Lucas Oil Off Road: Renezeder, MacCachren and Arthur draw first blood

The first race weekend of the season always makes a statement. It may not always be the statement a racer wishes to make, but it does make a certain declaration about the season ahead.

Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series drivers pleased with the statements they made in the series opening weekend of 2016 might include Carl Renezeder in both Pro 4 and Pro 2, Brandon Arthur in Pro Lite and Rob MacCachren in Pro 4. Others less happy were Bryce Menzies and Kyle LeDuc.

Both of the latter gentlemen proved themselves plenty quick, and Menzies won on Saturday in Pro 2 (ABOVE). However, both had their share of bad luck and errors that rendered their weekend one that will not likely be celebrated. For three-time Pro 4 champion LeDuc, whose record streak of 12 wins last season in Pro 4 started in Round 2, a pair of DNFs was not what he was looking for. Menzies, looking to win his first title in LOORRS, had a mechanical problem in Pro 4 on Saturday, and broke his suspension twice on Sunday – once by spinning in front of LeDuc, leading to LeDuc's second DNF of the weekend, and once by hitting the front-straight wall in the Pro 2.

On the other side of the coin, Arthur swept Pro Lite (LEFT). Renezeder, in his first weekend back on BFGoodrich Tires after a long association with General, won in both Pro 4 and Pro 2 on Sunday. MacCachren not only won Pro 4 on Saturday, but finished on the podium in all four races.

This all took part at a slightly altered Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, Ariz. Gone was the split lane from Turn 4 to Turn 5, where racers had to choose whether to take the rougher inside lane or the faster outside lane. It was replaced with a wide section of three rollers, intended to create a good zone for passing and side-by-side racing.

"I keep lobbying for getting better track changes so we can have some better racing, try to get some side by side stuff, some over-under, some outside-in" said MacCachren. "The tracks and the way they've been grooming them and preparing them has been taking away a lot of that. It's a lot of one-lane stuff, very hard to pass and then you get contact.I heard they were going to make changes here, I heard they were going to put moguls in there, and I thought maybe, OK, if it's wide. But the rollers they put in there made it very one-line, so you don't see a lot of passing. Although it is pretty technical, so it made people get out of shape through there."

Indeed people would get it wrong there and lose some time, but once they started swinging the back end side to side when they did misjudge it, that still made passing through that section difficult. The nearly 180-degree left-hand Turn 2 and the following right-hand Turn 3 remained the most popular passing spots on the track, although passing in those spots tends to invite contact.

Much of the passing, though, came through attrition, especially in Saturday's Pro 4 race. Kyle LeDuc jumped into the lead, as his usual manner if he starts on the front row, which he did thanks to qualifying second to Menzies the inversion being the top two. But a couple laps in, his No. 99 Monster Energy/Toyo Tires machine started smoking, then slowed. That handed the lead to Menzies, but Menzies' new Huseman brothers-built truck also had an issue, and he was out. That left Renezeder in front.

A yellow for a spectacular over-the-barrier roll by Greg Adler brought the field together, and on the restart, MacCachren charged inside Renezeder in Turn 2, but the two made contact and MacCachren spun and stalled. He got going again, back in fourth place – the last running truck. On the penultimate lap, he moved to third around Doug Mittag, then passed Eric Barron for second while rolling on two wheels out of Turn 5. Going inside Renezeder in Turn 3 on the final lap, he got a better run out of the corner in his Rockstar Energy/Makita Ford (RIGHT) to go from stalled on track to winning the first race of the season, all in two short laps.

Fortune dealt similar hands to the key players in Pro 4 on Sunday. On the opening lap, Menzies spun in Turn 2, and LeDuc had nowhere to go but into him. That left both trucks with broken suspensions. LeDuc's truck was too damaged to continue, but Menzies continued to limp around the track to get as many points as possible. With two of the title contenders out of the picture for the second day in a row, Renezeder and MacCachren set out to capitalize, and Renezeder led his Lucas Oil Ford home ahead of MacCachren, so the pair left Arizona in a virtual dead heat in the points.

Brandon Arthur, however, was the clear leader in Pro Lite after the weekend, winning both races in his No. 6 Competitive Metals Chevrolet. He had to work for it both days, starting fourth in each race. Jerett Brooks was the main threat to Arthur's dominance on Saturday, and the pair swapped the lead several times before Arthur claimed it for good. On Sunday, he had to get by Gavin Harlien to assume the point, and did so when Harlien lost a tire. From there, Arthur pulled away during green flag running and was never really threatened once he got up front.

Brian Deegan struggled a bit last year while running both Pro 4 and Pro 2. He's scaled back to a single truck, and looked to be on form as he jumped out to the lead in Pro 2 in Round 1. Menzies started fourth in his Red Bull/Pennzoil Ford behind Renezeder and MacCachren, but was up in second in no time and stalking Deegan. A couple of laps later, Menzies attacked and assumed the lead that he would hold until the checker, followed by MacCachren and Deegan.

"I knew it was going to be a battle with these guys and I wanted to get up front quick," he said after the race. "Somehow I split them early in the first turn and came out second ... I was like, 'Wow, that worked out pretty good!' Deegan and I had a good battle all the way to the end and then Rob came up. The track went away toward the end, but with those BFGoodrich Tires I still had traction with all the ruts."

Deegan once again jumped to the front on Sunday from third place. He wouldn't have Menzies to worry about, because Menzies hit the wall on the front straight, breaking his suspension. That left Renezeder and MacCachren to take the fight to Deegan. They waited until the end, when Deegan's NOS Energy truck seemed to have a hiccup, and both Renezeder and MacCachren passed him to finish in that order. It was Renezeder's second victory of the day.

The winners in both Pro Buggy race established their positions quickly from the front row. On Saturday it was Elliot Watson (LEFT) claiming his first victory in his Fox Racing Shox/BFGoodrich Alumi Craft from pole. He also started on pole on Sunday, but Kevin McCullough jumped to the front and led the entire race in his Stapleton Roofing machine.

The 2016 season of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series has its next rounds at Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park in Lake Elsinore, Calif., on April 23-24. If you can't make it to see it in person, LucasOilRacing.tv will stream all the action live.

Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Rounds 1 and 2 Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park, March 19-20

Round 1 Results:

Pro 4, Rob MacCachren Pro 2, Bryce Menzies Pro Lite, Brandon Arthur Pro Buggy, Elliot Watson Modified Kart, Hailie Deegan

Round 2 Results:

Pro 4, Carl Renezeder Pro 2, Carl Renezeder Pro Lite, Brandon Arthur Pro Buggy, Kevin McCullough Modified Kart, Conner McMullen