“Black Rhino Performance Sponsored Athletes Greg & Josh Row Finish First at the SCORE Rosarito Desert Challenge"
El Cajon, CA, September 19, 2016– The SCORE Rosarito Desert Challenge took place September 14th-18th in Rosarito Beach, Baja California, Mexico. Black Rhino/ Racer X sponsored athletes Greg & Josh Row, father and son, won the Pro UTV Class.
Friday- Race Day 1
The A team was in the pits; Jordan, Dan the Man, Boss Hog Schwick, Trevor Row and Dylan Gillespie. 8 turbos and 6 non-turbos would start the race. The #1901 started 2nd in class and 10th overall with Josh driving and Greg as the co-driver. Without pre-running they knew they would have to take it easy and drive to "what you can see".
The green flag dropped and Josh was on the gas. About 3 miles into the course the #1901 started catching dust from #1949-Alonso Lopez. As they turned a corner Lopez pulled off with a flat and the course was clean sailing. A couple of miles later Greg and Josh see Cody Rahders changing a tire and on the next corner Marc Behnke out of his car and working on it. Now the course is dust free as far as they could see.
As Josh begins to climb the mountains they can now see what everyone has been talking about; driving these trails, if you blow a turn you will die. It was Greg's first time co-driving and he was "scared shitless" as he put it; he about ripped the 'oh-shit' bar out of the car. The descents were so steep and off camber but Josh drove like a champ keeping the car on the trail and tip-toeing thru the bad areas.
Half way through the race they see Jagged X stuck in an uphill ditch that they had to back down to get out of; luckily there was an alternate line around. Now the course started to open up in and around some ranches; speeds were wide open and Josh kept the #1901 on rails. On the 2nd lap they caught a Class 7 Truck and made the pass on the hill climb that had 3 different lines to attempt. Greg, Josh and the #1901 crossed the finish line 1st in class by 15 minutes and 5th overall with turbos.
Saturday-Race Day 2
In the Pits today was Boss Hog Schwick, Tonya and Trent. Unfortunately, the #1901 got kind of screwed to go for the overall win. They put the 4 turbos back in front of them for Day 2 and inverted the starting order. Greg & Josh were starting 11th out of 12 cars with a 15 minute lead in class with Greg driving and Josh as the co-driver.
The green flag dropped and Greg starts on cruise control just trying to put down some clean smooth miles. 2 miles into the course they pass the #1926 working on their car. As they start climbing the mountain and catching the dust of #1915-Graves, Greg decides to hang back and wait until they get to the high speed roads to attempt catching and passing. He was driving hard and creating a lot of dust and passing in this section wasn't an option.
Just after the hill climb, 14 miles in, they jumped on a mountain top trail that was wide open fast but dangerous if you got off the trail. Greg pushed and reeled the #1915 in and he pulled over and let the #1901 by. Now they had clean sailing. Greg knew his buddy Daniel Parker would be driving the wheels off his car to get the win for the day; surprisingly he was broke down right as they came into the ranches and gave them a thumbs up as they went by.
Now the #1901 was leading the classes for the day and trying to put a little more time on the #1949. The track was clean sailing, fast and fun for the second half. As they came through the finish line on the first lap they could see no dust behind them and Greg decided to put the #1901 back in cruise control to finish solid. After battling their way through their class the turbos were gone.
Greg caught Sappington working on his car in the wash and then it was no dust; just clean sailing until they caught the #1926 again, still completing his first lap about 25 miles in. Greg tried to be nice and just honk but that didn't seem to work. As soon as the #1926 saw them in his rear view mirror it was like he saw the green flag and tried to out run them. Bad decision. Greg gave him a 'Robby Gordon' ride into the bushes. Mess with bull; you get the horn. Greg, Josh and the #1901 crossed the finish line in 6th, 1st in class and 3rd overall on time.