Dates: August 19th - August 24th, 2004
Location: Phoenix, AZ

  We had just got back from Lorretta Lynn’s on Monday and by Thursday evening we were on a flight to Phoenix, AZ. We had arranged a film shoot with Skyler Stewart and August Goebel for four days in the Phoenix area. After a fairly uneventful flight we arrived in Phoenix around 10:30 p.m. on Thursday; after getting our bags and our rental car we headed to Scottsdale to visit my sister, she moved to Scottsdale two years ago and I still hadn’t gone to see her so I figured I should probably put in some quality family time on the companies dime.

 

 Friday morning we went to Skylers place in Gilbert, AZ (15 miles from Phoenix), we arrived to find him working on his quad in his 2500 square foot shop, surrounding him was three full race quads (one in pieces), two late 1930’s cars, two sand rails, two jet-skis, (one stand-up), two Harley’s, a boat, four TRX300 4X4’s, a CRF50, a CR250, and, of course, a stretched golf cart, outside sat his 80 foot long freightliner race rig. After some catching up and making of plans for the week we headed outside to take some shots of his very impressive rig. This thing is sick! It consists of a Freightliner chassis with a 40 foot conversion, with every amenity available. The trailer is a 32 foot Haulmark stacker, it is 13’6”, has two floors and every amenity a racer could ever want. On the outside, a custom paint job, all black with a red and grey tribal design, the paint alone is rumored to cost $40,000. After a quick tour of the rig we went out to his private track in Chandler, AZ to meet up with August Goebel and Jack from Lonestar Racing. Bla, Skylers buddy, came along with us (think “Bubba” from the Crusty videos) He was an absolute riot. Between Skyler, Jack, August, and Bla we got some great footage. After filming at Skylers private track we went to an old BMX track to ride 50’s. Apparently this is the hang out place for everyone who has a 50 or knows someone with one, there was at least thirty people there just hanging out and riding 50’s, a couple of them really good. After that we went a local club to get some drinks and make plans for the next day, we figured the night would be over after that but Skyler had other plans. Everyone from the club then came over to Skylers for a massive pool party, twenty people, all pretty drunk, running around, swimming, jumping off the roof into the pool, and doing other crazy things. It was like nothing I had ever seen, little did I know I was in for more the next day.

 

 Saturday we woke up and decided to have a pool party/barbeque, why not, right? After all I didn’t travel 2000 miles to work, although I have to admit it was kind of my idea. Skyler called some ladies up and had them come over, a couple guys found out about it, so we let them in too. The day started out innocently enough, people swimming, grilling, some more jumping off the roof and even some water volleyball. Then, as Skyler was looking for a water gun he stumbled across some fireworks. Of course he immediately started shooting them at people in and around the pool, this went on for at least 3-4 hours, in the end he (and others) had hit four people, three of those above the neck along with numerous other close calls. The whole day reminded me of the movie Billy Madison, Skyler definitely has a good life. Day quickly turned into night and around 9:00 we decided to head into Scottsdale to go to the clubs; my sister said she would get us some VIP treatment at a local club called “6”. It was a pretty good club, although a little pricy for my tastes, oddly enough I ran into two people who knew friends of mine, small world. After the clubs closed we went to Mickeys hangover, a club that serves only food, we stayed there for about 90 minutes until I got sick of watching my sister hit on guys, she is crazy. Then we drove back to Skylers (we had a designated driver) drank a little more with other people and then finally crashed around 6:00.

 

 Sunday we slept.

 Because we got nothing done on Sunday and very little done on Saturday we decided to hit it hard on Monday and get everything done. We first went to Canyon Raceway but there wasn’t much there so after 30 minutes we went back to Skylers private track in Chandler, we set up a boom truck, invited August Goebel back out and finished filming, everything was going smoothly until near the end when August snapped his axle (a Dominator 2!) After that there wasn’t much we could do so we packed up and headed to the indoor go cart track, F1. After some racin’ and rubbin’ we went to Chili’s for dinner with Skyler and some of his friends, then headed to bed so we could get up and catch our flight in the morning.

  

 

 And that’s where we are now, after a cancelled flight we are stuck at Midway in Chicago trying to get home. It has been a very eventful and fun trip but it will be good to get home and get some work done, before we have to film on Sunday in southern Iowa.

 

Brad Phillips