It's now Friday morning, and my house and my liver are somewhat back to normal. I am still finding the occasional beer can, or solo cup, in odd ball places. I have most the inventory of shirts and other swag back on the racks, and am trying to find new homes for the extra stuff that we bought for this years street fair. You would think a full five days after the event it would be business as usual, but I still find myself feeling the affects. I guess I'm not in my 20's anymore. A week of late nights, early mornings, hard work, and massive alcohol consumption takes it's toll.
So we left off at the end of Part 1 talking about "The Race to Card Stop 1." Now before I really dive into this I want to address a comment that was left in the forums by RiverMobster that said "Thanks for the History lesson." I don't want you guys to read these articles in the typical sense that we always write them. This particular series is anything BUT "The facts and nothing but the facts." As said in the first one, Desert Storm is so big, that everybodies experiences at it are going to be different. This is more or less a recap of my perception of the event and how it has evolved. Pink Taco has been on me to write more "lifestyle" type articles, and less fact finding articles, so that's what we are doing with these.
So Back to Card Stop 1, or what will now be referred to as CS1. We have already gone over how the Arizona Hot Boat Association had their mass starts and because of the # of entries they split it into two starts. Somewhere around the mid 2000's the AHBA disbanded and what I can only assume were the driving forces behind the Heat Wave to begin with, started "Lake Racer LLC." I don't know the in's and out's of it, and honestly don't care. The run was rebadged from the "Heat Wave" to what we know it as now "Desert Storm." At some point probably around the same time period (Probably have to ask Jim for clarification on exact dates) The two large group starts, turned into several group starts, with groups being seperated by speed, and some groups going different directions to break it up.
(Predator first to the Card Stop, not sure of the year. Early 2000's? Note passengers in the back were still allowed back then!)
[video=youtube;aGt0L_eIvXA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGt0L_eIvXA[/video]
Make no mistake by separating them into groups it was considerably safer then it had ever been before, but the inverse of that is you now had an "exclusive club" that started in the first flight. At one point I think there was 20 boats starting in it? In that exclusive group though, that race to CS1 was now more prevalent then ever. Crowds of boats were now starting to line the lake to watch some of the fastest boats in the country battle it out.
This for me was the "golden years" of Desert Storm. The boat speeds were jumping up incredibly, the spectator boats were turning into meet and greets with friends, and in looking back on it, I suppose there was a kind of innocence to it all. Right in the middle of it all stood Gary Smith, whom at the time was more or less "The guy to beat." He had conquered CS1 more times then anyone else, and "Predator" was nothing short of legendary. It wasn't "Who's going to be first" it was "Do you really think they can catch Predator?"
(Risky Business on board footage from 2008)
[video=youtube;BLqhnaYzPXQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLqhnaYzPXQ[/video]
Things just couldn't get any better for Desert Storm, or so I thought. The Lake Racer team came up with the idea of the "Street Fair" in the mid to late 2000's. This would soon be one of the largest draws to the Poker run, but we are going to cover that in Part III. Right now we are neck deep in glory, ego's, massive amounts of Horsepower, and the checkbooks that go with it all.
(Desert Storm 2008
[video=youtube;ObqM5yAvlmY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=ObqM5yAvlmY[/video]
During this mid to late 2000 time period, I don't think anybody had fully realized how out of control this race to Card Stop 1 had become. The amount of money being spent to try to get that title each year was surreal, but for the most part unrealized by the masses or even the event organizers. Even back then to spend a couple hundred grand for fresh power, and setup to be a contender wasn't out of the realm for most.
The powers that be took the standpoint that "We don't care about CS1!! The event isn't about CS1! It's about the Charity!" Needless to say when somone called it a "race" on the forums, invariably they'd get the message to please change the word to something else, "IT'S NOT A RACE!!" To me it always seemed kinda weird to even bother with calling it something else, I don't care if you keep calling an elephant a giraffe... If for some reason you end up in a court room everybody is going to be looking at an elephant, and someone calling it something else isn't going to change that.
It was pretty apparent that the animal was out of the cage, and no matter how many stern lectures were given at the drivers meeting, it didn't matter. The only thing people were talking about was "Who Jumped the Start" and that's why they were higher up in the stack then they should have been or even first to CS1. Not the fact that they were supposed to run down the lake like gentlemen. People getting washed down by the rooster tails, people changing lanes, hell one year a boat cut a corner behind the spectator fleet in an effort to make up some ground and be # 1. It was insanity, and it was pure dumb luck that nobody was killed.
The powers that be finally tried to do something about CS1, because it was pretty apparent that it was a problem that could no longer be ignored. Lake Racer decided that if they put on a shoot out like had been done at some other events, that this would curtail the problem of Card Stop 1. Makes sense right? Give an actual "King of the Desert" trophy, and title and nobody would care about who was first to CS1.
I suppose being the captain of Desert Storm is like being the captain of some huge ship, nothing happens quickly. To be blunt about it for the first few years of the shoot out, nobody cared. We all look back and say "Well the weather didn't cooperate" or a 100 other excuses, but that's all B.S. The fact is, all the fast guys ran for CS1 and either broke their boats, or the guys that were still running just flat didn't care enough about the shoot out to bother with it. They wanted to run side by side with their peers, and lock horns and see who came out on top.
(The shoot out started gaining some traction after Greg Olsen's 174 mph pass in an Eliminator, this video went absolutely viral across the web)
[video=youtube;xeRlVpcirIQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=27&v=xeRlVpcirIQ[/video]
The boats were now reaching "Ludicrous Speed" (to paraphrase from the movie Space Balls). In 2012 (which seems like a lifetime ago), Myself and Rich Carter went all in on covering the "friendly" competition / race / poker run (which ever term floats your boat) to CS1. I hired helicopters, we did live feeds, we interviewed the guys as soon as they came back to the docks, Hell we even hired a professional TV guy named Ian that worked for speed vision to mic the live feeds, and do some of the interviews as well.
(A couple of those videos can be seen here, there's a lot more that I will put a link too if you want to watch them)
[video=youtube;aD6VGQXhHag]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD6VGQXhHag[/video]
[video=youtube;ZpawMyBLm6M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpawMyBLm6M[/video]
This more or less brought the CS1 issue to a head, at least between the promoters, title sponsor, and RDP. Their positions were we shouldn't be covering it like that. My position was we are a media outlet, and if you don't want someone talking about your elephant in the room, then get the elephant out of the room. As always we worked through it, and came out the other side even stronger than we went in. I still think they believe that we might have "over covered it" or put more light on it then it deserves, but on the flip side, I still think they are nuts that they could think the poker run was about anything other then CS1 at this point. It had been going on long before I came on the scene with the cameras.
Don't get me wrong I completely understand where they were coming from. The innocence of fun and ridiculously fast poker runs was gone. In this time period (2008 - 12) there had been several (very well documented with vids and pics) crashes at Poker Runs around the country. It went (for me at least) from watching them run down the lake with cheers and beers (from the sidelines), to almost biting your lip and hoping none of them run out of talent or have a mechanical failure. These were kind of the "dark years" for Poker Runs in general across the country. Desert Storm always had one thing going for it though, and that was a perfect safety record for more then a decade.
In 2013 that luck finally ran out and Desert Storm had it's first incident. There's not much point in discussing what happened, or who was at fault, because it was beaten to death on all of the boating forums (including this one). Amazingly nobody was seriously physically injured, and that's all that really matters. What is clear though is that the race to Card Stop 1 was over.
[video=youtube;dYvL6uEMl6E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYvL6uEMl6E[/video]
[video=youtube;-zyMO30Clts]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zyMO30Clts[/video]
As said in the first article, at the time I thought that would be the start of the decline of Desert Storm. In 2014 they did Desert Storm and they basically scattered the big boys and had them running all different directions to prevent the run to CS1. The event went off without a hitch and while there were a few complaints from the infamous CS1 group, most others enjoyed the laid back format. The Street Fair had taken over to be the main draw of the Poker Run, and CS1 was now in third place behind the shoot out.
In 2015 it was decided to bring back the run to CS1. There was going to be either 8 or 10 boats making a run at it again this year, but a few of them broke, and then a few of the other guys decided to take passengers and just run in a slower field. It kind of fell apart at the last minute, I wasn't sure if I was relieved or disapointed. Kinda both I suppose?
The Spectator in me would love to see that come back, because it was one of the most incredible things to watch in motorsports. The Part of me that is Jim's friend and involved with the event thinks it's a terrible idea, because it's not "if" it's "when." To second that, I also think it would take away from the shootout as it did in years past because everyone breaks there rigs trying to be # 1 to the Card Stop.
Whatever Jim decides in the future, it is fairly obvious that myself and RDP will support it. He's done an amazing job of bringing this event to this level, and I'm quite sure it's only going to get better from here now that he has help from Jim Russel.
Up Next in Part 3 the new biggest draw to Desert Storm - The Street Fair
Written by RiverDave
So we left off at the end of Part 1 talking about "The Race to Card Stop 1." Now before I really dive into this I want to address a comment that was left in the forums by RiverMobster that said "Thanks for the History lesson." I don't want you guys to read these articles in the typical sense that we always write them. This particular series is anything BUT "The facts and nothing but the facts." As said in the first one, Desert Storm is so big, that everybodies experiences at it are going to be different. This is more or less a recap of my perception of the event and how it has evolved. Pink Taco has been on me to write more "lifestyle" type articles, and less fact finding articles, so that's what we are doing with these.
So Back to Card Stop 1, or what will now be referred to as CS1. We have already gone over how the Arizona Hot Boat Association had their mass starts and because of the # of entries they split it into two starts. Somewhere around the mid 2000's the AHBA disbanded and what I can only assume were the driving forces behind the Heat Wave to begin with, started "Lake Racer LLC." I don't know the in's and out's of it, and honestly don't care. The run was rebadged from the "Heat Wave" to what we know it as now "Desert Storm." At some point probably around the same time period (Probably have to ask Jim for clarification on exact dates) The two large group starts, turned into several group starts, with groups being seperated by speed, and some groups going different directions to break it up.
(Predator first to the Card Stop, not sure of the year. Early 2000's? Note passengers in the back were still allowed back then!)
[video=youtube;aGt0L_eIvXA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGt0L_eIvXA[/video]
Make no mistake by separating them into groups it was considerably safer then it had ever been before, but the inverse of that is you now had an "exclusive club" that started in the first flight. At one point I think there was 20 boats starting in it? In that exclusive group though, that race to CS1 was now more prevalent then ever. Crowds of boats were now starting to line the lake to watch some of the fastest boats in the country battle it out.
This for me was the "golden years" of Desert Storm. The boat speeds were jumping up incredibly, the spectator boats were turning into meet and greets with friends, and in looking back on it, I suppose there was a kind of innocence to it all. Right in the middle of it all stood Gary Smith, whom at the time was more or less "The guy to beat." He had conquered CS1 more times then anyone else, and "Predator" was nothing short of legendary. It wasn't "Who's going to be first" it was "Do you really think they can catch Predator?"
(Risky Business on board footage from 2008)
[video=youtube;BLqhnaYzPXQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLqhnaYzPXQ[/video]
Things just couldn't get any better for Desert Storm, or so I thought. The Lake Racer team came up with the idea of the "Street Fair" in the mid to late 2000's. This would soon be one of the largest draws to the Poker run, but we are going to cover that in Part III. Right now we are neck deep in glory, ego's, massive amounts of Horsepower, and the checkbooks that go with it all.
(Desert Storm 2008
[video=youtube;ObqM5yAvlmY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=ObqM5yAvlmY[/video]
During this mid to late 2000 time period, I don't think anybody had fully realized how out of control this race to Card Stop 1 had become. The amount of money being spent to try to get that title each year was surreal, but for the most part unrealized by the masses or even the event organizers. Even back then to spend a couple hundred grand for fresh power, and setup to be a contender wasn't out of the realm for most.
The powers that be took the standpoint that "We don't care about CS1!! The event isn't about CS1! It's about the Charity!" Needless to say when somone called it a "race" on the forums, invariably they'd get the message to please change the word to something else, "IT'S NOT A RACE!!" To me it always seemed kinda weird to even bother with calling it something else, I don't care if you keep calling an elephant a giraffe... If for some reason you end up in a court room everybody is going to be looking at an elephant, and someone calling it something else isn't going to change that.
It was pretty apparent that the animal was out of the cage, and no matter how many stern lectures were given at the drivers meeting, it didn't matter. The only thing people were talking about was "Who Jumped the Start" and that's why they were higher up in the stack then they should have been or even first to CS1. Not the fact that they were supposed to run down the lake like gentlemen. People getting washed down by the rooster tails, people changing lanes, hell one year a boat cut a corner behind the spectator fleet in an effort to make up some ground and be # 1. It was insanity, and it was pure dumb luck that nobody was killed.
The powers that be finally tried to do something about CS1, because it was pretty apparent that it was a problem that could no longer be ignored. Lake Racer decided that if they put on a shoot out like had been done at some other events, that this would curtail the problem of Card Stop 1. Makes sense right? Give an actual "King of the Desert" trophy, and title and nobody would care about who was first to CS1.
I suppose being the captain of Desert Storm is like being the captain of some huge ship, nothing happens quickly. To be blunt about it for the first few years of the shoot out, nobody cared. We all look back and say "Well the weather didn't cooperate" or a 100 other excuses, but that's all B.S. The fact is, all the fast guys ran for CS1 and either broke their boats, or the guys that were still running just flat didn't care enough about the shoot out to bother with it. They wanted to run side by side with their peers, and lock horns and see who came out on top.
(The shoot out started gaining some traction after Greg Olsen's 174 mph pass in an Eliminator, this video went absolutely viral across the web)
[video=youtube;xeRlVpcirIQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=27&v=xeRlVpcirIQ[/video]
The boats were now reaching "Ludicrous Speed" (to paraphrase from the movie Space Balls). In 2012 (which seems like a lifetime ago), Myself and Rich Carter went all in on covering the "friendly" competition / race / poker run (which ever term floats your boat) to CS1. I hired helicopters, we did live feeds, we interviewed the guys as soon as they came back to the docks, Hell we even hired a professional TV guy named Ian that worked for speed vision to mic the live feeds, and do some of the interviews as well.
(A couple of those videos can be seen here, there's a lot more that I will put a link too if you want to watch them)
[video=youtube;aD6VGQXhHag]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD6VGQXhHag[/video]
[video=youtube;ZpawMyBLm6M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpawMyBLm6M[/video]
This more or less brought the CS1 issue to a head, at least between the promoters, title sponsor, and RDP. Their positions were we shouldn't be covering it like that. My position was we are a media outlet, and if you don't want someone talking about your elephant in the room, then get the elephant out of the room. As always we worked through it, and came out the other side even stronger than we went in. I still think they believe that we might have "over covered it" or put more light on it then it deserves, but on the flip side, I still think they are nuts that they could think the poker run was about anything other then CS1 at this point. It had been going on long before I came on the scene with the cameras.
Don't get me wrong I completely understand where they were coming from. The innocence of fun and ridiculously fast poker runs was gone. In this time period (2008 - 12) there had been several (very well documented with vids and pics) crashes at Poker Runs around the country. It went (for me at least) from watching them run down the lake with cheers and beers (from the sidelines), to almost biting your lip and hoping none of them run out of talent or have a mechanical failure. These were kind of the "dark years" for Poker Runs in general across the country. Desert Storm always had one thing going for it though, and that was a perfect safety record for more then a decade.
In 2013 that luck finally ran out and Desert Storm had it's first incident. There's not much point in discussing what happened, or who was at fault, because it was beaten to death on all of the boating forums (including this one). Amazingly nobody was seriously physically injured, and that's all that really matters. What is clear though is that the race to Card Stop 1 was over.
[video=youtube;dYvL6uEMl6E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYvL6uEMl6E[/video]
[video=youtube;-zyMO30Clts]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zyMO30Clts[/video]
As said in the first article, at the time I thought that would be the start of the decline of Desert Storm. In 2014 they did Desert Storm and they basically scattered the big boys and had them running all different directions to prevent the run to CS1. The event went off without a hitch and while there were a few complaints from the infamous CS1 group, most others enjoyed the laid back format. The Street Fair had taken over to be the main draw of the Poker Run, and CS1 was now in third place behind the shoot out.
In 2015 it was decided to bring back the run to CS1. There was going to be either 8 or 10 boats making a run at it again this year, but a few of them broke, and then a few of the other guys decided to take passengers and just run in a slower field. It kind of fell apart at the last minute, I wasn't sure if I was relieved or disapointed. Kinda both I suppose?
The Spectator in me would love to see that come back, because it was one of the most incredible things to watch in motorsports. The Part of me that is Jim's friend and involved with the event thinks it's a terrible idea, because it's not "if" it's "when." To second that, I also think it would take away from the shootout as it did in years past because everyone breaks there rigs trying to be # 1 to the Card Stop.
Whatever Jim decides in the future, it is fairly obvious that myself and RDP will support it. He's done an amazing job of bringing this event to this level, and I'm quite sure it's only going to get better from here now that he has help from Jim Russel.
Up Next in Part 3 the new biggest draw to Desert Storm - The Street Fair
Written by RiverDave
