Dome Valley Raceway
On March 5th 2026 My dog Ryzer, Dean and Liz Dangremond, and Brian Jones all left to make the journey 2,100 miles to Dome Valley Raceway in Wellton, Arizona. It was a great three day trip stopping along the way and enjoying the sights of the Southwest. It’s so much different out there; I’m so used to water, lakes, and trees. While there are few trees, it’s mostly open deserts and plenty of mountains everywhere. It was really cool looking at the California aqueduct system and how it feeds the Southwest vegetable fields.
Day one of the weekend started with a test and tune. This was perfect, as I took the chance the opportunity to test a new engine combination along with my old carb setup. Well it was a novel idea, but it wasn’t near enough for what the new motor really wanted, so I spent the day chasing my tail. I finally got it to where I felt comfortable that I wouldn’t hurt anything and let it rip, running a best of 3.70 at 88MPH.
Over the next couple days, I struggled mentally that the car wasn’t up to its full potential and struggled in the driver’s seat. I lost in round one Thursday night in East vs West Bracket by 0.003 and that seemed to set the pace of my weekend… Saturday starter issues arose and I was unable to make the final round of the 3.75 Index class. Sunday came around and I was able to pull my head out of my ass and drive! I made it to the finals of Pro 1 and Pro 2, but lost by 0.007 in one final and 0.002 in the other final. I just wasn’t able the seal the deal. It wasn’t my day.
I have to give a huge shootout Esteban Juarez and the Dome Valley Crew! You guys worked your butts off through all the heat of the weekend and pulled off a great event! I can’t thank you all enough. Starting with the hard work all week prior to the event and all the work during the event to pull it off successfully, you did a fantastic job!
All in all, Dome Valley was a great time! I saw so many of my friends from the past that came out to visit some of who I hadn’t seen in 20 years!! To all the people that came out from the East to compete, thank you! That was truly amazing. And to all the people I finally got to finally meet in person, it was great to see so many nice people in the sport.
Atoka Motorsports Park
The coolest part of this trip was, it wasn’t over after Dome Valley! We continued over to Atoka, Oklahoma for the Spring Break Sooner Shootout at Atoka Motorsports Park. On the way there, we took our time again, enjoyed a couple stops (one being the Alien museum in Rosewell, New Mexico…very cool place)! We had nice weather when we finally got to Atoka with the sun out and the temps hitting 85-90 degrees.
The first thing we noticed about the track were the all the grass pits (which Ryzer loved)! The facility is very nice with a true sand drag strip. It reminded me of what I started racing on before we added all the clay at our home track Silverback Offroad Speedway. The people were amazingly friendly. They even had a meet and greet for us out-of-towners. To top off the greeting, a local news crew came and interviewed us Friday morning and we were able to be on TV!
I had to fix my carburetor issues and luckily while at Dome Valley I was able to purchase another carb from Chris Wells. With the help of Brad Sivells and Dylan Lemke, we were able to make it work. On a pure sand track, I was able to rip off a best of 3.59 @ 89MPH. That was a good feeling, but I still couldn’t tune it more without jets for the new carb. Without anything to change my setup, that was where I had to leave it for the weekend. As far as the weekend goes in competition, well… I didn’t do so hot, but the car ran so much better than at Dome that it was a wash in my mind. Derek Hohmann, I owe you a couple lol.
With those two events out of the way, it’s time to look forward to the upcoming Spring and Summer in the Midwest. Next thing on my list is the test and tune May 2nd at Silverback Offroad Speedway and the first Outlaw Series Race May 8th-9th in Cleves, Ohio at the Gravelrama track. Until the next time …I’m out!
