Cavitt Navigates Off-Road Path to Racing Career

In the beginning, there was a lot of “Junior, get me this,” and “Junior, get me that.”

That’s because Brian Cavitt was so young when he was sweeping and mopping floors for free.

But 14 months later, Cavitt has assumed a remarkable mantel of responsibility within Lake Forest’s Land Off-Road Racing team. Now that he’s 18.

Less than a year removed from El Toro High, Cavitt is team mechanic and co-rider for last season’s Class 7 (Open mini trucks) second-place finisher in the SCORE International series.

In off-road races that range from 250 to 1,000 miles over terrain that allows for speeds from 5 to 120 mph, Cavitt has the hard job.

Team owner Bob Land, 41, or engineer/co-driver Mike Jenkins, 25, drive the Tecate/Quaker State Ford Ranger on instinct, but Cavitt’s responsibilities are more cerebral.

“His concentration level is extremely keen--it has to be because of all the things he’s doing at once,” Land said. “He has to do the radio work, check the course mileage markers while watching the performance gauges at the same time--and navigate the course as well.

“[The co-rider] has to be on the leading edge of it all the time. If you can imagine . . . the natural terrain we’re traveling, constantly watching what the truck is doing, what the spectators are doing, what the gauges are doing, and monitoring traffic to the rear of the vehicle.”

Land Motorsports had a rough ride two weekends ago at the Parker 400 in Arizona. With Jenkins at the wheel two-thirds into the race, the truck began making noises in a sand wash. Cavitt directed Jenkins to an access road so the chase vehicle could reach them and stopped. Blown engine. They were in second place.

Cavitt has come a long way since the day he walked into the shop because he wanted to check out the team’s semitruck. Pretty soon, he was hanging around, providing general gofer services.

“He was auto shop student of the year [at El Toro], a very mature individual for his age,” Land said. “The dynamics he brought to the sport was more than apropos.”

Cavitt’s specialty is the suspension--critical in off-road racing--but he has to be a jack-of-all-trades on race day.

In Cavitt’s first race, the Fireworks 250 in Barstow last July, Land was supposed to start No. 1, 30 seconds ahead of the second car. But the rear amber ignition light--a safety feature so the vehicle can be seen through a cloud of dust--had shorted out and they weren’t allowed to proceed. Cavitt jumped from the truck and grounded the light while a succession of trucks started in 30-second intervals ahead of them. They finally got off the line seventh, but were in second place within 10 miles. That was Cavitt’s initiation.

“The first word I ever spoke was ‘Car,’ ” Cavitt said. “Since then, I knew I wanted to be around cars--if not racing, something to do with it.”

Cavitt spends a lot of time in cars. Not only does he drive the course beforehand to note danger spots and opportunities to pick up speed, but he drives every week to Orange County from Phoenix, where he attends United Technical Institute, a 12-month automotive technical school. He attends classes from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., then drives to the Lake Forest shop Friday afternoon to work on the truck through the weekend. He drives back to Phoenix on Sundays.

“Monday’s really hard to get up,” said Cavitt, who would one day like to work on an Indy or NASCAR team.

For now, it’s easy for him to bide his time.

“Even on the other race teams, most everyone is in their 20s,” Cavitt said. “Everyone’s wondering how the little youngster got a job like that.”

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There were 91 finishers out of 144 starters in the Parker 400.

Jason Hatz, 19, a 1996 graduate of Laguna Beach High, finished ahead of San Clemente’s Craig Forrest by 4 minutes 55 seconds in Class 1-2/1600. It was Hatz’s second victory in a row--he skipped last year’s season-ending Baja 1,000.

“We don’t race the whole season because my dad [Gene] doesn’t have the money to support me, we just do it as a family fun thing,” Hatz said. “We only run three or four races per year. To win in my first race this season felt great because I was in a brand new car I drove for only 15 minutes before the race.

“It meant a lot to win; it proves to me that I can race with the best in my class. I’m usually intimidated, but I’ve proven to myself that I can compete against the best in my class. Maybe now I can give them some intimidation.”

Hesperia’s Regie Dunlap built the new Dunrite chassis as a Christmas present for Hatz, whose uncle, Don Hatz, built the engine.

Irvine-based Team MacPherson, with former off-road motorcycle champion Larry Roeseler of Hesperia driving, won Class 7 in a Chevrolet S-10. Jerry McDonald of San Clemente, director of racing operations, was the co-driver. They’re trying to win MacPherson’s fifth consecutive Class 7 championship.

Among those who finished second were Orange’s Darren Skilton (Class 3), Capistrano Beach’s Rich Richardson (Class 9), and Orange’s Leo Brown (Stock Mini).

Motor sports notes

Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers in Santa Ana has hired two race engineers and a design consultant, including San Clemente’s Gerald Tyler. Tyler will be race engineer on P.J. Jones’ car. He has eight years of racing experience, most recently as a race engineer in the Indy Racing League. . . . Jeff Ward of San Juan Capistrano, a replacement driver for injured Davy Jones, finished 16th in the Indy 200 on Jan. 25. Jones suffered a head injury when he crashed during practice at the Walt Disney World Speedway. Ward, a seven-time national motocross champion, finished 63 laps before a gearbox failed. It was his first Indycar race.

Precision Preparation Inc., based in Rancho Santa Margarita, announced last week that Jeret Schroeder and Leo Parente will be drivers of MCI Racing’s two-car Kool/Toyota Atlantic Championship series team. Nick Harvey, former instructor at the Skip Barber Driving School and team manager for the PDT Enterprises Atlantic team, returns to Orange County and will head the MCI Racing team. . . . PPI’s Cal Wells got his first look at Arciero Wells’ new engine on a high-speed oval Saturday during spring training at Hempstead, Fla. First impression? “Tremendous potential.”

Laguna Hills’ Bobby Taylor, two-time defending NHRA Northwest Division champion, won the Federal-Mogul Dragster competition Sunday at the Chief Auto Parts Winternationals in Pomona. Taylor ran uncontested in the finals. It was his third consecutive victory at the Winternationals. He ran 248.55 mph (5.64 seconds) on his final pass; his fastest run came in the semifinals (250.34) and his quickest run in the quarterfinals (5.620 seconds).