2010 MORE Powder Puff “Race for the cure”

TOTAL CHAOS Tacoma earns a record of 2-0!

The 5th annual MORE Powder Puff race held Oct. 9th in Barstow, CA. drew 170 women off road competitors and over 4,000 spectators to support the breast cancer cause. Each entrant forfeits payback to raise money for Cedar Sinai’s breast cancer treatment and research facility. A representative from Cedar Sinai hospital was on hand and disclosed at the awards ceremony that last years fund raiser earned enough money that the facility was able to hire a radiologist and ovarian cancer specialist directly from the off road communities generous donations and fund raising efforts. Every day more and more people are impacted by either a friend or family member who has battled cancer. Some are lucky to win the battle, while the others become the inspiration and driving support for these ladies and their counterparts. The vibe and camaraderie that resonated throughout contingency and the pits in this event was overwhelming. If you have never attended a Powder Puff race, mark you calendar for next year. It is something you will want to experience.The race format was 2 sessions split by classes that ran a 27 mile loop course. Race fans littered the course and abided by the newly imposed BLM rules for safety. They stood cheering, waving and occasionally tossing out a booby or “BA” shot to keep us going! At mile 23 I saw a 3 moon solute. I am still searching for the name of that 3rd butt donation…….this was 100% GOOD TIMES. I have had several opportunities to strap into the right hand seat before but I have never driven a race truck in my life. My experience consists of Locos Mocos Baja preruns, local trails and lots of motorcycle throttle time. But when the shop guys supported me with an opportunity to enter class 1400 in the TOTAL CHAOS Tacoma for its second race ever, I immediately decided to dedicate this race to my mother in-law Kathy Vaughan a breast cancer survivor and began training. I broke my back last year and had to settle on some modern day hardware to repair my damage.

On Saturday Oct. 9th at 8 A.M. it was appropriate to start the day with the national anthem. I was set to compete at noon with all the class 1 cars and fast buggies. This group had a deep talent pool of women who compete regularly, plus it was packed with all the ladies who are out there to show their support and have a great time. When I got back to the pit family and friends crawled from the woodworks to be on hand and hang out. My nerves were trembling off the richter scale! Knowing I could bring the Tacoma back looking like a mangled beer can loomed heavily on my mind. Accidents do happen and I am 0-2 in mud situations. We even had a code radio phrase if I ran out of talent this race, “the stock market has crashed and its black Saturday”!

The support I received from both friends and family was amazing. My moto crew was on hand to talk their smack, my mom was there only because I asked her to be (I scare her, even more so after the broken back) and to have the Locos Mocos team on hand to fix me if I needed it………………..well we all know how many racers we’ve gotten to a checkered flag. I knew I had an army there along with Kathy, our teams survivor.

I couldn’t let my shop guys down and as truck #1420 left the line, it was game on. After my mile marker 3 sky wheelie in the thick dust I calmed the nerves and began to settle into the seat, and on the throttle. I have known my co driver Denyce Styles-Klein since I very first participated in this sport over 15 years ago. Offering her the seat was a no brainer. She flew home early from an out of the country adventure to be a part of this with me and Denyce, “all those giggles and this experience will be with me for a life time! Thank you for trusting me. You are an amazing desert race co dog”.

My GoodYear tires hooked up everywhere. With several lanes to choose from we kept it safe in the washes and settled in behind cars till it was 2 and 3 lanes wide to get around. We kept a steady pace and plucked away at the first 2 laps. 2 laps to go till a pina colada and I was counting. Lap 3 we pulled in for our scheduled fuel stop. ½ way around on lap 3 we get crop dusted by a class one who made a clean smooth pass but put us back on our toes. We settled into a dust free zone again and kept our pace increasing the lead to 7 minutes over 2nd place. The truck was running flawless and broken cars littered the race course. Still in the lead at MM13 in the rock garden by Slash X we struck a rock and got a rear driver side flat! Joe Joe & Uncle Mark from Locos Mocos along with Mike & Chad from TOTAL CHAOS arrived to assist in the tire change for us. Our 11 minute lead dwindled to a 4 minute chase to catch the leader before the finish line.

I was living the pressure you wear when you need to make up time behind the wheel. The mental gremlins were out in full force, the truck was talking back, I had hit “the zone”. I focused on breathing. I focused on radio transmissions from Broken K’s pit. The intensity was nail biting and main pit huddled around the radio table. We had been running such a good pace all race…………we were told to “drive it till it breaks! Your going to get another lap. Go get em”! We ran a good enough pace to earn a 5th lap. I managed to chisel the 4 minute deficit to 3:30 by the time we crossed start finish. By the aunt hill it was 3 minutes. By the 2nd road crossing it was less than 3. On a 27 mile course this looked like we were going to have a race to the wire. By MM 12 we were within 1 minute & change………headed up the hill in a conga line of dust with the sun setting and several cars ahead we charged. There was no second place, we would fight tooth and nail to regain the lead. We made good lane choices, continued to make passes and stayed focused on the task at hand. Denyce was amazing keeping me calm and pumped to charge after #1425. We crested the hills, continued to make 2 passes I knew the next bunch of dust had to be the leader. We crested the last hill headed toward MM 16 and I see on truck off the course…….could it be……#1425 had a flat! The adrenaline was soo high. I’ll admit I was very bummed to see it transpire this way. I called out to Joe Joe & Uncle Mark who ran a TC pit in that area “Guys we have passed the leader. She has a flat. Please go help her!”

What makes me so proud of my crew was they jumped in their car with the same intensity to help me and drove out to assist truck #1425 and get her going to still finish on the podium. They also assisted a 10 car driver who was stranded with a busted spindle and go her mobile again. For Team Locos Mocos, this is just another day at the office. We fix stuff free!

For Team TOTAL CHAOS this was the second outing in the Tacoma truck that earned another flawless mechanical race and landed this crew another 1st place in the truck. Lil T goes 2-0 into the off season in preparation to compete in the 2011 Best In The Desert Vegas to Reno event.

Co-dawg Denyce: “thanks to Chaos for asking me to strap in with Nicole. She took it up 20 notches in the race from the practice sessions. She did really awesome. A lot of women did very well. There isn’t a purse to win, just the win. We can’t wait to do it again next year, and do even better. Until then, there is still a big smile on my face….”