Rory
Crayola Killer
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1st off, don't let the "Thread starter" name fool you, this is NOT my restoration although I will be helping out with it. My good buddy Cody Swanty from Kingman Arizona owns it and we started talking a month back about "Possibly" racing it at this years Baja 1000. Before i get to that, let me start from the beginning:
Randy Anderson at Walker Evans racing was in charge of building this class 8 truck for Walker Evans during the 1987 season. The truck was completed right before the Off Road World Championships at Riverside where it was dominating the field until the steering box broke and sent Walker into the wall on Thompson's ridge and he waded it up...
The truck was fixed and showed up at the start of the 1988 season in Parker and was one of several new race trucks debuting that year. Here's a shot of it on the Arizona side from Centerline Photo...
The truck only raced the 88 season as it was deemed illegal for class 8 due to the V8 engine that was not yet in production for the consumer till 1989. This truck was sidelined and used as a display vehicle and then a prerunner until the early to mid 90's. In the mid 90's the truck was turned into a class 7 unlimited for Scott Douglas and then NASCAR racer Brendan Gaughan and JC Dean....
Photo Credit Centerline Photo.
The truck was sold to someone over in South Africa in the late 90's I believe and was raced for a while and then changed hands. The old owner posted here on RDC about 18 months ago and we started talking. He wanted to sell it and buy a buggy to race because a truck like this was hard to run in his series because there was no one to run against. I loved this truck when i was a teenager and really wanted it for myself but that stupid IVAN STEWART TOYOTA was getting the best of me as i couldn't work out a deal for it yet. Picture of the Dakota racing in South Africa (photo credit unknown)...
I turned to my good buddy Cody Swanty, fellow desert racer (class 7s Jeep and Pro Truck) and also runs Swanty's Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep Dealership in Kingman Arizona. I knew he was a big fan of this truck and he had shown interest in building something to go racing the NORRA Mexican 1000. I was apprehensive about sharing the truck with anyone because of course i wanted it for myself, but we all know we can't have EVERYTHING. Cody was excited about the truck and I put him in touch with the seller. Shipping something from South Africa is not easy, and especially NOT cheap. A deal was struck and the truck was shipped off to America. Here is the old owners set up for hauling to the races...
And here it is in the shipping container...
More to come...
Randy Anderson at Walker Evans racing was in charge of building this class 8 truck for Walker Evans during the 1987 season. The truck was completed right before the Off Road World Championships at Riverside where it was dominating the field until the steering box broke and sent Walker into the wall on Thompson's ridge and he waded it up...
The truck was fixed and showed up at the start of the 1988 season in Parker and was one of several new race trucks debuting that year. Here's a shot of it on the Arizona side from Centerline Photo...
The truck only raced the 88 season as it was deemed illegal for class 8 due to the V8 engine that was not yet in production for the consumer till 1989. This truck was sidelined and used as a display vehicle and then a prerunner until the early to mid 90's. In the mid 90's the truck was turned into a class 7 unlimited for Scott Douglas and then NASCAR racer Brendan Gaughan and JC Dean....
Photo Credit Centerline Photo.
The truck was sold to someone over in South Africa in the late 90's I believe and was raced for a while and then changed hands. The old owner posted here on RDC about 18 months ago and we started talking. He wanted to sell it and buy a buggy to race because a truck like this was hard to run in his series because there was no one to run against. I loved this truck when i was a teenager and really wanted it for myself but that stupid IVAN STEWART TOYOTA was getting the best of me as i couldn't work out a deal for it yet. Picture of the Dakota racing in South Africa (photo credit unknown)...
I turned to my good buddy Cody Swanty, fellow desert racer (class 7s Jeep and Pro Truck) and also runs Swanty's Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep Dealership in Kingman Arizona. I knew he was a big fan of this truck and he had shown interest in building something to go racing the NORRA Mexican 1000. I was apprehensive about sharing the truck with anyone because of course i wanted it for myself, but we all know we can't have EVERYTHING. Cody was excited about the truck and I put him in touch with the seller. Shipping something from South Africa is not easy, and especially NOT cheap. A deal was struck and the truck was shipped off to America. Here is the old owners set up for hauling to the races...
And here it is in the shipping container...
More to come...
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