Strobel Motorsports Loses Team Member Bill Rice

Core team member, early off-road racing veteran and Colorado Motor Sports Hall of Famer Bill Rice died on Thursday, 12/29/2011 in a snowmobiling accident in Wyoming.  If you trace the Strobel Motorsports off-road racing history Bill Rice along with Dwight Strobel were the original team pioneers to begin racing off-road races in Mexico in the early 70’s.  Our team owes a great deal to Bill and he will be greatly missed.

Bill Rice was inducted into the Colorado Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2009 as a result of his many and varied contributions to racing.  He not only raced Class 1 buggies in the Baja 500 and Baja 1000 beginning in 1972, but he was also extremely successful in the top AA fuel class of professional drag racing.

In 1965, Bill teamed up with Pete Dudden to field a Mark Williams front engine AA fuel dragster with a Ron Bement body and a super-charged 354 cubic inch Chrysler Hemi and ran the car at Continental Divide Raceway, Rocky Mountain Dragway, and Thunder Road Dragway in Colorado. It was one of the first cars Colorado to go over 200 miles per hour in less than 8 seconds. In 1967 and 1968, the team of Rice-Williams set NHRA’s Division Five on fire. They had two new dragsters, one driven by Roger stark and the other by Hall of Famer Mark Williams. Mark won over 90% of his races in ‘68 and set a Colorado land speed record of 231 miles per hour in 7 seconds.  Other drivers for Rice included another Hall of Famer, Alan Bockla. As for the reason for their success in 1958 they all said, “We’ve got Bill Rice.” From 1972 – 1975 he teamed up with Pete Colvin in a single-seat Class 1 desert racing VW. In 1980 Frazier and Rice became only the third drag racing team to travel on a national level. They competed in 33 NHRA races as well as races with other sanctioning organizations. A number of top drag race champions were associated with Frazier and Rice in 1980 and 1981.

In 1986 Rice successfully raced in the Colorado off-road racing series and in 1987 he also raced in the famed old Riverside off-road race course in southern California.  In 1988 he joined with his son Danny and began racing single-seat off road buggies again in the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group (MTEG) stadium racing series.  With Danny in the driver’s seat the duo won races in the Los Angeles coliseum, Anaheim, Las Vegas, Denver, Seattle and Montreal stadiums from 1988 to 2002 and were among the points leaders in the MTEG series for 3 seasons. 

From the late 70’s and throughout the remainder of his life Bill often joined with the Strobel Motorsports team pitting for races and pre-running sessions.  Bill contributed his mechanical skills and deep off-road racing knowledge to help the Strobel team progress throughout the team’s evolution  from early Class 10 buggies to now campaigning in the premier unlimited Trophy Truck class.

Linked is a slideshow of pictures of Bill throughout the years.  Thanks so much - Vaya Con Dios Bill.  

Strobel Motorsports 2011 Season In Review

To our awesome race fans, here is our Christmas gift to you.  Erin at Turn2TV productions has put together this INCREDIBLE feature to capture the incredible season we just completed.  We're sure you will really enjoy this video and we're hopeful this will get you pumped up for Strobel Motorsports' "unfinished business" following the 2011 season.  We're gunning for nothing less than the 2012 SCORE-International Trophy Truck championship.

Please stay close to our blog, website and Fan Facebook page throughout 2012 as we strive toward our 2012 objectives.  You won't have to wait long with the SCORE Laughlin Challenge happening Jan 15th ad 16th.  Thanks Fans!

Team Strobel Officially Finishes 2nd in BITD Trophy Truck Season Standings

Strobel Motorsports fans, a FANTASTIC season of off-road racing is in the books with the post-penalty BITD Henderson 250 results being declared offical.  After the penalty Steve officially finished the race in 7th position (moved back from 5th) in Trophy Truck, which then gives the team 2nd place in the season points standing with 457 points, a mere 3 points behind BJ Baldwin after racing over 1,675 miles in the desert!  While we still certainly do not agree with the decision made, the team has now put the 2011 season in the rear-view mirror and is fully focused on making the 2012 professional campaign an even better year! 

Just to continue to represent the facts, we did want to share with our fans and our blog family the photographic results of what at one time the BITD race director said was the reason for the penalty which was "leaving the race course".  You can clearly see in the photo below (click for larger view or download to your own PC to REALLY zoom in!) that if this was the issue either no one should have been penalized or other teams should have also been penalized. 

Again this issue and the 2011 season is now behind the team and we will strive even harder to finish on top in 2012, regardless of the series in which we choose to race. 

Thanks so very much to all of our sponsors and our fans for all of your support throughout the 2011 season.  Let's go get 'em next year!

Season Championship Snatched Away on Questionable BITD Penalty

These are the facts on how the 2011 Best-In-The-Desert Henderson 250 race transpired. Steve overcame a flat tire in the first 10 miles during which the wheel hub cover was damaged and the team continued to triage that hub cover. Then near the end of lap 2 a U-joint was damaged so the drive-shaft was replaced. Finally in lap 3 at about race mile 230 of the scheduled nearly 250 miles the power steering failed. Steve was forced to drive the last 20 miles using manual steering with last year's points champion bearing down on him.

As the race physically ended, Strobel Motorsports finished 5th place in the Trophy Truck class. BJ Baldwin finished in 6th place 1 minute 36 seconds behind Strobel, and John Swift finished in 7th place 2 minutes and 06 seconds behind Strobel. Had those results actually been declared official, Strobel Motorsports would have won the Trophy Truck season points championship with 471 points, BJ Baldwin would have been 2nd 3 points behind Steve with 468 points, and then John Swift would have finished in third 10 points behind Steve with 461 points. Alas, that was not to be.

Best In The Desert's Casey Folks assessed a 5 minute penalty for what one of the BITD volunteers perceived to be speeding and dangerous driving which then moved BJ Baldwin to 5th, Swift to 6th and Steve Strobel to 7th and thereby snatching the season points championship from the Strobel Motorsports team.

Below are the facts relating to the perceived dangerous driving situation:

Very near the end of the race BJ caught Steve and BJ was literally drag racing Steve to the final check point stop sign at which point BJ blew straight through the stop sign, circled back around driving backwards on the course for a short ways and then stopping at the check point. As BJ Baldwin is doing this circling "donut", Steve then has to attempt to make an over 90 degree left hand turn with no power steering which failed roughly 20 miles earlier. The big Trophy Truck drifts wide and floats out onto the pit access road which runs parallel to the race course for the last approximate 200 yards before the official timing finish line stop to the race. Steve did not intentionally drive out onto the access road to gain a competitive advantage, rather without power steering he did all he could to get around the corner. Steve then proceeded a short distance down the access road which is just 6 feet away from and parallel to the race course until he could safely get back onto the race course at which point he turned back up onto the course and drove through the timing lights to officially finish the race.

Unfortunately, the BITD volunteer in the timing van positioned next to the finish line perceived that Steve waited until he was too close to the timing van to get back onto the race course and that he was driving faster than the 25mph you were supposed to drive to finish the race. He felt that Steve "could have killed everyone in the timing van". As a result, the volunteer complained to BITD race director Casey Folks who then imposed a 5 minute penalty on the Strobel team.  In post-race discussions Casey said that we were to be given a 5 minute penalty for sliding off the race course in the last 150 yards of the race.

I have filed a written protest with Best-In-The-Desert, in which I also apologized to Casey Folks and to the BITD timing volunteer for giving him the impression that he was in danger. I requested that the penalty be dismissed.  Such a tough way to end what could have been a very dramatic BITD season points championship!

Race Is Underway

Steve & JT are off the line and moving.  Unfortunately they have already gotten a flat but again are back underway.  Much more to come.

Through Henderson Contingency

Quick pic of the Trophy Truck just finishing up with contingency and tech inspection.  We're getting a lot of positive comments about the new Method Wheels.  More to come tomorrow - RACE DAY BABY!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4GLTE smartphone

Final BITD Race This Weekend

The BITD Transwest Ford Henderson 250 race goes off this week, with qualifying taking place this afternoon in a very chilly 48 degree Las Vegas.  The team has been very diligently prepping for the past several weeks in order to go all in to bring home the season "Trick Truck" points championship. 

Stay tuned for Qualifying results later this afternoon.  Also, the race launches around 12:30pm Pacific Time on Saturday afternoon.  We will keep you updated on progress as the afternoon and ultimate points battle plays out Saturday.  Go Strobel Motorsports!!!