Desert Rides :: Rothgard Racing's HMS Avenger Class 1

Rothgaard Racing's HMS Avenger Class 1
by Ryan Plowman

What started out as "trying their luck at the Baja 1000" driving a Wide Open Baja vehicle has now evolved into a full blown race team. Jon Roth, owner of RothGaard Racing, teamed up with Steve Jangaard in 2004 to pilot the car from Wide Open Baja to see what the experience and hype was all about. Let's just say that while Jon was was behind the wheel, he was bitten by a rather large "off-road racing" bug. Jon then contacted Damen Jefferies at Herman Motorsports to construct him a 2 seat Class 1 car. At the time, a PRC Class 1 chassis finished by Herman Motorsports would be the starting point, and their first race would the SCORE Primm, NV, in which they placed 10th in their class!

Once Jon got wind of Herman Motorsports building their own Class 1 car, he needed to have a better look. He hauled his current PRC/Herman Class 1 to Herman Motorsports for a race prep, took one look at Damen's new car and was sold! Damen and his crew at Herman Motorsports worked diligently on Jon Roth's new HMS Avenger Class 1, in which you can see below. The car features the highest quality of components; a 670hp LS7 engine bolted to a 4 speed manual Fortin transmission with torque converter helps put the power to the ground aided by the ProAm Midboard floater hubs. The high speeds this car is capable of is tuned by a complete set of KING "Race" series shocks; a 2'' coil-over and 3'' bypass up front along with a 2.5'' coil-over and a 4'' KING KONG bypass in the rear. Any sudden stopping is done through PromAm's 4 and 6 piston billet race calipers.

Don't think this is the end for Rothgaard Racing. Rumor has it they may be campaigning another Herman Motorsports built vehicle in 2007. What is it you ask? You'll just have to check back for coverage of that vehicle as well!