Team Hog Wild - Passenger position filled !!!

[Scott]

I am pleased to announce the addition of Duane McDowell to team Hog Wild Racing. Duane will fill the very difficult passenger position for the upcoming Dakar Rally. Along with his enthusiasm, Duane brings a strong athletic and off-road racing background which matches well with the broad needs for competing in the Dakar Rally on a sidecar. He has over 15 years of off-road sidecar racing experience, both as a driver and passenger. In recent years he has been competing in “Eco-Challengeâ€

[Don Harte]

Glad to hear that you've gotten a passenger. If he can do an Eco Challenge he may be able to tackle Dakar. Good Luck

[Thorina]

[Scott]

What can we do to help your efforts to get to Dakar? ... The sidecar community should be REALLY rallying around to get you there. ... It would be shameful of the community not to help, at this point.

Since Chris Johnson gave me the idea to contact Duane McDowell he's helped greatly by solving my passenger problem. Thanks Chris!!! Right now the only real problem is money. And in this big world, only ONE sidecar person has helped in that way, and he as a goofy dancing green avatar on this forum. Thanks Don!!! Beyond them and a wacky talkative new sidecar enthusiast/rider gal spreading the word everywhere, there isn't much help out there in the sidecar community. A few V-Rod owners have pitched in because they want to see a V-Rod do well. No solo dirtbikers have pitched in. But I can't ask people to contribute to our project if they don't have a deep personal interest in what we are doing.

On the other had, we do have a very valuable marketing tool here. A sharp corporate marketing person can see that we have already received tons of great media exposure worldwide, which will surely expand as soon as we start the race. And imagine the explosion in the media when a Harley finishes the race. With our large panel areas, we can put several big corporate logos on the bike. I just don't have the time myself to look for such marketing partners. If you know someone in marketing who would be interested in great worldwide exposure, we could sure help each other out!

Whether we get additional individual support, corporate support, or no further support, we will be there this year. I just wired $7500 to the Dakar organization today, and the other $50,000 will be going out the door over the next 6 months.

[chris m. johnson]

I am so pleased to help with the idea of Hogwild racing adding Duane McDowell - He will be the most perfect fit of anyone we have in the United States to be able to come to the Challenge of The Dakar Rally as a passenger. With his eco Challenge, Marathon, Mountain bike racing experience, he was also a very accomplished offroad sidecar racer both as a passenger and driver.

We in the sidecar community all need to extend the best wishes for both Scott & Duane and foward the Hogwild racing information to any possible sponsors that can ride on the shirttails of this project. Scott is funding the majority of the 50k-60k needed to accomplish this challenge but they sure could use additional outside help.

At this point and time, they do not have enough capitol to add the costs for a mechanic (20k-25k) and that is just barely for the airfare, the ride on a truck and a spot for tools and spares. I will continue to try to come up with ideas for sponsorships until the end of the summer but, as we all know, now would be the best exposure time as entries are being posted next month.

We will try to join Scott & Duane for some of their testing sessions in the desert in the next several months and will give updates at that time. Cheers and happy racing/riding/wrenching/watching - sidecar racing.
Chris