Camburg Engineering leading the Mini TT 7200 class in BITD!!

May 2007

Huntington Beach, California. - Breaking the ice in B.I.T.D. with a 3rd place finish at the start of the race season gave the team at Camburg a goal to shoot for. With the amount of testing and preparation before the Terrible’s Town 250, it is no wonder why they were able to pull off a 2nd place finish in a class stacked with some of the fastest mini trucks in the dirt.

Jerry Zaiden and Scott Zindroski suited up and tightened their belts early Sat. morning as they were staged at the Terrible’s Casino where the field of trucks and buggies paraded through the city streets of Pahrump, Nevada to their final staging area 15 miles out of town. The race was now getting started with the TT’s and Class 1 cars first off the line and kicking up dirt to the point where you could see dust clouds miles away.

Camburg had the rear start position in a field of 15 Mini TT 7200 class trucks and once underway started moving through the pack at a conservative pace. This race wasn’t to be won in the first 50 miles by anyone. The first portion of the course was littered with rocks and had a lot of technical single track which made for passing to be clean and executed. Coming through the first road crossing, visibility improved greatly and now with clean air, speeds were able to be opened up.

Once again in a technical canyon area, Jerry then tuned his sights for Barry Karakas in his Fabtech Tacoma. With Barry pulling aside to let the Camburg Edge by, Sandy Cone was not much further ahead. Coming into a hard right-hand uphill, both Cone and Zaiden struggled through the silt which made for zero visibility. The Nitto tires grabbed for any traction it could get a hold of and pushed the Edge ahead.

Jerry now in the groove of things set a pace that would continue to gain on the field of trucks and not abuse the truck. Flying by pits 1 and 2 with zero problems and then stopping and doing a quick visual check in pits 3 and 4 was an indication of how well the truck was working.

After crossing Highway 95 around mile marker 117 the course paralleled the highway and the silt became deep and thick. The Edge was then stopped against its will as the rear axle was now high centered in the main race line. Jerry and Scott got out of the truck to assess the situation to free the truck and direct race traffic. With zero visibility in a high speed section, safety was the utmost concern for Camburg and B.I.T.D. After 40 minutes of Jerry and Scott trading off digging duties trying to get the truck free, the decision was made to pull the truck off the course by a B.I.T.D. safety official. 52 minutes from the time they got stuck they were back underway and coming hot into Pit 5 where they had a scheduled driver change and fuel dump.

Jerry got out of the truck leaving Scott to continue co-driving with his business partner Jason Campbell to finish driving duties the rest of the race. Knowing the issues at hand, Jason picked up the pace in an effort to gain back lost time. This section of the course showed the extreme spectrum of terrain types and speeds. Jason was able to pass most of the 7200 trucks through the rougher sections of the course as the Bilstein shocks were working awesome. In the last quarter of the course in an area tight and technical approaching a slower class 2000 buggy around mile marker 213, the buggy exited a left turn and hit a large rock at the entrance of another quick sharp right turn sending them 8ft. skyward and onto their side in the middle of the track. Jason stopped with Scott getting out checking on the team to make sure everyone was ok. Scott helped both dazed and confused racers out and then everyone pushed the buggy right side up and off the course. Strapped in and back under way it was smooth sailing to the finish line for Jason and Scott.

The Camburg Edge crossed the finish line 47th overall and 2nd in class in 6hrs 32min 07sec. With the amount of down time Camburg had, the race for first would have been very close as John Swift and team had an uninterrupted victory. Camburg was able to cross the finish line on the Nitto tires they started the race on with the original AEM dry air filter as well. They had not one issue with any component on the truck and we’re 100% satisfied with the outcome.

With 170 starters and only a 58% finishing rate at this race, it’s a true indicator on how difficult the course was with knowing the caliber of teams at this event. It just goes to show what over the counter parts from some of the leading companies are capable of on a truck that runs a stock Ford 4.0L engine … you can say Camburg’s Ranger Edge is built FORD TOUGH.

“We’re looking to continue our same game plan for the upcoming Vegas to Reno event and will once again hopefully pull off a strong finish. We’re not only here to race, but to test, push and further develop our suspension products that we’re racing on and are available to all. Sitting first in points in our class is an added bonus for all our team!” – Jerry Zaiden

Camburg would like to thank everyone who came out to the race to lend a helping hand, Casey Folk’s and everyone at B.I.T.D. to give them the opportunity to race in their premier series with some of the best racers and teams around. Most of all they would like to thank all of their sponsors for their continued support, family and friends.

 

 

Sponsors: AEM Intake Systems, Alloy Axles, American Racing ATX, Beard Seats, Bilstein Shocks, Blue C, Board Ford, FMF Racing, Glassworks Unlimited, Hella Lighting, IRC Tracking, Ironclad Gloves, JBA Exhausts, Monster Energy Drink, Mothers Car Care Products, Nitto Tires, Precision Gear, Sparco USA and SPY Optics.

For more information on Camburg products and race team involvement, check out their websites www.camburg.com and www.camburgracing.com or contact them directly.

Camburg Engineering has been building off-road truck suspension systems since 1997 and is at the forefront in technology and innovation.

Photo Credits: Jason @ highREV Photo - Ryan Plowman @ desertrides.com

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