The Sons of Thunder

The evening was a cool one for late May in the Mojave. It was a Friday night, the next day would be spent scouting the Meltdown course for the annual D-37 race, now only one month away. Tom and Sonny were kicking back in lawn chairs, warming their feet by the fire. Dave Fuller jokingly commented, "The snakes will be looking for a warm place to sleep tonight." Tom snickered and leaned back in his lawn chair to have a look at the stars. "How could God name every one of them and remember each and every one. How can he know each of us personally and love us each like his own child?" Because he’s GOD. Then Dave said, "Hey, you guys can sleep in the race trailer if you want. It’s just me and Kelly and there’s plenty of room. No since in getting crawled on by mice and snakes all night out here on the ground." "Sound good to me." Sonny said with relief.

Kelly is Dave's 13 year old mutt. The dog is shaped like a gas tank from an old Bultaco. It’s got four spindly legs, about as big around as a kickstand, and it’s always trying to walk with 3 legs and get to an imaginary itch with the other leg. There have been plenty of times the dog has been in the center of a circle of bored racers waiting for the next race to start. You see if you flip the mutt over onto it's back in loose sand it can’t get turned over again. It flops and wallers around grunting and kicking. And what’s even funnier is that after a few minutes the people standing around are laughing and rolling on their backs just like Kelly - cool dog Dave.

Tom and Sonny decided to take Dave's offer and piled into the trailer with their sleeping bags and race gear, it took about 20 minutes to get everyone situated in the gear strewn trailer. Sonny was just dozing off when the unthinkable happened, a loud buzzing sound awoke all four occupants. Kelly let out the first alarmed howl followed by the load shouts of the three rough and tumble desert racers, after that it was elbows and dog legs to the door. "RATTLESNAKE!!!" Tom yelled. After they all got out of the trailer Tom exclaimed "Someone get a flashlight and a BIG stick."

After several minutes of calling each other chicken and shoving each other towards the trailer door, Tom and Sonny agreed to go in together. The buzzing sound was still coming from under one of the sleeping bags but seemed to be slowing down. Sonny held tight to the flashlight while Tom carefully used the stick to lift the sleeping bag. "There it is!" Tom yelled and jumped back just as a Colgate electric toothbrush went buzzing across the floor. The batteries were about out of juice by now. Tom and Sonny looked at each other realizing that if anybody found out about this they would never live it down. What happened next became the best "You should have seen the one that got away" story you ever heard.

See they did it like this: Tom jumped up and down on the trailer's metal floor and Sonny yelled and ran around in circles. They banged the sides of the trailer and tossed cans out the door, the whole trailer looked like it was about to tip over when finally they both ran out of the trailer and shouted, "Everyone stay away from the back of the trailer! We tried to kill it but it crawled through a hole in the back of the trailer and got away!"

The Phantom RUTSter 1990

Editorial note – Kelly was about 11 when this happened and about three years later she passed away in her sleep, she is sorely missed.