Baja 1000 Video "Teaser"

Linked is a GREAT video produced by the folks at Cactus Films giving you a glimpse of the #94 Steve Strobel run through the Baja 1000.  Just enough here to get you excited to see the full project soon.

Vote For Steve Strobel for SCORE Rookie of the Year

Team Owner/Driver Steve Strobel has been placed on the ballot for the annual SCORE Off-Roadsman of the Year awards in the Mastercraft Safety Rookie Of The Year category.

Please click on this link [ http://score-international.com/787/news/2012_SCORE_Off-Roadsman_Awards.aspx ] to cast your vote for Steve and be sure to vote on all your devices (smart phone, laptop, work PC, etc.).  Also feel free to share this link with your friends and family and let's all join together to help get Steve this award!  Thanks very much for your support.

Strobel Finishes Strong 6th Overall in 45th Baja 1000

After 1,122 miles, 8 pit stops and 4 driver changes the Strobel Motorsports #94 Trophy Truck team moved up from their 15th starting position to claim the 6th place finish in the 2012 Baja 1000. The team had an elapsed time of 20 hours, 39 minutes, 5 seconds – a mere 40 seconds behind the 5th place truck and only 1 minute and 19 seconds out of the 4th place spot. This strong peninsula run also awards the team a solid 4th place in the premier SCORE Trophy Truck class points standings for the 2012 season. Additionally driver Steve Strobel is one of only 5 Trophy Truck drivers to complete every mile of the SCORE series races to capture the coveted Toyota Ironman award.

Steve Strobel Featured on SCORE-International TV

Owner/Driver Steve Strobel featured in SCORE-InternationalTV's "Meet The Drivers" segment!  Check out the featured video here.  SCORE-InternationalTV

"Super Bowl" of off-road racing - The Baja 1000 Prerunning Is Underway

The initial prerunning of the grand-daddy of all off-road races has been in progress for a week now.  Adding to the challenge and complexity Hurricane Paul strafed the center of the Baja peninsula creating some localized flooding and washing out some roads as well as many points on the race course.

More prerunning will continue the first week in November with all 3 driver/co-driver teams heading back down to complete their "homework" and marking the course.

I would encourage our race fans to become fans of our team on facebook in order to receive more up-to-date and more frequent updates on race progress going forward.  This medium appears to have broader appeal than our team blog so it receives more content.  Like our facebook page at www.facebook.com/strobelmotorsports

Thanks folks!  More to come as the weeks lead up to the start of this year's 45th annual running of the Baja 1000.  It is a peninsula run starting in Ensenada on Thursday, 11/15 and finishing down in La Paz BCS sometime on 11/16.  Go Strobel Motorsports!

2012 Baja 500 Race Recap - PERSEVERANCE

Strobel Motorsports story of PERSEVERANCE to complete the 2012 Baja 500 - overcoming mechanical issues to get the truck across the finish line and stay 4th in the season points chase. Thanks Turn2TV for putting this together!

Chase 4 Build Nearing Completion

The Strobel Motorsports team is well into the final stages of building our "Chase 4" transporter / tow vehicle. This unit is specifically designed to tow the race truck or prerunner into Baja with enough spare equipment, tools, etc. but with a smaller profile than our existing team transporter to better maneuver the highways and conditions on the Baja peninsula. This will be a great addition to the support fleet and will strategically help in Mexico races going forward, starting with this year's SCORE Baja 500. Take a look at more pictures/slideshow here.

NEW San Felipe 250 Race Video

Laughlin Day 2 VIDEO - 3rd Place Run!

Another great video piece from Turn2TV highlighting all the great SCORE Laughlin Day 2 action for the #94 truck. Some incredible shots of the Strobel Motorsports #94 Ford F-150 Schaeffer Manufacturing truck flying over some of the tough Laughlin jumps as well as some great footage of the battle with Rob Mac! The team is feeling very good about a 4th place round 1 and a 3rd place round 2 and sitting likely 3rd in SCORE season TT points. Enjoy the excellent clip!

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!

Alcon USA Posts Article About Strobel V2R Win

Strobel Motorsports, based out of Central City, NE, made a significant mark in the world of Off-Road Racing by capturing the overall win in the 2011 Best In The Desert's TSCO "Vegas to Reno"

New Action Video - SS 300 Coverage!

Team Finishes 8th in Class

Unofficially the team finished the race 8th in Trophy Truck an 16th overall after surviving an endo, a transmission change, flat tire and fixing a sway bar pin. The team continued battling the desert and was happy to bring the car across the finish line. Check back to the team's website in the coming days for more photos and videos.

Overall Unofficial Results:
1.  #97 - BJ Baldwin - 7:16
2.  #1585 - Steve Croll  -  7:36
3.  #6  - Steve Sourapas/Andy McMillan  -  7:55
4.  #1559  -  Steve Appleton  -  8:06
5.  #1572  -  Freitas  -  8:07
6.  #1543  -  Kemp  -  8:10
7.  #1583  -  Wingerning  -  8:23
8.  #1530  -  Lenk  -  8:26
9.  #1545  -  Galewick  -  8:27
10.  #56  -  McGilvray  -  8:34
11.  #13  -  Stout  -  8:36
12.  #1558  - Smith - 8:41
13.  #68  -  Ewing  -  8:47
14.  #49  - Troy Herbst - 8:59
15.  #8  - Norman/Roesler -  8:59
16.  #94  - Steve Strobel -  9:16

Baldwin First Finisher

BJ Baldwin First Parker finisher. BJ finished the race in approximately 7 hours, 16 minutes according to our very unofficial timing. Steve jumped back in the race car to finish the race. The car has been running well after the trans change. We may be down now with a flat tire but will keep you posted.

Trans Change Completed & Back On Race Course

The race truck made it back to the Main Pit where a very quick transmission change was completed.  The car was fueled up, rear tires changed and a few other "cosmetic" changes done in about 40 minutes.  Second driver Dale Ebberts jumped in the Trophy Truck for some valuable seat time and to grind out a finish here at Parker.

Truck Takes A Spill at Race Mile 51

Driver Steve and co-driver John are OK, but the sketchy information sounds like the truck rolled over.  They are moving again and are trying to pick up the lost time while the truck was out of commission.  We'll continue to keep working on the truck and will be working on repairing anything else that might need attention as the result of the roll-over.

#94 Truck Off The Starting Line!

Steve and John left the starting line in 5th position, at 7:19am MT this morning with all systems looking good.  Early reports have the truck already passing a couple of the cars in front of him.  More to come!

Race Truck On Display at MasterCraft Truck During Contingency

Friday's contingency was very busy with a lot of race car entries rolling through the maze of vendor displays. The weather has been great and the local Parker folks have all been fantastic.  The weather looks a little bit iffy with some shower possibilities so we're crossing our fingers for good weather.  Wish us luck for tomorrow...keep checking back to the blog for progress.

Parker Downtown Experience A Lot of Fun

Here's a shot of the Parker downtown experience.  The city of Parker put on a great show, and the local people were absolutely thrilled to have the off-road racing community in town for the weekend.  Thanks much to Parker city leaders and to Casey Folks for putting on a great event.

Strobel Unofficially 9th In Qualifying.

The Trophy Truck was the 4th Trophy Truck through the sandy qualifying track and 9th overall in VERY unofficial qualifying.  A top 10 starting position is always the goal and it appears the team met that goal.  Now its on to downtown Parker, AZ for the "Parker 425 Experience"...a chance to show off all these incredible desert race cars.  More to come...keep checking our team blog!  Here are the unofficial results as our team timing had it (these are NOT official...so take with a grain of salt!!!)
1.  Berri
2.  Whitton
3.  Griffith
4.  Herder
5.  Pistol Pete
6.  BJ Baldwin
7.  Hovey
8.  Chase
9.  Strobel