The 2020 race season has begun! I raced at the Best in the Desert Parker 250 Short Course race last weekend and it was awesome!
My team and I headed to Parker, AZ on Thursday night. We arrived late, set-up in our pit, and turned in for the night. We were up early on Friday morning and headed to registration and tech. Everything went smoothly there, and then we loaded up and went back to the track to make sure my car was good to go for the race. After topping off with fuel and one last look at my car, I was ready to go.
I was racing in the Production 1000 class and went to line up behind the Turbo class at about 11:30 am. Our race was scheduled to start at noon and after a quick driver’s meeting at the line, we were ready to go! The Turbo class rows took off first, and then it was my class’s turn. I was in the first row of my class. The green flag went up and I had my hand on the ignition ready to start my car as it was a dead engine start. The flag flew, I started my car, and we took off!
I was second off the line and stayed on the car in front of me. This is always a really dusty race, so I wanted to make a pass as quickly as I could to avoid eating dust. The course was about 12 miles long and it was a one hour timed race. As we headed out on to the course, the turbos were ahead of us kicking up dust. There was a little wind that day so it helped to clear the track, but I wanted to get out ahead into clean air. I was able to make a pass on the car in my class about halfway through lap 1. I was also passing turbo cars and continued to stay on the gas.
My car was running great and handling the course well. I was able to fly through the whoop sections quickly and my suspension was working flawlessly. I got into a rhythm and had put a nice gap between the second car in my class and I in the first lap. Going into lap 2, I slowed a little due to the dust and difficulty seeing and the second place car was able to gain some ground on me. I was able to stay out in front on laps 2 and 3, but during lap 4, I picked a line that was rough and was passed by the car behind me. I stayed on his bumper as we went into a really rough section of the course. Unfortunately, he hit some extremely rough terrain and wasn’t able to keep it together. He rolled right in front of me. I hit the brakes and slowed way down to avoid colliding with him. I was able to get around him and took off. I immediately radioed into my pit to let them know what had happened so my crew could relay the information to his pit crew. My team radioed back to me to let me know his pit crew was in touch with him and he was ok.
Going into lap 5, I was running first in my class and second overall with the Turbo cars. I knew I had to drive smart and keep it together as time was going to expire soon. As we headed out into the desert for lap 5, I stayed focused. I had clean air in front of me so I was able to navigate through the course well. I headed into the infield, and after winding through the Parker Python for the last time, I crossed the finish line in 1st place in my class! I was the second car overall to finish behind the 1st place turbo finisher! It was an awesome way to start the 2020 season!
We are busy prepping both of my RS1’s for the first round of WORCS this coming weekend in Primm, NV. I can’t wait to get back out in the desert!
Thanks so much to all of these amazing companies and people that support my program: Benchmark Performance, Candle Motorsports, Method Race Wheels, GBC Motorsports, Crow Enterprizes, Elka Suspension, Super ATV, Roll Design, Energy Coil Racing, Factory UTV, Baja Designs, Gates G-Force, PRP Seats, Rugged Radios, Maxima Racing Oils, Bikeman Performance, Tireblocks, Crown Performance Products, Got Sand Performance, HOK9, Perrault Motorsports, Dirt Rider Designs, and my parents who make this possible for me! Thanks to Best in the Desert for putting on this awesome event and Harlen Foley for the amazing pictures! You can check out the Sims188 Racing team on Instagram @csims188 or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/csims188/.