RaceStar Pistol Pete got sucker punched by Class 12 Paul Sweinhagen
An altercation/scuffle in Cabo between the so-called "Hawaiian punch Kid" and Pistol Pete Sohren. Seems like there was a difference in opinion, which led to the altercation. Can a class 12 car fend off an attack by the Shampa #2 TT? Well apparently no. Resulting in a broken fan, shroud, exhaust, air intake, and various other parts of the car. All the while Mr. #2 goes on to finish 4th leaving this poor car out in the desert for dead a mere 200 miles shy of the finish line, not only jeopardizing the opportunity for a finish but for some of the VW money.
The car number was 1209 and they were kicking but all day and night long and were up with the trophy trucks and class 1. They were the first volkswagon powered vehicle and about 10th overall. They were at about rm 1070 in wash going about 85 mph when Pistol Pete came up behind them, they had no where to go, so he hit them once them the second time he hit them it was so hard that his truck came up over the rear roll cage of the car and sent them into the bushes broken. Like I said there was nowhere for them to go to get out of the way. It cost us the 1st in class and 1st overall volkswagon powered vechicle.
Pete responded to the reports, "here are the facts to my knowledge: friday morning i was walking down the street with my greasy firesuit in one hand and pulling my bag with the other to get my crap loaded to go home, two guys are walking towards me and one asks "are you pete sohren", i say "yes" and WHAM he punches me in the jaw and it knocks me to the ground and the two start attacking me, i get up and away from these guys as andy griders team runs up, (i was just talking to them 30 seconds earlier) then the guy that hit me starts screaming how i pushed him and broke his motor mounts and he was leading etc. etc., im dazed but try to explain what went on but he is livid and just takes off. i have never seen him before nor the other guy................................here is what happened on course around mile 1050-1060(?):::: i just got back in the truck at rm1040 and had gotten fuel at 1043 at baja pits, we are running around the top five but are no where near the lead, we are running about 80-85 down the long streches of sand whoops and pass a couple bikes then we come up on a 12 car and i tell the gauge guy joe to hold the siren button so we can get by, we follow very close for a couple hundred yards with no response from the 2 seat car i then decide to push the car to let them know we are here and want by, i pull up to the back and give them a push and immediatly back off to let them slow and give me room, ($400 siren still screaming the entire time) no response from car, no wave, no tap of brake lights, no reduction of speed, nothing. i then pull up behind him again and give him another push, no ram, no nerf, no punt, no nothing, (i realize the entire time this guy is going fast and doing well in his class but we need to get by, a tt can go 10-15 miles an hour faster through this stuff and if he lets us by we will be gone in 30 seconds) this time after we back off they slow and pull to the right and we go by, i never hit him, I guarantee there is no damage to the rear cage from my truck....after reading mustangs post, they apparently knew i was there after the the first push (?) why no wave? why no slow down? why no tap the brakes? why nothing?..who was driving?..sucker punching me? unbelievable.."
A witness chimes in, "I was there! not to mention i am nuetral. yes, i was in Pete's truck but not directly affiliated with him. it just so happened that i knew the last 300 miles and he never got to see it. here is what went down..We were averaging about 82 over the sand whoops after RM 1030. at about 1050ish? we came up on 1209. I told Pete that it was the leading 12 car and to take it easy. we came up on him FAST! but got slowed down in time to cruise behind him while i had the siren BLARRING! after about 15 seconds or so pete went in for a tap. We ended up pushing him a little. nothing super agressive. I SAW THE CO RIDER LOOKING IN THE MIRROR! we backed off and 1209 accelerated. so Pete got right back on their a$$s and a few seconds later gave them another push. we then backed off even further this time. By this time i had seen at least 4 to 5 spots where they could of pulled off even at speed. But 1209 decided to go again. so we went and did the same thing over again. got back on them and gave them a push. Not once did i move forward in my seat due to contact nor did i ever let off that SIREN ( not horn ). They immediately pulled off and we went by. RIght as we started going by Pete yelled "OH NO!" I asked what thinking he felt something with the truck... he said " did we FU*# him up?" I looked over and didnt notice anything major. ( well i guess there was ) For the next few miles pete was honestly a little worked up and bummed about it. saying stuff like " i hope we didnt mess them up", "dammit, i should of waited longer"... but honestly he did everything right. we werent pushing it in any way. WE were going for the finish. The TT is much heavier than the 12 car. yes both Myself, pete and all of you know that. It was a really rough and whooped out section ( san Felipe style ). It was an honest tap/push/nudge that went wrong. To the ENTIRE team on 1209, I am personally Sorry. First round of Beers is on me after the 250. As far as the hot rod that decided to sucker punch pete, you just lost friends.... and im not paying for your beer. Hopefully you read this and feel bad becuase he actually did care and we (mainly PETE) did make a feible attempt at getting your attention."
The 12 car prep guy/owner/driver? responds to Pistol Pete, "I'm back from Cabo Peter Pan, I really see alot of inconsistentcies with your story!! Let's start with that $400 siren, it might be possible you had the siren on and maybe my 100+ horsepower motor drowned it out??(hope you saved that receipt) But that's fine I heard the motor that's what alerted me that a bigger class car/truck was coming, that's when my co-pilot stuck his hand up to signal. (suprised to believe your brother/co-pilot Kip missed that one Napoleon) I also find it hard to believe you never seen brake lights because they worked fine @ tech, then they worked @ home off the trailer (Maybe you were thinking about your grandma @ the dunes breaking her coxicks) You also failed to tell everyone that as I slowed down you pushed me to the 90+mph mark Keep in mind this is on or about rm1076 were if for some dumb reason I did not respond to you like you and your brother Kip say why did you feel the need to drive through me when with in a few hundred yards it opens-up to that dry-lake bed area- yeah maybe that 4 banger vw 1835 put some fear in you were you had to make a split second decision. (don't worry Napoleon I know you had some reason maybe it was that you just got tired of a 12 car dicing with that #2 of yours for the last 2 hours or so who knows?) Now for the last and most important inconsistency for the part on the popsical/sucker/donkey/jack-***/*****-slap (my personal favorite) You failed to tell your fans that I went up to you to shake your hand in the start of our conversation. ( I know you might have been tired from that long trip (I am) and kind of left that one out!! Last but not least under no means for the part were you said that you were attacked by two peolple, if your talking verbally (ok you got me there) but you got to explain to your fans!! If your claiming two (2) people tuned you up?? You better ask the group that was present @ the time of our discussion, whether it was your group or andys group- ask around there was quite a few people present!To sum it up in a Tator Tot Bag I just wanted you to feel some of the feelings my co-pilot and I felt Fearing for your Life for a few seconds!!One difference though I never put your Life in jeopardy-- Can you say the same??Do yourself a favor and try to musturd-up the strength and be a Man and call me before this gets out of hand. I will pm you my # P.S. You should really look into cage fighting classes with your brother Kip Your friend and fellow racer, James M."
Bystanders react, "I don't know about anyone else, but I don't think any desert racing organization should start handing out fines for incidents like this. This is desert off road racing. Everyone needs to show respect for one another. Things like this can happen. Look at the environment in which we are racing in....it's treacherous. There are common courtesy rules that are in place for us. It sounds as if Pistol did in fact give the 12 car plenty of time and notice to get out of the way. Yes, it sounds like he hit them a little too hard which was an accident according to the responses by the people who were involved. Eveyone knows that this type of stuff will happen, it's just a matter of time. I'm sure everyone on here feels your pain for getting knocked out of the race. That really sucks for you guys. But the way you have handled it is just down right unprofessional. Maybe you should rethink what's involved with racing the PRO classes. Maybe you should conduct yourselves in a more PROfessional manner. If your leading a race, and your transmission fails prematurely, are you going to go punch the builder? No I highly doubt it. Think before you act....because I guarantee this will hurt your guys' reputation even though you caught the s**t end of the stick."
One report indicates the 1209 is banned from racing next year, 2008.
Yes, this is desert off-road racing, baja racing!
Gary Newsome
Baja Racing News.com