DRIVER BUILDER

                     JEFF RIGEL

        Jeff Rigel was born on 01-01-63. Walking at 8 months he was in a hurry to go.  Growing up in the desert area of Morongo Valley, Jeff was blessed with wide open areas to explore, first on bycicles and skateboards and then minibikes and motorcycles.  Growing up in an outlying area allowed riding almost every day, if nothing other than for transportation.

            As Jeff got older, he helped his friends work on their street cars making them faster. His father owned a 76 station-garage, so the knowledge came easy.  He started playing with Baja bugs with friends, giving him a wide array of driving experience, and those that road with him either thought he was good or crazy. 

             Jeff played sports in high school; basketball, football, track and held his high school record in the high jump at six foot four inches.  After school, he would try many different jobs that gave him a wide spectrum of knowledge; cabinet shop, framing, heavy equipment, electrical, concrete, pool construction, and then became self-employed building award winning custom pools until the bottom fell out of construction in 1990.

              Jeff's brain led him into trying and inventing new things some of which are seen in the industry today. During the 80s Jeff got involved in sand drags on the side for about 8.5 years, building, prepping and tuning race day for the low desert exchange aka, Rick Morris of A&M  construction, who now holds the world record in two seater sand car.

             Jeff started in the early 90s building a pro bike for the drag racing team of John Poor racing.  Shortly after that, he got heavily in four wheel drive rock crawlers (one of the first to invent long travel 4x4 suspension), opening one of Coachella valley's largest 4x4 shops, Serious Crawlers 4x4 in Indio.

             Then Jeff got a opertunity to migrate toward metal sculpture and started a company  called Metal Dementia and built all the metal work and sculptured a bus stop that recieved an international award at the Buschlen Mowatt art gallery in Palm Desert, CA. He also did custom work for Louise M. Neyer interiors and home collections, and Tim Bartlett of BC properties.

              The world of automotive competition kept calling and in 2002 Jeff got involved with Escandalo racing and started at first part time prepping thier class 8 truck and then full time race prep for three cars and racing with Benny and the class 8 truck. Jeff decided there were some ways he could do this type of racing better and started Tunnel Vision Motorports, building a class 7S truck and racing MDR.

           In between all of this, Jeff was able to aquire a few hobbies, some that laid over from his childhood upbringing. He enjoys hunting, fishing, boating, skiing, sailing, scuba diving, and racing.

          Jeff has been fortunate enough to do most anything he wants to and believes you can measure a person's success by their happiness. He married Cathie Conklin in 95 and loves his wife very much. They have just recently had their first child and are enjoying  there new found love.

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