A V8 isn't going to be worth too much in the Dessert section with leaf springs, without a lot of work. I would say the LJ's, Grand cherokees, and xj's will be the dominant choices for Stock class. Lj's are coil sprung front and rear, have a factory 44 rear, were offered with a factory 44 front, has many proven bolt on suspension systems for go fast and rockcrawling, and enough wheel base to be stable in the dessert section. Grands are similar, but were also offered with a V8 from the factory. XJ's proven dessert setups(Jeepspeed), If fender cutting is allowed it would be easy to keep one low enough to do really well in the rocks and still have travel for the go fast stuff, and if axle upgrades are allowed they were offered in South America with Dana 44 fronts.
Even with this being pitched as more of an "everyman's" race, it's still not a budget race, I would say it will still take an investment of 15K to 30K to be competitive, but with last years race, you were looking at 100k minimum to be a semi-competitive team.