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10 Minutes with Casey Currie

by Eric Johnson

Win a ride with Robby Gordon!

10 rounds into the 16-round 2009 TRAXXIS TORC Off-Road Championship Series, Casey Currie stands a very respectable fifth in points. Winning his first career Pro Lights race in Texas back in May, the 25 year-old Californian-who has only been at the sport for three years-has now hit critical mass. With the TORC Series spooling up for its final three-venue run to the wire, Currie is only 23 points adrift of championship leader Chad Hord, and the way he sees it, has a very realistic shot at winning the ultra-competitive Pro Lights prize fight. His #2 black and electric green Nissan now backed by Monster Energy, Currie is looking to Crandon International Raceway come September 4-6 to begin making his charge to the top of the leader board. A few days after the Summer X Games 15–where Currie was present to root on his brother Brandon in SuperMoto (he placed sixth)–we sat Casey, also a former SuperMoto racer, down and shoved a tape recorder in his face.

EJ

Casey, I know you a little more from the motorcycle racing side of things. To that end, just how long have you been putting in time in the Pro Light classification?

CURRIE

This is my third year and I own my own team. Last year I bought a truck from Factory Nissan. I raced that for one year and last year we also built all of our own stuff in-house. So now not only am I a team owner, but we build and prepare and do everything in-house. We build our own trucks, we race our own truck, and now we also do all the design work in the shop.

EJ

Just what exactly goes into piecing a Pro Lites truck together?

CURRIE

Well, the chassis is spec, so you basically have to go into the rule book and find out exactly all the dimensions on everything. And the engine has to sit in a certain area and the radiator has to sit in a certain area. So we basically go through the rules and look at all of that. Once we do that, we look at the weight and try and figure where we want the weight and how we want the weight disbursed. Then we look at shock layout and how we get the geometry set to how we want it.

EJ

So TORC allows to mess with all those mechanical variables?

CURRIE

Yes.

EJ

You're 2009 TORC season started off well. You went 4-1 in the first two rounds of the series at Texas Motor Speedway. Now 10 rounds in, you sit fifth in points. How do you feel about your season thus far?

CURRIE

The season has actually gone pretty well. We had one day of bad luck in Perris (Note: Currie was 13th at round number three). The frame broke on the truck. But other than that, yeah, we've been pretty consistent. This past weekend at Bark River was the first weekend that I actually have not finished on the podium. We're usually a top four runner every weekend. I was leading on Sunday, but got taken out. It's been up and down. We're still learning. It's a new truck. Every weekend we've been playing with it. Right now we have a great set-up, now we just need to race the whole race.

EJ

In your words, just how competitive is the Pro Light class?

CURRIE

Basically, with the Pro Lights class there are probably nine guys that can win any race. When you pull off that track, the top eight guys are always within a half a second of one another. So if you're figuring it's a motocross event and the top eight guys are all within half a second of each other, there are so many variables to makes mistakes. So to have nine guys, all within a half a second, is pretty crazy. And as far as experience, I'd say that everyone in front of me in the points has been racing for at least six years. We're on the learning curve of the thing, but at the same time, we're catching up very fast.

EJ

All the A+ drivers in the elite PRO 4x4 and PRO 2WD categories of short-course racing all cut their competitive teeth in the Pro Light class, correct?

CURRIE

Yeah, Kyle LeDuc, Johnny Greaves and Rick Huseman all have raced and won championships in Pro Light and they're basically the fastest guys in PRO 4 right now. So saying you can be a champion in Pro Light and move Light is true. Those guys are definitely faster than any other guy out there right now.

EJ

You come from motorcycle racing. What drew you to short-course off-road truck racing?

CURRIE

I grew up watching and wanting to race motorcycles. And then my dad's business was in the high-performance rear end business, so with being around NASCAR and other forms of racing, it all kind of worked out to get me here. Also, my mom didn't really want racing motorcycles. With the off-road thing, when they used to come to Glen Helen [Raceway] it was the coolest thing to watch because you'd get the motocross version and the trucks brought in the cage, so it was a little safer. It definitely fit my description of what I wanted to do in life.

EJ

What makes you a good Pro Lights driver?

CURRIE

Being a motorcycle rider, the momentum thing, being able to know when to let off the gas or off the gas, I think that has a lot to do with it. And me, I'm one of those guys that's "hands on" so we always like to make changes every time we get off the track. Even if I'm the fastest truck on the track, we'll still make a change to make it a little bit faster. I'm very into set-up and making the thing go faster, so the truck has a lot to do with it.

EJ

There are still three stops remaining on the 2009 TORC schedule–Crandon, Perris and Las Vegas–what's your plan and what do you hope to achieve from here on out?

CURRIE

My plan is that we're going to Crandon with the truck we have and we're definitely capable of winning with it.

EJ

Do you think Crandon is going to be as big as it's being made out to be? It certainly sounds like a major deal is going to take place back there.

CURRIE

They're estimating 70,000. When you drive into the town of Crandon, the billboard says '1,250' people. So how do you take a town of 2,000 people and fit 75,000 people in it. I think it'll be one crazy event; it'll be one for the books.

EJ

So you're going there to win?

CURRIE

I'm definitely going there to win. My ultimate plan is that if I can get through Crandon with two podiums, we're going to Perris and we're going for blood.

EJ

Yeah, looking at the points after Bark River, you're in fifth place yet you are only 23 points out of first place.

CURRIE

Listen, if I won two races right now, I'd have a nine-point lead. It's so close that basically one win and I'd be second in points. It's that close.

EJ

When all is said and done and the big red crushed velvet curtain drops on the last race in Las Vegas on October 24, what'll make you happy?

CURRIE

I want to finish on the podium, no matter what, but I really want to win the championship. My ultimate goal this year was to win races. I have won this year. Everyone that's in the top five right now, besides me, has been racing for over 10 years. It's a learning experience and I feel like I want to come out of this year with more wins and strong and on top.

EJ How long do you want to stay in the Pro Lights class?

CURRIE

I'd like to stay for at least two more years after the end of this year. At least until 2012. I'm just learning my program now, so I figure I need two years to really get it laid out. That would make me happy.

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