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Mongo Racing Finishes 2009 Strong and with Great Expectation’s for 2010!
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Randy Merritt, Driver of the Mongo Racing class 8100 Ford F-150, finished 2nd in the 2009 Best in the Desert Racing Association’s “The American Racing Series” point’s championship race. The long and rough 2009 season included the “The Legend Lives On” Parker 425 and the Vegas to Reno “The Long Way.” Randy said, “This was a long year, but it also gave us excitement looking forward to 2010. “The KC Hilites Ford F-150 handled great all year.”
Looking forward to the Great 2009 season, the team went back to the shop and worked hard on the truck in preparation for battle for the 2009 BITD points’ championship. With a faulty drive shaft linkage and weather at the season’s opener, “Parker 425” in Parker Arizona had continued on and the team got right back to the hard work to get it fixed. For Mongo Racing team "never” is a word they stay away from, so it didn't deter them from rebounding.
In the second race of the season, “Terrible’s 250” in Primm Nevada, Randy drove a near perfect race, finishing third after hitting a rock that caused damage to the right rear wheel and tire near the end. The goal for Randy and the team for this race was to put the KC Hilites Ford F-150 in the top three and Randy succeeded. After this race the team had a renewed optimistic outlook for the remainder of the 2009 season. Randy knew he could finish every race from here on out with the teams strong determination all the way.
The Third race of the season was the famous “Vegas to Reno”. This year BITD promoter Case Folks made this race into a 1,000 mile three day event knick named the “The Long Way.” Randy and the Mongo Racing crew were up to the challenge and proved so with a strong 2nd place finish. “To finish 2nd after three days of racing and the shortest was over 300 miles, just goes to prove my team’s dedication and know how,” said Randy.
The Fourth race of season was the Bilek Silver State 300 in Mesquite Nevada and this race proved to have the most challenging terrain this season. Randy, being very confident, said, “the KC Hilites Ford F-150 truck proved it was built Ford tough today, the race was started in the high desert of Nevada and included everything I’ve ever seen in a race course including crossing running water; the KC Hilites Ford F-150 ran and performed well all day I just got caught up behind some slower traffic and did the best we could to catch up to the leader so we had to settle for another 2nd.”
The Best in the Desert season Finale proved to be a shout out between point’s leader Greg Foutz and driver of the KC Hilites Ford F-150 Randy Merritt who still had a mathematical chance at the points Championship. Randy and the KC Hilites Ford F-150 needed to win for a chance at the Best in the Desert Class 8100 Points Championship.
After starting side by side in fourth position Randy, driving the KC Hilites Ford F-150, left the infield third in class and only seconds after the leader. With 4 - 60 mile laps ahead of Randy, the team knew it would be a close one. After 60 miles, with Randy being physically the second truck, he was still in 1st place on corrected time by 20 seconds. After 120 miles the positions had not changed and Randy in the KC Hilites Ford F-150 was still leading by only seconds. At mile post 42 on the third lap, Randy struck an unavoidable large rock in a blind turn and “I had to hit it,” said Randy, “because we were in a canyon and there was no where else to go, it was there on the previous laps, but someone else hit it and moved it into the middle of the very narrow road.”
“I heard that rock hit every part of the truck as I drove over it and as it did I hoped it didn’t do any damage, and as we got out of the canyon and I started to accelerate I knew something was bent in the drive-train.” “When my co-rider Chris Golding got out, he confirmed the drive shaft was bent. So, when we got to the next pit, we changed it,” Randy said. The hold up caused a 21 minute delay between Randy Merritt and the KC Hilites Ford F-150 and Greg Foutz by the end of the third lap. The ferocious battle between the two Ford trucks had a 45 minute lead over the rest of the trucks in the class. Finally, after such an intense race, Randy Merritt in the KC Hilites Ford F-150 finished in 2nd place for the race which made them the 2nd place points Champions for the season. Great Job guys!!
After the race Randy said, “This KC Hilites Ford F-150 truck drove great today and I can’t wait for the 2010 Parker 425 in Parker, Arizona. I can’t remember being this excited after a race for the upcoming season. I would like to thank my sponsors: Ford Trucks, KC Hilites, Sway-A-Way, Raceline, Body Line ,EBC brakes,Camburg, Autometer, UMP, Goodyear, Royal Purple, Yukon Gear, Mongo Made Custom Graphics, BS Sand seats and Castro Service Center; I want to also thank my crew: Chris Golding, Steve Solaiza, Steve Draper, Raul Cardenas, Tudy Esquerra, Dwayne Beulke, RJ Merritt, Austin Cucci, Blake Butler, Trey Solaiza and everyone else who has helped me this year, I could not have done it without everyone’s help, especially without the support of family.”
Mongo Racing’s next race is the Best In The Desert “Parker 425”, February 5-7, 2010 in Parker, Arizona.
For more information on Randy Merritt or Mongo Racing please visit www.mongoracing.com.
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Randy Merritt
Mongo Racing
www.mongoracing.com
928 210-9972 Cell
928 669-2796 Home
KC HiLiTES are the best forget the rest!!
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