KORE Wins General Tire Mint 400
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – March 29, 2008. Class 8 took an unprecedented thrashing when KORE’s Stock Full class race truck beat all nine competitors in the legendary Mint 400.
“It’s one thing to win in your own class, but when you can stomp an entire class of theoretically faster vehicles, nothing could be better,” said Kent Kroeker, President and CEO of KORE. “We spend a lot of time and energy tuning this truck. Now, after five races, it’s finally paying off.”
KORE’s Dodge Ram race truck is powered by Mopar’s 5.7 liter Hemi® motor built by XV Motorsports. A custom South Bend ceramic clutch connects the motor to a Blumenthal’s blueprinted NV4500 5 speed manual transmission. Eight huge Fox bypass shocks control the most advanced rubber on the market – the new General Grabber™ competition tires.
Strong winds and cool temperatures made the grueling 95 mile course perfect for racing. Kent Kroeker and Rodolfo Iribe shared the driving duties, alternating every lap. Robin Stover, Four Wheeler Magazine’s Feature Editor, co-drove for Iribe during the start.
Robin said, “That truck just wants to run hard. I felt like we could have gone a lot faster, but Rudy was playing it safe. The course is pretty gnarly and it gets worse every lap.”
Lap two was a little harder on the truck, but some minor welding at the Mopar/Collins pit put the Hemi® back in the fight.
“Stock Production is a tough class to race because rules don’t allow changing the basic design. We’ve added some sophisticated parts that allow us to go very fast in the desert – but it’s still essentially a stock truck that wasn’t designed to hit giant bumps at 70 mph. So, you end up laying in the dirt a lot, frankensteining everything back in place,” said Keg Parker, KORE Engineer.
Tony Talbert, General Tire’s Off Road Project Manager co-drove for Kroeker during the last lap.
“I literally can’t believe the beating that truck could take,” said Talbert. “It was amazing going that fast over stuff that rough. The Dodge is one tough truck.”
After getting the checkered flag Kroeker said, “When I was growing up, three races were important to me, Barstow to Vegas, the Baja 1000 and the Mint 400. I’ve been fortunate enough to compete in the first two many times, but the Mint 400 disappeared before I was racing cars. Many thanks to SNORE for bringing back the Mint, many thanks to General Tire for no flats, Fox Racing Shocks for making the baddest shocks on the planet, Baja Designs for our super bright Soltek LED’s – and all the KORE volunteers for helping us get the win – the first time at the Mint!”
On April 26th see footage of the race from inside the KORE race truck on the Speed Channel as well as full coverage of the General Tire Mint 400 on Versus TV