4x4Wire

The Dakar Rally is a long, grueling race covering two weeks’ time and thousands of kilometers.  In each of those kilometers, there are opportunities and risks and the potential for your entire race to come to an end.  For Fastball Racing, that end came on Stage 6.  Just four kilometers into the day’s 478-kilometer Special Stage, Bobby Patton caught a rut in the sand while making a wide sweeping left-hand turn.  Momentum sent the truck into a barrel roll that did not end until the truck had been upside down three times, completely destroying it in the process. 

In baseball you don’t always swing for the fences.  If the count is 3-0 you may take a walk, or if you want to advance a runner you may bunt.  Rally raid is no different.  Rather than swinging for the fences in his first foray into the Dakar Rally, Fastball Racing’s Bobby Patton has been taking a more conservative approach.  Patton and teammate Robbie Pierce have finished the first two stages of the twelve-stage rally, something that has already alluded seasoned wheelmen like Formula One champion Fernando Alonso and three-time 24 Hour of LeMan winner Romain Dumas; both out due to mechanic failure.

Fastball Racing to compete as the only American car entry in the 2020 Dakar Rally

Dodger’s owner Bobby Patton has been bitten by the off-road racing bug.  Bitten hard. In 2017 he raced the Baja 1000 for the first time, piloting a vintage Land Cruiser to victory for the 50th anniversary of the event.  In 2019 he finished every mile of every SCORE International desert race as driver of record in his No. 240 Jimco-built Fastball Racing Spec Trophy Truck to earn the coveted Rod Hall SCORE Milestone Award, a distinction bestowed upon only 46 other SCORE series racers competing in 18 different classes.  Covering 2,025 miles in a season is impressive and has helped prepare Patton for his biggest challenge yet: the Dakar Rally.