Written by:
SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com
You know how certain chemicals are relatively harmless when they’re separate, but then you put them all together and they explode? That’s kind of how all of us at Team Necessary are: Individually, we do all right, but get us together and we totally blow up your image of a typical race team. Let me introduce you to my crew.
Everyone on the team (with the exception of my brother) works for me on my day job, which is a commercial photographer doing a lot of advertising work. We’re always traveling together, so that’s how we got to know each other, and we’re all gearheads, which certainly helped us become close.
Let’s start with my brother, Darin. For obvious reasons, I’ve known him my whole life, and we’ve both been interested in cars and racing our whole lives. Our dad was a racer and our mom was a small-time racer, so it’s something me and my bro always wanted to get into and try out for ourselves.
Russ Stoddard is my navigator. We’ve worked together for about seven years now, and he’s a bit of a mechanic, but he’s mostly in charge of all things electronic – in fact, he’s an electronics guru. He’s also a good planner, so he does a lot of our pit strategy, and he’s just an awesome navigator: He’s always prepared with the notes, and he can read them and help me read the terrain and check the mirrors – all at the same time. Oh yeah _ plus check the nav screen, too. He’s incredible.
Then there’s Tim Sutton, better known as Hot Rod. He’s an old grease monkey who’s worked with me for about four years. He’s always been working on cars, so he’s kind of our official head mechanic, as scary as that thought may be. When the truck comes in after testing it’s his responsibility to go through all the mechanical system checks.
Next up is Jim Inglis. Jim and I have been friends since junior high school, and we’ve never lost contact. He started working for me full-time about five years ago. He’s an artist who doesn’t care for anything too much; he just likes being part of a team, and he’s extremely adventurous and always up for having a good time. He’s also the ringleader for all the partying we do. But as far as the race team goes, he’s in charge of the aesthetics of the vehicle, like color and positioning of the sponsor decals and graphics. Plus, he’s responsible for transportation and lodging arrangements. Quite an important dude, I guess.
Lastly, but not leastly (assuming that’s even a word) is Hans Hanson. Hans just kind of fell into our little race team, since he’s been good friends with Tim for a long time. Hans is also a photographer, and when we were about to leave for Baja he just happened to come into town to visit Tim. Somehow, Tim managed to convince him to come down with us and help out, so that was the first time we worked with him. But now I hang out with him all the time; he’s a super good guy, knowledgeable about just about everything, so if you have any oddball questions he seems to be the guy that always has the answer. And to top it all off, he’s a great partier.
As for the “race hard, play hard” mentality many people believe we have, let me give you my take on how we unwind: The energy of our team is such that, when we come together and we aren’t on the clock, we all like to goof around and basically turn wherever we are into a party zone. We also know how to turn that off when we need to and get our race faces on, but still manage to have a good time when we’re racing.
That being said, I think just finishing the Taupo 1000 would make this adventure a success. We don’t race to win as much as we race for the adventure and the experience. Maybe that’s what the guy who coined the phrase “Winning isn’t everything” had in mind… .
Click here for more on the Two Roads to the Taupo 1000 on SPEED!
