The 42nd Anniversary Las Vegas Jeep Club Jamboree at the Dumont Dunes was the site of Race 2 of NSDN’s 2014 Daily Race Coverage season. The Dumont Dunes are located west of Las Vegas just across the border into California and provides a great setting for one of the few true throw back events in the sand drag world. The Las Vegas Jeep Club crew sets up a standard 300’ Sand Drag strip in the flat area of sand between the Dunes & the camping area. The dune sand smoothes right out and creates a nice racing surface. In today’s age of heavy dirt mega hook tracks, it’s a change to see a traditional sand track where racers show up to have fun & go head to head to see who is faster on this particular surface. The Sand Drags are on Sunday, while the weekend kicks off with the Saturday Hill Climb event making for a full weekend of action. This NSDN Daily Race Coverage was presented by the Las Vegas Jeep Club.

NSDN Coverage Links
NSDN Daily Race Coverage Page
NSDN Race Recap Page

NSDN Run of the Event: There were a lot of cool moments throughout this event as many match ups took place that we rarely see heads-up. The X200 class final round is one that stands out to me from this event. In this battle to see who was the fastest in the small block - N/A class it would be Wes Gilmore piloting his wife Debbie’s Larry Minor Motorsports Jeep up against Shawn Thompson in the trademark Terminator - Thompson Drywall Jeep. These guys were ready to do battle with two bad Low 4-second Jeeps. When the tree dropped, Shawn jumped out to a slight lead, but Wes gradually reeled him in as they proceeded down the track. Both drivers were locked in to keeping their Jeeps straight and missed their shift points some down track, but at the stripe it would be Thompson taking the victory by the slimmest of margins. Check out the video below as we had some great camera angles to cover this great battle.



NSDN Racer of the Event: I’m going to go along with LVJC’s award that follows along the lines of Racer of the Event. LVJC hands out specialty awards at each of their Jamborees & the “Best Engineered” award is handed out to the racer that does the best throughout the entire course of the weekend, both the Drags and Hill Climb. This year the award went to Chris Adamson. Chris used his driving expertise to take the prestigious X200 class win on the Hill Climb in his “Bounty Hunter” Jeep along with a runner-up finish in another class. Then, on Sunday he took the win in the 4.60 Index class as well as a Runner-Up in the super competitive Duner class. This was Chris’ last ride in the “Bounty Hunter” as he acquired one of the late Clayton Record’s Larry Minor Jeeps shortly after. Congrats to Chris on the great performance at Dumont.







NSDN Storylines

Dave Stidham: Dave kept up his winning ways at Dumont with the “Grinch” Jeep by taking both the Top Eliminator (3.4 Index) and Pro Drag Heads-Up classes. Stidham made some big changes over the winter to his ride switching his combination from Blown Gas (Carbs) to Blown Alcohol (Injection) along with a few other upgrades. His car ran flawless and out performed a solid field of supercharged entries. Dave also doubled up when NSDN covered Dumont in 2012.





Blower Cars: It was great to see so many supercharged entries at Dumont. The Las Vegas Jeep Club Jamboree traditionally doesn’t see many blower cars or sub 4 second rides, but this time there was a nice list of them tackling the tough dune sand surface. Stidham’s “Grinch” Funny Jeep, Nick Shultzman’s Blown small block “Wheelie King” Altered, Wes Gilmore’s “Born to be Wild” Blown Alcohol BBC Jeep, and Mike Smith’s Blown center seat Jeep put on a great show in the Pro Drag category.



Father-Son Domination: The Den Hartog’s, Greg & David had great success this time around at Dumont. Their highlight was facing off against each other in the X400 class final round. Greg scored one for the Dad’s out there as he piloted his “Money Shot” Jeep to the win over son David’s T-Bucket. Greg also went on to win the X600 class while David also appeared in a second final as he won the Pro 1 - 3.80 Index category. Congrats on the big wins to the Den Hartog family.




Greg Den Hartog


David Den Hartog

Rattitude: Wes & Debbie Gilmore had a great showing at Dumont. They brought a fleet of entries, three Jeeps in total to do battle at the Las Vegas Jeep Club Jamboree. Wes took a big win in the X400 on the Hill Climb over some tough competition, then runner-upped in that class in Sunday’s Drags while Debbie took a 1 win on the Hill Climb & 2 wins in the Drags during Women’s class competition. The Gilmore’s put forth a big effort this year at Dumont and took home plenty of hardware.


Wes Gilmore's Rattitude Jeep


Debbie Gilmore


Wes Gilmore in Born to be Wild

LJVC Awards: Mentioned earlier in this recap are the Event Awards handed out at each Las Vegas Jeep Club Jamboree. The Best Engineered award went to Chris Adamson as mentioned earlier, Best Appearing went to Frank Wagner’s Supercharged Jeep, Hard Luck went to Nick “Wheelie King” Shultzman who hurt some parts during Pro Drag class action, Rogue Stillwater took the “Fool’s Award” for a tumbler during a break for the Hill Climb, and Long Distance went to Northern California competitor Jon Warren who took home hardware with his “Raspberry Thunder” Jeep in the always competitive Duner class.


Best Appearing: Frank Wagner


Long Distance Award: Jon Warren (Near Lane). Jon is pictured racing against Ken Allen here.

Thompson’s: A huge thank you goes out to the entire Thompson family along with the entire LVJC crew for the massive undertaking the Jamboree event is. These folks work hard from sun up to sun down, and their only break is to jump in their rides to make a pass or two. Shawn, Wendy and Charlie all ran well in the “Terminator” Jeep taking several wins and runner-ups in both events while Doug took a break from announcing to also take a class win. Thank you, Thompson’s!


Shawn Thompson with a great launch in the Terminator Jeep


Doug Thompson taking a break from announcing to attack the Hill