TORC’s Douglas (PRO 4), MacCachren (PRO 2) & Caddell (PRO Light) win big @ Chicago
Posted on Thursday, July 19, 2012
Flat out thrilling main events in the premier truck classes will have those in attendance returning tomorrow for Friday’s show!
By Pat Schutte
• Travis Pastrana’s 2nd in his first TORC PRO 2WD career race!
JOLIET, Ill., (July 19, 2012) – Spectacular performances in each of the Traxxas TORC Series’, presented by AMSOIL, premier truck classes by three of the world’s top short course off-road racers made for one of the better shows this year on the TORC Series tour. Scott Douglas (PRO 4x4), Rob MacCachren (PRO 2WD) and Andrew Caddell (PRO Light) took top honors at Chicagoland Speedway’s Route 66 Raceway tonight, the first of two big shows at the NASCAR venue for the TORC Series.
Note: Tomorrow’s TORC Series event in Chicago will be broadcast “LIVE” on the SPEED Channel beginning at 9 p.m. EST.
PRO 4x4
Scott Douglas (AMSOIL/Borla Exhaust/BFG) and Adrian Cenni (Real Tree Energy/4 Wheel Parts) put on a main event worthy of a heavyweight title fight as the two TORC PRO 4x4 titans went rim-to-rim, bumper-to-bumper and door-to-door for the better part of the final half of Thursday’s main event. And in the end it was the crafty Douglas who used a brilliant inside/outside move on the big right hand sweeper to put himself in a position to win over 2nd place Cenni.
“It was an awesome race. All these guys run fast, run hard,” said Douglas, who was 2nd overall in the points heading into Thursday’s contest. “What a fun race, going back and forth with Adrian like that! I really hope we delivered what we promised to the Chicago TORC fans!”
They sure did. And coming from the hot pits, nearly a lap down on following the competition restart, was PRO 4 points leader Ricky Johnson (Red Bull/Mopar/Ram/KMC Wheels), who overcame a flat tire to go from last to 3rd in the main – albeit with a bit of bumping going on in between.
“We had a fast truck, obviously,” said Johnson, hoisting the iconic red-tipped Oakley Bomb Award overhead for the fast PRO 4 lap of the evening. “But with all the crap going on out there we’re lucky to be 3rd. This Chicago track was one touch sum beotch!”
Monster Energy/Toyota/Maxxis racer and former PRO 4 champ Johnny Greaves got out to the early lead, but seemed to be plagued by some handling issues. Greaves held strong through the entire race, but rolled late in the contest – which paved the way for Johnson to make the podium. Mike Jenkins (Traxxas/AMSOIL/BFG) was also on point with one of his better races of the year, but got tied up with Johnson and ended up placing 4th.
PRO 4x4 Results
1- Scott Douglas 2- Adrian Cenni 3- Ricky Johnson 4- Mike Jenkins 5- Johnny Greaves 6- Dan Baudoux 7- Al Drews 8- Mark Jenkins 9- Jerry Conrad 10- Milan Mazanec
PRO 2WD
Within two laps after the PRO 2 class’ competition restart, coming off a full course yellow due to NASCAR Trucks’ Matt Crafton’s (Nitro Circus) rollover, Rob MacCachren (Mopar/Ram/Rockstar) dispensed with defending champ Bryce Menzies (Red Bull/Mopar/Ram/KMC Wheels) and then collided with Jeff Kincaid (Traxxas/AMSOIL/BFG), driving the then race leader’s (Kincaid) front end into a K-barrier and propelling MacCachren into 1st place. The veteran would then hold this spot through the Thursday night TORC PRO 2 checkers at Chicagoland Speedway.
“Just an awesome job by my crew,” said MacCachren who qualified 1st for tonight’s PRO 2 event and finished 1st.
And putting himself into the 2nd place podium position on Thursday was Travis Pastrana in the Menzies Racing-built Red Bull/Mopar/Ram/KMC Wheels TORC PRO 2 truck. Pastrana took advantage of a Menzies flat tire to move up into podium position, but put a veteran pass on longtime short course off-roader Scott Taylor (Miller Welding) to secure the No. 2 spot.
“I wasn’t really going that fast, but I was trying like hell,” said Pastrana to a HUGE round of applause from the Chicagoland Speedway crowd. And when asked to compare TORC Series racing to RallyCross, Pastrana added: “There’s a lot more air than RallyCross and you’re sideways all the time.”
Yanking the PRO 2 holeshot on Thursday was Kincaid, followed closely into the 1st turn by MacCachren (Oakley Bomb Award winner) with Taylor and CJ Greaves (Monster Energy/Toyota/Maxxis) in hot pursuit. Several laps in CJ Greaves would clip an inside barrier tire and bounced back out into the middle of the track, collecting Steve Barlow (Real Tree Energy).
Making his way up towards a podium position in the first half of the race was current TORC PRO 2 point leader Chad Hord (BOSS Snowplows/Nissan/AMSOIL). En route to the front Hord would reportedly damage the suspension in his truck and he’d not be a factor in the second half of the race, nor would 2nd place overall in the standings CJ Greaves – who pulled off completely after his wreck.
With Hord off at beginning of the competition restart, Pastrana moved up to 5th.
PRO 2 Results
1- Rob MacCachren 2- Travis Pastrana 3- Scott Taylor 4- Steve Barlow 5- Mike Jenkins 6- Bryce Menzies 7- Mike Oberg 8- Matt Crafton 9- Andy Zipperer 10- Jeff Kincaid 11- Chad Hord 12- Keith Steele 13- CJ Greaves
PRO Light
Back at the Crandon (Wis.) Brush Run Andrew Caddell (Mopar/Ram/Traxxas) laid down the gauntlet with rival CJ Greaves (Monster Energy/Toyota/Maxxis). Said Caddell: “Don’t know what he (CJ Greaves) is mad at me for … but if he wants to come up here on the podium and play games I’ll put it on him again at Chicago!”
Well Caddell sure did on Friday, topping the rest of the TORC PRO Light field at Chicagoland Speedway by a full straight-away in what turned out to be the most dominant effort in the PRO Light class this season.
“We struggled a bit yesterday in practice with setup, but made some changes and we had a real good race truck tonight,” said Caddell. “We hooked up in the blue groove and were able to win it.”
Making his 2012 Traxxas TORC Series debut was former PRO Light champ Casey Currie (Monster Energy). Currie, 2nd, ran strong the entire race and put about the same distance between himself and 3rd place Brad Lovell (AMSOIL/Torchmate/Nissan/BFG) as Caddell had on him for the win.
The 4th and 5th positions turned into a dogfight when Matt Cook (Supercross.com) and CJ Greaves went at it, with Cooke over-cooking a jump and poking the nose of his truck into the dirt. Greaves would go on to grab 4th while Keegan Kincaid (Traxxas/AMSOIL/BFG) rolled in for 5th.
PRO Light Results
1- Andrew Caddell 2- Casey Currie 3- Brad Lovell 4- CJ Greaves 5- Keegan Kincaid 6- Nick Baumgartner 7- Shawn Morris 8- Luke Johnson 9- Raphael Navarro 10- Kendal Norman 11- Ross Hoek 12- Jason Janusz 13- Randy Eller 14- Eric Ruppel 15- Matt Cook 16- Mark Oberg 17- Mitch Dorr
Super Buggy
Opening the action at Chicagoland Speedway’s Route 66 Raceway was the Traxxas TORC Series’ Super Buggy class, featuring 14-year-old phenom Mitchell DeJong (Traxxas/Red Bull). And while DeJong was certainly the class of the field again in terms of lap times, a malfunctioning roof hatch would unfortunately spell the end to the current TORC Super Buggy class’ points leader as DeJong was black flagged twice, forcing him out of the race lead and relegating him to 9th overall.
Capitalizing on DeJong’s misfortune was Bob Klaus, who battled all the way from the back of the pack to catch local racer Steve Krieman in the waning minutes of the race to take the win. And Krieman himself inherited the lead from early race leader John Frana, who lost a wheel while running up front. The third and final TORC Super Buggy podium spot at Chicago would got to JR Wheeler.
Super Buggy Results
1- Bob Klaus 2- Steve Krieman 3- JR Wheeler 4- Bryan Bernloehr 5- Gord Felske 6- Jerry Weaver 7- Andy Zipperer 8- Scott Schwalbe 9- Mitchell DeJong 10- Scott Biers 11- John Frana 12- Chris Haenlein 13- Mark Steinhart
Up next … More TORC Series racing action from Chicagoland Speedway Route 66 Raceway with Friday’s round eight of the 2012 Traxxas TORC Series, presented by AMSOIL (round seven for the PRO 2 & PRO 4 trucks).
Media contact: Pat Schutte, HPPR, pat@highprofilepr.com
For more information, please visit: www.torcseries.com
About TORC
The Traxxas TORC Series, presented by AMSOIL, is the fastest, most punishing short course racing series on the planet! TORC events are packed with flag-to-flag fender banging as drivers push the limits over whoops and jump-filled natural terrain race tracks. Off-road racing fans come from far and wide to experience the most challenging form of high-octane competition. And once they taste TORC for the first time they’re hooked for life!