Bolton Racing of Gardnerville did the unthinkable and placed first in Class 7,200 with a stock motor Ford Ranger at the Best in the Desert's Parker 425.
The No. 7,223 team was determined to drive across the finish line, overcoming a 30-minute silt delay and one rollover at the series' first event of the season on Saturday.
Before the start of the race driver Brad Bolton and co-pilot and driver Danny Bolton both said, "Let's take it easy and finish."
They raced into the sun the first mile into the race and came upon a heavy dust cloud and couldn't see.
"I slowed down through the dust and saw three vehicles stuck in the silt," said Brad. "I stopped, we both got out, heard five loud bangs and saw five vehicles behind us get stuck in the silt." No. 7,223 was also stuck.
"We were pumped," said Danny. "We were the only ones with a Craftsman shovel and we started digging out No. 7,214."
The team dug itself out next then towed out McNeil's No. 7,207 truck. Thirty minutes later Brad charged on.
Lap two was smooth, with a refuel and driver and co-driver switch at Pit 2. Danny took the wheel and Kevin Repan jumped in as co-pilot.
Number 7,223 got bit by the Parker Python and rolled onto its lid at the beginning of Lap 3. But the bite wasn't fatal. By the time Danny and Kevin were out of the truck about 15 guys were swarming them saying, "Let's roll it! Let's roll it!"
After a quick check of the vehicle both the driver and co-pilot buckled in and one guy came up to Danny and yelled, "By the way, that was awesome," said Kevin. With some generous fuel from Bi-Polar Extreme Racing, Danny headed into the desert for the third and final lap.
The sun still up and with less than 100 miles to go the pit crew mounted only one headlight at Pit 2, Ryan Bolton replaced Kevin as co-pilot and Danny drove off to fight the dust and reach the finish.
The sunlight faded quickly and the team got news there was a bad silt bed close to the finish that was taking teams out of the race.
About two miles from the finish Danny and Ryan saw amber lights at a dead stop about 50 feet in front of them.
"We didn't want to get stuck," said Ryan, "so we slowed down and saw a BITD official stuck in the silt."
Danny let air out of No. 7223's tires and the team towed the official out and charged to the finish.
Danny crossed the finish line in 10 hours, 24 minutes, 20 seconds on the same BFGoodrich tires the truck started the race with. Bolton Racing placed first in class 7,200 and 36th overall. This is Bolton Racing's second podium finish since debuting in Class 7,200 at the Best in the Desert's Vegas to Reno in 2006.
Bolton Racing's sponsors include Bolton, Inc., The Kona Coffee & Tea Company, Legado, Ledfoot Race Rags, Sign Designz, Borla Exhaust, BFGoodrich and Fox Racing Shox, Team Orbit and Bi-Polar Extreme Racing.