Shannon & Tyler
Michael, Dennis, Steven, & Frank
The Thing Motorsports TT was finally able to break it's SCORE curse and finish a race in the Trophy Truck division.
We'de done pretty well in MDR in our first season by winning the Class 1 Championship, but had had two DNF's in our SCORE attempts. Finally we ran a steady race in this weekend's 250 and pulled out a 14th, 39 minutes behind the TT winner.
Tony Cortes started as driver with Brice Faulwettor as co-driver. Car owner Frank Thing and his daughter Marsha got in at Via de Trinidad and finished.
It wasn't without drama. On the road over the peninsula accross the mountains, Frank had both front wheels hanging over the edge of a very high drop off after hitting a high berm "not quite right" at speed. With Marsha flagging race traffic, Frank was able to coax "The Thing" back on to the course and on to the finish. Frank said he was hardly able to buckle his harness after getting back into the truck, he was so shaken. There were a couple of close calls and saves on the first 1/2 of the race also, but they happened so quickly there was hardly time to reflect on them until after it was over. This 14th for us felt as good or better than an MDR win. We've felt all along that we could run with the multi-million dollar teams through hard work and determination. We're far from a win, but for now we'll settle for a respectable finish.
The Thing Motorsports/San Diego Water Storage Class 7 #701 overcame the awful silt beds and finished with a 3rd, out of over a dozen starters. The silt cost them 45 minutes.
Shannon Dierkop started with Tyler Poppert as his co and then they switched seats at the same Via D. pits with Tyler finishing up.
Shannon and Tyler are going after the SCORE Class 7 points championship for this season. They came into Santo Tomas with a missing 2/3 of a bedside after a very scarey hillside encounter with a car that was half over the edge, half on the trail.
I'm proud of our team and all of our volunteers who help us make this happen. We'll be flying high on this buzz for a while. We all work together very well. Thank you to all of you who helped us make this happen, especially to young Brice whose energy and persistence force me to keep trying to make our truck better (the TT).
Congratulations to all race finishers and especially the respective class winners.
Tony
TT#58
Contingency: Jaclyn, Bonnie, Karen, Chris, Sisco, & Ashlee
The Trophy Truck
701 Pit