RuggedRadios
Active Member
- Location
- Arroyo Grande, CA
Jason Coleman recently added another podium finish to his already prolific racing career at the 2014 Best in the Desert’s Vegas to Reno - "The Longest Off-Road Race in the United States".
Coleman is widely known among the off-road racing community for his excellent driving skills, but he has much more to offer than just his passion and talent for extreme desert racing. After attending Orange Coast College and California State University of Long Beach, he went on to become the Project Manager and V.P. of Golden Construction Development Co. where he’s been involved for more than a decade. During that time, he also became a loving husband and father. With so much already on his plate, it’s hard to imagine how he’d have the time to be a competitive driver at the helm of Coleman Motorsports. Being a championship winner requires a special kind of person with a particular drive and ambition to pull it off, and we think Jason has that in spades. Of course, you don’t have to take our word for it. Here it is from Jason himself:
“I have always considered myself an athlete but I never excelled at one sport in particular. However, when I got into desert racing I knew I wanted to be considered among the best. I have taken that passion and surrounded myself with some of the best mechanics and pit crew in the industry, so that together, we can win races. We love racing and we have fun doing it. We race to win, not to participate.”
(Jason Coleman and Co Driver Mike Hill just after crossing the finish line)
We asked Jason to give us a quick summary of his racing history. Here’s what he had to say:
"I grew up around racing. When I was a baby my Dad pit for Ivan Stewart, so at 2-3 years old I started going to races with my Dad watching Ivan race. From my earliest memories I remember wanting to race Trophy Trucks when I got older. We stopped going to the races for many years and then in 2000 I began working at Terrible Herbst. The passion for off road racing was reignited! I worked at Herbst through high school and then after high school I met my future brother in law, CJ Hutchins, and started racing with him as his navigator in 2004. In 2008 our first race car was finished. It was a 1/2 1600. We raced 5 seasons in SNORE with this car and in that time we won 2 championships including 5 race wins, the 2012 Baja 500 and numerous podiums. We took 2013 season off to find out what the next step would be. In late 2013 we decided to build a Jimco Class 10 car to debut in the middle of the 2014 season.”
Everything went according to plan, and Coleman Motorsports had the new Class 10 buggy ready in time for Best in the Desert’s Vegas to Reno.
“We had about 100 test miles on the car before Vegas to Reno.Testing went well but we didn’t know how good this car would be compared to our competitors until we went and raced it. We got to that point in testing where we felt we had a good enough car to go race, so we loaded it on the trailer and headed to Vegas. I started at a conservative pace for the first 40 to 50 miles because we did not know what to expect. I got to a bottleneck somewhere between pit 3 and 4 and the Freeman car got past me. I never saw Freeman again but after I got back up to speed the rest of the field slowly went away.”
Jason managed to secure a 2nd place finish out of 29 cars competing in Class 10 - a truly remarkable achievement for a relatively untested car. “We designed this car to run up front, we just didn’t know it would perform this well so quickly. I have to commend Jimco Racing for delivering this car turnkey and absolutely flawless. There was not a speck of oil or a loose bolt on the whole car after 533 miles.”
Rugged Radios is proud to be sponsoring Jason Coleman with his new Class 10 buggy. We know that clear communication is critical for any competitive race team, and we make sure that Coleman Motorsports is equipped with the best performing equipment available. We are proud to have helped contribute to Jason’s success in this year’s Vegas to Reno race, and we look forward to seeing what he does next year. Jason’s outstanding positive attitude and tireless work ethic has been very beneficial for us at Rugged. Naturally, we are thrilled to have Jason representing our brand at the races and feel privileged to be partners with Coleman Motorsports.
Rugged equipment used by Jason: Vertex 6000 110 Watt remote head radio and RRP510 race intercom system.
Follow Coleman Motorsports: Facebook, Twitter
