HDRA, “Rockin on the River” Leaves Laughlin On A High Note

Simon | November 16, 2012

12HDRA_rotr_01 LAUGHLIN, NV – You can add one more HDRA race to the list of must do events in 2013. The association for racers, by racers, HDRA, put together another incredible event on the shores of the Colorado River in Laughlin, Nevada. The “Rockin on the River” race was loaded with action on the racecourse and special events the entire week of the race.

Things got started on Thursday night at the now named “Rockin on the River charity event” held at Bikinis Sports Bar. “We were hoping to do a little better than last year but we blew it out of the water,” said Danny Fraire of Locations Racing, “We were able to donate $1,200 last year to the Santa Cops program and the local Boys and Girls clubs in the Laughlin area. This year with the help of a lot of generous people and great support from HDRA and the racers, we got $5,800.00 in proceeds that will help a lot of well deserving families at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’m in total awe of my fellow offroad racers. They are going to help bring a lot of smiles to some great kids this holiday season.”

After the fun on Thursday, things got serious as the unlimited cars and trucks would be the first to hit the course at full speed during qualifying on Friday. It was a classic battle between the open wheel cars and the unlimited Trucks. Johnny Greaves unleashed the wicked Toyota motor in his Monster Energy, Toyota, Maxxis, Method Race Wheels, Fox Racing Shox Class 1 car taking the fastest time from Mike Mitchell who was driving his Cache Valley, Advantage Automotive, Mark Johnson Race Prep class 1. Third fastest was the new HRT Motorsports, Competitive Metals Open Class Truck of Brandon Arthur followed by the Open trucks of Ruben Ledezma and Gregg Hempel.

The Class 1 cars had the speed over the trucks in qualifying but not by much. The rest of the day was devoted to the fun run, a slow speed lap to familiarize racers with the course and then contingency where they could take in one of the Monster Energy FMX freestyle shows while they got their vehicle inspected.

Staging for heat 1 on Saturday morning took place at 6:45 a.m. Several unlimited teams took the opportunity to race in the sportsman class for a last minute shakedown and to check the course before their heats later in the day. For Jamie Galles, it was the first time his 7200 truck would hit the dirt after the crew at Brenthel Industries finished a major revision to the suspension and body. As Jamie slept, the team rolled into town after 2:00 a.m. only to be on the start line at 6:45 the same morning.

Results on Saturday showed Mike Mitchell getting even with Johnny Greaves for out qualifying him by taking the win by only seconds in Class 1. Brandon Arthur won the first race for his new Open Class truck and then followed it up with a victory in his 1400 truck by seven minutes over Jeremy Deakins who had Nick Isenhouer right on his tail. Other winners on the day were David Norris in class 10, Bryan Meyers in 1/2-1600, Gary Messer in 3000, Josh Quintero in 7200, Dan Unsicker in 800, Chris Shive in Class 8, Ryan Conery in 1100, Bill Morris 1900, Guy Savedra 550, Kyle Milligan 7100, Robert Roglin 8100, Thomas McAdams 900, Brian Groves 2000 and John Largent in the Wide Open Baja cars.

Jamie Galles finished a respectable third in class and the truck was in good enough shape for his crew to get some sleep Saturday night.

Sunday’s heats would be the final chance for some teams to post a win, wrap up a championship or just finish the season with a positive result. Sunday’s results would be added to Saturday’s time to determine the overall winners of the race. The top three finishers from Saturday where inverted so they would have to fight through the dust if they wanted to repeat their earlier results. The inversion shook things up in a few classes one of which was Class 10. Matt Laughlin had barely made it to the race. He made the decision to convert his car from a Class 12 to a Class 10 and it took longer than expected. They took delivery from Penhall Fabrication on Wednesday before the race and stopped in Barstow on their way to Laughlin so John Hoffman could tune the shocks.

In Saturday’s heat they did well finishing second but the transmission was stuck in gear on the last lap. They flew the tranny to Pahrump and back that night to fix it. Matt was able to start out front after the inversion and with clean air ahead he made excellent time taking the Class 10 win. “This was our first HDRA race,” said Matt Laughlin, “It was awesome. Even with the extra work on the car, we had a lot of fun. My car is going to be a rocket when we get it dialed in. Roger Norman took my Dad and some other family members around in his prerunner during the races. I can’t wait to do another HDRA race, we had a blast.”

Congratulations go out to Matt, Overall race winner Mike Mitchell and the rest of the victors at the HDRA, Rockin on the River race. It was a great weekend for the racer’s the fans and the kids who will have a great holiday season this year.

TOP 5 OVERALL RESULTS
1. Mike Mitchell
2. Brandon Arthur
3. Jim Tucker
4. Dan Unsicker
5. Matt Laughlin

[See hdrarace.com For Complete Results]

I am proud to list the following companies for helping make this a blowout year for our 2nd Annual Fundraiser and look forward to holding it next year. Danny Fraire, Locations Racing #8006

Gregg Hempel \ Superior Pipe and Supply
Mike Mitchell \ Mitchell Motorsports
F&L Racing Fuel
HDRA
Locations Racing \ Loctite
Tropicana Express Hotel
Riverside Hotel
River Palms Hotel
Bikinis Sports Bar \ Wirtz Beverage Nevada
Toyo Tires
BIAD Chili Products Las Cruces NM
King Shocks
RIGID Industries
NEO OIL
ORW Off Road Warehouse
McKenzies Performance Parts
Nick Moody \ LV AMSOIL
Figspeed Speed & Marine Parts
Dynamic Offroad Racing
Fast Eddies by Cookshack
Shift Up Motorsports
All In One Upholstrey
Marks in the Dirt \ Mark Pettit
Magnum Ink
Pure Hobby Racing
Desert People Videos
Ram Motorsports
SDHQ
CBR Performance Products
Method Race Wheels
Factory Transmissions Racing
Metal Mulisha
Starr Motorsports
Customfitz LED Lights
Big Sky Ammo

About HDRA – High Desert Racing Association (HDRA) is a professional off-road racing organization based in Las Vegas, NV. HDRA currently sanctions off-road racing events in both Nevada and California. Their 2012 schedule includes five races ranging from 10-12 mile multi-lap DesertCross courses all the way to a 500-mile long distance cross-country desert race. Visit www.hdrarace.com for more information.