Boy Scout Crew 35 Off Road Race Truck Blog: 3/16/08

I'm such a procrastinator.

Two weeks ago on March 6 I flew out to Anaheim for the Off Road Impact Show, which I was invited to by Rory. The show actually started on the 6th, but I'm a student first and foremost and I had some important classes on Thursday, so I opted to skip the first day, instead flying out right after my classes (Rory and his friend Mike went out on Wednesday to be there for all three days of fun).

I knew my hotel, chosen because it was within walking distance of the Anaheim Convention Center, was also in close proximity to Disneyland, but I had no idea how close it was until I woke up Friday morning to head over to Impact. Turns out my hotel was so close to Disneyland I could've hit Space Mountain with a rubber band.

Anyways, I walked over to the convention center about 8:30 on Friday (Pacific time, of course) for the breakfast. They didn't have anything I was interested in eating (sorta a continental breakfast type thing. Danishes, fruit, all that crap), but the breakfast was certainly a thrill. The breakfast had three guest speakers. Anonymous people, really, names nobody would recognize. I think they were Bruce Meyers, Walker Evans, and Ivan "Ironman" Stewart. For those of you who really and truly don't recognize those names, those are three of the biggest legends in off road racing. During the breakfast these three icons talked about their successes and struggles both in the sport and in the business.

After the breakfast the exhibit floor opened up, giving the veterans a chance to share stories and talk business and giving amateurs like me a chance to gawk. One of the first things that amazed me was the size of some of the trucks at the show. Around here, as most locals know, there's a height limit for pickup trucks/suvs (I think it's about 7 feet). Out in California such limit doesn't exist. Many trucks at the show towered over me, making me feel like I had eaten the wrong thing while strolling through Wonderland. The tallest truck there was a silver Ford Super Duty so massive the top of my head was even with the top of the headlight (I'm six feet tall).

I made my rounds through the show talking to different businesses about Project Baja, as we have come to call it, and handed out business cards. The general reaction from those I talked to was often either awe and amazement or skeptical disbelief (the latter being the fault of all the people before us who said they'd build a truck to race Baja but never made it). I did make a good deal of what I hope to be beneficial connections on the floor though.

Around one in the afternoon I finally saw a familiar face over at the Currie Enterprises Booth. I originally ran into John Currie at the Stafford Supermoto race in 2007. His son, Brandon, races in the Supermoto Lite division for Yamaha/Graves Motorsports. I got in a conversation with John at the race about Baja and what sort of lunacy we had in store. We recognized eachother at Impact and resumed the conversation. I updated him on the progress of the truck. Our conversation was "interrupted" when a few of his clients from Colorado came over. Turns out John had invited them to check out the Currie Enterprises shop. So John turns to me and says "You want to come with us?" It wasn't a tough decision.

The Currie complex was amazing. I can't even begin to imagine how many rear ends there were in that place. They were everywhere, thousands of them. It also amazed me how many different rear ends were there. Most know Currie for Jeep rears and some for Fords, but when I was there they were also finishing up a rear end for a '32 roadster. Their machine shop meanwhile was something that would make any parts manufacturer jealous... or me at least. All the machining tools you could think of were there, from lathes to bridgeports to... well you get the idea. It was an incredible place.

We got back from Currie's just in time for the Impact Business Awards ceremony. Recipients of awards included Kent Kroeker and the late, great Mickey Thompson. After said ceremony, it was party time. Monster Energy was holding an "Aftermath Party" at the nearby Hotel Menage. It was a great chance to intermingle with the legends more casually (since it was a highly restricted access party). I got the chance to talk with Curt LeDuc, who lived in East Longmeadow, Mass before getting bit by the off road bug and moving to California. Curt was very excited to hear about what we were up to and gave me his card, saying I should call him if we needed everything. I also talked with "Pistol" Pete Sohren. One of his sponsors happened to be nearby and upon hearing about our project offered to make our team shirts. Another base covered by pure coincidence.

Saturday started with my morning walk to the convention center. On the way, I happened to run into Rob from Slime. Slime is a, well, slime. It's top notch flat prevention in liquid form. You put it in a tire and if said tire is punctured, the slime will seal up the hole instantly (at the Slime booth there was a tire with over 200 holes in it, all of them sealed by Slime). Anyways, Rob happened to recognize me from the day before and offered me a ride to the show in the "Slimemobile." Another surprise opportunity, just like that. I told Rob of our mission and sure enough, I got Slime'd.

The rest of the show was a little rougher. Having talked to pretty much everyone at the show and still being tired from Monster, I decided to park my butt over at the CORR booth for a while and enjoy their flatscreen paradise. I was probably there for an hour or so when I finally decided to grab my bag and take another lap. This proved to be harder than anticipated do to one large problem. Someone had taken my bag and all its contents, including my new camera. I called lost and found and security, accomplishing little more than confirming smart money was on me never getting my camera back. An unfortunate event, but one I simply had to accept. It was still a good trip. Fortunately I had uploaded Friday's photos to my computer when I got back to the hotel that night, so I still had some of my photos.

After the show's end Saturday, I returned to my room for a while, then strolled out to meet Rory and Mike for our last dinner in this pleasant western city. Mike was buying, so I ordered myself a full rack of babyback ribs (quite delicious). At the end of said meal, I parted ways with the other two, not to see them until I returned to New England. Those lucky bums got themselves a daytime flight back home while I was stuck to a redeye that would leave Santa Ana at 8 PM Sunday and arrive in Bradley at 5:30 AM Monday.

Sunday was spent mostly with me recovering from being spent. At John Wayne airport however I did meet a fellow Impact attendee from Fort Collins, Colorado (check it out, Matt, you done been recognized). My flight transfered in Denver, so I wound up on the same plane as him. We chatted briefly about the show and my project before parting ways to take our respective seats on the plane. I wish I could say I slept on the way to Denver, but truth be told I didn't, despite trying my best. I blame it on my non-reclining seat (I was in the row in front of the emergency exit). My layover in Denver was hardly a layover at all. By the time my plane to Denver landed, my flight from Denver to Bradley was already boarding (the primary reason I chose to fly Frontier). We ended up having to wait a while at the gate. Turns out the UMass Baseball team was on my flight, but their plane into Denver hadn't arrived yet. I did manage to sleep on the second leg of my flight home, but not until we were over Ohio (I know because the plane had this onboard map tracking thing. Ohio is the last state I remember). Once again I was stuck with a non-reclining seat, this time being the last row.

It was an amazing trip and I met a lot of incredible people. Now, however, I have dozens of calls to make and emails to send to follow up on the contacts I made at Impact. I need to reply to Matt's email, which has been sitting in my inbox for about a week now, and I really, really need to get some sleep. I was determined to stop putting off writing the Anaheim blog, so I'm putting the finishing touches on it now at 4 in the morning.

Well, I'm passing out on me keyboard, so I'll call it here. More news on the truck coming. Till then, thanks for reading, dudezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-- huh? wha? I'm awake, I swear.