SCOTT DOUGLAS ON THE PODIUM IN ROUND 3
THEN BARK RIVER BITES BACK
Bark River, Michigan—After a few tuning changes to the chassis following Friday afternoon practice, Scott Douglas was confident he had a fast truck for Saturday’s Round 3 of TRAXXAS TORC Series presented by AMSOIL racing. Qualifying Saturday morning proved the point. Scott Douglas blistered the track with a 1:20.2 second lap – 3/10s quicker than the next fastest truck driven by Johnny Greaves. Normally the number one qualifier starts in the front, but USAC officials decided to shake up the points race and have the top six drivers draw for starting position. Douglas drew a six, bumping him back to the outside or row three.
Following a parade lap, TORC dropped the green flag on a rolling start, which launched the 800 horsepower trucks down the hill toward turn one. The trucks ahead of the number 7 AMSOIL Kumho F-150 fanned out and there was no opportunity to improve position so Douglas fell in line in the sixth spot around turn one. The track was soaked from heavy rains in the weeks leading up to the race, and the track crew worked hard to deliver a fast racecourse for both the racers and fans.
By Saturday, the surface was coming around, but easily displaced by the high horsepower trucks that produced big rooster tails off the tires. Back in sixth place, running in heavy roost from other trucks, overtaking the truck ahead meant a visor and chest full of dirt and rocks. Douglas was held up behind slower traffic and had to muscle his way to the front. During a battle with Mike Jenkins for third, Douglas’ truck was bumped out of four-wheel-drive. PRO 4X4 trucks are very difficult, if not impossible to drive at speed without four-wheel-drive. After realizing what had happened, Scott was able to reengage the BorgWarner transfer case and bring the number 7 AMSOIL truck back up to race speed. The pass was made to third, but by this time, the race leaders had checked out
and there wasn’t time to catch them before the checkered flag. The third place finish increased Scott Douglas’ impressive podium ratio, which is one of the highest in professional short course off-road racing. It was Scott’s sixth consecutive podium finish this year.
The Douglas Motorsports AMSOIL Kumho Ford F-150 was in top form for Sunday’s round 4 of TORC Series racing. The inversion put Douglas in the second row and he was able to tuck inside and hold a fast line through turn one in second place with a great run on turn two. Douglas went high on the berm in two and had a clean shot around the top line. But the second row of trucks was three wide. On the inside, Rick Huseman had to miss the concrete wall and hit Mike Jenkins turning Jenkins into Douglas under full power. The contact was hard enough to lift the AMSOIL Kumho Ford F-150 off the ground. Scott was able to gather it up and continue, but the front end and steering didn’t feel quite right. Still, Douglas was in second and the truck was running, so he pushed it back up to race speed in an effort to run down the leader. At the end of the first lap coming down the hill into turn one, Scott got on the brakes and pitched the truck into the right-hander and it went hard left into the concrete K-rail. The earlier turn two contact sheared the tie-rod mount from the upright, but not completely. When Scott got on the brakes to set the truck up for turn one this time around, the load ripped the tie rod free and the left wheel steered hard left to the wall. Game over.
“It’s always hard to get knocked out of a race by circumstances that are beyond your control,” commented Douglas after the race. “This one was especially tough because we knew we had the truck to beat this weekend. Our qualifying time was the quickest PRO 4X4 lap all weekend, faster than the both Oakley Bomb Run award laps when the leader had clean air and was able to run hard. We know the AMSOIL Kumho Ford F-150 is running in top form, so all we can do it set our sights on Rounds 5 and 6 at Oshkosh in two weeks.”
Rounds 5 and 6 of the 2010 TRAXXAS TORC Series presented by AMSOIL are scheduled for July 23rd and 24th in Oshkosh, Wisconsin at Oshkosh Speedzone. Douglas Motorsports would like to thank all their great fans and sponsors, including; AMSOIL, Kumho Tires, Baileigh Industrial, KC Hilites, MasterCraft Seats, Fox Shox, Walker Evans Racing Wheels, Raceline Oil Pumps, Miller Electric, BorgWarner, Ringers Gloves, Hawk Performance, Howe Performance Power Steering, J&H Transmission, MSD, Peterson Fluid Systems, and Phil’s Inc.
