throws roost on the crew as he leaves the driver change with fresh Yokohama’s on the rear.

Trophy Truck #2 had an eventful day as Cameron was first off the line with Robby Gordon and Jason Baldwin close behind. At mile marker 35, Ojos Negros, unofficial timing had the team putting time on the rest of the class and extending their fresh air gap. The truck had a computer/crank trigger problem that would shut the truck off occasionally and would progressively get worse. After a flat tire at mile marker 60ish Gordon got by but the top three trucks would be locked together in a battle through Erendira, Race Mile 115, where there was a space back to the fourth truck on the road. As the day progressed the firing problem would get worse and the truck would shut off about every 40 seconds until the 180 mile marker where Rick Geiser made adjustments and got the truck running. Pistol Pete would take her home from there and raced up into the group of trucks until a rear hub assembly would cost him the day just before the highway at Trinidad.

Baja 500 Champion Heidi Steele!

1401 was the number for Heidi and Justin's race car as Heidi drove the first 145 miles and was clearly leading on time as she raced through the crowds at Ojos Negros. A bottle neck in the beach silt would hold her up as would a fix on a stuck throttle cable but she still brought the car to Justin in the lead. Justin, A.K.A. Bean, then led the charge to Mikes Sky Ranch where a 50 car bottle neck would take hours out of their day. In the end they would earn the win and Heidi would become the only female winner at this years Baja 500!

The week was also filled with TV cameras as the team took the producers of the new television package for SCORE on some rides and showed them what the Trophy Trucks could do. The stories that were shot for this event on our team included interviews with us at our hotel and in the wash with the Mexican fans as we did the jump and handed out posters.

Next up for the team is the FUD series Plaster City event this weekend in the #16 truck and Heidi's buggy as they will take the cars there with little prep for a fun low stress weekend of racing and hanging with the fans. From there it is the SCORE Vegas event which is the last weekend of July and will feature a short course style series of races.

TT #16 would like to thank....Cabo Wabo Tequila, Lake Elsinore Casino, Yokohama Tire Corporation, Board Ford, FOX Racing Shox, Lightforce, Prudential California Realty, American Racing Wheel ATX series, Weekend Warrior, Mad Graphix, Lucas Oil, VP Racing Fuel, UNI, Prep By Jake, ECS, StoutIndustry, Hi-Tech On Board Video, etnies, McKenzies, and the Metal Mulisha.