At eleven years old, Olliges was invited to attend the legendary Mint 400 race by the late Gordon Grimus, author of The Off-Road Racer.
After graduating high school in 1981, Olliges went on to attend UNLV, where he majored in Sports and Fitness Management and minored in Education.
Moving to the San Diego area after college, Olliges temporarily put his love of desert racing on hold while he gained valuable experience working at El Cajon Ford in Southern California.
In 2000, Olliges partnered up with Rob MacCachren again to win the Best in the Desert Series championship in a class 7S Ford Ranger Edge.
What began as a one-year agreement to race Ford's newly launched Ranger evolved into a five-year partnership culminating in three championship titles.
[3] For 2011, Olliges joined forces with fellow Ford Rough Rider John Swift to compete in Best In The Desert's premiere Trick Truck class for the entire BITD season and select SNORE events.