Robby Gordon Wins BITD Parker 425

The 2012 Best in the Desert season starts with the return to Parker, Arizona, for the Parker 425, a 141-mile loop of the best and most brutal terrain Arizona has to offer. This is the 41st time the legendary race has run here in Parker, and it would prove to be tough as ever.

Starting first off the line was Rob MacCachren driving for Steve Sourapas. MacCachren had a commanding lead at the end of lap one with over 15 minutes on the competition, but he dropped off the pace with engine issues and ultimately handed the lead to Robby Gordon who would go on to take the overall win.

Parker 425 Photo Highlights

Always a fan favorite, Gordon drove a Geiser Brothers-designed Class 1500 truggy to the overall win and first in Class 1500.

“I love racing in Parker, an awesome race course and the guys did a great job on the racecar,” Gordon said. “These Toyo Tires were awesome and held up great on this rough course. We just had a clean run with no issues.”

When asked how it felt to run in a Geiser vehicle, Gordon said the learning curve wasn’t too tough.

“The Geiser is good, it’s just different,” he said. “It took me a little while to catch on but by the second lap I was comfortable in it. It goes through the big bumps really good. I have no complaints. Obviously we had a good run, and anytime you can win you can’t complain much!”

Fighting hard to reclaim that elusive top spot that he once knew so well was Troy Herbst, who took the win in Trick Truck and second overall.

“We’re really happy; we ran pretty good and the guys at the shop put a great truck together for us after the beating it took at the Baja 1000,” Herbst said. “The guys started from the ground up and worked hard on it so we can get back to winning again.

“We have a great team with BFG, Monster and the Arciero family and [Larry] Roeseler. We have the team we just need to get back to that top spot on the podium.”

Taking the third spot overall and second in Truck Truck was Mark Weyhrich.

“We had a good day but I had a bug or something, and around race mile 120 we were chasing Sam Berri and I had to pull over and take a sh*&!” Weyhrich said while laughing. “I felt like I was going to die with this bout of diarrhea and it cost us the race. My co-driver saved me from using my gloves and threw me a towel. It’s funny now but it cost us the race. But other than that we’re happy with the second in class; it ended up being a good day.”

Fourth overall and second in Class 1500 was Ray Griffith, who credited his team and truck for the win.

“We ran flawless all day; everything ran super good on the truck,” Griffith said. “The course got super chewed up by the last lap, but we pushed as hard as we could to try and close the gap on Robby and stretch it out over the guys behind us. But we made it and we’re happy!”

Taking the third spot for Class 1500 and sixth overall was Mike Childress in his Porter buggy.

“At one point we we’re just 50 seconds out of the overall lead. We did a tire change every lap and had a mistake in the pit and one of the guys left a wheel loose,” said a visibly disappointed Childress. “We got about 50 miles out and I started to feel a bad vibration and we pulled over to check it and we had one lug nut left. It had also broke off a stud and loosened another so we stole some lug nuts off the other wheels and limped it in.”

Continuing his strong showing in his rookie year with the big boys was Juan Carlos Lopez in the #18 RPM/Speed Energy Geiser truck finishing third in Trick Truck.

“This was a tough race, very rocky but other sections were very fast and very fun,” said Lopez.  “I’m just so happy to have this opportunity to race with [truck owner] Clyde [Stacy].”

Six more bike and buggy/truck races are left on the Best in the Desert calendar. What has many racers exciting is the newest edition to the BITD race schedule The Mint 400. The Mint is the next big buggy/truck race and it will be held just outside Las Vegas. If you love off-road racing or are even just a little curious, the Mint 400 will be an entertaining race. For more information, visit BITD.com.

Check out more photo highlights from Best in the Desert's Parker 425:

Parker 425 Photo Highlights