So I had a chance to go over to Russ Wernimont's shop and go through his whole archive of photos, parts drawings, and memorabilia. From the Jimmy Smith Ultra Wheels Hub drawing to the Internal bump stop, he drew up in 1990. Some really cool things we went through. Enjoy the photos!
As we know Russ built the first Trophy Truck so going through all of this was simply incredible. Like a time capsule. But what I didn't know was why he stopped developing in the off-road industry.
After the 1994 Baja 1000 when Jimmy Smith won the first-ever Trophy truck race Russ told me Jimmy was so difficult to deal with that we were simply over it and left the scene entirely.
But now he is back off-road as he built a Kawasaki KRX with his son Carson to go racing in BITD and Legacy. Carson has won 5 out of 7 races thus far. Pretty cool to see the trickle-down simple engineering ethos from his race trucks that he built to go into a KRX. They are out there hurting some feelings that is for sure.
