Dust, dirt and fun: A day in the life of an off-road race car (Pictures)

My car, 1617 runs a 1600cc engine and has a stock VW beam front end. The transmission is a 4-speed manual out of a VW bus and we run 3.0 bypass Fox Shox on all four corners. Stopping power is provided by Jamar disc brakes and when we need illumination we have an LED light bar by Sierra LED Lights.

I am usually pretty keyed up at the starting line, but this was my co-driver's first race. JR was a natural, calling corners and not getting mad when I almost drove us over a cliff.

Quick pit stop for some fuel. We have a small, 15-gallon tank and with an estimated 9 miles per gallon, our range is about 135 miles.

Mechanic Chad takes a break in a spare tire.

There was plenty of silt to be had on the course. Even with my face shield down and clean air getting pumped into my helmet, I still got an eyeful of the powdery stuff.

Clean-up driver Mark waits impatiently for a driver change. My car is one of two cars in the Martha Lee Motorsports mentoring program. Teens from Barstow, California, like Emily pictured here, work on the car and help out at the races. Once they put in enough time in the garage, they are rewarded with a co-driving seat.

After 120 rough and tumble miles I'm so sore I can only fall into the arms of Radioman Chris.

All smiles after my driving duties are done.

Clean-up driver Mark getting in for his three laps.

One of the smoothest sections of the 40-mile race course.

You may not believe it, but 1617 is under that silt somewhere, finally getting her checkered flag.

Clean-up driver Mark and I came away with the Sabina Motorsports True Grit trophy. We didn't have the cleanest race ever, but we soldiered on and finished...as the last car on the course. Still, it was good enough to take fourth in class out of 10 starters.

It's always a good race when you can drive the car onto the trailer. Even though we had to stop every 20 miles to tighten up the trailing arm and spring plate bolts, the fixes were minor and we expect to be back up and running for a July race.