Mark Allen
Occupation: Senior Manager, Design Team, Chrysler Corp.
Qualifications: Had a hand in designing multiple Chrysler vehicles you see on the road today, including the JK Wrangler. Hmm, there's a slight chance he's qualified. And if we can put up with his sarcasm for three days (and he can put up with ours), then it will be a nice weekend.
Frank Gilliland
Occupation: Owner of South Bay Truck & 4x4
Qualifications: Besides owning a drivetrain shop and dealing with 4x4s all day long, Frank grew up in a Willys-Overland dealership. If there's a weak or ill-built part on any of the Jeeps, Frank will find it, kill it, and then really start to hammer on it.
Rodney Hayes
Occupation: Manager of Parker Auto
Qualifications: Active member of Parker 4 Wheelers, huge help in organizing this little shindig, and actively working with the BLM for trail maintenance and trail creation in Parker, Arizona. We're not sure how many times we would've been lost in the desert prerunning if it weren't for Rodney.
Christian Hazel
Occupation: Technical editor, Jp magazine
Qualifications: Incredible track record of impressive work at Petersen's 4-Wheel & Off-Road from 1999 to 2002, and then from 2002 to present with Jp magazine. Besides that, he's one heck of a product tester and a benefit to any program like this. And if we get stranded in the desert, we can use his shiny head to signal planes with.
Larie Tales
Occupation: Owner of Jeeps R Us
Qualifications: Makes his livelihood building Jeeps all day. And let's just say a couple magazine Jeeps have been there a time or two. If he can put up with stepping down from a daily-driven supercharged 454ci to a 3.8L V-6 for a few days, we think he'll make a great judge.
Mark Turner
Occupation: Vice president and product manager of Daystar
Qualifications: Ex-desert racer, supplies many suspension companies with the urethane used in their kits, and has lots of history in this industry. Whether he's ripping sleeves off a company shirt or trying to wear them as a hat, he's just a great guy to have around (plus he picked up the tab on dinner last year).
Richard Venola
Occupation: Editor, Guns & Ammo magazine
Qualifications: Well...it probably started one morning on the way to work when we raced this absolutely stock looking, topless, cageless GPW up a hill with this giant man sitting in a miniature bucket seat...we didn't know that his only modification was a Buick V-6 under the hood
Dave Yegge
Occupation: Engineer and designer at American Expedition Vehicles
Qualifications: Very involved with creation of the JK platform, ex-Jeep engineer who recently moved into high-quality aftermarket components at AEV. We're thinking Mr. Yegge is just right for this program, as long as we don't get out of line and piss him off (he's bigger than we are).
Alan Huber
Occupation: Art director of Petersen's 4-Wheel & Off-Road
Qualifications: Alan's been here longer than any of us, and has seen more than all of us put together. He doesn't say too much, but if he's shaking his head, then we know we're probably doing something wrong. He knows exactly what shots to get for a program like this.
John Luker
Occupation: Professional photographer
Qualifications: John takes pictures like no tomorrow. He knows his equipment and his trade very well, which makes our jobs even harder because now we have 3,000 good pictures to go through instead of 800 good ones and 2,200 bad ones.
Ali Mansour
Occupation: Newbie at 4-Wheel & Off-Road
Qualifications: Jeez, would we love to insert some smart-ass remark here, but he's actually learning very quickly and doing a great job. If all his tattoos don't fade and run during the test, we think he'll be just fine.