Its funny where we find ourselves in that place of amazement at how things work. You never expect to find a miracle or be part of one of those things that people think are simply unexplainable. Most of all you don’t expect to find them out in the middle of the desert at an off-road race just outside of Primm Nevada. Here is a little story about one such time where I am still amazed at how God protects us in those times.

 

It was early morning when we got up to go to the start line of the Best in the Desert Terrible’s 250 at Primm. This is race number 2 of the series and was being done in a little different format then we are used to seeing. This race was split up into 2 segments. The fastest cars and trucks were slated to race in the after noon and the rest of us “slow” guys were set to run at the break of dawn. When the alarm clock went off at 3:30 am the thought never crossed my mind that things would be all that different that day. I figured get up get my driving suit on and do my thing like any other race we had done before. I mean its not like my first disco. I have been racing off-road trucks for the past 14 or so years now so race morning isn’t the nerve racking awakening that it was in the past. We had to have the trucks race ready and in staging by 4:45 that morning for an early start. We had a nice group of trucks in our stock full class that day. I think we had 10 trucks getting to take the start.

 

We pre-ran the course on Thursday before the race so we knew what the track would look like and it wasn’t much different from the Las Vegas 300 course we raced last year. The only real difference now was that they had run a grader over nearly 50 miles of the roughest part of the course. On pre-run day it looked very smooth but I knew it would get rougher as the cars made their laps. We all had to do either 2 or 3 laps on the 84 mile course for the day. Our class was a 3 lap class. The smooth parts caused concern for us knowing that we don’t have the most horsepower in the class and that our truck favors the rough and technical courses. Well it wouldn’t matter much today.

 

As all of the trucks came to the staging area we all did our normal thing. Our class is pretty different then most. Most of the guys that race in our class have been around for a while and from one time to another we have had to help each other along the way. We have a bond between the competitors that is almost un-explainable without experiencing it. We have this brotherhood of some kind that keeps us all in touch with reality. Its some odd blessing of camaraderie that you just don’t see in other racing or other classes for some reason. Most of us climbed out of our trucks and gathered around to shoot the breeze before the start time. We talk about dumb stuff like the weather and what we ate for dinner the night before. But not much about the race in general because no one wants to upset their luck or sound too arrogant at this early stage of the game. At this point most of us know that its not in our hands now and we will have to see what happens at the finish line. Its funny how our class sticks together. I remember a race a year or so ago where one competitor had a problem and his truck caught on fire. Every one in the class that came by after the fire started stopped and gave up a fire extinguisher for them. That’s what I call good sportsmanship, and why I am proud to be part of this thing that is bigger then any one of us. 

 

It was our first race with our new KC HiLites on the front of the truck as a couple of the guys made small talk about the cool looking carbon fiber. As time rolled on and we all joked about the color of our new driving suits and who is your new co-driver the call finally came from the Best in the Desert to fire the trucks up and get into the staging start line. We all climbed in and move up into the positions we would start the race in. We were first off the line this time but my old buddy Josh Hall was right behind us, and a bunch of other fast “slow” guys were back there too. We knew our day would be a battle to say the least. In line Steve from Racers for Christ came over and we all had a little prayer to set things in the right light before we started the race. This is again our normal race morning thing lately. As we got closer the guys from IRC came over in a panic. Our tracking box was not transmitting for some reason and they didn’t know why. They got me out of the truck and tried to fix it but no luck.   They changed the GPS antenna but still nothing. I had to literally throw them out of the truck when we were only a couple of cars from the green light.

 

We rolled up to the start line and Casey Folks shook my hand and wished me the old tried and true “Good luck Foutzie… Kick some butt” as he does at every race. You grow to love that grumpy old guy. He grows on you over time, like a fungus yes but a good one. The green light flew and we were off. Doug Rauch who was riding with me got on the radio and called out to the crew that we were off the line and to start the time tracking. The first part of the race had a slow 25 MPH section we had to go through before getting out into the open race area. That was painful to say the least. But we made it out into the open track fine and I had my head on straight as we needed it to be.

 

We were running along and passing some of the slower buggies that started directly in front of us. Things seemed fine to me and we were running a good pace when at about mile 10 we came upon a rolled car, a pink car to boot. Not thinking much of it I turned a little to the right to pop out of the rut and go around the car.   I drove up about 100 feet or so and started to turn back into the rut of the course. When I did the front drivers side wheel fell into the rut and it was so deep the truck just lazy rolled up onto the driver’s side door and there we were at mile 10 on our side. I simply couldn’t believe that this had happened. I rolled the truck bad at the last race the Parker 425 after having a steering issue and had to repair that. Now on the side again meant more body work and loosing time to get back in the race.

 

Doug and I jumped out as fast as possible and started to assess how we would get it back on the wheels to continue. Other cars and trucks were now on top of us and we were directing traffic around the right side of our 2 vehicles. We started to jack the truck up on the side with our high lift jack to try and get it back up on the wheels. The problem was that we were in a wash and the ground was soft and moved easily. Jacking would be a problem for sure. As Doug and I worked at it for a while I took my helmet off because I felt short of breath. Not a smart thing in the race with traffic going by. After about 15 minutes my old buddy Jon Krelwitz came by and saw that it was us on our side. He slowed and circled back for us. We got a tow strap out and guided him back to our truck. His new Jeep Speed had not been raced and he was out for a good race-test time on it to find any weak spots. He hooked up and pulled us back on the wheels pretty easily. We un hooked the strap and I blew kisses at them as they drove off to resume their race. Now with new hope again I walked back to the truck and started to gather up our jack and all the things that were on the ground from our efforts to right the truck. Cars and trucks were passing us the entire time we were working on this and we must have seen at least 25 or 30 vehicles go by before Jon even got to us. As you can imagine we were way back in the pack now. The team that was rolled over first asked me if we would right their car before we left and we agreed. 

 

Doug and I put the spare tire back on the back of the truck together and then I went to the driver’s side of the truck to put the high lift jack back on the mounts. All the while cars had been racing by in the line off to the right that we had sent so many cars by already. All but one, a blue Jeep Speed not sure of who or the number but it was a blue Jeep Cherokee for some reason came on the left side. Down the same side where I was standing installing the jack. I didn’t see him coming until Doug yelled “Watch out Greg” and I looked back to see them coming right at me. It was too late to run now they were on the gas and right on top of where I was standing. The Jeep’s driver was not in full control of the vehicle and it started to slide down into the rut where I was standing. The Jeep driver was still in the gas trying to make it through the wash without getting stuck when the rear end started to slide down the line making it go a bit sideways or diagonal. The front tires were still on the top of the rut but the rears had fallen in. Now the rear fender of the Jeep hit my truck at the back fender and made contact. I was now able to back away a step or two and was by the driver’s door when it hit me. I was now between the side of the Jeep and my driver’s door. I felt the pressure of the Jeep pushing my guts into my truck. It pinned me so hard that it spun me around like a top and spit me out the back of the Jeep like some bad habit. After it let me go I fell flat on my back. 

 

I closed my eyes because I was sure that this was bad. I remember thinking when I couldn’t run away fast enough that this was not good and I was afraid. The feeling of being squashed between our 7000 pound truck and Jeep at about 20 MPH is not fun to say the least. Laying there I was sure that I would have serious injury, I mean how many people do you know today that have been in that kind of personal accident and even walked away from being crushed between 2 cars? I can’t think of any. I did the quick what hurts in my head inventory and realized that my hips and my chest hurt a little bit but then all of the sudden I felt ok. I guess the adrenaline kicked in again and I got up off the ground. Doug ran over yelling “oh my God are you ok?” As I got up off the ground I remember thinking wow how can that be. Am I really ok? This is a miracle. I didn’t feel anything that hurt too bad. Wow. This day I was glad that I am a Christian for sure, and glad to have God on our side. I could be dead, but Im not….

 

Doug just stood there looking at me for a minute. I know he couldn’t believe it either. As I gathered my senses I told Doug “lets go we have to get back in the race” and I started to get in the truck. I didn’t want to try and open the driver’s door now because I didn’t know if it would stay closed after wrecking it so I stepped up on the front tire and started to go in through the front windshield opening. I must have been a little dizzy because I had to reach over and steady myself by putting my hand on the top of Doug’s helmet so I didn’t fall off the truck again.

 

I crawled in and got in the seat then fired up the truck and it ran fine. I backed the truck up to the buggy and we tugged it back over for them so they could get going. They took the strap off and Doug started to get in the truck. We didn’t say much about the whole thing that just happened but you could see it in our eyes. Doug got in and put the other jack back in the holder between the seats and started to buckle his belts.

 

Now back in we started to go. We drove out of that wash and off on to the course. We had lost about 40 minutes of time now and we both knew we were behind. We picked up the pace and got in to Pit 1 and blew through at speed. The crew came on the radio and told us we were 38 minutes down from the leader. Feeling a little discouraged now I said a little prayer and got my head back in the game. We pushed the truck and completed lap 1 with no other problems.   We had some new rear springs that Jeff from Deaver had cooked up for us to run and they were working great. We were passing Jeep Speeds and buggies 2 and 3 at a time to get around the slower vehicles.

 

We kept track of time and pushed the truck hard. We cleared our 2^nd lap and had worked our way back up to 3^rd place starting out on the 3^rd and final lap. We stopped for some Sunoco fuel at the end of our 2^nd lap and the team looked the truck over and found nothing to cause any concern.  Now we thought we had a chance to win again so we picked up the pace even more. Now pushing our Fabtech Ford F250 truck to the limit, past what we had ever done in the past.  I figured we had nothing to loose now. We would push as hard as I could without crashing and see where we finished up. Our 3^rd lap time was great and we made up time. We didn’t have any issues after our incident at mile 10 that day. Our truck worked great, our BF Goodrich tires hooked up, and our Dirt Logic shocks took all the pounding I could throw at them. I was truly impressed at how hard I could run the truck and it held up. A true testament to how good these Ford trucks are.

 

At the finish line we were only a couple of minutes physically behind 2^nd place of John Griffin and Jeremy Spirkoff and about 17 minutes off the winner Josh Hall. While as a team I was proud of our comeback and final finish after all that had happened I had a great feeling of something else. I was grateful that I was still here to race another day. I have to thank God for keeping me safe that day and I know in my heart that I was protected from sure disaster and it wasn’t my helmet, driving suit, or roll cage. I thought it was important to share this story with everyone so that we can all be thankful of what we have and realize the miracles that happen around us, even the ones that happen in the dirt.

 

In addition to thanking God for my health and continued life I have to also thank all of the people that support our efforts and make it all possible. I would like to thank my wife Nikki for putting up with me and all of this, and my kids too, Aubree, Tyler, and Macie for giving me reasons to live and love. A special thanks to Fabtech and Dave for all that they do for our team. Thank you to all of our kind sponsors Ford, BF Goodrich, OPTIMA Batteries, KC HiLites, Dirt Logic shocks, Lincoln Electric, Deaver Spring, McKenzies, Earls Plumbing, Hooker Mufflers, Painless Performance, Kales Collision Center, Racers Only, Best in the Desert, Glass Chiropractic, ADD, Howe Performance, and our entire team that helps more then I can tell you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

 

For any further information please contact Greg Foutz www.FoutzMotorsports.com