Blackstar Motorsports has always been about doing things differently.  Our mindsets behind the wheel, our style of building vehicles and our laidback off course attitudes are what set us apart from the other teams.  However, our Pro Mod race car was just like all the others.  V8 engine, Twisted Customs chassis, Spidertrax axles; all can be found roaming on the rocks.  Even the body of our car was like everyone else, a Jeep Wrangler.  Well at the beginning of 2008 we decided to change that.  With the help of Flatiron Fabrication and Hazardous Concepts we transformed an everyday, run of the mill Jeep into a rock crawling Dodge Dakota.  Why Dodge?  Well, why not?  But seriously, we did it to be different.  To our knowledge, no one else has ever put Dodge panels on a rock crawler, so we did it to say, “we were the first!”. 

It isn’t easy making a big truck body fit a compact buggy.  Every part, from the fenders to the grille, had to be cut down, re-welded and then molded with fiberglass.  The result was a little, orange Dodge Dakota that we nicknamed, Dodger, as in Cone Dodger.  We weren’t sure what everyone would think of the new body, but then again we didn’t really care.  Fans seemed to love the new body and even the announcer for WeRock started to call the buggy by its nickname. 

Dodger might have only lasted for one season but he proved one thing to many teams and fans out there.  That would be that buggies don’t have to look like buggies.  They can be made to look like just about any vehicle out there!  All it takes is a little imagination, ingenuity and hardwork.  Wouldn’t it be neat if you could do that with your everyday car!!