Intro Of Bower

[BobBower]

Blanco has suggested an introduction to the other members of the Class 3 Racing.

I’m one of those guys who has been knocking around a while. Off-road racing has been a drug for me since… Hmmm, a long time.

My early days were with BFGoodrich. In the mid 70’s I got in Bob Gordon’s Class 2 Chenowth. Things changed right then and there. Woof!

That was followed in the early 80’s when I headed up the BFG off-road race program. During that assignment I made some changes to how BFG went racing in the desert. In 1982 I formed the BFG pitting organization.

In the mid 80’s when I started to spend more time as a right seat guy it was clear that maps with chase roads marked and other details would help our chase team. My early maps were pretty crude compared to the BFG maps of today, but at the time I only made them for my team and me. They seemed to work out so I made copies for other teams. Over time the company saw merit in expanding the idea, and took over the production of the BFG maps and pitting operation. It was great because it made the stuff available to more racers and teams. Safety for the teams was the primary objective then, just as it is today.

I started to spend more time in the right seat when I relocated to the west coast. Not that there was a plan; only that there kept being these great opportunities. So heck! I jumped at the offers. As a result through the 80’s and early 90’s I ended up being the right seat for quite a few drivers. It started in Class 3 and then on to Class 4, then Class 8 and then Class 7S. Over the years I was very lucky to be asked to join up with some great teams and drivers.

Don’t get me wrong… not every race produced a win. In fact those were hard to come by. There have been some wins. Some were big. But the seat time was always good. Still is. Getting a checkered flag is better than a tow rope at the end of a race. But, like everyone else, there have been a lot of tow ropes.

As is true for everyone in off-road racing, along the way you make friends. There is an old saying… “When your racing days are over… no matter how well you did or did not do, all you end up with are memories, friends and 8x10’s!” I’ll tell you what… that is SO accurate. I’m a lucky guy.

Over time I’ve done a little TV, some writing, some photography, and a lot of rock and roll good times in the right seat. I’ve been known to jabber about stuff. I’ve been accused of having my mouth go like a ducks ass after a race. Okay… Guilty.

I’m always looking forward to the next race. Checkered or tow rope. Whatever the outcome, I’ll be doing it with good friends.

[Blanco]

Thanks for the brief history, I did'nt know the extent of your involvement.

Cudos to you! :)
I really do feel honored to have you here on C3R & hope to see you become a regular on the site & the Class.

[AngerIssues]

Welcome Bob! You've certainly been around as long as I can remember!!!

Stop by the JSMDA pit at 870 for a cold one!! Look for my white bronco as a "pit vehicle".

Toss up a pic of your Bronco??

Still involved with the Off-road Hall of Fame?

[BobBower]

Welcome Bob! You've certainly been around as long as I can remember!!!

Stop by the JSMDA pit at 870 for a cold one!! Look for my white bronco as a "pit vehicle".

Toss up a pic of your Bronco??

Still involved with the Off-road Hall of Fame?

Hi Ken,
Tough duty for you huh. Pitting in Loreto. Wouldn't you rather have the Santa Rita silt beds as a place to spend a couple of days and nights? NOT!

I'll look for your Bronco, but I don't know what JSMDA stands for. What is it?

Yes, I'm still involved with the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame. More now than ever actually. There are eight new inductees this year. Click on over to www.ormhof.org and browse around. ORMHOF is something I feel very good about. It's real, and it's stable. If we continue to run it the way we are, it will be there for a long time. It's also partly yours. When you joined last March at the Baja 250, your donation went to work to help us operate. We don't have a lot of overhead because we are inside the National Automobile Museum free of rent. We pay nothing to be there. That's huge. I hope you like the book, 1000 Miles To Glory. Don't forget to take it to Baja with you. There will be no better time to get some of the legendary guys to autograph it.

And... a picture of my Bronco.... Parked just above the silt beds at Santa Rita during my prerun of the 2004 Baja 1000.

[rhino105]

JSMDA - what is it and is there a shot you can get to get rid of it?




JSMDA is a Hurricane of another name, Baja sees them every year but they have yet to name one like this.



Being unleashed on the world of desert racing is a new twist for Trophy Truck racing in Baja this November at the 40th anniversary of the SCORE Tecate Baja 1000. 5 Trophy Truck teams and their respected pit groups, parts, equipment and logistics will be shared for the first time JSMDA venture.



It all started with Matt Scaroni of SMD Motor Sports and Cameron Steele of the Desert Assassins speaking of how both teams brought tons of resources to Baja but still thought they could do it better. One step forward and the two Einstein’s realized they have virtually identical Geiser Bros trucks and off they went on the idea of co-mingling pits and resources and hence the SMDA was born.



Big poppa Steve Scaroni stepped in and showed what a logistic wiz he is and now they were really moving in the right direction.



As the idea grew the new pit team thought of good friend and former SCORE class 8 and BITD Trick Truck champion Jesse Jones and his similar link to winning builder Geiser Bros. Add in their assets and wins to the SMD multi Protruck Championships and the Desert Assassins 3 championships in two years and you now have the JSMDA.



Although the group had run out of letters and felt the acronym was solid they still had a place on the team for the #7 truck of Scott Steinberger and Dave Sykes and with there contribution the team will now have more pit support than anyone on the Peninsula, they think!



The team has an interesting make up especially when you add Jesse’s partner Wally Dallenbach Jr. who is a former NASCAR star and NBC commentator who JSMDA team mate Cameron Steele has worked with this year on network TV shows and helped to introduce the two. Mix in martial arts expert and Baja top 10 finisher Ikowa Hanowa #14 from Japan and former Open Pro bike champion Mike Childress who has two Overall Baja Championships and you have quite a wealth of knowledge on one team.



The program also extends to the DA’s SCORE Lite and 7sx effort as well as their Open Pro Bike #23x. All the teams are now one moving forward in an attempt to pit one or more of the vehicles to victory at the 2007 SCORE Tecate Baja 1000.



Vic Curl of Trackside Performance who at one time was part of the PPI/Ivan Stewart juggernaut is firmly entrenched in this program and loves it. “We have the support to make an effort that may have not been seen before in Baja” said Curl.



JSMDA is….

28 fixed pits
4 semis/box vans
16 fueling stations
14 chase trucks
Home base camp in California manned for entire event
4 airplanes
More Sat phones and radios than you can count
Emergency help for any team in need


Who is JSMDA

SMD Motorsports – Steve, Matt and David Scaroni TT#27
Desert Assassins – Cameron Steele, Darren Hardesty, Kash Vessels and Heidi Steele TT#16, #1249, #743
Jones Motor Sports – Jesse Jones, Wally Dallenbach Jr., Mike Voyles #76
Trackside Performance – Vic Curl and Chuck Mathews with Ikowa Hanowa #14 and #302
Geiser Bros. – Rick Geiser and crew
PCI Racing – TT#7 Scott Steinberger, Dave Sykes and Mikey Childress
ADV Rider pits headed by Trey Piersall, Rick Felden and Jake Buell
OC Pools crew – Mike Brunning and Bryant Layton

[fj40]

That was followed in the early 80’s when I headed up the BFG off-road race program. During that assignment I made some changes to how BFG went racing in the desert. In 1982 I formed the BFG pitting organization.

In the mid 80’s when I started to spend more time as a right seat guy it was clear that maps with chase roads marked and other details would help our chase team. My early maps were pretty crude compared to the BFG maps of today, but at the time I only made them for my team and me. They seemed to work out so I made copies for other teams. Over time the company saw merit in expanding the idea, and took over the production of the BFG maps and pitting operation. It was great because it made the stuff available to more racers and teams. Safety for the teams was the primary objective then, just as it is today.

You are responsible for this?????? Then I really have to thank you, whit out this program, our racing effort would be long gone.
Again, Welcome to C3R!!!

[BobBower]

You are responsible for this?????? Then I really have to thank you, whit out this program, our racing effort would be long gone.
Again, Welcome to C3R!!!

BFG had several teams that were receiving some level of sponsorship back then. It was not an organization of teams really. Just independent race teams with a tire in common.

The tire wars were heating up with BFG, Goodyear, and a few smaller tire companies as players. We had lots of proposals from racers for sponsorship. All wanted tons of $$. As most proposals pointed out, "off-road racing is expensive!" Trouble was, BFG did not have as much budget as people thought. Not even close.

I always thought of sponsorship as a supporting arrangement. To most people that would mean cash. We didn't have it. But those teams needed support to help them deliver on their promises of wins for BFG.

It just made sense to me that if Team MacPherson could plant their trailer at one spot, and Don Adams could put his trailer at another spot, and Stroppe at yet another, and the BFG trailer at still another, that everybody would have great pits at a lower cost than doing every pit for themselves. Turns out I was right. 1982 was a long time ago, but things worked out Okay.

We had fun doing it too. Frank DeAngelo was my Tractor Trailer driver. The Minton brothers loved to cook. Everybody liked eating. So those pits became somewhat of an oasis for racers. I remember showing movies in the Nuevo Junction pit at one Baja 1000. Mind you, this was before there was anything digital. We set up a big screen, ran power to a 16mm projector, and made popcorn. The movie everyone liked best was the Mint 400.

The maps were a different story. They started in '86. In the '85 Baja 1000 I was with Mike Randall in the Class 4 Honcho. We got horribly and off course. Ended up stuck in a tidal mud flat down around Punta Prieta. They didn't find us for two days. My wife was not impressed. She nearly pulled the plug on my off-road racing adventures.

From that day forward I swore I'd never not know where I was in Baja so I started to beg rides on preruns. I took my Auto Club map and aviation sectional maps with me and made notes of every KM mark where a road could be used for chase, or a gas stop, or a pit location. I even learned to read the stars to keep oriented. She scared the crap out of me, so I knew I'd better have my S*** together!

All the info ended up in a little book that I took in the race car with me and the chase guys had copies. There were no GPS plot trails to follow in those days. In the '86 Baja 1000 Mike Randall and I went Ensenada to La Paz in the Class 7 4X4 Comanche. We got there in just over 30 hours with a 6th place. But we didn't get lost.

So if those BFG maps have helped you in your race adventures, thank my wife, not me.

[Blanco]

if those BFG maps have helped you in your race adventures, thank my wife, not me.

http://www.thewebwheeler.com/forums/images/smilies/20.gif

Thats great!
At least you give credit where credit is due.

[Nick's Trix]

great to see you here bob. you did a great job through the years with bfg and it was very appreciated by many.
it was nice to touch bases with you last year at the bronco 40th. i know you where scratching your head a bit when i was talking with you as i've been away from the dirt world for a long time now.
either way, thanks for all your hard work behind the scenes all those years. you & fricker are idols to all us right seat guys.

your work with the orhf is comendable. i'd like to nominate joe macpherson. how does one go about making that happen? i don't recall what was involved.

i look forward to reading your input here.
take care
nick menudier

[toddz69]

great to see you here bob. you did a great job through the years with bfg and it was very appreciated by many.
it was nice to touch bases with you last year at the bronco 40th. i know you where scratching your head a bit when i was talking with you as i've been away from the dirt world for a long time now.
either way, thanks for all your hard work behind the scenes all those years. you & fricker are idols to all us right seat guys.

your work with the orhf is comendable. i'd like to nominate joe macpherson. how does one go about making that happen? i don't recall what was involved.

i look forward to reading your input here.
take care
nick menudier

Geez Nick, you look like Ivan in that pic!! You should be in the driver's seat :-).

Todd Z.

[Nick's Trix]

that's funny now todd!
good thing is after all these years i still have all my hair and it's still naturally blonde ;)
i'd say steve is pretty grey by now.

that pic was in staging for the 89 1000. we lost the engine just past half way.

[BobBower]

your work with the orhf is comendable. i'd like to nominate joe macpherson. how does one go about making that happen? i don't recall what was involved.

i look forward to reading your input here.
take care
nick menudier

Thanks for the kind words Nick. I agree Joe is a guy who belongs in ORMHOF. I think there might be someone already working on it. But, just in case follow this link to the ORMHOF web site to get the nomination forms.

http://www.ormhof.org/nominations.htm

Check with Don Shoemaker or Jeff MacPherson. They could use some teamwork I'll bet.

The nomination process is open to anyone who wants to place a name before the voting committee. We don't just pick names and appoint them. It's hard to do, it's very fair and ethical. Todd Z might have some comments to share about how it works.

[BajaDale]

Hey Bob! Welcome to the board!!! I was looking for the "www.class4racing with propane.com" but I'd be the only member on that site so I had to join this site! Who is the head of the BFG program now? I miss the BITD and SCORE races hanging out in the BFG pits with all you guys, we had a blast! I hope to campaign my own racer (probably class 3) one day. Until then take care and TTYL!

Dale Nyeste.

[toddz69]

Thanks for the kind words Nick. I agree Joe is a guy who belongs in ORMHOF. I think there might be someone already working on it. But, just in case follow this link to the ORMHOF web site to get the nomination forms.

http://www.ormhof.org/nominations.htm

Check with Don Shoemaker or Jeff MacPherson. They could use some teamwork I'll bet.

The nomination process is open to anyone who wants to place a name before the voting committee. We don't just pick names and appoint them. It's hard to do, it's very fair and ethical. Todd Z might have some comments to share about how it works.

I'll echo Bob's comments that it's fair, ethical, and hard work to select the right candidates. To borrow a term from church work, I'd call it a discernment process. Ultimately, it comes down to looking at how the candidate meets the four categories/criteria laid out in the nomination paperwork. Be clear and succinct in answering each of those categories - that goes a long way with the committee.

Todd Z.