3 In A Row For Donahoe Racing

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: March 09, 2004 Contact: Kreg Donahoe Donahoe Racing Enterprises Phone: 714.632.3033 Paige Donahoe Donahoe Racing Enterprises 562.802.7880 ext 26

Three in a row for Donahoe!

Anaheim, Ca – Donahoe Racing’s Championship 7S Truck brought home its third win in a row from San Felipe. This is also the second year in a row for this team to win this race. The 7S, driven by Bob Graham and Mike Horner, was the little truck that could as it was not only the first finisher in class, but the only finisher in its class.

The 7S team’s day started out with beautiful clear skies after a good rain wet down the track. 5 trucks were signed up for the class, but only 4 showed up. The Donahoe Racing’s 7S started second to last in their class. Mike Horner with co-rider Bill Garrells roared off the line at 10:12am and quickly caught the second place truck and had taken over first place by the 8 mile mark.

Mike held onto his lead until mile marker 105, where he ran out of gas. Running out of gas is not a normal mistake for this championship team. However, a change in the torque converter hampered fuel mileage, thus causing a miss-calculation and subsequent down time. While Mike was chatting with his co-rider, waiting for help to arrive the second place truck passed them. He waved hello as they passed and got on the radio to see how much longer it would be for help to arrive. The response was the chase crew was 15 minutes out and that he needed to strip out of his race suit. Certain he didn’t hear the radio call correctly he called in and basically said “WHAT?” Bob Graham radioed back that since he was already down that they would do the drivers change when he arrived to prevent more down time, but Bob’s suit was at another pit. Mike said okay and stripped down to his T-shirt, underwear, knee high socks and shoes. Racers that passed by got a good laugh as did Bob and crew when they were greeted with this sight. Some might think that Bob and Mike could switch clothes, but Mike is 6’4” and Bob is 5’ 6.” Mike was momentarily faced with finishing out his day in his skivvies, but fortunately found his spare set of sweats in the chase truck.

Bob Graham and Mark Rasmussen took over driving duties from mile marker 105. Bob Land, who took over first place while they were down, was 20 minutes ahead of them, so they took off in search recapture first place. They soon caught Land in the wash and again were in first place. Mark soon noticed however, that the water temp had climbed to 240 degrees. They knew they had to pull over. But they were in first with Land on their tail. With no other option, they pulled over and Mark gathered up some water bottles and started spraying down the radiator, but as they figured, Land’s truck passed them while they were still in the wash. Once the temp got down to 210 they took off, and once again caught Land and continued down the course. But as their luck would have it the temp once again climbed to 240 and they had to pull over. While Mark was spraying down the radiator with water Land cruised on passed. Anxious to get out of the wash without another stop and be over with the cat and mouse game with Land, as soon as they were on their way Graham babied the truck out. By Matomi Dry Lake they had caught Land for the last time and had them by 28 minutes. The last time they passed Land was the last time they saw him all day or anyone in their class for that matter.

They had no real other issues other than getting their brains beat out on Puertecitos Road and loosing a fender towards the end of the race.

Their finishing time 7:03:28 and they were the only finisher in their class. This was the second year in a row that this team won this race and the third straight win in a row. This win places them first in class in the race for the points battle.

Donahoe Racing’s 7S truck was originally built by Kreg Donahoe in 1990. Since then it has won 3 Toyota True Grit awards and 4 7S championships and may be on its way to another one.

Donahoe Racing’s 7S truck is sponsored by Norwalk Toyota, BF Goodrich, and Deaver Springs.

In other San Felipe news, another Donahoe Racing sponsored truck, Riviera Racing’s Trophy Truck entry, took first place in Trophy Truck. Congratulations to Riviera Racing on their great win! The next race for Donahoe Racing’s 7S truck will be the SCORE/Tecate Baja 500.

www.donahoeracing.com.

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