Venture Crew Racing
Yet another crazy project from BSA Troop/Crew 35
2007 Was Good. 2008 Will Be Historic
December 3: IT'S HERE
It's the day everyone's been waiting for. The truck has arrived and the first sponsor goodie has been installed, a K&N Series 57 FIPK 2. We had a little party on December 1 to officially reveal the truck to the world. It still has a long way to go before it's race ready (compare it to the Team Toyota FJ Cruiser in the June 9 photo gallery and you'll see what I mean), but we all love our new Ranger and can't wait to take it to Vegas in August.
It's the day everyone's been waiting for. The truck has arrived and the first sponsor goodie has been installed, a K&N Series 57 FIPK 2. We had a little party on December 1 to officially reveal the truck to the world. It still has a long way to go before it's race ready (compare it to the Team Toyota FJ Cruiser in the June 9 photo gallery and you'll see what I mean), but we all love our new Ranger and can't wait to take it to Vegas in August.
October 30. Inside the Venture Crew 35 Garage:
Ok. So there hasn't been a blog post in a long time. I'm sure many out there have wondered if there's even anything going on or if we've simply disbanded. Well I can tell you we're as alive as ever. And I've got stories to tell. I hear you guys out there. "Tell us, Steve! Tell us what's happened!" So let's go back in time.
JUNE: If you read my June 10 blog post, you know the biggest thing that happened in June. Ellias sat down and had a soda with Ricky Carmichael (dudes, I'm not repeating the whole story. Read the last post if you want to know what happened). Aside from that, we had our usual month. Went out to Motocross 338 for the truck race and set up our off road simulator, mailed out some sponsor requests. That's about how it went down.
JULY: In July project Baja was put on the back burner for an even more important project. One of Crew 35's finest, Gregory Harrell, was pursuing his Eagle Scout badge. So the rest of the gang helped out with his Eagle Project. Did he get his Eagle? You bet he did.
Not to say nothing happened in July. July gave us our first product arrival from a sponsor, KC HiLiTES. One day I'm exchanging emails with Tony over at KC, the next thing I know we've got a box of new lights on our front porch. Thanks Tony!
AUGUST: In August we did our annual big trip. For those that recall, the 2006 trip was a 1,000 mile bike ride from western Michigan back home to Springfield, hitting all five Great Lakes along the way. This year in '07 we went for a more relaxing driving tour of the southern states. With stops in Dover, Kitty Hawk, Savannah, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Mobile, New Orleans, Selma, Montgomery, Atlanta and Bristol, it was the perfect trip to have fun, have some good food, and just relax. Then Murphy showed up. Murphy, as in laws of. Murphy as in the famous "whatever can go wrong will go wrong" and the slightly less famous "whatever has already gone wrong will go wrong worse." Naturally, we experienced both versions.
Trouble began around day seven or so when the air conditioner in the lead van went "clunk clunk clunk pffffttttt" during the first day of what ended up being the hottest week recorded in Alabama this year. Naturally we weren't too keen on riding around with the windows down for another week in 100°+ weather, but we're scouts. We can deal. Unfortunately, the vehicular gods didn't want to reward our persistence. Instead they opted to smite us for our stubbornness. Three days after we lost the air conditioning, the van died in an intersection in Demopolis, Alabama, a town that makes Selma look like Boston. The rest of the trip, at least for the occupants of van one, was spent in a hotel room as we waited a week for the van to be repaired (to the tune of, well, a lot of money). Fortunately we did get the chance to meet the gang from RPM Off Road, a Bristol, TN based company that, when not outfitting vehicles with the gear to travel through any terrain, races diesel Dodge Rams in the Baja 1000. In '06 they ran one Ram. In about two weeks they'll be showing up in Baja with a 3 truck team (stock full competitors beware).
September/October: With September and October came school and work for the Crew 35 gang. This left little time to do much else. There is of course the one tiny itsy bitsy detail that came up in mid October. Crew 35 has decided to run a second race. Yep. A SECOND RACE! In addition to the longest non-stop race in the world, we'll be running in the longest off road race in the United States, the BITD Vegas to Reno.
That's all the news for now. Thanks for reading, dudes!
-Steve Harrell
June 9 & 10. AMA Motocross National. Southwick Motocross 338, Southwick, MA:
A few members of the Crew got to work security at Southwick's AMA Motocross national, with the money we made going to the Crew. Working security essentially meant hanging out in a team's pit, talking to the riders, listening to some great travel stories, and making sure no fans sneak into the pit and steal a rider's goggles. By the time the weekend was over, Ellias, Nate, and I had worked in the pits of David Vuellimin, Nick Wey, Ricky Renner (younger brother of freestyle legend Ronnie Renner), brothers Jeff and Mike Alessi, and even Ricky Carmichael. Saturday started with a surprise in the track parking lot. Toyota had brought Rod Millen's SCORE Stock Mini FJ Cruiser as part of their display. For those who don't know, Rod and Ryan Millen, along with Adam Dupre drove that FJ Cruiser to a Stock Mini second place finish in the 2006 SCORE Baja 1000, losing by a mere 33 seconds. In other words, this was the truck that nearly won in the class we'll be competing in next year. Saturday was a fairly easy day for everyone; teams, fans, and security crew alike. For the teams it was a day to learn the track, set up their bikes, and have fun. The day ended with a wiffle ball baseball game in the pits amongst riders, crew members, and family. The impromptu game made itself even more fun by completely ignoring MLB rules. Balls rolling off of pit crew awnings (like the ones in the second photo) could be caught for outs, foul balls were only foul balls every fifth time (give or take), and the best way to score a home run was to hit a grounder that rolls under one of the team hallers (usually the team Xyience truck). Where Saturday was laid back, Sunday was non-stop excitement. I spent the day with the very cool Alessi brothers, whose truck was parked right by the entrance to the racetrack. Every half hour a parade of motorcycles, riders, and support crew would roll by on the way to the track. A half hour later they would return and the riders and bikes would be taken out behind the haulers to have the track dirt powerwashed off of them. Despite the excitement, Jeff and Mike Alessi, along with the whole Red Bull KTM team made me feel at home, answering any questions I had and showed me how much of their gear worked. At one point Jeff even told his fans that I was his personal bodyguard. Meanwhile in the Team MotoSport Kawasaki pit, which was being guarded by Nate, the team green boys had set up a table full of food that would make that Pixar animated Rat(atouille) drool. Apparently Steve Boniface and Kyle Chisholm like to eat well. From grilled and marinated chicken, steak, and fish, to hot dogs, to salad, to every flavor of Lay's chips ever made, the place looked like it could have fed the entire motocross community. While I can't speak for the motocross community, I can tell you that team MotoSport was more than happy to feed the three of us, making them Nate's favorite team. By the time the racing was over Ricky Carmichael had won his eighth straight Southwick race, to the surprise of nobody (it was Ricky Carmichael day after all). To the surprise (and envy) of many, Carmichael was generous enough to give us his race pants so we can auction them off for the project. We also left with Jeff Alessi's race pants and James Stewart's hat. All autographed, of course. Keep an eye on ebay, they'll be up soon.
Thanks for reading, dudes.
-Steve Harrell
