Team Sticker Dude has Tough Start to the Season

May 20, 2006
For immediate release
Chula Vista, CA

Going into the initial round of racing in the 2006 Lucas Oil Championship Off-Road Racing Series, all three drivers’ had high hopes of top five finishes. Unfortunately it wasn’t in the cards for the Sticker Dude, P.F. Changes, Invisible Glass team members.

Single Buggy
The first race of the day was the Single Buggy class and Luke Zoetmulder and his #342 Volkswagen powered buggy sat on the pole. At the start the rookie driver really held his own with the rest of the field. As the field headed for Turn One, Luke came out in second place. On lap 10 CORR has instituted a mandatory competition 2-lap caution to bunch up to the field. On the restart, stays on the back of the second place buggy and quickly makes the pass. With 3 laps to go, Luke spins, flattens the left front tire, and has suddenly finds himself towards the back of the field. At the flag, #342 finishes in 15th place.

“Today was a great experience for me. Running up front was a real confidence boost. I made a few mistakes that really cost me in the end, but I’ll use that to build on. The Goodyear tires really hooked up well to the track, and even after a mistake caused the flat, the Goodyear tire stayed together to the finish. Awesome!!! After some prep work by 2005 CORR Light Buggy champion, Mark Steinhardt, we will be ready for Sunday’s race.” – commented Luke Zoetmulder.

Pro-Lite
The huge field of Pro-Lite entrants saw teammates Steven Federico qualify on the pole, and Lee O’Donnell in 6th on the grid. At the green flag start, saw Steven enter Turn One in 3rd, but came onto the main straightaway dead last. The mayhem of over 28 Pro-Lites bumping and pushing caught Steven from behind causing a spin. As this was going on Lee made it through cleanly in 3rd place with Kincaid and Hord out in front.

Just as Steven was battling through traffic, Lee’s truck began to overheat. On lap 5 Lee pulled of the track ending his day.

At the competition caution, Steven has made it to 14th when the track went back to green lap racing. At the start, Steven got alongside of the Sacio coming out of turn 2, when Hintz got sideways in front of Steven. Suddenly there was a hard impact with Sacio which caused both trucks to get stuck on the side of the track. Sacio got going again, but Steven was permanently high centered with his race day over.

“Somehow I made it through the first turn calamity. After that the truck really performed great and I thought a podium finish was well within reach. Suddenly the water temp when sky high. I thought it would be better to end my day early before I did serious damage to the engine, because it wouldn’t make to the end anyhow. Tonight we will go through everything and hopefully find the problem. We should be good to go for Sunday,” stated Lee O’Donnell.

Steve Federico added, “I had high hopes today unfortunately the Turn One mishap and then the altercation with Javier (Sacio)….His truck seems to be okay, unfortunately our truck has some alignment issues in the right front corner. I’m confident that A.J., Tim, and the crew can straighten it tonight. We will be ready on Sunday.”

Luke, Lee, and Steve would like to thank all their supporters including: The Sticker Dude, P.F Changs, Invisible Glass, Goodyear Tires, Mechanix Wear, Toyota, Nissan, American Racing, Racing Optics, and Phil’s Inc.

-Mike Reusche, marketing MTG.
www.federicoracing.com