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By DirtNewz.com Staff
Anaheim , California - (July 2, 2006)

Lucerne Valley, CA – Kreg Donahoe led a dedicated group of veteran desert racers into the hot 116 degree weather that Lucerne Valley, California is well-known for in the midst of a hot summer afternoon. Donahoe, himself a championship off road racer, had brought the Team Donahoe Ford Super Duty race truck to the Lucerne Valley for a race "testing" session under rigous conditions. Team Donahoe is preparing to race the famed BITD "Vegas to Reno" race in early August.

Team Donahoe races their truck in the Stock Full class, however here in the desert of California the opted to push the envelope and race the well-prepped truck in Class 8. That might not mean a whole lot to some of you readers, but what that means is Team Donahoe had planned to run against more powerful and lighter race trucks featuring modified suspension and much more.

However, making this occasion is more emphatic is that Team Donahoe's race truck weighs a proportedly 8500 pounds and features a Ford Turbo Diesel powerplant. Therefore, Donahoe was staged to race his heavy diesel powered truck against the more powerful gas powered trucks with more suspension.

In fact, according to Donahoe Racing, the stock truck has a whopping 10 inches of wheel travel compared to 5 other vehicles sporting over 20 inches of wheel travel.

Well, that didn't stop these desert racing professionals from putting the exclamation point on what is an incredible feat in one very long desert race. The MDR McKenzies 400 is just that, a massive 400-miles that would eventually test the Banks Powered FORD Turbo Diesel F250. And although they were challenged several times by a variety of typical desert racing gremlins, Team Donahoe put the FORD Turbo Diesel F250 on the podium taking first place over the other five gasoline powered Class 8 trucks.

For over a decade, Kreg Donahoe has led his off road desert racing team testing products and systems that Donahoe Racing sell daily. Donahoe's partnership with Gale Banks and Banks Power is yet another sign of Team Donahoe pushing innovation to the extreme. Click here to view the Banks Power report.

 

Team Donahoe Race Report:

The day started early for Team Donahoe with Kreg Donahoe and Jeremy Lambert taking the truck off the line at 7:12am: things went well until mile marker 22 where they broke a steering box. With a spare on board and help from Baja Mike from Kartek Off Road, and Dylan and Rob from Team Donahoe, Kreg and Jeremy were off again after an hour and a half of down time to finish the repair.

By the end of the 1st lap, Team Donahoe found themselves in last place and over an hour behind the next vehicle. Not exactly where they wanted to be, but with an hour and a half of down time, last place was expected. Kreg brought the truck in for a co-rider change and a quick once over. While in the pits, Bob Bower got in to co-ride while Eric Fandrich got in the 3rd seat. They took off for Lap 2 but were stopped at the start/finish line and informed that MDR didn’t have any insurance to cover a 3rd rider. Eric’s day was done. He got out of the truck and proceeded to make the long, hot, dusty walk back to the pits. As he walked back he savored his 100 yard ride in the race truck. Now within the guidelines of MDR, Kreg and Bob set out for trouble free 2nd and 3rd laps and moved up to 4th place by the end of their run.

At the end of Lap 3 Kreg relinquished his seat to his father, 67 year old, championship off-road racer Bill Donahoe. Bill had two trouble free laps and set a great pace, moving the truck up to 3rd place by the end of the 5th lap.

For the 6th lap, Dylan Evans took over behind the wheel and with Bob Bower in the co-driver seat put the truck in 2nd place. As Dylan started the 7th lap, the team was now in a battle for 1st place. Team Patteli ran in first place the entire race, but had some trouble on their final lap.

When Patteli left on his final lap he was ahead of Team Donahoe by 2 hours. Most would assume that with a lead like that they had the win sewn up. But it’s not over until it’s over and Patteli found themselves in serious trouble at mile 34. As Dylan made his way around on his 7th lap, he saw Patteli’s team on the side of the course with a broken front spindle. Dylan kept on pace and passed Patteli again on Lap 8 and kept on truckin’ to the finish for a win at 6:44pm!

Team Donahoe won in Class 8 with their diesel powered Stock Full Ford Super Duty 15 minutes ahead of Patelli who took 2nd place, and 30 minutes ahead of the 3rd place finisher, both of whom had big power V8 gas motors.

Team Donahoe is thrilled with the performance of this new truck. The 39” tall BFG Baja TA’s worked perfectly and had no flats. The Banks Power Big Hoss Bundle with Power PDA worked flawlessly! Team Donahoe is pleased that such a sensitive piece of equipment could work so well in 116 degree heat for 400 miles of the worst the Mojave Desert could throw at it.

Team Donahoe’s Ford Super Duty Stock Race Truck is sponsored by: Donahoe Racing, Ford Trucks, Banks Power, KC Hilites, BFGoodrich Tires, Mastercraft Seats, KarTek, Ford of Orange, Dynatrac, Walker Evans Racing Wheels, Anaheim Hills Auto Body, High Angle Driveline, Superior Axle and Gear, Deaver Springs, Russell Performance Products, and SDHQ.

Look for Team Donahoe to compete in the BITD Vegas to Reno at the end of August. For more information on Team Donahoe visit www.donahoeracing.com

 

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