When my two buddies Danny Folkes and Jonathan Swift approached me for a wrap for the 2016 season needless to say I was excited to take it on. Being an avid off road enthusiast I was well aware of the history of the Swift motorsports team. Jonathan's father John Swift has won multiple off-road races and titles while also being part of the famous Rough Riders team. Jonathan has now taken over most of the driving duties in their new Racer Engineering Trophy Truck for the 2016 season and is already on track to do the same. Danny, who has been my good friend for many years, had taken over as the Crew Chief in 2015 and introduced me to the Jonathan who was kind enough to trust me in the refresh.
After a few trips out in the dirt with the crew and talking to Jonathan about the direction for the new season I had a pretty good idea on the direction the SMS team was going. The goal was to take the design from their previous Geiser Truck and modernize it, making it stand out. I wanted to make it look fast sitting there. The other item requested was to work an american flag into the design. After getting into the preliminary designs of the wrap we decided to move along with a fresh, updated SMS logo design as well. The Swifts really do have the perfect surname for a racing team, so I applied the same train of thought as the wrap making the logo look as fast or “Swift” as possible.
After a couple back and forths figuring out placement of sponsor logos we came to a final design. I think all three of us were excited to see it on the truck and we finally got a chance at its debut race, the Henderson 250. I am proud to say it was probably one of the most photographed trucks at the race. Mission accomplished.
After Henderson testing and tuning began. My wife, dog and I loaded up the trailer and headed out to Barstow CA. for the weekend with the crew. I wanted to pick up as much footage as possible for a season opener film and also grab some photos for the 2016 season marketing. All in all it was a successful weekend for not only me but for the rest of the crew who got the truck dialed in for the first Best in the Desert season race, the Parker 425. The year is looking promising for this family/volunteer run team and I am happy to now call them friends. Stay tuned for more updates through out the season. its going to be a busy 2016!
