Speedway Expo. The First of Two Very Exciting Weeks

For the first time since we bought the truck, we showed it to the public. For the second year, Speedway Expo was kind enough to sponsor us by giving us booth space at the show. This time though we actually had a truck to put in it. The truck of course hasn't been painted yet, but with the new wheels and tires it still looked amazing.

As usual, Nick was my right hand man on the job. We had the truck towed to Expo by Bach Towing and got it there around 2 PM. It took the entire duration of 2 to 5 to get the other elements of the Expo booth set up (simulator, table, TVs, etc). Cal Green of Speedway Expo rolled by about the time the show started and gave us a special present: a Dale Earnhardt Sr 1998 Daytona 500 lithograph by NASCAR artist Sam Bass. Bass sent up a few lithographs for the nonprofits at the show to auction off. The lithograph was amazing and we were able to sell quite a few raffle tickets.

Friday was a relatively show day at Expo, with not that many people at the show. We ran Guitar Hero III in the booth, which resulted in a steady stream of kids coming over and sitting down on the PS2. Raffle ticket sales were incredibly slow, with nobody buying a ticket in the first three hours (though we did have a few simple monetary donations). Toward the end of the day I walked by the Racing Against Cancer booth and found out they were selling their tickets for significantly less. We lowered the cost of the raffle tickets to the same as RAC's (something we should have checked on at the start), and sales quickly increased.

Saturday was much more exciting. From the moment the doors opened the Mallory Complex was packed with racing fans, despite the snow storm that was taking place. We removed Guitar Hero III from the booth and replaced it with a much more appropriately themed DiRT, an off road racing game that almost was named the 2007 Sports Game of the Year. DiRT is as much an off road simulator as it is a game, with the cars responding very realistically (for better or worse, depending on how you drive). Unfortunately we weren't able to acquire a steering wheel and pedals for the game, so we weren't able to complete the off road racing experience, which resulted in the game being played almost exclusively by the younger crowd.

The biggest moment of Saturday... hell, the biggest moment of the entire weekend, came Saturday afternoon when defending Craftsman Truck Series champion Ron Horniday, who was at Expo for an autograph session, made a surprise stop by our booth. Ron was a great guy and showed significant interest in what we were doing, even though it was a Ford (Ron, if you're reading this, that one was for you). Ron signed the tailgate of the truck and made a bit of a donation to the cause. We were told later that on the ride back to the airport he was talking about our project.

Sunday was much like Saturday in attendance. Of course by the time Sunday rolled around all us exhibitors were getting a wee bit tired. So we really pretty much took the day easy and relaxed in the booth. The show ended at 5 and, thanks to Adam being there with us on Sunday, we managed to tear things down rather quickly, though the expert exhibitors still made us amateurs feel like we were moving in slow motion. Thanks to another Bach tow we got the truck back to the shop around 7 or so. We rolled it in, jacked it up, and with a little patience and careful maneuvering we got it back in its corner.

Of course the week after Expo, I flew out to L.A. for the Off Road Impact show. But that's for another blog (which I should have up by tomorrow). Till then, thanks for reading, dudes.


The truck with all its sponsor logos on for the show. It be lookin good

The Venture Crew 35 booth space at Speedway Expo

A few kids play the off road simulator

Nick sits with the truck and Sam Bass Lithograph

Ron Horniday and I, two great truck racers :-P

The back of the truck. Ron made sure he signed it big

Ron's autograph

There was a feature article about us in the Speedway Expo program

Tony Stewart's hearse. The most popular car at the show

Including the Crew Ranger there were only three off road trucks at the show (plus the Thrasher monster truck and a pair of buggys). This would be one of the three

The Good, The Bad, And The Bloody

Well, things have been pretty crazy now that we've moved the truck to Rory's shop. Now that we're right down in Ellington we're in, on, or under the truck a good five days a week. We've got the living hell stripped out of it now. Absolutely nothing in the cab but the wheel and the pedals (and the crash sensor for the air bags). Even the little bit of heater box/AC system that was left from the Clayton strip is gone. Under the hood, there's absolutely nothing left but the engine itself. The transmission and drive shafts are gone, largely because we're going to put in a new tranny (new is a relative term. It's from a 1993 Explorer). Sway bars are gone, rear shocks are gone. I mean that sucker is stripped.

So, good, bad, ugly. Let's start with the bad. The bad was the transmission we removed. Don't get me wrong. The transmission works great. But man, that sucker was a massive pain to get out of the truck. In the end, it took three days of work to finally extricate it. Murphy was rocking in full force. From stuck bolts, to rusted bolts that wouldn't come out, to a transfer case that even with all bolts removed needed to be chiseled off the tranny. It was the most difficult thing we've had to deal with thus far.

The good. Well the biggest good is that our wheels and tires came in and look badass. For those who don't know, American Racing sponsored us with eight Teflon coated rims designed specifically and solely for off road racing. And BF Goodrich sponsored us with four Baja T/A tires, with more coming before our first race. So right now the truck's sitting on a good three grand of swag. And it looks AWESOME!

The ugly? That would be my finger. Rory, aside from being a desert racing guru, is apparently a little bit psychic. He said to me "sooner or later you're going to bite yourself with that angle grinder." About ten minutes later I did exactly that. I managed to tag myself pretty good on the left index finger right at the lower knuckle. While not a serious injury, it was bleeding profusely enough that I had to go outside because I was bleeding all over Rory's floor. I ended up just putting a "shop bandage" over it and going back to work, but I couldn't bend that finger for about a week. I've almost got full motion back now, though it's still a tad stiff from the swelling.

Right now the truck's at Speedway Expo, which I'll expand on in tomorrow's blog. Fortunately this place has wi-fi, so I've been able to upload all my photos and such, which, for those wondering, is why I hadn't blogged sooner. I've been having some hardcore photo upload issues.

Well, gotta go sell some raffle tickets. As always, thanks for reading, dudes.


Project leader Steven Harrell (better known as me) plays human groundhog in the engine compartment

One of the new American Racing rims

The Ranger at the peak if it's strippage

Crew members Ryan Mahan, Bill, and Nick Schott work on the engine

Crew members Nick Schott and Ryan Mahan battle the transmission. It wouldn't be out for another two days

Desert guru Rory torches off a stuck bolt on the shift lever

My bloody finger after an angle grinder gets the upper hand on me (hahaha. Hand. It's funny)

My finger all fixed up with a "shop bandage"

Crew member Adam Larson uses his Jeep to pull the Explorer out of the ground so we can remove its transmission for the Ranger

Crew member Nick Schott preps the hubs for welding