In a dramatic, neck and neck finish to a five hour, 250 mile off road race, amateur Ronn Bailey got the checkered flag ahead of the Class 1 category leader, placing third out of 80 starting vehicles in this weekend’s Southern Nevada Off-Road Racing Enthusiasts (SNORE) sponsored event, the KC HiLites, in El Dorado Valley, Nevada.
Bailey, entered the race as a training run as he is planning a third run in the grueling 2007 Dakar Rally, from Lisbon to Dakar, Senegal in January.
His second place finish in class 1, just seconds behind the leader in the time adjusted race, composed of five 50 mile laps is only his sixth organized race, and the third in the U.S. He has raced his Class-1 Porter Buggy in two other SNORE events, including the Buffalo Bills 400 in which he finished second place – a serious accomplishment for an amateur driver. In last month’s Caliente 250, Bailey suffered a concussion in a crash which knocked him out of first place, injuring his co-driver Jimbo Zinn and forcing the team to reconstruct the vehicle in less than a month for this weekend’s SNORE “Midnight Special.”
“This was a spectacular race to the end, which you don’t often experience in off-road rally racing, explains Ronn Bailey, who is also CEO and CTO of Vanguard Integrity Professionals. Our light bar came loose in the 4th lap, and I was driving through the darkness and dust at 90 mph til we got it fixed. Otherwise, we felt great about our time, consistency and performance of the car, making it a great night for the entire team”
St. Judes Kids benefit from the SNORE donations.
Even more rewarding than the race performance was Bailey’s successful effort to enlist drivers and their fans in collecting truckloads of food, clothing and toys and furniture for the St. Jude Ranch for Children in Boulder City. The team collected donations at the tech review in Downtown Boulder and visited with some 30 children of all ages, who got autographed posters and a chance to sit in the racecar.
