Lucas Oil Off Road: Kicking off 2015

New face in new places will shuffle championship hopes as the 2015 season of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series kicks off at Lake Elsinore on Friday

The 2015 edition of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Presented by GEICO kicks off in a few days at Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park on Friday and Saturday nights.

Several classes will see new faces in new places. That's especially true for Pro 4, where Bryce Menzies (LEFT) takes over the truck piloted last year by Ricky Johnson, Brian Deegan adds a program and Eric Barron returns full time with Tonka on board.

Pro 2 will see the addition of 2014 Pro Buggy runner-up Eric Fitch and Pro Lite runner-up Sheldon Creed. Pro 2 stalwart Myan Spacarelli returns, this time with Toyota power.

Pro Lite will not see a huge reduction in its field despite all the drivers moving to the bigger trucks. Trophy Kart drivers Cole Mamer and Brock Heger are moving into trucks.

Lots of movement makes championship predictions difficult, but there are some interesting happenings. First, Pro 4 champ Kyle LeDuc is coming with an all-new truck. But he'll have Barron to contend with, who should be back stronger than ever. Those two alone would make for an interesting season even without returning veterans Carl Renezeder and Rob MacCachren. Doug Fortin came on strong in his rookie year in 2014, and will certainly be a threat for wins and perhaps the championship, and Greg Adler was knocking on the victory door several times last season. The addition of Deegan in the class only makes things more interesting.

Pro 2 has 16 trucks entered for the opening rounds, and the class is deep with experience. That will make it tough for even a very fast shoes and quick learners like Creed and Fitch to make any headway. Past champions in the class include Deegan, MacCachren and Renezeder; add champions from other classes to the list and you have RJ Anderson, plus race winers such as Menzies, Rodrigo Ampudia, Jeremy McGrath and Todd LeDuc. It's a stacked field and wide open for the championship.

With Deegan leaving Pro Lite, there is only one former champ in the class, and that's Anderson. But Creed came awfully close last year. And if Jerrett Brooks can continue the form he had when he returned to the series late last season, when he scored four consecutive victories including the Challenge Cup win, he will certainly be a threat for the title With some strong newcomers and returning veterans such as Brandon Arthur, Ryan Beat, Casey Currie, Jimmy Fishback and Justin "Bean" Smith, this class will be one to watch. Sadly, Bradley Morris will not be making his expected return, as his recovery from injuries he suffered in a mountain biking accident last year continues.

The bad news for Pro Buggy competitors that aren't names George is that last year's champ, Chad, and his cousin Garrett are returning. That will make things tough for Kevin McCullough, Dave Mason Jr. and Sterling Cling.

The season opener at Lake Elsinore is the first of three 2015 race weekends – each weekend is a double-header – at the Southern California venue. Along with Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, four of a record nine weekends will be in Southern California. While the emphasis on SoCal events is welcome news to many competitors, it is the race in Ensenada, Mexico that has generated the most buzz.
Home to legendary desert off road racing events such as the SCORE Baja 1000 and Baja 500 and also home to Pro 2 competitor Rodrigo Ampudia, Ensenada has long embraced the sport. Now it will get a different taste of off road racing when short course comes to town.

"Everyone at Lucas Oil Products and all of us with the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series are extremely excited about our new Baja International Short Course event," series director Ritchie Lewis said. "There are a lot of desert off road fans in this area and I'm pretty sure that after our great drivers and crews show them what we do and how well we do it they'll be short course fans, too.

"The Ampudia family has talked to me about this since we met and the talks got serious last spring. A lot of people have helped move things along since then and thanks to them we've been able to get all the agreement in place to make this a reality."

The race will be held at a new track built at the Estero Beach Resort in Ensenada, the Baja California town 70 miles south of San Diego that serves as the starting – and often ending – point of the Baja 1000, on Aug. 1-2. The races will be daytime races at what Ampudia promises will be a spectacular beachside setting.

That marks another shift from the 2014 schedule – most of the events, five weekends in all, will be held in the daytime, whereas the majority of events in 2014 were Friday and Saturday night affairs. The single event (down from two in 2014) at Wild West Motorsports Park in Reno/Sparks, Nev., will be a daytime event. The second Wild West event shifts to Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park , where two of three events will be in the daytime, including the weekend that encompasses the final points race and the Lucas Oil Challenge Cup. The race at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, Ariz., moves from a daytime race to nighttime.

Races will be carried on CBS, CBS Sports Network and MAVTV. See www.lucasoiloffroad.com for the full schedule.

2015 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Schedule
March 20-21 (nights) – Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park, Lake Elsinore, California
April 24-25 (nights) – Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, Chandler, Arizona
May 30-31 (days) – Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park
June 20-21 (days) – Miller Motorsports Park, Tooele, Utah
July 18-19 (nights) – Glen Helen Raceway, Devore, California
August 1-2 (days) – Baja International Short Course, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico
August 22-23 (days) – Wild West Motorsports Park, Sparks, Nevada
September 18-19 (nights) – Las Vegas Motor Speedway, North Las Vegas, Nevada
October 24-25 (days) – Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park