MUSTANG (Aug. 22/23)- For the second time this year the Lucas Oil Off Road series pulled into the Wild West Motorsports Park. It was the second installment of the Silver State Shootout and once again the action would be under the lights on both nights.
in Reno
Bryce Menzies scored his first victory in Pro 2 at the Lucas Oil Off Road races this weekend.
Doug Fortin’s truck back fired every time he flew over a jump on the main straight at the Wild West Motorsports Park on Saturday. He was on his way to scoring his first Pro 2 victory in the series.
One of the two drivers to sweep both of their races was Eric Fitch shown here during the Pro Buggy feature on Saturday.
Myles Cheek was the early Pro Lite leader until he fell out toward the end of the race.
Despite having the body work come loose on his Mod Kart Broc Heger was able to hold off a determined Cole Mamer and win on Saturday.
A delighted Cole Mamer salutes the crowd after winning Friday’s Mod Kart feature race.
Friday’s Pro 4 winner Rob MacCachren (21) leads Kyle LeDuc (99) at the start of their race.
Brian Deegan (38) duels with Casey Currie (2) during Friday’s Pro Lite feature. In the end Deegan swept both this and Saturday’s race.
Every night the program ended when the Pro 2 trucks took to the track for some big motor racing. While Saturday’s event began with some close competition in the final laps the real race was for second place.
“My spotter kept telling me that (Brian) Deegan and Rob (MacCachren) were battling to it helped me gap out a bit,” Bryce Menzies said after winning the race. “For some reason it always seems to be us three up here on the box but we’ve been working been working on this new truck all season and it’s getting really fast as we figured it out.”
When the green waved there was a three-way charge up the hill toward Turn 1 and around to the Ski Jump. Menzies, Patrick Clark and Deegan were trying to get the best line at the top.
Coming down the ski jump hill Menzies held a slim margin but the race slowed due to a caution caused by one truck being sideways on the track. When the green flag waved again Menzies and Clark took off again.
A lap or two later there was contact and Clark brought out the second caution when he wound up in the wall at the top of Turn 1. Then, after racing resumed, Menzies had his hands full holding off a determined Deegan.
While Two possible contenders, Carl Renezeder and Jeremy McGrath fell due to mechanical problems up front both leaders kept up their duel while MacCachren was working his way through the pack.
After a slow truck on the front straight caused the final caution everyone bunched up for the restart. On the green the top four took off but now Menzies had the bit between his teeth and got his Red Bull sponsored truck flying.
Behind him MacCachren and Hart were dueling for third while further back another truck was shedding body parts leaving large pieces of fiberglass around the track.
Around lap 11 MacCachren took over third and began to challenge Deegan for the runner up spot. Their duel allowed Menzies to escape to an uncontested victory.
On the final lap MacCachren took over second pushing Deegan back to third ahead of Hart at the end.
In Friday’s Pro 2 event the tables were turned as Deegan posted his second victory of the night when he held off MacCachren for the victory and Menzies ended up third.
The other big truck class is Pro 4, which are 4-wheel drive machines with around 900 horsepower. And on Saturday there was a new winner in this class.
The invert chosen can help or hinder a driver and in this case Doug Fortin came from sixth fastest to pole. When the green waved he took off with Ricky Johnson and Kyle LeDuc in hot pursuit.
Eventually LeDuc took over second and drew a bead on the fleeing leader. Lap after lap he would challenge Fortin, who managed to hold him off.
A caution for a large metal piece of debris slowed the pace and when racing resumed Fortin and LeDuc resumed their duel. At one time LeDuc took the lead only to lose it again to the charging Fortin.
Later Johnson took over second but lost the position after tangling with another truck. In the last third of the race LeDuc’s luck ran out and he was forced to pit while Johnson was charging back through the pack.
Up front Fortin was in command while MacCachren held second. On the final lap Johnson took over second and claimed the last podium spot while Todd LeDuc, who was third, fell to fourth.
On the podium Fortin said, “There was no easy moments out there, until the last couple of laps when my spotter told me, ‘you are checked out, you’re 100 clear,’ and that felt great. But that first half of the race, it was intense. I just gave it everything I had and made sure I hit all my marks.”
In Friday’s Pro 4 main Kyle LeDuc led the charge at the beginning with MacCachren leading Johnson, who soon took over second. Then after a side-by-side charge up the big hill to Turn 4, Johnson took over the lead.
LeDuc would challenge but every time Johnson prevailed until he made a mistake, nosed in to a k-rail in turn 2 and had to back up to get free. This handed the point to LeDuc followed by MacCachren and Greg Adler.
A bobble dropped LeDuc to third and giving the lead to MacCachren while Johnson was charging through the traffic and soon drew a bead on LeDuc.
In the final laps LeDuc slowed due to a mechanical problem dropping him to fourth while Johnson took over third but could not catch runner up Fortin. And no one was close enough to deny MacCachren the victory.
The Pro Lite division had the largest fields of the weekend with 19 of these little trucks. And while the trucks might not be that big and powerful they sure made up for it with a lot of action.
When Saturday’s Pro Lite race began Myles Cheek took off with Kyle Hart on his back bumper. Chasing the lead duo were Gavin Harlien and Casey Currie.
Behind the leaders Brian Deegan was moving through traffic and soon took over fourth. Up front Currie was pressuring Cheek as they dueled for the lead.
Deegan eventually moved into third and drew a bead on the leaders. A caution bunched the field and when the green waved again Currie held the point and was part of the three-wide charge down the hill into Turn 2.
At that point it appeared it was Currie’s race as Cheek and Deegan were disputing second place. Currie’s luck ran out when he got a flat with two to go and on the white flag lap Deegan managed to take the lead as Cheek fell back out of contention.
Deegan, who swept both races, was followed by Justin Smith and Jimmy Fishback.
Once on the podium Deegan said, “I knew it was going to be a tough day, I qualified first and I drew three and all the guys up front, they’re all scrappers. So I had to be calm, be patient, we got pushed around a lot but I just had to grin and bear it and not get into that anger mode and just race the race. It all came to me and have to say thanks to the crew that gave me a truck that’s so good I can just Hail Mary into the turns while the other guys are bicycling.”
Friday’s main was action packed with many cautions that slowed the pace. Deegan led from the initial green and held the point until he crossed the finish line.
During the race there were several cautions caused either by a truck on its side or rollovers. In two of the incidents there was a small fire in the vehicles but the safety crew made quick work of those.
However the time it took to clean up each caution meant the race went over its time limit so the officials cut three laps from the originally scheduled 14.
Pro Buggy is the only open wheel class in the Lucas Oil series. While “rubbing is racing,” is a given in the other classes it’s something to be avoided when racing a buggy.
When Saturday’s main began Friday’s winner Eric Fitch took off with Sterling Cling giving chase. Soon joined Randy Minnier and Kevin McCullough joined the leaders and made it a four-way fight for the lead.
In the end Fitch won the race and completed a sweep of the weekend. Cling held on and finished second while McCullough grabbed third on the final lap dropping Minnier to fourth at the end.
For Fitch it made three victories in a row as he won the final race at Glen Helen two week prior to coming here.
“We may not have the fastest car out there but we were consistent and we keep the speed up so we came away with the win,” Fitch said during the victory ceremony. “We couldn’t be happier with sweeping the weekend, I mean that’s ultimate, that’s what we come to do and it’s awesome we can do it.”
The Modified Karts, or Mod Karts as they are called usually start the show. Drivers in this class are 10- to 15-year-olds and their racers only have 48 horsepower.
The course is altered at Wild West so the Mod Karts don’t use the ski jump and only a the Turn 3 part of the uphill. Then they take a sharp left, go down an incline and loop around the infield ending with a run down the front straight.
Both races this weekend came down to a duel between points leader Brock Heger and Cole Mamer. On Friday Mamer won their first race but both staged a race-long, nose-to-tail duel for the victory.
Both have competed with each other for years so it’s clean, hard racing between them although there are occasional “love taps,” on the back bumper of the one leading.
Saturday’s race was a stop and star affair with the first caution happening when one kart wound up into one of the many k-rails that line the course. Once that was cleaned up the field took off again with Heger on point and Mamer right behind him.
A few laps later there was another caution followed by a red flag period to undo a five-kart tangle in the infield. That was followed a lap or two later by a mandatory halfway caution.
Two more cautions would slow the race but each time the green waved Heger and Mamer led the charge.
However Heger ran into an unusual problem as the body of his kart came lose on the left side of the frame. So every time he took a left turn the kart appeared as though it was about to turn over.
In the end Heger hung on to win a narrow victory with Mamer close behind. Ronnie Anderson followed in third while Isabella Naughton almost had a podium finish but had to settle for fourth.
When he received his winner’s trophy Heger said, “We’ve been racing since day one, just battle after battle and it’s pretty cool to come back here. When I first saw the body start to fly off I just hoped it would rip off because it was getting in my way for the inside turns but it ended up staying there.”
Then Marner said, “Had a good clean battle, had to give his bumper a little love at times, had to make that first dent in it but to be able to race like that, I’ll take a second place any day.”
Next up for the series is a stop at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on September 19/20 where they again run under the lights. Then the series ends at Lake Elsinore on the weekend of October 24/25.
RESULTS
Lucas Oil Off Road Series – Rounds 11 & 12
Wild West Motorsports Park – Silver State Showdown
• Round 12, Saturday, Aug. 23
Pro 2 (16-Laps) – 1. Bryce Menzies, 2. Rob MacCachren, 3. Brian Deegan, 4. Marty Hart, 5. Robby Woods, 6. Patrick Clark, 7. Greg Adler, 8 Rodrigo Ampudia, 9. Trevor Cooper, 10. R.J. Anderson, 11. Myan Spaccarelli, 12. Jeremy McGrath, 13. Carl Renezeder
Pro 4 (16-Laps) – 1. Doug Forth, 2. Rob MacCachren, 3. Ricky Johnson, 4. Todd LeDuc, 5. Greg Adler, 6. Brandon Bailey, 7. Jerry Daugherty, 8. Corry Weller, 9. Carl Renezeder, 10. Kyle LeDuc
Pro Lite (14-Laps) – 1. Brian Deegan, 2. Justin Smith, 3. Jimmy Fishback, 4. Jeff Hoffman, 5. D.J. Noerr, 6. Brandon Arthur, 7. Aason Daugherty, 8. Eric Hunter, 9. Ryan Beat, 10. Casey Currie, 11. Gavin Harlien, 12. Kyle Lucas, 13. Sheldon Creed, 14. Kyle Hart, 15. Myles Cheek, 16. Ron Duncombe, 17. R.J. Anderson, 18. Justin Peck, 19. Ray Griffith
Pro Buggy (14-Laps) – 1. Eric Fitch, 2. Sterling Cling, 3. Kevin McCullough, 4. Randy Minnier, 5. Taylor Atchison, 6. Steve Greinke, 7. David Mason, 8. Chad George, 9. Brandon Blyth, 10. Arden Dennington, 11. Eddie Tafoya, 12. Mike Valentine, 13. Garrett George, 14. Larry Job
Mod Kart (12-Laps) – 1. Brock Heger, 2. Cole Mamer, 3. Ronnie Anderson, 4. Isabella Naughton, 5. Brooke Kawell, 6. Christopher Polvoorde, 7. Eliott Watson, 8. Trevor Briska, 9. Travis PeCoy, 10. Darren Hardesty Jr., 11. Broc Dickerson, 12. Chris Nunes, 13. Hailie Deegan, 14. Ryan Carey, 15. Taylor Wood, 16. Conner McMullen
• Round 11, Friday, Aug. 22
Pro 2 (16-Laps)- 1. Brian Deegan, 2. Rob MacCachren, 3. Bryce Menzies, 4. Marty Hart, 5. F.J. Anderson, 6. Jeremy McGrath, 7. Greg Adler, 8. Rodrigo Ampudia, 9. Robby Woods, 10. Trevor Cooper, 11, Carl Renezeder, 12. Myan Spaccarelli, 13. Patrick Clark
Pro 4 (16-Laps)- 1. Rob MacCachren, 2. Doug Fortin, 3. Ricky Johnson, 4. Kyle LeDuc, 5. Greg Adler, 6. Carl Renezeder, 7. Todd Leduc, 8. Brandon Bailey, 9. Corry Weller, 10. Jerry Daugherty
Pro Lites (14-Laps*)- 1. 1. Brian Deegan, 2. Casey Currie, 3. Sheldon Creed, 4. Justin Smith, 5. Kyle Lucas, 6. D.J. Noerr, 7. Eric Hunter, 8. Ray Griffith, 9. Jeff Hoffman,10. Ron Duncombe, 11. R.J. Anderson, 12. Brandon Arthur, 13. Gavin Harlien, 14. Myles Cheek, 15. Justin Peck, 16. Kyle Hart, 17. Aaron Daughterty, 18. Jimmy Fishback, 19. Ryan Beat
* – Due to the amount of cautions, race cut to 11-laps.
Pro Buggy (14-Laps) – 1. Eric Fitch, 2. Steve Greinke, 3. Taylor Atchison, 4. Kevin McCullough, 5. Chad Georga, 6. Larry Job, 7. Mike Valentine, 8. Sterling Cling, 9. Brandon Blyth, 10. David Mason, 11. Garrett George, 12. Randy Minnier, 13. Arden Dennington, 14. Eddie Tafoya
Mod Kart (12-Laps) – 1. Cole Mamer, 2. Brock Heger, 3. Christopher Polvoorde, 4. Isabella Naughton, 5. Eliott Watson, 6. Conner McMullen, 7. Hallie Deegan, 8. Trevor Briska, 9. Chris Numes, 10. Brooke Kawell, 12. Darren Hardesty Jr., 13. Taylor Wood, 14. Ronnie Anderson, 15. Ryan Carey, 16.Broc Dickerson
