The hoped for podium remained out of reach for Armin Schwarz and AGM/Jimco X6 SCORE Trophy Truck – New design flying the Schaeffler Racing colors enthusiastically receive.

San Felipe (MEX), 10 March 2013. The desert rocks again: With the Baja 250 in San Felipe, Mexico, Armin Schwarz and All German Motorsports took off into the 2013 off-road racing season. But Armin Schwarz and his team came away after 250 miles on the Baja California with mixed feelings. They leave Mexico with many positive impressions, but the hoped for podium result at the season-opener remained out of reach for the German-American squad. A fuel shortage cost the team valuable time. How this came about is still unclear, but it put a damper on an otherwise successful race week.

The Baja 250 marked the race premiere of the new liveried AGM/Jimco X6 SCORE Trophy Truck, and the design in the classical Schaeffler Racing colors of green and yellow caused great excitement in the scene. The striking coloring is well known in the German Touring Car Masters and now they are conquering the desert. “The yellow-green design is really well received. It looks fabulous, it is eye catching and visible from a distance. Our Trophy Truck has now been given the nickname “Desert Lizard”. I reckon this name fits perfectly, because it makes people think of speed and agility,” says Armin Schwarz.

With the “Desert Lizard”, Armin Schwarz and AGM went hunting for the Baja podium. In winter, the team and partners took the AGM/Jimco X6 SCORE Trophy Truck apart and fined-tuned all areas. And the improvements were noticeable in the race. Armin Schwarz took off from 25th. The former European Rally Champion used the new starting procedure at the Baja 250, with vehicles taking off at minute intervals, to quickly make up one position after the other. At race mile 60 he was already running fifth. Even two flat tires caused by rim defects couldn’t halt his charge. “A rim was bent, probably hit by a stone, and air escaped from the tire. The second flat was when the rim broke in the middle after a couple of meters. We have to analyses how this could happen. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the rims were re-coated and where needed sandblasted and this may have changed the material,” thinks Armin Schwarz. “This threw us back to ninth place but that was not a problem because had worked our way forward again.”

The chase through the field, however, came to a temporary halt at race mile 164. The Trophy Truck stopped in the middle of the desert – out of gas, and only ten miles from the scheduled service and refueling stop. Armin Schwarz and AGM lost about an hour until the refueling car had reached the vehicle over rough terrain and the Trophy Truck could continue. “That’s very strange, we now have to look at how this could have happened,” said a puzzled Armin Schwarz. “On Thursday we went tire testing with our partner BF Goodrich and calculated the right amount of fuel based on consumption. But suddenly our fuel consumption was much higher than on Thursday. We still don’t know why but we have to find out. It was really annoying to get so close to the service stop, get stranded in the desert and lose so much time. My teammate Martin Christensen came from the service point to help us with the fuel and we handed the car over to him in the desert. He finally brought the Trophy Truck over the finish line about an hour behind in 17th position. The fact that the time we lost was exactly an hour makes it all the more upsetting.”

Hence, Armin Schwarz has mixed feelings. “The car felt really good, it drove superbly and we had no problems passing and getting ahead. But in the end it’s the final result that counts and sadly that is rather disappointing. It would have been fantastic to kick off the season with a top result and it’s really annoying if that doesn’t happen. But what can we do. Now we have to take the positive approach, analyses exactly what the problems were and look ahead to the future. And there were plenty of positives on this weekend and we were still able to earn a few points.”

Schwarz is not only thrilled about the general enthusiasm for the new Schaeffler Racing Design and the overall strong performance of the AGM/Jimco X6 Trophy Truck, but also about the future plans of the new SCORE boss Roger Norman. The American organizes the United States off-road series HDRA and has also taken over the responsibility of the SCORE championship from “Mister Baja” Sal Fish. “He does a huge amount in terms of public relations. He works closely with television and tries to ensure that the series gets even more live coverage on TV and the internet. That is a great help to us and our partners,” says Armin Schwarz.

Moreover, Roger Norman has announced a cooperation with the Dakar organizer A.S.O. Since the end of 2012, Armin Schwarz is the contact person in the USA for the Dakar organizer. Through his excellent contacts with drivers, teams and organizers, he is particularly valuable to the A.S.O. The clear objective is to bring more U.S. racers to the Dakar Rally. For this reason, Armin Schwarz was significantly involved in assisting in the lead-up. As part of the cooperation, round two of the SCORE Championship season, the Baja 500 in Ensenada, will be included on the 2013 Dakar Challenge calendar. Armin Schwarz and AGM will tackle this rally with their “Desert Lizard” from 31 May to 2 June. “Working together with the creators of the famous Dakar Rally is a great advertisement for our sport. Through this, the Baja races will receive even more publicity,” says Armin Schwarz. In addition to the Baja 500, Roger Norman has also organized this year the 500 miles of Reno (12 to 14 July) as part of the Dakar Challenge. The most successful drivers from the Dakar Challenge qualify for the 2014 Dakar Rally.

All the best, Armin

Armin Schwarz and All German Motorsports are ready for the 2013 racing season – Trophy Truck now flies the Schaeffler colors.

Let’s go racing again! This coming week Armin Schwarz and All German Motorsports head into their 2013 campaign with the Baja 250 in San Felipe (MEX). This year the squad from Escondido/Cal. will tackle the five most important desert races in Mexico and the USA at the wheel of their AGM/Jimco X6 SCORE Trophy Truck. In addition to the three SCORE rounds in Mexico – the Baja 250 (8 to 10 March), the Baja 500 (31 May to 2 June) and the Baja 1000 (14 to 17 November), AGM will contest the Vegas to Reno classic in Nevada (15 to 17 August) and the HDRA race in Laughlin (20 to 22 September).

Amongst the novelties for the upcoming season is the new look of the AMG-Jimco X6 SCORE Trophy Truck. It is now strikingly liveried in the yellow and green colours of the Schaeffler Group, which has been well known for years in Europe’s most popular touring car series, the DTM (German Touring Car Masters). The Schaeffler Group has considerably expanded their engagement at AGM – which is clearly visible from the outside but has also made some significant technical changes to the “desert monster”.

“We were able to fit numerous Schaeffler products in our car, from bearings over Uni-ball to the torque converter. Moreover, Schaeffler are now involved with the entire development of the torque converter and was able to help us solving last year’s problems,” explains Armin Schwarz. “This is absolutely great because Schaeffler are based in my home town of Herzogenaurach in Franconia and supported me even in the 80s when I was a young hopeful rally driver. Their support helped me to win my first titles.” Back in 1986 Schwarz competed for the INA rally team – INA is a company in the Schaeffler Group.

Thanks to the comprehensive support of many partners, AGM is optimally prepared and equipped for the challenges of the new season. “I would like to thank all our partners, many of which have committed for the long term, for staying with us,” says Armin Schwarz. “Your loyalty and support is simply fantastic. Without you we wouldn’t be able to compete at such a high level. With your engagement we know we’ve got a solid base on which to build our sporting success.”

2013 took off with news from the SCORE Championship. Sal Fish, the co-founder and the supremo of the series for many decades, has handed over the baton to Roger Norman. As the new chief promoter Roger will run the SCORE Championship parallel to his US American off-road series HDRA. “I’d like to thank Sal for his unbelievable commitment. Sal was there from the beginning – and he always had a reliable solution for everything. We’re missing him already. He was and still is Mr. Baja,” says Armin Schwarz. “Now Roger has taken over the helm and will steer the SCORE Championship to a successful future. He’s already working on further strengthening the marketing, the worldwide TV coverage and public relations. We’re expecting lots of positive developments – the more public interest we generate the better for our partners and the entire sport.”

Only three months have passed since the last 2012 outing of the AGM/Jimco X6 SCORE Trophy Truck at the Baja 1000. But the short winter break was used for more technical optimizations: “We stripped the car down completely and modified the frame here and there,” outlines Armin Schwarz. “We based those alterations on our technical analysis of the 2012 season.”
“Our partner Danzio put the engine on the test bed and was able to further improve the drive ability and the top end performance,” adds Armin Schwarz. “We have worked on the air intake and on the exhaust side. K&N Filters put our air intake filters through intense testing, analyzed the air flow characteristics of different solutions and helped us optimize the engine performance. On the other side, Remus optimized the exhaust system. Our power plant breathes freely and strongly, that’s for sure.”

“With Fortin we went back to have another good look at the gearbox – at all bearings and components. Our partner Liqui Moli developed a special gearbox oil for us which performed fabulously at the Baja 1000, so there will be no change.”
“With a new custom-designed cooler Fox makes sure that their shocks survive even the toughest desert tracks and performs optimally over the great distances we are doing. With Eibach we put more work into the fine tuning of the spring rates and the overall suspension. Just to finish it all off, we improved many small details. As development partners of BF Goodrich we enjoy a very close co-operation. BF Goodrich has strongly supported us in analyzing the past races and monitoring tire pressures during the races.”

So, all systems are ready to go. After weeks of intense preparation Armin Schwarz and AGM are eager to pit their Trophy Truck against the competition. “We’ll try to make it to the podium,” says Schwarz citing his goals for the upcoming Baja 250. They have repaired and graded parts of the track around San Felipe. Hence the brutal, bumpy surface is now smoother and more forgiving. “The wheel-travel and weight of the car are not the decisive factor but I feel the handling will be crucial. That would be good news for us,” hopes Armin Schwarz. In any case, Schwarz and AGM head to San Felipe with fond memories. Back in 2010, the team celebrated the overall victory at the Baja 250, racing their AGM Class One Buggy.

   Herzliche Grüße, Armin

“Rev up! Rev up!,” I hear Bryan Little’s voice in the intercom. Our eight cylinder grunts and screams, the trophy truck tanks its way through the groundless, deep dust. It’s a pitch black night black and whenever we shoot down a dune we shovel this powder fine dust into our cockpit. I can’t see a thing. Not even the dashboard. “Revs,” I hear Bryan’s imploring voice. I shift down. Revs up but we don’t gain any speed. We are slowing down. Bryan can see on his monitor how the temperature of our torque converter shoots up. When I increase the revs the mighty torque of our engine drops a little bit, this takes some load from the torque converter. But we are losing speed. Our trophy truck rolls and pitches through the deep stuff like a ship in a storm on the high seas. Slower and slower. Then we stand still. Race Mile 580. It’s half past ten and we are stranded in the desert. Six miles to go to reach firm surface, seven miles to our service point. There’s that strong smell of hydraulic fluid in the air and the cactus spikes in our overalls don’t make the situation any more comfortable. It has taken us eleven hours to get here since we set off in the late morning from Ensenada on the Pacific coast up in the north of Baja California.

The start from Ensenada is a great motorsports party

We’ve probably never been as well prepared for the Baja 1000 as we are now. My co-driver Bryan Little and I did an eleven day pre-run. We tried all thinkable lines and put them into our GPS. So for my 615 race miles to the point where I will hand the car over to Martin Christensen we practiced a good 3500 miles.

We and our Trophy Truck are in top form. Blindfolded, we could find all important things in the car. We divided our astronaut food into handy portions and taped them up on inside of the roof. Each tool has its place. The cleaning cloths for the helmet visors are stored. When we come to the start on race day everything has to be done. Our team members are on their way to the pit stop points somewhere in the desert along the 1000 mile route.

Ok, all is in place. We climb into our seats, buckle up. A perfect seating position is crucial. For the next ten hours I’m going to be pinned down in this position into the seat. My very personal waste water pipeline had better not be squeezed by the harness. You just can’t sit in the car for hours and hours, drink liters of water not knowing how to get rid of the excess liquid. You know what I’m talking about. And you sure have to drink. Once you start dehydrating it’s too late to reverse this process. If you dehydrate the race of done for you. Anyway, the personal pipeline ends just above the floor of the car. We’ll eat and drink on the highway sections where we are only allowed to do 60 mph: Just grab a packet of astronaut food from under the roof and push it in under the helmet.

All good, here we go! We are the 33^rd Trophy Truck. All cars are still running close together, there’s a lot of adrenalin. They all storm away like crazy. No viz but lots of surprises for the first miles. Farmland, lots of stuff on the track. Somebody hit a fence. There are boards with nails in the way. After roughly six miles Bryan can see on his monitor that our left rear tire is losing air. After 12 miles we find a place to stop and change the wheel. A piece of the tire has cut the brake pipe. No problem, from now on we’ve got brakes only on three wheels. After a little more than 30 miles we enter a narrow gorge, maybe 30 yards across. The surface is nothing but silt … it is like hitting a wall of dust and like driving through a Turkish sauna. I can’t even see the rev counter. But I stay on the throttle. We come off our line … no orientation at all. We hit bushes. Hell, where are we? We are getting too slow. We hit the bump in the middle between the deep ruts. Our bottom is on the ground. There’s no more load on the wheels. 700 hp whisk the desert air. Bryan shoots out of the car, has a look at the mess. Using our hydraulic jack we lift the car, run around and push rocks under the wheels. Sweating, swearing, wordless toil. Then the wheels find grip. We go on and are now maybe 45^th on the road. But now it’s all go. On the way to our pit stop at race mile 130 we overtake a lot of competitors. Our pit crew works perfectly and fast: new spare wheel in, check all crucial stuff, refuel over 300 liters. All in less than 30 seconds. 485 miles to go to the driver change at San Ignacio.

Straight line, flat out – but always with an eye on the rev counter

We are heading south east across the Baja California from the Pacific to the Gulf of California. Approaching San Felipe the track gets wider and faster, but then we hit them: the San Felipe Whoops. These bumps are between two and five feet high. Between the bumps it’s sometimes five yards, sometimes 10, 20. Our Trophy Truck handles it beautifully with the full fuel tank. We are doing maybe 100 mph. We could go faster, but our tests with Schaeffler and Liqui Moly showed that this speed is the best for our car over the San Felipe Whoops. When a competitor turns up in front of us we just swap to another of the many lines we tried out and overtake six trucks without problem.

From San Felipe we turn south on the Puertecitos Road. Dead straight, flat, and we go full bore: 130 mph. We hit bumps. More bumps … and we run into serious gravel. Rocks the size of soccer balls for a good 30 miles. We slow down to maybe 60 mph. This is tough stuff for the car and us men inside it. Clanking, banging, stones fly into the car. When the hell does this stop? But even this has an end after a while and the next 40 mile highway section is paradise. We are at race mile 280 and the 16^th car on route – we have overtaken almost 30 competitors.

The following gravel down to Coco’s Corner at race mile 300 is sometimes ultra fast. Wide, full blast. Fast corners for long drifts plus some slow, technical twisty stuff. Great fun to drive. Coco lent his name to the place. He lives here, a keen off-road nut. Everybody knows the guy who has no legs but still zooms around on his ATV and celebrates the Baja 1000 with us.

Desert dusk

Five o’clock in the afternoon, the sun is low. Lights on: the tiny military LED’s give incredibly strong light. We enter the Car Wash: a canyon with vertical walls. You always hit water here somewhere, and things can change within the blink of an eye. If there’s rain up the ravine a flood will rush down the valley and you might run into deep trouble. We get through and overtake two other cars.

At race mile 335 we affix the night face on our car – very strong beam lights. Then we continue south. Down to the bay of angels – bahia de los angeles – where some devilish Baja specialties await us: the G-Outs. These are four, five yards wide gullies, five feet deep. If you hit such a gully at maybe 120mph you might fly across the washout. But then you hit the opposite bank and your rear axle bottoms out and you get a severe kick that catapults you into a forward somersault. Very dangerous thing, but we’ve got the G-Outs in our pace notes. We could go flat out. But we are not able to because we’ve caught up with the slower competitors that started earlier: ATVs, bikes. All hidden in trails of dust behind them. On approaching we never know who’s struggling there in front of us. So we have to be very cautious. Some bike riders are so exhausted they can hardly stay in the saddle. So we have to be patient, 50 mph. But suddenly we come to a detour around a G-Out that only we seem to have in our pace notes. We are alone! Pedal to the metal! And in the next second we hit a giant cactus. Squashed debris and needles rain into the cockpit and within no time we turn into speeding hedgehogs.

Early evening, the night face is not yet on the car. But the LED’s give great light

Finally from race mile 525 the terrain opens up. Only 90 miles to the driver change. The sandy track is 20 yards wide, almost 30 miles straight. We give the trophy truck a free run but I have to lift the throttle every now and then to keep the temperatures healthy. We do 7,200 revs, that has to be enough for a long race like the Baja 1000. The slow puncture front right doesn’t bother us. It’s not far to the pit stop at the highway crossing. We reach it and we are seventh! Bryan and I are very optimistic. All the hardship seems to have been worth it in the end. Our next stop will be San Ignacio, where Martin waits. What a prospect!

Ten miles after the pit stop there’s a surprise waiting for us. During the pre-run all was fine here. But now the twisty road disappeared under very deep sand. Then dust and silt beds – for almost 40 miles. Viz back to zero. There’s no way we can avoid the deep dust, too many cacti left and right of the route. The torque converter temperature goes up. Fourth gear impossible, I shift to third gear. And I hear Bryan on the intercom: “Rev up! Rev up!” …

And here we grind to a standstill at race mile 580 at dead of night. We grab our headlamps, I run in the direction where I hear another car coming to warn them. Bryan takes off our sump guard. There’s a lot of oil but in the mess we don’t find a leak. Whenever I hear a car come I run to warn them (and to keep our car safe). We radio our team. Matt O’Malley is a brilliant technician and a genius when it comes to making his way through the toughest stuff. It takes him two hours to reach us. Then Matt tows us back through the deepest sh**… Just unbelievable how he does this.

Night shift for our pit crew in the desert

After an hour we reach our pit stop point. Our team has everything ready: gearbox out, change the torque converter. I lie down in the truck for an hour. The compressor and generator make a hell of a noise. But it is so good to stretch out. When the repairs are done Bryan and I jump back into the car. Press the starter button: oil leaks out again! An oil pipe is leaking. Not only a seal was broken but also this oil pipe was perforated. Ok, out of the car, our team change the complete pipe. At six in the morning we can continue. Only 20 miles now to the changing point! We get caught in the slow traffic again. Everybody seems to be dead tired.

Get ready for touchdown – no problem with a suspension like ours

Eight in the morning: San Ignacio! Finally! We are running nine hours behind our plan. The technicians check the trophy truck. They are all super professional, super calm. Not a word of disappointment to us. Those guys have done a lot of Baja work. And after all: we are still racing! Martin will do the next 650 miles to the finish in exactly the time of the overall winner. This means: Martin once again did a brilliant, fabulous job. And it means that our car is good and fast. Our concept is right. Our All German Motorsports trophy truck arrives at the finish in La Paz after 31 hours. Our dream of a top 10 finish and our hope for a podium spot have not come true this time. But we brought our rather revolutionary car to the finish. This is a super motivation for 2013.

If I remember it right the shower in San Ignacio was the best of my life. Now I’m back at my desk here in Germany and when I think back to this night in the desert there is one thing I know for sure: I have a dream job. But if you had asked out there in the dust I would have very probably answered: “Who in the world is insane enough to choose such a crazy job?”

On top of the dashboard you can still see that we just came out of a water crossing

Well, dear friends, that was my Baja 1000 of 2012. I say “THANK YOU” to all our partners, helpers, fans and to all our families for the wonderful support. You have all pitched in impressively and helped to bring our new developments forward. Many thanks to you, the engineers, technicians, logistics people and everybody who helped to make this such a great racing season.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas with your friends and families and a happy and healthy 2013. I’m already looking forward to the coming motorsports year.

Enjoy the holidays with your loved ones!

 We keep Racing – All the best, Armin

A defect nickel and dime part robbed Armin Schwarz and All German Motorsports of all chances for a top result at the 45th running of the Baja 1000.

Ensenada / La Paz (MEX), 18 November 2012. “That’s racing” – is how Armin Schwarz sums up the turbulent Baja 1000, the highlight of the 2012 US SCORE Championship. Armin Schwarz and All German Motorsports had their sights set on a podium spot at the infamous rally through Mexico’s Baja California. After several tests and meticulous preparation, the AGM-Jimco X6 SCORE Trophy Truck was ready to face the toughest challenge of Baja racing. But then a defect part worth just a few cents held up the team for hours, robbing the outfit of the chance to bring home a top result.

The 45th edition of the Baja 1000 led through the Mexican desert, from Ensenada in the north to La Paz in the south. Participants tackled around 1,150 miles of toughest terrain, with metre-high bumps, gravel and sand tracks as well as passes and hairpins. Not to forget the legendary ‘silt beds’ that stretch for miles through the desert: deep, powdery sand that turns visibility and propulsion to zilch. The first half of the race ran virtually to plan for All German Motorsports. Taking up the race from starting position 33 was not an easy task, but Armin Schwarz plowed his way through the field and had his sight set on the front-runners.

“After the first six miles we got a slow puncture at the rear and had to change the wheel. We then got stuck for a bit in the extreme dust, but that’s quite normal at the Baja 1000,” reports Armin Schwarz. “Afterwards we picked up the pace and things were going well for us. We were able to fight our way towards the front, and at race mile 520 we were running in seventh. Our plan seemed to be working. We had not even covered half the distance and were making very good progress.”

But after a little over 600 race miles the hunt for a podium spot at the Baja 1000 came to a sudden end, just 25 miles from the pit stop where teammate Martin Christensen was waiting to take over the wheel. The reason: a defect seal in the hydraulics of the torque converter. “That’s why the torque converter lost huge amounts of oil and we had no more drive. The reason for this defect is very probably that we went through more than 30 miles of very deep silt prior to this. That’s where the temperatures shoot up and you can’t stop otherwise you get stuck,” explains Armin Schwarz. Schwarz was pinned there for almost seven hours.

To make matters worse, the AGM-Jimco X6 SCORE Trophy Truck was stranded in all but impassable terrain. Despite there being no direct access, the technicians from All German Motorsports took only two hours to reach their racer and tow it out for repairs. “That’s just like the Dakar rally. If you get stuck in the middle of the dunes it’s almost impossible to reach you,” says Armin Schwarz. “We had to take out the gearbox and the torque converter to reach the hydraulic part with the faulty seal and then put it all back together again. And this took us four more hours.”

But for Armin Schwarz and All German Motorsports there was not one second where they considered throwing in the towel. “It was clear that we would do the repairs and keep going. If we had managed to fix everything in three or four hours we could have achieved a top ten result. But seven hours at a standstill made this impossible.” Martin Christensen reached the finish in La Paz as the 14th Trophy Truck and 51st place overall. Victory went for the second time since 2010 to local heroes Tavo and Gustavo Vildosola from Mexico. “Congratulations to our friends at the Vildosola team. Congratulations guys! You’re really awesome,” said Armin Schwarz.

“It was really a cheap part that put a spoke in the wheel so to speak,” summed up Armin Schwarz. “Otherwise we would have been really pleased. All other parts lasted, including the transmission parts which we had tested thoroughly. Our strategy worked too. At the driver change we replaced the drive shaft to shorten their running time. All this worked perfectly. But as it so often happens a totally different part gave up the ghost when you least expected it. Well, that’s the Baja 1000 – you simply can’t predict it.”

But right now, Armin Schwarz and All German Motorsports are looking to the future: The highly motivated squad tackles the 2013 SCORE Championship and Baja 1000. “We have shown that our car has the necessary speed now and we were well prepared. The Trophy Truck ran well, our set-up was right and we were very competitive. We are feeling confident for 2013,” emphasizes Armin Schwarz. “We would like to thank all our partners and sponsors who have supported us in constantly improving our Trophy Truck in its maiden season of racing and making it as competitive as it is now. This would be unthinkable without the incredible support from all sides of partners. They were always there – at short notice, with flexibility and without all the red tape. Just because they are as passionate as we are. A heartfelt thank you to you all!”

Things went better for All German Motorsports in the fiercely-contested category for Class One Buggies. Start driver Armin Kremer managed to hand over the Buggy after 255 miles to Andy Mancin ranking second. Mancin, for whom this marked his first time here in the Buggy, battled with the deep dust and was unable to defend his position. Still, he handed the car ranking eighth to AGM’s regular class one Buggy driver Tony Miglini, who brought the AGM Buggy home after his 580 mile stint seventh in the class.

“Our congratulations to the team and a huge thank you to everyone who has supported us,” commented Armin Schwarz. “And what is even better. Everyone from AGM made it back safely to La Paz. But right now: Baja 1000, we’ll be back!”

On the technical side, the Schaeffler Group, as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of bearings and specialists for everything the moves, analyzed each and every detail  of stresses and loads on our drive train – from the wheel bearings to the deepest depths of the gearbox. We are so lucky to have the knowledge and competence of these specialists supporting us, with their 76,000 employees in over 50 countries. Schaeffler developed a torque converter for us which just kept on impressing us over hundreds of test miles. Jeff Hemphill – Vice President of Schaeffler USA – came to visit our tests and witnessed in the cockpit what a drive at the limit on those bone breaking tracks means for man and machine. For us it’s all dust, big moments and sore muscles. For the car it’s non-stop action and unrelenting stress on all parts.

Peter Baumann, the head of marketing at Liqui Moly, met us in the desert and experienced first hand what Liqui Moly’s lubricants have to withstand in our car. His reaction: he was amazed and proud with good reason. Because thanks to Liqui Moly the life span of our components is considerably longer, and the performance is measurably better.

I just want to say thank you to Schaeffler and Liqui Moly for their tremendous support.

Talking lubrication with Peter Baumann of Liqui Moly

Peter Baumann brought another very welcome guest with him from Sears Point: touring car ace Franz Engstler. Former World Rally ace Alex Fiorio (the great Cesare’s son) and our rallying colleague Andi Mancin also gave us the joy and honor of witnessing what we were up to in the Mexican desert. All three drivers were super keen to get into our car. And all three simply couldn’t believe the brutal force of our BMW engine, the enormous acceleration on loose ground and above all they couldn’t get around their heads (and throttle foot) around the speed we travel over the enormous bumps in the desert. Yeah guys, now that’s what we call wheel travel!

Desert trio: Armin Schwarz, Franz Engstler & Martin Christensen (left- right)

Sheer amazement – that’s what the professional drivers had in common with the representatives of the special media, whom Schaeffler press officer Jorg Walz had invited. From TV crews to major European magazines like ‘auto motor und sport’ to the US giant ‘Car & Driver’, represented by Mike Sutton, they all came and they all had their big moments when we attacked the massive jumps and crests with our All German Motorsports racer. The verdict was unanimous: There is very likely nothing tougher in the motorsport world than the tracks of the Baja 1000.

Fast visitors: Alex Fiorio, Armin Schwarz & Andi Mancin (left-right)

Now that’s what we call wheel travel!

And while we were busy sweating it out in the desert, our show car traveled through half of Europe on the rear of a truck, from France to the city of Kirchheim Teck close to Stuttgart, where it now can be seen at the premises of RECARO. It’s always worth having a look at what our partner and specialist in race seating systems has to show. And our show car looks 1:1 just like the real monster. So if you should be around Stuttgart just pop in and be fascinated.

Our show car looks spectacular, even at a standstill!

Talking torque: Martin and Jeff Hemphill of Schaeffler USA

I’ll be back here as soon as I’ve got more news.

Until then,

Armin Schwarz

2012 SCORE San Felipe 250 Race Report

AGM/Jimco X6 Trophy Truck & AGM Jimco Class 1 [Photo Credit: Art Eugenio

AGM/Jimco X6 Trophy Truck [Photo Credit: Art Eugenio

[Photo Credit: Art Eugenio

AGM Jimco Class 1 [Photo Credit: Art Eugenio

AGM Team Shot [Photo Credit: Art Eugenio

AGM/Jimco X6 Trophy Truck off the start line!

Escondido, CA. January 13^th-15^th, 2012- The SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge took place in Laughlin, Nevada. The race was a rough 8 lap, 6.25 mile desert course. Unlike previous year’s format, where your time from both days would be added together and an overall Champion for the weekend would be crowned, this year Saturday and Sunday’s races would be counted as a separate event for championship points, making the need to start and finish each day that much more important. These races were round one and two of the five race 2012 SCORE Desert Championship Series. This season we will be running a two car team consisting of our new AGM/Jimco X6 Trophy Truck and our Jimco Class 1 car.

AGM Jimco Class 1 #116 & AGM/Jimco X6 Trophy Truck #15

It was a rough weekend for the All German Motorsports crew at the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge but in true AGM fashion the all-volunteer team came together and pushed through all of the problems without allowing any issue to end the weekend. The fun began on Friday with Qualifying; this would be the first time they would compete head to head like this against a deep field of talented drivers/teams. When the dust settled AGM found themselves in the 13^th starting position, for Saturday’s race, out of the field of 22. With everything running well and all of the issues from the previous days resolved, the team had high hopes for Saturday’s Round one of racing. Everyone was excited to see AGM’s new driver Tony Miglini finally get behind the wheel of the teams Danzio Powered, Jimco race car and take on the Class One field. However, AGM’s Laughlin curse would strike again and the Trophy Truck would come to a stop 3.5 miles into the race with a broken axle, forcing driver Armin Schwarz to retire for the day. In the Class One race, Tony would start out well, picking up speed each lap in this, his first race in the Class. But on Lap three a cross-rut would send Tony off line causing him to roll the car and ultimately ending his day as well. Once both cars were collected and brought back to the AGM garage, the team knew there was no time to waste and began right away on the repairs necessary to have the cars running again for Round two on Sunday. Working efficiently, the team had the broken parts on the Trophy Truck replaced and the damage sustained during the Class One rollover repaired all before dinner time!

AGM/Jimco X6 Trophy Truck

Sunday’s race, Round two, would only improve slightly as drivetrain issues in both the Trophy Truck and the Class One car would prevent drivers Martin Christensen and Tony Miglini from running at 100%. Not wanting to lose out on valuable Championship points, both drivers backed their pace down and ran the cars into the finish. At the end of the day TT #15 would finish 10^th in class and the Class One #116 would finish 11^th. When asked about the weekend, Team Boss Martin Christensen had this to say – “We are really lucky to have the team of guys and girls we have because without them it would have been impossible to do the things that were required this weekend to stay running”

Team AGM

We would like to thank our all-volunteer team for their hard work and dedication that allowed us to make it to the finish. AGM would also like to send a big thank you to all our sponsors that help make this happen- ORW for their years of prep and chase support, BFG tires for making the best product on the market today, B&M Tricon, Stammcut, Jimco, Remus Exhaust, K&N Filters, Meziere Enterprises, Fortin, Fox Shocks, Liqui Moly, Eibach Springs, Stand 21 race wear, Recaro seats, Collisions Plus, All German Auto, Danzio Performance, Schroth racing belts, Method Race Wheels, Baja Designs, Alcon Braking System, Spy Optic, Lynx, X-Bionics, F&L racing fuels and Powerstride.

Adversities thrown at Armin Schwarz and All German
Motorsports at the Laughlin Desert Challenge.

Laughlin/Nevada (USA), 17 January 2012. The season-opening round of the 2012 US SCORE Championship did not run to plan for Armin Schwarz and All German Motorsports. At the two races of the Laughlin Desert Challenge, they aimed to earn as many points as possible with their brand new AGM-Jimco X6 SCORE Trophy Truck to set themselves up for the rest of the season. But things turned out differently. In the first race on Saturday, Schwarz had to throw in the towel. In Sunday’s second race, teammate Martin Christensen faced several difficulties, but managed to bring the Trophy Truck home in tenth place.

“We actually experienced the same difficult start in Laughlin as we’ve had every year. We’ve never had much luck here,” explains Schwarz. “We’ve never achieved a good result to start the season, but then we’ve gone strong for the rest of the year with good results. So obviously that’s what I’m hoping for now.”

The difficulties already began in the days leading up to the race when Schwarz and AGM went testing in Mexico. The team made great progress in the set-up of the Trophy Truck, but an oil leak caused the vehicle to catch fire. “Luckily we were able to limit the damage and not lose the entire vehicle in flames,” said Schwarz. AGM worked day and night to repair the Trophy Truck in time for the race weekend and lost crucial time in preparing specifically for the Laughlin Desert Challenge.

Moreover, during the tests it became apparent that the springs were still too short. Partner Eibach is now working on supplying longer springs – but in the limited time to the race this was not possible. “The shorter springs have the effect of kicking the back of the car up strongly and this is a major disadvantage on the bumpy track around Laughlin. But that was just a minor aspect, because our goal was actually to finish the race,” explains Schwarz.

But this was not to be for the team in the first race on Saturday. After just two miles the halfshaft – the shaft that goes from the rear differential to the wheel – broke. “Then we only had one-wheel drive, so you may as well park the car on the side of the road. Otherwise you have many small components flying around that would pulverise everything else,” describes Schwarz. The damages were fixed in time for Sunday’s race. AGM team boss Christensen piloted the Trophy Truck for the second event. For an as yet unknown reason, he lost second gear but managed to fight his way through to finish tenth.

“Through this defect we’ve learned a number of things when working with our brand new car. For instance, about the life expectancy of individual components like the halfshaft,” says Schwarz positively. “The whole week was anything but good, other than our very promising test results. But we can utilise the negative feedback to prepare for the next race, the Baja 250. Like last year there, we’ll try to bring home another good result.”

The Baja 250 runs from 9 to 11 March in the Mexican city of San Felipe. The squad now conducts a detailed analysis of individual components with partner Fortin. In addition, the crew will be looking at why the second gear didn’t work on Sunday. Based on the test results, Eibach are developing springs of the needed length. Just before the Baja 250 heads off, AGM will again go testing in San Felipe.

Baja 1000: Monster test with perfect result

Twelfth in the Trophy Truck category, twentieth overall. That’s a great result of the first outing of our new AGM-Jimco X6 SCORE Trophy Truck last weekend. We choose nothing else but the gruelling Baja 1000 for our first extensive test run under competition conditions. The Baja 1000 is a killer in its own right. But this one was even worse, because a week before the start heavy storms moved in over the Baja California and the torrential rains flooded everything. Martin Christensen had to abort his prerun, and the rains made bad tracks even worse. So the conditions were tough. Here are my impressions.

Martin Christensen/ Tylor Irwin & Armin Schwarz/ Bryan Little

The start of this Baja 1000 showed again that motorsport can be uncomplicated if you want it to be. A stranded lorry blocked the race route about two miles into the course. So we waited an hour. But then Sal Fish, the president and the mayor of Ensenada just moved to the point were the lorry was and declared that this was now the official starting point. This is how motorsport is concentrated on competition and fun, and not on formalities. Thanks for this, guys!

AGM Team presentation with his new Score Trophy Truck

Having fun at contingency, Armin & Martin

We had expected to be very competitive on the twisty and narrow bits, and in fact we were faster than the competition. But on the really rough and tough stuff we were too slow, slower than the classical Trophy Trucks. The reason was easy to diagnose: our suspension was still too soft. But we should be able to sort this out in a short time. Our feeling was that we could have gone faster. We did maybe 70 percent of what seemed possible. But we just didn’t want to take any risks. 900 miles of tests under competition conditions are too important and good to have.

Heavy shower put most of the truck under water, still the Truck is clean

Jumps are all over the Dezert

There were almost no defects. Ok, we lost air from two tyres because the rims were bent. And while I was on my way during the first 400 miles I heard a noise from the gearbox that started at race mile 250. It became louder and I heard it through all gears. But after 60 miles it was gone. After Martin had taken the wheel for the second stint he heard the noise again. And again, after 70 miles it disappeared. Still, our AGM-team made up their minds to change the gearbox before the race route went up the mountains over to the Pacific side. They had to travel into the desert and change in pitch black night – for the first time. The change took almost three hours. After the change our AGM-Jimco X6 run like a clockwork. No teething troubles, no leaking pipes, no electric gremlins, nothing.

Driver change after 400 Miles, Martin Christensen takes over from Armin Schwarz

When you read this newsletter Martin and I will very likely be out in the desert with our AGM-Jimco X6 to work on the set-up with our partners from Fox and Eibach.

I can only say a big and heartfelt Thank you to all our partners. All technical components in our Trophy Truck just worked perfect right from the word go. And a special thanks to Remus Exhaust who designed and built a new exhaust for us in record time over there in Germany. Now we don’t have to shout at each other in the cockpit any more!

After 19 hour the AGM X6 at the finishline of the Baja 1000

Well, I’m sitting here in the sunshine state of California and it’s raining while I hear about the fantastic autumn weather in Bavaria, Germany. But that’s alright with me. The weather can’t be bad enough for testing. So let’s go for it!

All the best, Armin