April 23, 2008, Bloomington, MN  The Desert Dawgs are in transit from the All Harley Drag Racing Association’s (AHDRA) Gypsy Rendezvous Nationals in St. Louis, MO where everything from earthquakes, rain and ‘close calls’ dominated.

The trip from Corrales, NM to St. Louis started a week sooner than expected. Greg’s Dad, Jim, had a bad fall and was in the hospital. It was not a good week as his health deteriorated and they had to move him to a care facility without much hope of him recovering. Then the ride from Bloomington was smooth for about 130 miles before the transmission on the motorhome started having issues. The Dawgs made the trip in 4th gear…making it in 16 hours instead of the normal 10 hours. Then, a half hour after being parked in the Allison Transmission dealer’s parking lot the ground started to shake with the rare 5.2 earthquake. Karen commented that someone could be breaking into the trailer or walking on the motorhome…Greg was so tired, he just claimed it was the wind.

Making it to the track to set up the pit and finish the reassembly of the two bikes for TNT. The rain had other ideas and Greg’s Friday was a day spent in the cramped trailer with Steve Allstaedt, as the two of them tried to get the bikes ready. Steve said “We had a few new things we wanted to try and get set during TNT & Qualifying but it wasn’t meant to be.”

Saturday started a little late because the track needed to be dried due to another early rain shower. Greg’s concentration on racing was nowhere to be seen. On his first launch of the day he looked like it was his first time on a bike, it sat him straight up and sent him over to the right. For as bad as it was, it was his best run on the Pro Modified at an 8.640 which was good enough to be the #2 qualifier. The Pro Stock had what seemed like a terminal case of transmissionitis in addition to blowing through the clutch. No matter what they did they could not get it to shift correctly. Greg ended the day as the #6 qualifier. Back to work on the two bikes...take everything off that they put on Friday and go back to where things were in Phoenix. Then find some new clutch fibers…thanks to Jordan Cruz, a fellow PS rider, they got a new set on Sunday morning.

Sunday was a nice sunny day, a new start. Greg started on the Pro Stock against James Surber. The bike failed to make the shift the first 2 times but Greg stayed on it. At the 1/8 mile Surber’s clutch broke and he lost the piece holding it together. As his bike fell off the pace Greg was able to pull around him for the win. Lucky break!  Back in the pits, the Dawgs noticed they shredded the teeth off the belt again. Another problem to overcome in the future. In the second round of PS Greg was up against the #1 Qualifier. The bike made the first shift and for a split second they thought they would get the win but then the tranny failed to shift into 3rd ending all hope. “I just don’t get it.” said Greg. “This was the biggest nightmare trying to figure out what is going on with this bike and we still don’t know what’s up. We don’t have time before Dallas to do anything with it so I don’t know what we’ll do.” he added.

The Pro Modified ran great in the first round moving Greg on. He had his fastest run of the weekend in the Semi’s with an 8.63 which put him in the finals against Randy Borho, the #1 Qualifier. The final was another race for the books…a mere 0.003 separated them off the line, Greg was ahead to the 1000’ mark, but Randy taking the finish line stripe by 0.007 seconds with both riders running 8.64’s. They sure did give the fans a show. “Considering what Greg’s been through and what’s ahead of him in the next few days we think he did an awesome job.” said Steve. “Now we just have to figure out what’s wrong with the Pro Stock and fix it. I guess we know what we’ll be doing in Dallas while everyone else is running TNT .” he added.

Next up for the Dawgs is the Lonestar Nationals, May 1-3, 2008 in Ennis, TX
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On a sad note, Greg’s Dad past away last night. God Speed Dad.

The Desert Dawgs would like to THANK their ever important sponsors for making this all happen.  Meet their Sponsors and their products:
Thunderbird Harley-Davidson: www.thunderbirdhd.com <http://www.thunderbirdhd.com/>
SA Racing Inc.:  828-674-6225 Steve Allstaedt
Unique Services Inc.: www.uniquesvcs.com <http://www.uniquesvcs.com/>
Mark Goodwin & Associates: www.goodwinengineers.com <http://www.goodwinengineers.com/>
Leading Edge Customs: www.leadingedgecustoms.com <http://www.leadingedgecustoms.com/>
Custom Coating: 505-626-2605 Erin McGonagle
CP Pistons: www.cppistons.com <http://www.cppistons.com/>
Mickey Thompson Tires: www.mickeythompsontires.com <http://www.mickeythompsontires.com/>
Outlaw Race Fuels: 775-690-3488 MacMonagle Family
Lyndall Race Brakes: www.lyndallracingbrakes.com <http://www.lyndallracingbrakes.com/>
Regina Chain USA: www.reginausa.com <http://www.reginausa.com/>
Bandit Machine Works: www.banditmachineworks.com <http://www.banditmachineworks.com/>
Synergy Coatings: www.coat-this.com <http://www.coat-this.com/>
Boot Guard: 866-547-2668
And the Martin Family!
Plus a Big Thanks to all the AHDRA Contingency Sponsors!  
More at www.ahdra.com <http://www.ahdra.com/>


Greg on the ever faithful Pro Mod.                          Photo by Bret Kepner


The Pro Stock looks good but will it ever shift?      Photo by Bret Kepner