A little scared to start a thread here with the "big boys" but here goes! I'm a 37 year old active military guy with a little over 15 years in. My first experience with desert racing was the 1980 Mint 400, and have been a huge fan of the sport ever since. Grew up taking annual family trips to Vegas for Mint tech on Fremont and camping for the race. After high school and a few years of college, I joined the Air Force and moved east and lost a bit of touch with the desert racing scene.
Through a crazy whirlwind of events I ended up stationed back in Vegas in 2005 an reconnected with the sport. In 2009, my wife I and bought a 2004 Tacoma to be my daily driver and weekend play toy. I had a bit of a pipe dream of slow building the truck over a period of years to have it be race legal by the time I would be eligible to retire. In 2010 I got moved to Washington, DC of all places. After some hard thinking, I decided to leave the truck in Vegas with a friend to continue slow building as the truck wouldn't do much good as a daily driver around DC. In spring 2011 I got tagged for a 6 month deployment. With the extra money made and saved on that trip, we decided to fast track our plan and pursue the racing goal sooner rather than later.
As a result, we formed TaxPayer Funded Racing in 2011 with the goal of having the truck ready for it's first race in Fall 2012. The build has been primarily financed by "extra" money I make on deployments and TDY's. We are planning on making the HDRA Parhump race in Ocober of this year our debut. We'll be racing in the leaf sprung Class 2000. My wife and I will be making the cross country commute from DC for race weekends and hope to get in a pair of races this year leading to a full season next year.
Having grown up around racing in the early 80's, I have always respected and admired the rugged, never say die attitude that marked the era. We are approaching our plan with the same mentality, intending to build a solid and reliable truck that can go the distance. Considering the cost and logistics of the cross country commute, we certainly want to do everything we can to get the most fun for our money and have long, productive race weekends. For me personally it's been a 30 year journey from fan to participant and we are excited to be a part of the action regardless of how this all turns out. Appreciate the support and advice from some of the great friends we've made over the last few years and look forward to getting dirty this fall!
If you are so inclined, feel free to check us out and follow our progress on Facebook as we'll be documenting our journey with pictures, video content, etc.
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We bought the 2004 Tacoma in the summer of 2009. The truck had a bit of desert history with some work done by the previous owners. It came to use with a Camburg LT kit with SAW coilovers and bypasses. The install was actually done at Camburg back in 2005 ish and was (still is actually) pictured on their website. Front and rear bumpers and rear bedcage were done by Solo Motorsports. The truck had a Deaver replacement spring pack and 14" SAW threaded bodies in the back.
First order of business was to remove the decals and add a set of new 33" BFG KM2s.
TaxPayer Funded Racing
http://www.facebook.com/username#!/TPFRacing
Added a little bit of cab cage for safety's sake and started some cosmetic changes with some Glassworks TT bedsides to make the truck feel a little more like ours...
Decided to add a Fiberwerx Tundra conversion clip and had a little warping issue with the first iteration. Worked with Jason and the fine folks at Fiberwerx and got the truck to then in San Diego. The molded a brand new clip and installed it and the result was a great product...
TaxPayer Funded Racing
http://www.facebook.com/username#!/TPFRacing
Had to cut off the Solo built bumper to make enough room to fit the Fiberwerx clip so we built a new front bumper...
In spring 2010, decided to get a little crazy and start on the first real performance upgrade on the truck, adding a set of All Pro 62" leafs with 18" King Triples and a 32 gallon Jaz cell and a full 1.75" DOM cage...
TaxPayer Funded Racing
http://www.facebook.com/username#!/TPFRacing
With the move, plus the deployment, we decided to speed up the process and start building the truck to race.
We are currently in the final stages of completing a custom race kit for the front suspension built by MCM Fab in Las Vegas...
Once the front kit is done, the cab will be gutted to make way for cab and engine cage. New dash and wiring, seats, etc will button up the cab and hopefully we'll be able to start putting some miles on it by early summer. Will take some time to tighten up a few little projects and get some shock tuning done, then hopefully be ready to go in early October at Parhump!
TaxPayer Funded Racing
http://www.facebook.com/username#!/TPFRacing
I LOVE the name.. what a great story, and glad to see your going forward with the pipe dream. I know the previous owner of this truck and I am glad to see it being put to use. That is going to be one hell of a journey to get to the races, but I love your dedication. Cannot wait to see more progress everything looks great thus far!
Best of luck to you.
- Carson
7241/8041 -4130 clothing-WickedHP-Gearworks-Baja Designs- BITD - Fraction Time worker at HnM Racing Design - (951)-304-3132
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