June 28, 2006
June 2006 Racing Tour

MENIFEE, CA- After 6 rounds of MOD and three rounds of the Major League of Monster Trucks it is nice to be home. We did events in Missoula, MT, Louiston, ID and Cottage Grove, OR for the MOD Series and Yakima, WA for the Major League of Monster Trucks.

In Missoula, MT the Fabtech Obsession was in the semi finals for both straight line and obstacle course racing in Round 6. In Louiston, ID Round 7 the Fabtech Obsession was seen in the finals of straight line drags and in the semi finals of obstacle course racing. In Round 8 the Fabtech Obsession lost high gear in qualifying. With some creative work and help from Kreg Christensen of the Dragon Slayer we put an over drive in the transfer case. This enabled us to make it to the semi finals in straight line racing. Still having only low gear Rick drove the truck all the way to the finals were he broke Big Foot's winning streak. Rick dedicated the win to his Father who was ill at home and happy to hear the results. In Yakima, WA the Fabtech Obsession made it to the semi finals on Saturday night and on Sunday he made it to the finals against Bigfoot. Rick's Father passed away early Sunday morning and this made Rick even more focused to do his best in honor of his Father.

We left Yakima, WA and headed to Cottage Grove, OR and left the truck and flew home to attend Rick's Dad's funeral. Rick and Jill flew back the next morning to Oregon to make the race on Friday to take over points in the MOD series. Rick is determined to win the MOD series to dedicate it to his Dad. Arriving on Friday afternoon it was great to see some of the drivers and MOD staff pull together for us and had the truck tired up. We had about two and a half hours of working on the truck before it was ready to race. Unfortunately we missed the pit party. The Fabtech Obsession did make it for the announcements, where they had a moment of silence for Rick's Father which was very touching.

Friday night is the most controversial round in MOD series. It started out early Friday afternoon with two team mates' trucks getting a practice run on the track. This has never been allowed before in MOD racing. In qualifying against Bigfoot there were timing light issues which were corrected. Then Bigfoot and Fabtech Obsession had to rerun their pass. Obsession got the green light for the win and Rick was determined to keep up this pace. Round one Rick won Iron Outlaw. In the semi finals Rick won Bounty Hunter. In the finals it was the Fabtech Obsession against Iron Outlaw coming back as a fast loser. When the dust settled MOD official timing lights called the Fabtech Obsession the winner. During our winners interview Rick dedicated the trophy to his Father. This made the crowd cheer even louder. Rick said it was a true honor defeating someone with Lindsey's talent. Unknown to Lindsey and Rick, Lindsey's team mate complained that Lindsey had won. We were told that this series is ran by timing lights and is the closest form of real racing you can possibly get. In the previous year of racing MOD we were informed that a truck jumped the timing lights and was still called the loser. NHRA just has an incident with a similar problem and still stuck with the timing light to be the final out come. With this complaint from Outlaw's team mate officials went by the camera. Officials told us Outlaw had won by the camera even though both lights were tripped. The camera is suppose to be used incase the timing lights do not work. In this case both lanes worked.

With the emotional rollercoaster Rick struggled through the rest of round 9 and 10 but still left Cottage Grove in first place in obstacle racing and two points away from first place in straight line racing for the year.