Posted: 10/26/15
Best in the Desert: Bluewater Desert Challenge
Words by Mike Plunkett
Photos by Mike Plunkett and Will Turk
Rob MacCachren and Steve Sourapas take top honors at the Bluewater Desert Challenge! Although located in my hometown of Parker, Arizona for years, this race has never made it onto my schedule. Yet after finally having opportunity to attend this race, I believe this race is going on my “must attend” list! Everything about this race, from the time trials, to the tech inspection at the Bluewater Casino, to the the two days of action-packed racing, just screamed “fan friendly”!
The action began on Thursday with time trials for Class 8000, Class 1500, and the 1400 Classes. After a half-day of qualifying for their perspective starting positions for Saturdays race, everyone was invited to the BlueWater Resort for General Tires Appreciation Party at The Cantina on the river! Following the relaxing evening at The Cantina, Friday was a day of Car and Truck Contingency and Technical Inspection located in the North Parking Lot of the BlueWater Resort and Casino. This gave the teams and fans the opportunity to get an up close and personal look at the drivers and vehicles about to compete in the two day race. I witnessed racers, friends, and fans alike enjoying the facilities at the BlueWater Resort. Everything from gaming, the water theme park inside the casino, to just a relaxing swim in the Colorado River, there was fun for everyone! After a full day of relaxing and fun, the battle was set to begin first thing Saturday morning.
The race was set up in a two day format which allowed the teams to start day two from however well they finished in day one. Race one would be the Cars/Trucks/UTV Classes ranging from 1900-2900-1800-4700 and would leave the line at 6:15am sharp. Following those classes, race two would be the Cars and Trucks in the 6000-2000-3000-7100-3700-1700 classes and would leave the line at 8:30am. Then the Cars and Trucks from the 1000-7200-8000 class would leave the line at 10:15am for race three. Shortly there after, race four for the the day would be Cars and Trucks from the 1500-2400 classes and would leave the line shortly after twelve noon. Finishing off the day, race five would be the Big Boys of the Truck Class 1400-6100 and would leave the line at 1:30pm. Never having been to this race before, my cousin and I chose to spend these first two races searching for prime real estate of where to shoot the faster and more aggressive vehicles from.
Day one was slightly cloudy and had a little bit of a breeze blowing, which was to everyone's advantage for not so hot temperatures and visibility purposes. We ended up settling on a location around mile marker 16. It allowed us to catch teams making a hard drifting turn directly in front of us, before heading off into Sam Andy and Ron’s Parking Lot and Marylin’s Fun Time. If we weren’t able to get a clear shot of them there, we had another chance to catch them just after mile marker 18 coming back towards us, before heading off to the start/finish line a few miles away. A few highlights from day one and our vantage point on the track came from race three in the 7200 class. A hometown favorite and long time racer, Randy Merritt of Mongo Racing, in his 7281 truck had started the race in pole position. He was able to hold onto his lead until the third and final lap of the day, when he suffered a flat tire and had to settle for a fourth place finish for the day. In race four in the 1500 class, Sam Berri and Shannon Campbell were both debuting their new cars. Shannon had qualified fifth and was trying to chase down Sam Berri who had qualified on the pole. Sam was still out front when he came by us at mile marker 16, with Shannon coming by in third and not too far behind Sam. I had moved over to where I could catch them coming back by just after mile marker 18 just in time to see Sam still out front and starting to leave the field behind. I sat there for several minutes waiting for Shannon to come through, only to see that several other cars had got around him before I finally saw him come by. I later found out that he had hit a berm in the dust and landed on his lid, but recovered and managed to continue on and finish in at ninth for the day. In the main event for the day, Dale Dondel had left the line first and was followed and chased by Rob MacCachren for most of the race until again in the same part of the course, Rob MacCachren came out of the dust in first place after mile marker 18. We never did see Dale Dondel come by us leaving Rob Mac to start first off the line for day two!
Day two was clear of clouds with very little to no breeze at all. This meant that it was going to be much hotter, with less visibility than day one. We headed to a spot on the course that we had seen the day before. We thought this spot would be much better after the course became rutted from the traffic of day one! We were right at a location between mile marker five and six called the Bunny Jump. The racing from day one had developed a kicker at the jump, that was sending the vehicles that chose that lane into a violent noise dive. We could see right away that by the time the big boys got running, this was going to be the place to be!
After watching the first two classes of racing in the heat with low visibility conditions. I could see that the next three classes were going to get interesting since they traveled at much higher speeds! This would make passing nearly impossible, and with the temperature reaching close to 100 degrees we wondered how this was going effect the vehicles? I did my best to capture some images in a silt bed that would show everyone how much of a struggle these drivers faced just to stay on course, let alone make a clean pass on anyone! After the first lap of race three when the vehicles tended to spread out a little, I could see once again our hometown hero Randy Merritt was on the move charging to the front even through the dust. I got myself into a position to catch him coming through on his final lap, only to see him come out of the dust with a broken front shock that forced him to stop. As race three came to an end, I could see that kicker at the bunny jump had grown to almost the size of complete vehicle! These next two class of racers would have one more serious hazard to contend with!
As race four started, it wasn’t long before that kicker took its first victim. Roughly about the fifth or sixth vehicle through there, I could hear a vehicle somersaulting through the air, and when the dust settled there was a vehicle on its side. The drivers were okay, but the car was too damaged and they were out of the race! Shannon Campbell came charging through, only to lose a ring and pinion gear shortly after causing him to call it early. With Sam Berri and Shannon Campbell out the race, Kevin Thompson in the 1590 vehicle was able to bring home the win in the 1500 class.
As the big boys were about to begin, I was torn between getting some awesome images of these trucks plowing their way through the silt or being in position to catch a vehicle that was bound to get hurdled through that kicker. I chose to to gather some images as they made their way through the silt for the first lap, then mid way through the second lap I made my way towards that kicker and see how things went. As it turned out I had just made it to the kicker in time to capture Eric Hustead in his truck number 38 doing a violent somersault! They were both okay, but the truck was also too damaged to continue and they were forced to call it quits. Rob MacCachren was clearly out front, but it appeared that Jason Voss, last year's season Champion, was gaining ground on the leader until he was forced to stop due to an engine issue. From that point on Rob was able to keep things together and went on to finish almost nine minutes ahead of second place. Congrats to Rob MacCachren and Steve Sourapas for taking the win at the BlueWater Desert Challenge!
In conclusion, this is an incredible race that is very fan friendly. With its two day race format at three laps of 25 miles per day, it is much easier to see these drivers from several different locations throughout the race. This will be a race that I hope to get put on my schedule for next year. It is four days of fun and is a race that can produce some incredible images of some very entertaining racing! If you have never attended the BITD BlueWater Desert Challenge, I highly recommend putting this race on your schedule. You will not be disappointed!
The top three winners from each race went as such:
Race 1= 1) 1918 Jason Lambert 2) 1904 Cory Sappington 3) 1927 Ben Wilson
Race 2= 1) 3006 Nic Bayes 2) 6031 Chris Hall 3) 6098 Edmundo Chantler
Race 3= 1) 1025 Chad Dohrman 2) 1067 Roger Starkey 3) 1015 Sam Hilfiker and 8027 Steve Olliges 7287 Dallas Luttrell finished directly behind the 10 cars
Race 4= 1) 1590 Kevin Thompson 2) 1532 Cody Parkhouse 3) 1529 Scott Bailey
Race 5= 1) 6 Rob MacCachren 2) 5 Clyde Stacy 3) 27 Steve Olliges
Please enjoy taking a look at some more photos we were able to capture at this incredible race..
