Round 2 in Tucson; Finishing Fifth WITHOUT Second Gear

Interview with #777 owner/driver John Brock.

Round 2 of W.E. Rock’s Dirt Riot Southwest took place Saturday, April 5 at MC Motorsports Park; John Brock drove, Mike Klensin was co-driver.

After the race Mike Klensin posted this photo to his Facebook page and wrote: “Congrats to John Brock driver if the 777 UltraSS on a solid 5th place finish at Dirt Riot. Battling a rough course and fatigue he held it all together for the finish.”

If you’ve read 60-year-old John Brock’s bio, you know what he’s up against. In 2003 his back was shattered when he was run over by a 12,000 lb. tractor. “I’m lucky to have lived through the thing. I spent the first 3 years on painkillers, lying in bed watching TV; I thought ‘I gotta get on with my life, I can’t do this.’ Had to wean myself off the painkillers and get on with my life. The more I sit at home and worry about it, the worse it seems to be. I mostly work on the racecar.”

And boy does he. John was driving for last-minute parts when he called for our pre-race interview. He was frustrated by transmission problems and hoping for a good turnout. Ultimately, “I really want to do well at this race. It’s our home track.”

Except for the transmission, he got what he wished for.

“We had a fifth place finish, had transmission problems, but just took it a little bit easy on the car this time; could have been a little faster. Didn’t have second gear and on that course; we needed it 75% of the time.”

#777 obscured by dust; photo by Amanda Gonzales

HINDERED BY DUST AND NARROW TRAILS

“It was extremely dusty. At times we had to stop to let the dust settle so we could see. We slowed down to creeping along, what we were doing was slower than the other cars. There are very few places to pass on there. When we got someone behind us, we pulled over and let them go by.

Mike was a little bit frustrated because everyone was passing us. Mike is an extremely competitive person; he gets upset when things don’t go the way he wants them to. I said ‘at least we’re going to finish the race. I don’t know about them.’

There were two others that didn’t finish the race. One of ’em was just ahead of us, broke down on the last lap. What they do in that case is go back to his lap before that; even with that, he was still in front of us. They didn’t place as high as they would have if they had finished the race.”

He mentioned cactus concerns in our pre-race interview – but emerged unscathed. Others weren’t so lucky. “A lot of the guys were pulling cactus out of themselves when they got back. One of ’em rolled over into cactus.”

John figures they did 70 miles in just about 2 ½ hours. “It’s been a while since I’ve even finished a race because of all these transmission problems. I’d rather go a little slower and finish the race than tear up the car.”

But the race did take a toll on the driver.

Photo by Acacia Pinnell

“This course really beat me up pretty good. My back, my neck particularly is really sore.

I have a neck brace that clips to my helmet … that keeps my head from getting thrown around a lot. That’s a safety thing that we have to have. Unfortunately it came unclipped from the helmet part way through the race.

Actually I was surprised I felt as good as I did yesterday.