Roger Norman teamed with Speed Technologies John Harrah to race a Class 1 car in the Xtreme Outlaws 250 race last weekend in Reno, NV. Norman turned the fastest lap times, and completed the final 65 mile loop of the race in 1 hour 27 minutes and 32 seconds. The Harrah/Norman team finished a close second with only 1 minute 34 seconds separating them from first.
The Xtreme Outlaw 250 was a race that was built with the efforts of the Gilman/Norman families, Grand Marshall Rod Hall, sanctioned by VORRA and a part of the Grand Sierra Resort Xtreme Outlaw race weekend. The 65 mile, 4 lap course took place on the “Tahoe Reno Industrial Center” property that is owned by the Gilman and Norman families, which prompted Norman to want to race even more. “With the Baja 500 only being 2 weeks before and not knowing if the truck would be able to successfully compete, I teamed up with John Harrah in his Class 1 car so I could race,” comments Norman. “It was a great experience for me, John is a good driver and the pit crews were great at getting us back out to racing. I am really glad that I had this opportunity to race on my own land.”
John Harrah and daughter Cody started the race and got 3 flat tires on the 1st lap. “They only had one spare on the race vehicle so they changed it on course, and then limped to check point 2 where Jake and I changed the other two tires. We only had one 37″ and borrowed a 35″ tire to get them back on the road,” remembers Norman. After Harrah completed two laps, they did a quick driver and co-driver change where Roger Norman and co-driver Jake Velasco jumped in. They took on the challenge of being over 17 minutes behind the leader and 7 minutes behind 2nd place. It had been a while since Norman had been in a Class 1 car, and it took some time to overcome the cars fancy shifting system, but managed to quickly figure out the transmission and ran the fastest lap times of the day on the final laps. With the leader having problems with traffic and dust, Norman closed time on the now first place car, but couldn’t make up the 1:34 final time difference, and claimed the 2nd place prize of $3,000.
“I’m very excited this race was as successful as it was, and am looking forward to many more races on this property,” said Norman. “It was nice being able to bring this quality of a race into our hometown of Reno.” There are already plans in motion to cut more track and access roads to make larger races possible.

Despite all obstacles, VORRA produced an epic race over Father’s Day Weekend, June 17– 20, 2010. The Xtreme Outlaws 250 race started with the Grand Sierra Leap then paraded down Interstate 80 to the green flag where they went into the wild desert for four laps of brutal and fresh terrain.

Class winners Chuck Dempsey, Patrick Timmons, Gary Herrod, Mike Shaffer, Jay Schroeder, Greg Jones, Vince Viola, Kevin Yoder, Terry Shelton and Dennis Jean made their way through the Nevada desert to complete one of the toughest VORRA races yet.

“We had a lot of land issues thrown at us including a change of the start line on Monday, and Virginia City wanting cut out on Thursday after the pre-run,” says Don Gilman of ORI Reno and land owner. “Rod Hall, Wes, my wife Megan and I basically re-structured and re-staked the course 2 times last week to accommodate everyone's requests.”

This team was so serious about the course that they had two tractors working all Friday night, completing a new 4 mile road through a canyon just before the green flag dropped on Saturday.

The Xtreme Outlaw 250 race started with the Grand Sierra Leap as part of the Xtreme Outlaw weekend. The farthest leap was Sam Berri with a two jump combined total of 145’. Other class leap winners who received a 30 second bonus were Gary Dixon, Chris Ridgway, John Gurney, Mike Shaffer, Red Team Racing and Joe Kirsch. They then lined up for a parade down I-80 to the official green flag starting point at Exit 28.

The 65-mile virgin course held some insane rocky sections, nasty hill climbs, and smooth freshly graded roads.

“This race was rock crawling, desert racing and rally racing all in one, I didn’t know we got to do all three,” says Roger Norman, racer and land owner. The biggest challenge of the weekend was keeping tires on the cars. Most drivers out there had at least 1 tire change throughout the race, and some had as many as 5. The course took its toll with cars everywhere dealing with broken parts and pieces due to the rocks.

“The attrition rate was very high, out of 65 cars, only 29 finished within the 10 hour time limit. I knew this race would be won in the helmet,” says VORRA director Wes Harbor.

Saturday’s race was intense with the Class 1 cars battling it out to the final lap. Chuck Dempsey fought for the lead all day and finally captured it in the final lap when Clayton Scudder got a flat tire, but the battle to hold that position was far from done with the team of John Harrah and Roger Norman hot on his tail. Chuck Dempsey went on to win the class and overall, taking home the $5000 purse and the spectacular “Six-Shooters” trophy. The team of John Harrah and Roger Norman finished in 2nd place, just 2 ½ minutes behind the leader, taking home the $3,000 prize, with JJ Schnarr taking the 3rd place, $2,000 award.

The Ultra 4 cars embraced this environment. Kevin Yoder was the Ultra 4 class winner and finished 6th place overall. Mike Shaffer in a JeepSpeed finished first in Class 7, only seconds ahead of Emily Miller in the Rod Hall Hummer. The Class 11 cars all gave the course a great attempt, but the brutal rocky desert floor made a one lap contest enough for these guys to decide who would win the class, and Desert Dingos came out on top for the first time this season.

VORRA is in its 35th year of producing high quality yet affordable racing while also creating fun events around the race. With all of the attention given to this event, it has encouraged additional racing in the Reno, Nev., area.