The also-rans have become front runners. Not too long ago, the Prerunner Class was best known for its high attrition rate, as 1400 and 1450 class trucks littered the sidelines of the MDR series, stricken by various mechanical problems.
Perception and reality are changing. Dan Vance proved the Pro Prerunner (1400) Class's viability last season with an overall race win at Lucerne. A few months later, 1400 racer Steve Herrera drove the point further home by winning the overall at the '06 MDR season finale on the brutal Barstow, California, course.
Shawn Giordano's overall win at the '07 MDR Mojave 250 should drive the final spike into the coffin of misconception: The 1400 Class is a threat to win and can't be ignored by the other classes that have dominated in the past.
Giordano's Toyota has evolved since appearing in an Off-Road feature ("Stretching for Success," Aug. '06) one year ago. As good as it was then, the stretched-wheelbase Toy' has evolved quite a bit in the interim. The admittedly anemic 22RE four-cylinder was pulled and replaced with a far-more-potent 3.4-liter Toyota V6. Rear suspension chores are now handled by four links instead of two leaf packs. Finally, Shawn's truck faces down the desert with a full complement of Fabtech's Dirt Logic shocks, proving that Dirt Logic dampers can successfully go head to head with other hardcore shocks on the market.
Shawn's win wasn't gift-wrapped and handed to him. No less than three Class 1 unlimited buggies were in the running, along with another trio of Class 10 buggies, and Dean Schlingmann's Class 8 F-150. Two of the three Class 1 buggies dropped out, along with all three Class 10s. Schlingmann's F-150 sustained heavy damage in a rollover, putting him out of the race as well. Raw speed alone will not take a win in the desert - you've got to go the distance too. Giordano's combined lap times bested the remaining Class 1 buggy of Craig Diller, beating Diller's elapsed time by nearly an hour and a half. Within the 1400 class, Giordano was up against Matt Torian's V8-powered Ranger, Randy Shields' LS1-propelled Toyota, fellow Fabtech racer Jay Arnold, and Adam Householder's fullsize Chevy with plenty of cubic inches on tap.
The MDR Mojave 250 was also the second round for the '07 Jeepspeed Challenge. The Jeepspeed Challenge is a series unto itself and hops from BITD to MDR to SCORE throughout the season. After facing the brutal whoops, deep sand, and blinding silt of the BITD Parker 425, Jeepspeed turned toward Barstow's 39-mile loop which, as always, was choked with whoops, jumps, rocks, and more rocks.