The Gambler 500 inspires some amazing vehicles– the 1955 Desoto “Chupacabra” and Lightner Racing 911 Rally Porsche come to mind. If you don’t yet know, the Gambler 500 is an off-road rally adventure challenge with weird cars, weird people, and most importantly… and epic trail cleanup. This year at the OG Oregon event based near Crescent Lake, we were down thousands of people… but collected double the trash from forests and public lands. Boats, tires, plain-ol’ garbage, and so much more… over 500 cubic yards of it.

Tevya Friedman’s 1976 Corvette Stingray rally car / Gambler build was a highlight of this year’s socially distanced and dispersed OG. The car was owned by his cousin Austin who could fix and build anything. It lived in a field for ten years, so the car was given to Tevya so that he could give it a new life. Three months later Austin passed away and the project took on a new meaning. Needing love in more ways than just the fiberglass body, the only sensible thing was to let the rough Vette take on rough roads. The future build list includes side pipes that double as rock guards, more lighting, bigger shocks, and a new way to fill the gas tank.

More Automotive Atrocities

HooptieX Chehalis

HooptieX rally racing series in Chehalis, Washington in the summer of 2020. The best kind of dirt… when it’s being flung through the air!

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Rally Porsche Fireworks Astrophography

Shooting astrophotography some 30 feet away from a camp full of drunk folks with headlamps is a challenge, but I made it work! Jason Lightner’s rally Porsche race car out in the Arizona desert during a Gambler 500 SoCal event called “Out of Bounds” in December of 2018.