When I look back on the wild ride 2009 had to offer all I can think about is how successful the year was for me on a personal level.
The year actually started in late December 2008 when I left for South America and the Dakar Rally as a member of Team Dakar USA. My job was to be the team manager and navigator of the T-4 Race Truck again. Tom Geviss was back as the driver as well and we were very lucky to have Glen Wheeler along for his first
As previously reported our race in the T-4 Truck didn’t go to well with the crash but thankfully we were in friendly
In retrospect my biggest moment came near the end of the Rally when Robby asked me to drive a car for him in the 2010 Rally. The plan was to modify his four seat buggy and turn it into a very fast chase and support car. To say I came home from the rally excited is an understatement.
In March I traveled with the team to
Later in March it was time to shift the focus back to my own race team for the Mint 400, also known as The Great American Desert Race. For the first time in many years the event would be held in
In June and next on the schedule was my favorite race the SCORE Tecate Baja 500. I always look at this race along with the Baja 1000 as a race that I have the best chance of winning. Also spending time prerunning in
Even though I finished in 2nd place it was a very successful race for me. The strong finish was a good rebound from the disappointment at the Mint and I was very happy with the way I drove the car because I really felt like I was on top of my game. I have driven the Baja 500 solo many times but I can’t remember feeling so good after a ten (10) hour stint behind the wheel.
Late in the summer I found out my seat for the 2010
I am very proud of all my accomplishments that took place this last year and I am looking forward to formulating plans for the future. Special thanks go out to Jake Johnson of Jake’s Fabworks for all his help.
Durka Durka Media Baja 500 Race Report
The Baja 500 is my favorite point to point race and I am very happy with this years 2nd place result. With that said at this late date, SCORE International is still in the process of reviewing the IraTrack recorder information so that they may be able to declare the results official. If something changes I will update it here but for now please take the time and listen to a post race interview I did for Totally Off Road Radio shortly after coming home from
Thank you to everyone who came down to help out and special thanks goes out to Jake Johnson of Jakes Fabworks for preparing an awesome car.
2009 Baja 500 Race Report Audio Slide Show
2009 Mint 400 Race Report Audio Slide Show
After many years of lying dormant the
So what’s so great about this race? I would have to say that the Mint 400 always brings out the best competition and it has always been known as one of the Triple Crown events along with the Baja 500 and Baja 1000. Maybe the glitz and glamour of The Fremont Street Experience along with the crowning of Miss Mint 400 could be considered great? That’s all part of the show and one thing is for sure this race is one of the most coveted trophies in all of Off Road Racing.
Great are all the people that come out to support my racing program. People like Jake Johnson and family along with
Great are the companies that support me and they are Slime, AutoZone, BF Goodrich, Reliable Lumber, Wik’s Racing Engines and nothing would happen without the awesome car preparation by Jake’s Fabworks of Anaheim, CA.
Great was the prerun this year because I got to take my friend and Team Dakar
So how great was the race itself? That is a very tricky question that involves a ying and yang because when you don’t come through with the first place trophy you have to resurrect all the positives. You got it I came away with a lot of accolades but no hardware. You have to love this sport to get any satisfaction out of a weekend like mine here at The Mint because it can be grueling and it most certainly is a lot of hard work. With dedication, hard work along with knowing you had a chance to win, this sport can give you something back that no one else can take!
The course was a real challenge this year because the terrain was unarguably the roughest we have raced on since I can remember in all my years of racing. On top of that the wind went still on race day which compounded the difficult driving conditions especially right of the start. Many cars didn’t make it past race mile four because of a huge pile up in the first silt bed off the start.
So how did we do? WE DID GREAT! I always get so many compliments on how professional my team is on and off the track and for the first two and a half laps of the race no one would debate who was in the hunt for a win in class and just maybe a podium overall? Jake and I ran trouble and flat free and we were solidly in second place in class with the third place car over twenty (20) minutes behind when things went south.
So what was the problem? The answer is part failure and it happened two thirds into the race when an axle let go. With that we were stuck with no way to get help and that was the end of our great run. We eventually made it out to the pits and in the end we came home with a 6TH place for the weekend.
The Mint 400 is a great race that I want to win and we will be back next year to claim that prize!
2008 Baja 1000 AutoZone Promo Video
To change things up I decided to make an audio slide show as my 2009 Dakar Rally Race Report. Please visit the YouTube video page and check it out! Also all my photos have been uploaded to the photo gallery.
Thanks to all my Family for supporting me while I was gone! The Dakar Rally is in the category of “a once in a lifetime experience” and I have been very lucky to be a part of it. Thanks to Robby Gordon for putting his trust in my abilities…
The next race for me will be the Mint 400 which takes place in
2009 Dakar Rally Race Report Video
Please check out the Podium Ceremony Video that is now uploaded on the YouTube video page. It is best viewed after selecting “watch in high quality.”
Hello everyone at home!
After our unfortunate accident in the truck we stayed in race mode and made things happen. We were successful in meeting back up with the team in Valparaiso after a very long drive up through
Once we arrived back with the team Tom, Glen and I immediately started to help out with racecar maintenance. We had some very long nights working on the cars after each stage but it was enjoyable being back in the mix. One night in La Serena we never went to sleep and finished the cars after sunrise.
All of the hard work buy all paid off because Robby ended up finishing third place overall. This podium finish is his best to date and everyone on the team is feeling really good and proud of the result.
Yesterday we all were involved with the podium ceremony and it was a very special day, our team along with Robby’s antics was definitely the show stopper. Last night we all went out to celebrate and we started the party by hitting the local go kart track. Robby finished first of course but I was feeling really good with a third place finish.
Please check back for more updates because I am editing photos and video and should have something to show within the next 24 hours.
Congratulations to all Team
Hello from Bariloche, Patagonia Argentina, what a beautiful place in the world. The sad part is the fact that Tom, Glen and I are not supposed to be here. Yes unfortunately we and truck #524 have crashed out of the race as of stage four that started in Jacobacci. There will be much to tell in my complete post race report but for now I want to let everyone at home know that all three of us do not have a single scratch on us.
We are leaving the truck in Jacobacci, this after spending a day and a half camped out next to the truck in the Patagonian high desert. It took us that long to repair and re align the massive front suspension in order to be able to drive the truck out from the crash sight.
Our plan now is to catch up to the team in
Sorry for the lack of updates but I really haven’t had the time or place to make it happen.
I am having a great time even though things did not go well with the truck. This has been quite an adventure and it’s not over yet!
Yesterday we went through scrutineering which is a very long process but all went well and the racecars and the T-4 are in Parc Ferme. Tonight we have to go back to Parc Ferme and suit up for a parade lap around town which will also act as the ceremonial start across the podium. You can see a picture of them building the podium in the photo gallery. It’s going to be great for the locals but it adds an extra step for us. Our starting time is not until 9:45 PM so we are not going to get very good sleep the night before the race, oh well!
Tomorrow we leave the starting line at 10:09 AM for a 195 KM liaison, a 371 KM timed special and then another 166 KM liaison for a total of 747 KM’s (463 miles). Also tomorrow we here turn our clocks back one (1) hour for the duration of the rally so that means we are plus 5 hours ahead of everyone at home on the West Coast. The track tomorrow is supposed to be very fast graded roads most of the way.
I am looking forward to getting out of town!
It’s 3:00 PM on Wednesday and we just finished the final preparation on both Hummer H3’s. Our scrutineering appointment is tomorrow morning at 10:30.
Yesterday afternoon I got out and about around the city and what a huge city it is. Now I can really believe it that there are 13,000,000 people here. A lot of people live right in the city and twelve (12) story apartment buildings as common as single family homes are in the states. The city is pretty clean but very congested to say the least. When I was out I walked from our hotel to the starting line area and then took a cab from there down to the ASO headquarters and scrutineering area. It took me one hour in a cab to get back from there and I bet it’s no more than about 6-8 miles. Race day is going to be a Zoo! I posted some updated pictures from yesterday’s outing.
Have fun and be safe tonight!
Will
Hello everyone back at home! We arrived in
Today we didn’t do to much accept pick up the support vehicles from the dock and the racecars from the airport. Tomorrow it will be time to go to work!
I will try to get some photos edited and posted over the next couple days. For now I have uploaded my first ever video that I made myself on to my YouTube page. I made it with just my little point and shoot camera and it’s not much to write home about but I kinda dig the song and always have.
Happy New Year!
Will
Robby flew out for final testing of the two (2) Hummer H3 racecars and everything went perfect. We tested down in the low desert because all the mountain passes were closed due to snow. On top of that it was a more realistic test for the South American summer.
It was great spending the day with most of the team!
My next blog post will be from
Happy
The 41st Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 was a successful event for me and my team despite a mediocre
As far as the race course itself the total mileage was only 1018 kilometers (631 miles) starting and finishing as a loop from downtown
The first 135 miles of this track were very difficult to say the least because it included very tight and twisty roads weaving through the pine and boulder covered Sierra De Juarez mountains and just when you thought you could catch your breath you would loose it as you nosed the car over the famous La Rumorosa grade dropping 4400 feet in just a few miles with shear drop offs throughout the trip down! From 4400 feet to below sea level on Laguna Salada and over the very rough Borrego crossover into a San Felipe loop, this track had it all including the normal silt beds and foggy coastal night time driving.
Pre-race activities included an appearance at the local AutoZone store in
Race day morning was very relaxing because we had stayed ahead of the preparation game from the beginning and because Jake and I didn’t leave the starting line until about 11:00 AM. The problem with the late start is the fact that we would only have six hours of daylight meaning most of the race and certainly the most critical racing period would take place at night! Shortly after leaving the starting line things started happening quickly. At about race mile twenty (RM 20) we had already passed many cars that had slid off the road and we also came upon our first bottleneck where we had to stop and wait for other racers to clear the wrecked and stuck cars. The bad part about this is it allows the guys behind you to catch up, so depending on where you are in line it could be a positive or a negative. We cleared this first jam up in about 5 minutes and we all were back on our way down course. Unfortunately coming into Ojos Negros (RM 35) I had a tire go down and we came up about a half mile short of making it to where our chase guys were staged. Jake had to get out and change the rear tire before it came apart so badly that we would risk damaging the car. During the slow down and tire change we lost about another five minutes and a slower car that started behind me was able to slip by. After stopping to get a fresh spare Jake and I were back on the road but now chasing slower dust.
The next 35 miles was really difficult because the car in front of me was running “dust free” but not driving a consistent fast pace. This is one of the most frustrating situations in off road racing! I would rather have somebody blow me away than hold me up. Experience tells me that you just have to keep calm and keep telling yourself that most everyone competing for the win has to deal with these same things. We did finally get a chance to run up on the guy’s rear bumper and believe me I am polite but I wasn’t messing around this time! Yes he did move right over after the little wake up call we placed. The next seventy miles went very clean and we passed quite a few cars including the eventual winner and things were definitely looking up. By the time we got to the La Rumorosa grade (RM 130) we were the second car on the road. About halfway down the decent there was another jam up with nowhere to go! This time Jake and I would benefit from the situation because the car that was stuck was the current leader and this allowed us to catch him on time. Once we starting moving it was a dash to the bottom and a search for clean air. By the time Jake and I got to our first pit stop twenty miles later at RM 150 we had passed the leader and put a couple minutes on him putting us solidly in first place. During this first pit stop we put the light bar on the car and we got ready to put the hammer down.
Things were going great and just as planned and we definitely benefited from running out front. Also this section along Laguna Salada was very fast and The Croc loved running in the correct RPM range. Man I was feeling great! Wait a minute this was Will leading the Baja 1000 again and that has been very dangerous and an unlucky position to be in the last 27 years!
Sure enough my Baja 1000 bad luck would continue when the stupid snap ring ($2.00) on the end of the axle came off and allowed the axle to fall out of the CV joint damaging the inner star and splines on the way out. Not good! Talk about the highs and lows of racing, it was tough believe me. However, I did get over it quickly and started thinking positive because that’s what I do! Thankfully I had Jake with me because he is a great problem solver and he too has a very positive attitude when faced with problems. What else are you going to do? It’s kind of like trying to fight through the dust of that slower running car.
We were stuck on the backside of the mountains with no radio communication but we were only about twenty miles from our chase crew and they had parts. All we needed to do is fix the car good enough to limp it out! Easy right? Well not really because with all the fast running the transmission and CV joints were at maximum temperature and hot grease and transmission fluid do not mix well with skin and sand. We had a mess on our hands but we made it work by flipping the inner star over and pounding the axle back through in an attempt to forcibly clean up the splines. Guess what, it worked and things were looking up again. After about two hours and after sundown we were back on the road again and on our way to our chase crew which had all the supplies we needed along with fresh rags and gloves because we needed them for sure. This next stop took us about twenty minutes but we lost a total of about two hours of valuable “daylight” racing. On top of that we were now behind all the slower classes. It felt good to be patched up but now we were back fighting major hanging dust in the still of the night.
At RM 280 Jake and I got out of the car and handed it off to veteran off road racer Rick Munyon and his navigator Richie Hudson. Rick has driven for me before and he is one of the few people that I trust to drive my car. It was great to get a 2 ½ hour break and Rick did an excellent job of driving the San Felipe loop for me. Rick had no issues during his 120 mile drive other than fighting through major traffic. I know it was frustrating for him as well.
During our break I got a good handle on how far back we were from the lead and it wasn’t good. I made the decision at this point to just bring the Croc on home and drive a conservative pace once we got back in the car just to make sure we finish. Besides being way back we didn’t have a spare axle over on the Pacific side and I was really worried about that. An axle is one part of the car that can’t be borrowed or fix if it were to fail. We had 220 miles to go and that’s a long way under the circumstances and the difficult track ahead.
Nothing really eventful happened from here on out other than more tough night driving conditions that included fog and light rain along the beach where we had to drive with our face shields open for many miles. We played it conservative and stopped at each of the chase points to check the CV boots and sprinkle some fresh holy water on the car and it worked! Jake and I finished at dawn with a total time of 19 hours 7 minutes.
Thanks to team work and the will to succeed, I feel very proud to have finished this year’s event.
Tune in and listen to the replay of the Totally Off Road Radio Baja 1000 Special which was broadcast from the VW BFGoodrich Media Center in
Will co hosted the two hour show with Pistol Pete Sorhen along with special guest and CEO of SCORE International
Get the MP3 file here
http://www.totallyoffroadradio.com/TORR111908.mp3
Or visit the TORR website for more information
Will and the Croc traveled to
Slime is one of AutoZone’s top selling brands thanks to its team of great people!
Please take a moment to check out the photos from the event in the photo gallery.
Jerome Higman makes his Off Road Racing debut in the new THQ video game BAJA Edge of Control. The worldwide release of the game is scheduled for September 22, 2008 and is available for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
For more information visit www.bajagame.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoTjSYUB0uY
The Great American Desert Race returned to
Race activities started for my team on Thursday afternoon in Old Downtown Las Vegas. This was always the traditional tech and contingency parade location on
Race day came quickly after a free day of preparation and a one lap prerun on Friday. Aforementioned there were thirty one starters in my class and I started six off the line. SNORE started the cars two abreast at one minute intervals and I pulled my guy off the starting line. I was on my way to chase down some more gallons! By the end of lap one I had made it by all the cars in front of me except one. However just after we left the main pits at the conclusion of lap one the lead car was pulled over and out of the race. This now put us first on the road and we held the top spot until I clipped a rock and blew the sidewall out of a tire halfway through lap two. While Jake and I were out of the car changing the tire one car slipped by us. The one thing this car didn’t know was the fact that we were just finishing our job and were hot on his trail in less than thirty seconds. By the end of lap two we had worked our way by and we were back out front.
Everything was going just as planned on lap three with Matt Niles now navigating for me but the electronics in the car started acting up? First we lost our intercom/radio and then the GPS. What we figured out via hand signals was that we lost our alternator! Unfortunately we had used up much of our batteries and we had quite a ways to go to make it back to the main pit. What this meant was the fact that we had to pull into the next outlying pit for a change. I had my derelict pit crew stationed at FAIR pit C and they all did a great job changing out the alternator in about eight minutes.
By the time lap four started we were still holding on to second place and I was feeling good and in the groove. We had a great fourth lap despite having to pass many slower cars and we brought the Croc home in second place AGAIN! Shucks…
The biggest surprise of the weekend came on Sunday when I showed up at the awards ceremony to give my second place speech and to hand out the “one” and only gallon of Slime… When I arrived at the grand ballroom at Whiskey Pete’s I was informed by SNORE the promoter of the race that they assessed me with a five (5) minute penalty for not completely stopping at one of the first stop checks! This penalty now dropped me back to fourth place officially. There are quite a few pieces to the puzzle that didn’t fit at the time and to be honest still don’t but there was no changing anybody’s mind because they already started the festivities.
Thanks to Joe Bowman from Slime and everyone on my team for supporting me! I look forward to having another chance with all of you next year when we try once again to win the Great American Off Road Race!
Check out the 2008 Mint 400 Highlight Video produced by Paradigm Productions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIzqNeWaQok
“The Legend Lives On” is tag line that the Best in the Desert Racing Association attaches to The Parker 425 off road desert race. Twenty two years after my first Parker race in 1986 this legend surely continues for me! Legend has it that I finished 3rd place in 1990 and to this day is my best Parker finish. However I do remember how proud I was of this finish because I had come back from a complete rollover right off the start and fought my way through the fifty five car field in my class for 3rd place.
This year for me was filled with high hopes of a win because Parker is one of the races I consider right up my alley. There is something about the combination of speed, length and terrain that suits me well. What it is specifically I am not sure but I do know that the course is deceiving in nature. You think its fast but it’s dusty, you think it’s smooth but it gets chewed up and on top of this there are many sand washes that get deep and their rocks become exposed.
For some reason Parker bites and normally half of the field has a problem on the first 138 mile lap of three. In my wildest dreams I never thought that I would be bitten and one of the first lap victims. Normally the casualties are driving mistakes and I knew that wasn’t going to happen to me even though Jake and I lost the GPS right off the start. What did happen was the transmission let go at only fifty six miles into the race and we were dead on the road. Fortunately one of my team members Kellen Cox was only a couple miles away and was able to come retrieve us for a trip back to the main pits. One bright spot of the day was we were able to cheer Matt Niles on competing in his first off road race in which he finished very well. Congrats to Matt!
I hate it when I have to write a short race report but that’s the facts of the 2008 Parker 425. I will be back next year with the same plan and hopefully better luck!
Tune in and listen to the replay of the Totally Off Road Radio Dakar Special where Will was the Co-Host along with Ryan Arciero. The two hour show includes call in guests Darren Skilton, Robby Gordon and Mark Miller.
The 2008 Dakar Rally was cancelled at the eleventh hour (literally) and the show gives you a basic overview of the event itself along with shedding some light on where we go from here.
Get the MP3 file here www.totallyoffroadradio.com/TORR010908.mp3
Or visit the TORR website for more information www.totallyoffroadradio.com
Check out Will’s new YouTube Channel for more videos.
http://www.youtube.com/WillHigman
2007 was a very successful year of racing for me. The year started with the Dakar Rally in which our three man team became the first American’s in history to finish the rally in the T-4 Race Truck class. The Dakar Rally is known worldwide as the most challenging off road race on the planet and it’s comparable to the World Cup Soccer Final within the international media. The race takes place over fifteen days and encompasses five thousand miles of racing across two continents.
While I was gone to
Shortly after mentally returning from Europe and Africa, my team and I raced in the SNORE Buffalo Bill’s 400 at
The next race of the year was my favorite, the Baja 500. Once again the rug got pulled out from underneath me with a fluke broken suspension piece after leading the first half of the race. With a solid plan and quality team in place we repaired the car in a timely fashion and I brought the Croc home in second place.
Craziness prevailed at the fast and furious Terrible’s Cup which took place at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. This unique event is a huge challenge against the peak summer elements and the competition even though the actual racing period is very short. This was probably my most challenging race of the year because I went into it expecting to be able to race at 95 percent. My bad… When it was said and done third place ended up feeling like a victory!
The year finished out with a DNF at the Primm 300 where we blew a motor after having a good race in the works.
Every year that passes I realize how lucky I am to have the support of the people around me. Off Road Racing is a passion of mine and I am so lucky to have family and friends who embrace it with me, thank you all.
Let’s go grab us a win or two in 2008!
