SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/485293
MODERN CLASS 8 TRUCKS ARE SIMILAR TO UNLIMITED TROPHY TRUCKS, BUT THE LOWER OPERATING COSTS MAKES IT A BETTER CHOICE FOR BUDGET MINDED RACE TEAMS. GET SOME PHOTOS can look and perform much like a trophy truck, but can be raced competitively on a smaller budget," Burman said."I'm just not a buggy guy. I like the stability of a big, wide, heavy truck. And changing from sub 300 hp to over 600 hp doesn't piss me off either." "My truck's chassis was built by Padmur in Ensenada in 2010. I found it for sale in Chula Vista and at first didn't like that it had frame rails in it. I wanted to race trophy trucks. Months of looking at more trucks and different chassis caused me to realize that Trophy Truck racing was just too expensive for my budget. I began to realize that this truck was a Trophy Truck with frame rails. I could race it in Class 8 open and get the experience that I needed in an unlimited truck, cut out the rails later and go to Trophy Truck Spec or Unlimited Trophy Truck if the budget situation changed. Luckily, I have a great sponsor in Filtagreen, or I'd be beatin' em' up in 7sx for a while longer!" Team Flatiron took a similar, but slightly diverted route into Class 8. "In 2006, a friend of mine, Scott Ulrich, bought a Class 7 truck. We raced it for about five years with limited success. Scott sold the truck and we stopped racing for a couple years," Shielly said. "Then the notion of getting back into the racing scene presented another option. We (Tim Gabbert, Roland Sarmento, and Bobby Shielly) found out Greg Adler was selling his 4Wheel Parts ProComp Class 8 truck. We purchased it and went to work. We wanted to own, race, and be able to work on our own truck. The advantage of Class 8 is you don't have to have a degree in 'trophy truckology' to work on it," said Shielly. "It has the power and speed we wanted, and a Unlimited Trophy Truck was not in the budget for us. We feel that Class 8 fits our team well; with V8 power we can work on ourselves. Furthermore, these are the trucks we grew up driving. There are a couple guys on our team that race other classes; Class 1, Class 10, and Trophy Truck Spec. But for us, we are not going anywhere else. We're living the dream." The Class 8 truck Flatiron Racing purchased from Greg Adler of 4Wheel Parts, is thought to be one of the last Class 8 trucks built at Bill Stroppe's shop in Southern California. But the team wants to do more research to find out for sure. Although it remains to be seen, there is reason to think Class 8 has the potential of attracting racers and race teams who want to be competitive. It's not just the fact that Class 8 once attracted a large field of entries in the 1970's and 1980's, but the possibility of growing as a more competitive race class again. For folks who appreciate the V8 horsepower and long-travel performance, but either aren't able to justify the budget to run a Trophy Truck, Class 8 is a perfect fit. It's also for teams and drivers who want to expand their 079 SCORE JOURNAL