Lucas Oil Off Road Racing: Through the Vegas mud

The two rounds of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series in Las Vegas, as the penultimate event in the series, are often where at least a couple of champions are crowned. Although two championships – Brian Deegan in Pro 2 and Chad George in Pro Buggy – are all but sealed because both drivers need only a start to clinch – the other title battles were left as muddy as the track that the racers would have competed on on Saturday night.

However, they didn’t. Thunderstorms that moved through the area not only left the racing surface a muddy mess, but also the accompanying lightning put the fans in the grandstands, officials and television crews at risk. With more promised for the next day, Round 14 has been postponed to Lake Elsinore in October, so fans only got one night of racing on Friday night, plus some Trophy Kart racing on Saturday night –Jr. 1 and Jr. 2 karts ran in the dry, but the Modifieds took to a messy track after the first rainstorm. But those that came for Round 13 were treated to some excellent racing.

Pro 4 was full of action, but it was mostly the type of action that took out the frontrunners. First Ricky Johnson was out front, pursued by Rob MacCachren, Carl Renezeder and Kyle LeDuc. Then Renezeder spun, collecting LeDuc in the process. Renezeder was done, but LeDuc put his head down and started back toward the front. Then Johnson biked and hit the wall. MacCachren clipped him and cut a tire, forcing him to the pits. Doug Fortin was now up front, but he would soon have LeDuc to deal with, had LeDuc not been having problems. First he got held up behind Greg Adler spinning, and then he spun on his own, collecting his brother Todd in the process.

MacCachren, with a fresh tire, was charging up through the field, passing first Jerry Daugherty, then Corry Weller and Curt LeDuc. He muscled his way by Adler with a lap-and-a-half to go and set off in pursuit of Fortin. He finally saw his opportunity in the final corner and pushed his truck inside Fortin, but made some contact in the process. Officials decided the contact was more than incidental, and penalized MacCachren, leaving Fortin the winner in his No. 96 General Tire/Toyota of Escondido Toyota, his second victory of the season. Kyle LeDuc finished three positions and six points ahead of MaCachren, extending his points lead by six to 40 with two rounds left.

The Pro Lite contenders had about as topsy-turvy, up-and-down race as possible. Brian Deegan, entering Round 13 with a one-point deficit to Sheldon Creed (ABOVE), jumped out to the lead from fifth on the grid. Meanwhile, Creed’s window net wasn’t cooperating, and he had to make a call to the pits to put it back up, dropping him all the way to the back of the field. He naturally charged through the back of the back, but the farther forward he got, the more his advance slowed.

Meanwhile, on a restart, Casey Currie, pursuing Deegan, got into Deegan coming over the little tabletop out of Turn 4, sending him sideways, blocking the track and causing another truck to roll. Thanks to the “last completed lap”rule, the order was reset to where it was and Deegan reassumed his spot in the front. That wasn’t good news for Creed, but he benefitted from the same rule a short time later when, as an early green came out for a restart, he went wide off the last turn in a melee of trucks, went up on the berm and put the truck on its lid as gently as could possibly be done.

Again the field was set back to its order before the yellow. But while that was being done, Deegan’s truck was steaming. It seems his fans were knocked off in the earlier incident, and the engine temperature was climbing. On the final lap, as Creed was charging closer to the front, Deegan bicycled, allowing Jerett Brooks through, and then Deegan’s engine gave up and he started sliding backward. Brooks had an amazing run in his No. 77 Cooper Tires/Maxima Racing Oils Nissan in his return to the series after a long absence. After a mechanical infraction disallowed his qualifying time, he had to race his way into the final through the Last Chance Qualifier, then make his way through the field. Creed was second, while Deegan ended up ninth, and amazing turn of events in favor of Creed given how things looked mid-race.

“I was sitting 20th on lap 2,” said Creed. “I thought we were done. I just put my head down and went to work. Then I found Jerett and we were like 16th and 17th and we went to the front together. It was fun.”

Chad George has dominated Pro Buggy all season, and demonstrated that dominance in Las Vegas, simply running away with the victory in his No. 42 Mickey Thompson/ASL Builders Funco. Heading into the race with a 65-point lead over defending champ Steven Greinke, he extended that lead by another 20 points because Greinke parked his buggy early in the race.

Brian Deegan might have been upset that his closest title rival, Bryce Menzies (LEFT)), dominated the Pro 2 proceedings in his No. Red Bull/GoPro Ford at Las Vegas, but as Deegan finished third, it didn’t have any big implications for the championship given Deegan’s huge lead – even with third-place points contender MacCachren finishing second. Like George in Pro Buggy, he basically needs one start in the next two races to clinch the championship.

“It’s the best I’ve been sitting going into a Pro 2 championship,” said Deegan. “To come out and have such a good points gap coming into Vegas…Vegas is always the most stressful race every year, because this usually decides the championship here. Coming in here with the Pro 2 with such a good lead–and that was the plan all along because we were starting with a good truck; the year before we tried a bunch of new stuff and it just didn’t work. The last race last year, I think we won, I said, ‘All right, let’s do the same truck next year.’ So we came out swinging. And bam, the other guys were still figuring stuff out, and we built a big points gap.”

So Deegan and George will have to wait until Lake Elsinore to claim their titles, just as whoever ultimately turns out to be Pro 4 and Pro Lite champions. The exact schedule is yet to be determined, but the Lake Elsinore event on the third weekend in October will include two points-paying rounds in addition to the big-purse, Pro 4 vs,. Pro 2 Lucas Oil Challenge Cup.

Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series
Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Nev.

Round 13 Winners
Pro 4: Doug Fortin
Pro 2: Bryce Menzies
Pro Lite: Jerett Brooks
Pro Buggy: Chad George
Modified Kart: Cole Mamer

Round 14 Winners
Modified Kart: Christopher Polvoorde
Junior 1 Kart: Mason Prater
Junior 2 Kart: Ricky Gutierrez