FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CANYON LAKE, CA (Dec. 17, 2009) - It looked like rain for the weekend of December 12 and 13, 2009, for the SNORE Rage At The River in Laughlin, Nevada.  The course consisted of an 11.8 mile course, with classes held in heats of 5 laps.   There was a storm brewing all right, but it wasn't the intermittent showers - it was the lucky #113 DanZio Class 1 unlimited off-road car piloted by Josh Daniel, who took home the overall victories for both Saturday and Sunday, cinching the Overall Title for the entire event!

It was a hard-fought battle that took a well-oiled, finely honed crew to pull off.  Co-piloting Sheila, the DanZio Performance #113 Class 1 car, was Allen Hickerson, Josh's regular co-driver who handles the duties of navigation, systems monitoring, and pinch mechanic. Chris Muzio, Crew Chief, and Mitch Tolano, Head Mechanic, prepped the race car perfectly and Sheila didn't have one single hiccup either day. The Yokohama Tires/Trackside Performance semi was providing main pit support, along with our Yokohoma Tires crew.  Yokohama Tires were the tires of choice for Sheila, with zero flats and awesome grip all weekend!

Friday was qualifying for start positions for Unlimited Truck and Class 1.  The qualifying course was approximately 2 1/2 miles and Josh knew that he had to drive flawlessly to pull off the top spot. With only one chance to look at the course in reverse, it was going to be a challenge to pick the right lines. The time had come for #113 to make its pass. The run was going great until about half way down, where the course got a little confusing.  Josh and Allen hit a huge bump and nearly rolled the car, costing a precious few seconds. Josh regained composure, picked a line, and continued to the finish, securing the #3 starting spot out of 23 competitors, only losing the first starting position to Cameron Steele’s Unlimited Truck by 2 seconds and the second starting position to fellow Class 1 contender TJ Flores by 0.4 seconds.

Saturday was the first race of the weekend for the unlimited cars.  The cars were lined up 2 at a time side by side for the start.  Starting behind Cameron Steele in #1 and TJ Flores in #100, Josh knew he had his work cut out for him, as these two contenders are both class champions, as denoted by their car numbers. Josh caught the first car in about 5 miles, but passing was no easy task. As much as they tried, they were unable to pull off the pass right away and it took a lap and a half to finally pass.  Fortunately, the pressure kept on TJ in turn forced him to keep the pressure on Cameron.  Once Sheila got around TJ, it was time to try and catch the Unlimited Truck of Cameron Steele.  After following behind Cameron for another lap, the race became an epic battle for position that is sure to go down into the off-road history books - but Josh kept his line and was now number one on the road.  Cameron was not about to give up the chase and made another attempt to pass right in the infield.  Cameron almost pulled it off, but Josh was able to keep his line and position and, brought the DanZio Class 1 car to the victory circle. The battle between these two great drivers and machines kept the crowd on their feet and on the edge of their seats throughout the entire heat!

Sunday was day two of the race and slated to be another day of intense battling; at least for the first lap.  Josh started next to Jamie Campbell, who was driving the #1 Unlimited Truck for Cameron Steele.  The DanZio #113 Class 1 car was first off the line, with the drag race proving successful again.  Out-powering the #1 truck, Josh was able to jump to being first car on the road. Thinking he had a decent lead, Josh settled into a nice smooth pace so as to not break the car.  About half way through the first lap, Jamie was able to sneak in the back door and attempt a pass on Josh.  It was quite the battle for a little while, but Josh was able to maintain his hard-fought position. The remainder of the Sunday race was rather uneventful and the #113 was able to put about 5 minutes on the rest of the field to take home the overall victory.

Having raced only two races in the SNORE series, this was Josh's second Overall victory for SNORE; the first was taking home the Overall honors at the 2009 KC HiLiTES Midnight Special. "Coming off of our crash in Parker, it was impossible to run a complete series, so we picked a few races that we really liked. SNORE has some great races and we plan to compete in their whole series next season," said Josh.

Josh would like to thank all of his sponsors for their support, dedication and hard work:  DanZio Performance Engineering, Yokohoma Tires, Fox Shox, The Wright Gear Box, Palomar Communications, Intrepid Cycles, Dailey Engineering, RPM Exhaust, Racer Engineering, Lake Chevrolet, Streight Edje, ZLT, D&D Laser Screed, GBC Concrete and Masonry, and Trackside Performance.