Dear Friends,
I’ve been in this business for quite some time now, but once in a while I still experience a premiere. The next one to come will be on the first weekend in June, at the Baja 500. Armin Kremer and I will race our AGM-entered Class 1 Buggy together for the first time. I’ll do the start in Ensenada on the west coast and the first stint over 245 miles. Then the other Armin will grab the wheel. Armin is looking forward to his new role: “Finally I’m going to see the east coast!” – Until now Armin was always the start driver and had no chance to see the second part of the route. Our competitors in the SCORE Series are curious to see where the two Germans will end up in their AGM Buggy. Well, we’re aiming for a class win. Let’s see…
Two Germans racing in Mexico – our names are very exotic there.
Talking about premieres: The work on our new AMG Trophy Truck is making excellent progress. Our team boss Martin Christensen oversees the design and assembly and is totally enthusiastic about the outcome. We have adopted many ideas from the World Rally Cars, especially in saving weight. Specialists JIMCO Racing with their boss Mike Julson build the chassis. Mike is open to all our crazy ideas, and he supports us with all his experience and competence. Another specialist company contributes greatly to our progress: It’s our neighbour in Escondido, Meziere Enterprises. They are able to build special components for our suspension, parts like the bell housing – basically everything down to the starter motor (which weighs half of the normal starters) and the alternator. I think neither JIMCO nor Meziere have the word “impossible” in their vocabulary. Whatever our ideas are, they turn them into reality.
Specialists JIMCO Racing build our chassis for the Trophy Truck.
Tri Star Metals deliver the material for our tubular frame chassis. They are the US subsidiary of Germany based Stammcut. Tri Star Metals are a well known for their quality, flexibility and reliability. That also applies to Bilstein USA. Bilstein USA are currently building special shocks for our Trophy Truck. After our excellent experiences with their “Black Hawk” shocks for our Buggy, Bilstein USA was the natural choice for our next big project. All in all I’m happy and proud to say that we have top partners on board.
It is vitally important to have such reliable partners in business, and I’m lucky enough to have such partners. In fact many of them have become friends. But unfortunately there are people in our industry who are unreliable when it comes to making commitments and promises. And I have to say something negative at this point: Sadly, we’ve had to cancel the Baja 300 Powerdays which was planned for July. Too many sponsors promised and did not deliver. Too many people just didn’t understand that at a certain point in time you’ve got to commit to make things happening. And as far as the governing bodies are concerned – the sportive and the political – there is just too much ignorance and half-hearted reluctance. And to be honest, it saddens me to see the lack of decency and manners.
That’s what it’s all about: I can’t wait to get back into the cockpit.
Okay, that’s enough complaining. It’s time to say a big “THANK YOU!” to everybody who was so involved over the last years to try and get the Powerdays off the ground. I am very confident that we’ll succeed in the future. Now it’s almost time for me to jump aboard the plane to the US for the coming Baja 500. I look forward to climbing into the cockpit, put my foot down and see all my friends in Escondido again.
I’ll be back here soon with news from the race.
Best wishes,
Armin.
Original: race-deZert.com
by Klaus Rasch
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