All we can say about the Finals this year is Awesome! With 23 of the best performers in the industry we were extremely honored to be part of the 2010 NGK World Finals. After our weekend in Reno, Daron had a ton of work to do to get Krunch ready to run. David did quite a bit of damage to the truck and we knew Daron would have his hands full getting it done. But we knew he would get it done and done right. Daron is truly a blessing to our team and we don’t know what we would do without him.

To start his week before the finals Daron had to put a new front end under the truck. Then he moved on to the engine swap for the big show, and then he had to fit the Ford F-350 body on the new chassis. All this work had to be done while still getting his truck ready. We are lucky enough to have some good friends in the business and were able to go to Rick Swanson’s shop to get the repairs done. With the help of Rick, his son Eric and countless others the trucks were finished and loaded in the trailer ready to head to the big show. Daron took off toward Sin City getting in early Tuesday morning (4 am). David arrived later that same day with the idea of helping finish the truck. But he was not surprised that the truck was just about done. There were only a couple of small items to finish and the truck was back to 100%.

Thursday night is our practice night and with all the crew in place and the iPod charged, we set out to see what the truck was capable of doing. Our crew this year could not have been better. First was Daron as always he was in the crew chief position. Jeff Hoy was able to make it back out again this year to help us. His knowledge is extremely valuable and we could not imagine running without him there. And then the new addition to the Finals crew was Rick Swanson. What can you say about Rick other than he is a great friend to have on your side. He busted his butt all weekend long to make sure we were ready for the next round. He without a doubt likes the truck clean, David had never had a truck wiped down more than he did that weekend. Anyway back to practice, our first pass brought out our gremlin for the weekend, it seemed that the front driveline didn’t like the speed that David wanted it to go so it decided to leave the team and sit in the infield. Daron and the guys busted their tails and got the truck back together with a new heavier duty driveline. David took the truck out and made a test pass and the truck felt great. He then switched lanes to make sure the truck felt the same turning the other direction. Everything felt good so the guys called it a night.

Friday night was qualifying; the team discussed the game plan and went out to upset a bracket. David’s first pass of the night was the fastest time Krunch has ever put in the books for Vegas. All the prep work was finally paying off, a 16.09 was fast enough to tie Max-D for the quickest time of the round. The next round David took it easy due to the lane being a little loose on the big end and he just wanted to make a clean pass it turned into a 16.53. Our final run which is the run that counted we made a decision to straighten the turn out coming into the main floor and it ended up costing us the top eight position for the big day. The bracket gave us a tough draw for the first round, but we knew the truck could run more than fast enough to get us through several rounds the rest was up to David.

Round one King Krunch VS Iron Man——-Krunch blazed his way to the next round

Round two King Krunch VS Dalmation—–Krunch showed the power and came from behind to take the win. At the end of the run David hit the freestyle van stack and shocked the front steering. The guys checked the truck over and got it back to 100% so it was ready for round three.

Round three King Krunch VS El Toro——-El Toro nosed out the round as David came around the final turn and hammered the throttle shooting a dirt roost into the safety holds. With the throttle to the floor hoping to pull off another win he hit the center hill sending the truck to the opposite side. The truck hit the other hill and broke both front steering rams and the front tie rod. This caused the truck to head towards the last freestyle obstacles in the way. The truck hit the stack and rolled, this took us out of the remainder of the nights festivities. The damages were extensive to the front end and upper chassis deeming the truck unsafe.

As we mentioned it was a great honor for us to be included in the World Finals lineup. While some might question why we were in attendance, we know of one little guy that was very glad we came. His name was Zack. He is 6 years old and from the San Diego area. David chose Zack to help him out pulling his qualifying number. As drivers and older fans we sometimes loose the bigger picture. We get caught up in this junk or that junk, what he did or didn’t do to be at a certain place. Zack didn’t care if we came in first or last in every event we performed at this year. All he wanted to do was be by his favorite driver/drivers. “It is a ton of responsibility for us as drivers to be in the position we are in. Most of us got into the sport because we loved tearing stuff up as kids. We can sometimes forget what it was like to be a child looking up to our hero’s. Zack helped me see things through his eyes, while we as adults get caught up in the business side of the sports, Zack could care less about any of that. I realized at that point that I really didn’t care what number we picked, or what lane we would get. I just wanted to make sure that I didn’t mess up what Zack already knew. We are here to have fun and play in the dirt, as long as Zack and everyone else left Friday night and Saturday night with a smile on their faces then our mission was accomplished. Zack told me that Friday night was the best night of his life, to him I say Zack Thank You for allowing me to see this past weekend as we all should. It was an Honor to have you by my side, I wise you the best in whatever you do.

We were not aware of Zack’s illness until we received an email from his mother today. He has been diagnosed with JRA which is Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. He is in constant pain, but on this day he was able to forget about all that. In Honor of Zack we are putting up for auction our World Finals Tailgate. We will get it listed in the coming days, so bid high and bid often. Details about the auction and what the funds will be used for will be given as well.

And last but certainly not least we would like to thank our sponsors for their support. We want to welcome our newest sponsor Spectro Oils ( www.spectro-oils.com ) we have been using their oils in our engines with great success. You should check them out for your oil, shock, coolant and cleaners. They offer a wide range of products that are sure to get you on track. We would like to welcome back NGK, EZ-Router, TX-7, Awesome Racewear and Fiesta Mart as sponsors this year, without them none of this is possible.

Thanks to Eric Myers for the Photo.