Giant Motorsports :: MORE Damzl Powder Puff Race Report
by Melissa a.k.a. Mo

After a few years of holding down Main Pit and doing most of the radio communication for Team GIANT, I got to experience desert racing from a new perspective - in the drivers seat! As soon as a heard about the Powder Puff race I started to prepare for it. I would drive Geoff’s truck (the Squeeker) every time we took it out to the desert, and I would even tail gate slow cars driving in the fast lane on the freeway to get use to getting close to other vehicles. I had to put my A game on for this race! I knew that I would need a competent co driver, and after seeing P. Chic’s (Nicolette) mad tire mounting skills at the Baja 500 this year I knew that she would be down.

GIANT Motorsports built and prepped a bullet proof truck, and Extreme Motorsports Expo helped with some of the fees. I was 110% nervous going into this race. Which I was totally stoked on - It’s not everyday that you get butterflies in your stomach and feel like a little kid that’s going to disneyland.

On Friday we pre ran the 20 mile course three times. So I felt pretty confident with the truck and the course. When we were staging Saturday morning it was awesome waiting to go off the line with family and friends. I was looking forward to the intimidation nerf as we funneled into the start line. Demoree was in the Solo Motorsportsport truck in front of us, so I bumped her and couldn’t help but wave as she looked up in her mirror…I’m pretty sure that there was no intimidation there!

Once we started it was a lot of fun picking cars off one by one. It drizzled a bit on the first lap, slowing us down a bit since we had no windshield wipers. But once it stopped and the water on our windshield dried up there was no slowing us down. On the second lap we stopped to pound in an alignment cam and get some water and were on our way again. On every lap I looked forward to the cheering men on the sideline, all of the guys mooning us as we drove by, and the CST pit board with the awesome words of encouragement – “Put your purses down ladies”, “Get off your cell phones girls”. Each lap was a blast. P. Chic was pointing me to all of the smooth lines and out of the way of all of the hazards. We managed to hit a rock or two but they had nothing on the Goodyear tires and AXT rims. And we defiantly had our fair share of diggers, but the Squeeker lives for that stuff and took good care of us. We had to stop a couple times to get out window wiped off and pound the alignment cam back in, which was one of the funniest parts of the race for me. Usually I’m the one wiping off windows, so it was awesome to stop and have the GIANT guys to run out and help us!

I had a great time battling with the St. George Motorsports 7 open truck for a couple miles. We cut off a corner and almost had them and I couldn’t help but wave and let them go by. The Squeeker’s tired 4 liter’s got nothing on their hopped up motor! And racing with Carolyn Hines was really cool too. One of the first desert races I went to when I was 16, Carolyn was racing her truck, I was so amazed and thought that maybe some day I could race trucks too! Racing up behind her was awesome.

We lead most of the race. Close to the end of the race Nicolette said, “Mo, I’m going to pee in my suit okay?” I knew she was dead serious, so I pulled over and we both hoped out. As we were pulling our DJ Safety race suits back on the second place truck in our class (Uncle Bob’s truck) passed us. And again I couldn’t help but wave and give the girls a thumbs up as they drove past us. We jumped back in the truck and went on to the finish the lap now in second place. I was ready to start on our last lap, but instead was greeted by the checkered flag at the finish line. The three hour time limit had expired so we were unable to start the sixth lap. We embraced second place and put on our flatbiller gear for the awards and party.

This race was such a great time. It was awesome having my family and friends there cheering me on. I felt so fortunate going into this race and all through it. Life is good. Thanks to everyone that helped out. And congratulations to all those that participated. I can’t wait to start racing with the boys (I’ll probably wave at them as they drive by me too!).

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