SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/501768
Either as drivers or builders the Geiser brothers have won the overall in every major race and every major championship in desert racing. They even had a customer that rented a car for the Indy 500 and put Geiser Brothers on the sides, but he failed to qualify. The list of drivers who have raced and won in their Trophy Trucks is a who's who of off road racing. Bryce Menzies, Jesse Jones, Rob MacCachren, Andy McMillin, Mark McMillin, Bob Shepard, Juan Carlos Lopez, Lalo Laguna, Clyde Stacy, Robby Gordon, Mark and Gary Weyhrich, Gus and Tavo Vildosola and Johnny Herder are just several on their list of customers. Both brothers spent time in their younger years at various race shops like Foddrills and Walker Evans Racing, but did most work out of their carport, which later became a four car garage. The early years the brothers did a lot of work on VW based racecars as well as building shocks and motors. Their father died when Rick was eight and Jeff was seven. Their mom took over dad's safety equipment business to feed the family, leaving their oldest brother to watch over them. This led to the house basically becoming a race shop. "We had no parents around, we were just dumb kids tearing up everything. I used to have motors in my bedroom. On a VW engine you had to heat up the gears to go on the crankshaft. I did that with the oven in the kitchen." said Rick Geiser. The endeavor eventually moved into a 5,000 square foot race shop, which they quickly outgrew and now are in a 20,000 square foot shop in North Phoenix, Arizona. The shop has expanded THE GEISER FACILITY IS BROKEN UP INTO VARIOUS SECTIONS, SUCH AS THIS ROOM DEDICATED TO REBUILDING SHOCKS ON THE RACE VEHICLES THEY'VE FABRICATED. A TROPHY TRUCK LOWER A-ARM SITS ON A WELDING TABLE IN ANOTHER AREA OF THE FACILITY DEDICATED TO WELDING COMPONENTS TOGETHER. to include areas or rooms for specific jobs like the build shop, prep shop, fab shop, shock room, differential room, fixture room, and even a CNC room with a massive CNC mill and CNC lathe. After years of working on off- road race cars of all types, the brothers built what was to become the first iteration of their current Trophy Truck, a truggy built for Johnny Herder. It won its debut race, the 1999 SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge where Herder beat the Herbst brothers by just one second. At that same race Gustavo Vildosola Sr. placed an order with the brothers for a new Trophy Truck, which later went on to win the 2010 SCORE Baja 1000. The shop exploded from there forward. Now, Geiser Brothers just finished their 56th truck last week, in addition to another 14 Trophy Truck pre-runners. One of those pre-runners was built for now retired NFL offensive lineman Leonard Davis of the Arizona Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys. Rick Geiser told us how it came 014 SCORE JOURNAL