October 1, 2009 BITD Bilek Silverstate 300 The Bilek 300 was filled with extreme highs and lows for Voss Motorsports This was the first race for Voss Motorsports in their brand new Jimco Trophy Truck. Jason and Rich were very excited with their prior test results and were ready to see what they could do in their first race. The week started off with qualifying on Thursday. The qualifying course was catered toward the opened wheel classes; but there was no reason that a trophy truck could not get the pole position. Voss Motorsports ran their practice lap and knew what they had to do. The qualifying lap started off well; Jason Voss and James East were very pleased with how their lap was unfolding. They nailed turns and plowed through the soft, silty ground where they caught up to the dust of the cars in front them. Unexpectedly coming across a buggy stuck sideways, blocking the course, Voss Motorsports was forced to sit and wait for the buggy to get going again. Upon reaching the finish line, they were waived back for a re-run, however, the engine and tranny were very warm and the Voss crew was nervous about running a second lap right away. Jason killed the motor to talk to his team and decided that they would have to do their second run right away because the course was getting really torn up. However, the truck would not restart when they went to pull up to the starting line. The starter was baked and the team did all they could to cool it down. Once the team got the truck re-started, Jason pulled up to the start line and ran his second lap. The second lap went well only blowing through one sandy burm. Voss Motorsports packed it up and headed back to the hotel anxiously waiting to see how they ranked in qualifying. Time trial results were posted and Voss Motorsports had qualified 3rd in TT and 6th overall. Not too bad for their first time out in the new Jimco truck. Then it was time to concentrate on race day strategy. The plan of attack for race day was to simply be patient and wait for others to drop out in front of them. The course was dusty and Jason thought if they could stay just barely out of the dust of the person in front of them and avoid flat tires, that they would slowly move up in position as others acquired difficulties in front of them. Sure enough, the two trophy trucks that had started in front of the number 35 Voss Motorsports truck were eventually pulled over changing flat tires; giving Jason the chance to take over the lead. With clean air in sight, Jason was then able to make up some lost time on the overall leader. Jason could see the dust from the leaders out in the distance and slowly was reeling them in. With only 60 miles to go, Voss Motorsports was getting very excited about the possibility of winning their very first trophy truck race with the new Jimco. Out of nowhere at around mile 250, Jason and co-pilot James East had seen smoke billowing out from under the truck. They pulled over and began to do everything they could to put the fire out. The transmission had engulfed in flames and there wasn’t much they could do but throw dirt and borrow as many fire extinguishers from fellow races as they could. It took about an hour to finally put out the flames. The truck is not a total loss and the crews at Voss Motorsports and Jimco are already hard at work getting the truck ready for the Baja 1000. Voss Motorsports would like to thank all the people that helped contain the fire and their sponsors: Jimco, General Tire, Teasdale Quality Foods, KC HiLites, TrailReady, AEM Filters, and Stevens Creek Quarry Inc. See you all at the Baja 1000! Voss Motorsports
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