MacCachren & Freeman earn Las Vegas’ Menzies Motorsports Class wins during Saturday’s Round 3 of 2008 CORR Series

MacCachren wins Pro Buggy, 6th in Pro-2, Bryan Freeman captures Single Buggy; Bruce Fraley and Bryce Menzies 7th & 9th  in Pro Lite,
Larry Job a dnf in Pro Buggy and Brock Krahenbuhl 14th in Single Buggy At short-course series event at Las Vegas International Off-Road Raceway

    PRIMM, Nev.—Las Vegans Rob MacCachren and Bryan Freeman both captured class wins to lead Las Vegas’ Menzies Motorsports six-driver team during Round 3 of the 2008 Championship Off-Road Racing Series (CORR) Saturday before a near-capacity crowd at the Las Vegas International Off-Road Raceway in Primm, Nev.
      Round 4 of 2008 CORR Series will be held Sunday at the 9,000-seat dirt raceway located behind Terrible’s Buffalo Bills Resort and Casino that includes a one-mile purpose-built race course.  Gates open at 9 a.m. and following practice and qualifying sessions, racing begins at Noon.
     Team leader Rob MacCachren, finished 6th in Pro-2 and won his third straight race in the Pro Buggy division. After qualifying first on Friday in Pro-2, and inverted start put him eighth at the green flag on Saturday and he was eventually slowed with a contact-caused flat right front tire after briefly working his way into the lead in the No. 21 Rockstar Ford F-150 on Lap 14 in the 17 lap race. MacCachren was part of a CORR-record field of 22 starters in Pro-2.
     In Pro Buggy, MacCachren qualified fourth on Friday and took the lead on Lap 4 of 15 in Saturday’s race and lead the 27-car field the rest of the way in the No. 921 BFG Tires Honda-powered AlumiCraft open-wheel desert race car. MacCachren had a victory margin of 2.702 seconds over second-place Greg George and an even larger 10.265 margin over third place Dale Dondel. It was his 65th career class win in the CORR series.
     Freeman, a third generation desert racer from Las Vegas, qualified first, but in the inverted start he was 10th at the green flag, but sped to the lead on Lap 2 in the 14-lap race. He dominated the field for his third straight win in 2008 in No. 307 Nevada Off-Road Buggy Fraley-VW. His impressive victory margin was 10.469 seconds over second-place Andy Anderson.
     Besides MacCachren and Freeman, the Menzies Motorsports lineup also includes fellow Southern Nevada desert racers Bryce Menzies, Bruce Fraley, Larry Job and Brock Krahenbuhl in Primm.
      Menzies, at 20 the youngest driver on the team and son of team owner Steve Menzies, gutted out a ninth place finish in Pro Lite in his “bandaged” No. 7 Fox Shox Ford Ranger.  The Menzies Motorsports crew worked all night Friday to repair the truck that was severely damaged in a violent rollover on Friday. Menzies appeared slightly injured after Friday’s incident, but Saturday it wasn’t decided until just prior to the race that he would go ahead and drive. He has considerable neck strain from his rollover, but “took it real easy in Saturday’s race” after starting 17th in the 17-lap race that had a 27-truck field.
     Fraley, a noted off-road chassis builder and racer, finished seventh in the Pro Lite race in his No. 12 MSD Ford Ranger. Like Menzies, Fraley is in his first season of racing a truck.
     Job, who had qualified fourth on Friday, in the Pro Buggy division, saw the No. 907 Mastercraft AlumiCraft-Honda, hit by another competitor’s car on the third lap of the race. Despite attempting a hot-pit “fix” of several parts around the right rear wheel, Job managed just one more lap before pulling his damaged race car off the track. His did not finish resulted in a 27th place standing in the race.
     Although he qualified third on Friday in Single Buggy, Krahenbuhl struggled in Saturday’s 14-Lap race, but did manage a 14th place finish in the field of 33 starters in the No. 312 KMC Fraley-VW.
     “We had worked so hard to get to the front, it really hurt to get that flat tire in the Pro-2 race,” said MacCachren, who also races in the SCORE Desert Series with Mark Post in the No. 1 Rockstar/Makita Ford F-150 SCORE Trophy-Truck. “The truck was really running awesome, but on the other hand, the Menzies Motorsports team worked really hard to get our Pro Buggy up to speed and it really showed in Saturday’s race.  Having a team with six drivers and seven vehicles is quite a challenge, but Menzies Motorsports has some very, very experienced and talented crew members.  It’s really a joy to be able to race with this team.”
     Menzies Motorsports is based out of a state-of-the-art 31,000-square foot race shop in southwest Las Vegas and the new team also has a test facility with a one-mile track south of Las Vegas which is laid out nearly identically to course at the Las Vegas International Off-Road Raceway.
     Kroyer Racing Engines of Las Vegas builds the Ford truck engines and the Honda Pro Buggy motors for Menzies Motorsports while Southern California’s FAT Performance builds the VW Single Buggy engines.
     Menzies Motorsports, owned by prominent Las Vegas contractor Steve Menzies, is making a major
impact despite being only in its second season of existence and first year with more than two drivers.
     This weekend’s races will air both on the Speed Channel and NBC TV on a delayed basis.  A two-hour show is scheduled to air at 4 p.m. (PDT) next Saturday (May 24) on Speed TV and a one and one-half hour version is set to air at 9:30 a.m. (PDT) on Sunday, June 15 on NBC.
     For ticket information and more information on the CORR Series and this weekend’s races, visit www.corracing.com.
     For more information on Menzies Motorsports, visit www.menziesmotorsports.com.

Menzies Motorsports: 2008 CORR Series
Round 3 & 4, May 17-18—Las Vegas International Off-Road Raceway—Primm, Nev.
Saturday’s Round 3 Results
Class
Pos. No.  Driver, hometown, vehicle-engine, time behind winner
Pro 2 (19 Laps on .94-mile course)
6. 21  Rob MacCachren, Las Vegas, Ford F-150, :12.388 seconds behind winner Ricky Johnson, Lake Forest, Calif., Ford F-150
Pro Lite (17 Laps)
7. 12 Bruce Fraley, Las Vegas, Ford Ranger, :33.200 seconds behind winner Jeff Kincaid, Argonne, Wisc., Toyota Tundra
9. 7 Bryce Menzies, Las Vegas, Ford Ranger, :43.136 seconds behind Kindcaid
Pro Buggy (15 Laps)
1. 921  Rob MacCachren, Las Vegas, AlumiCraft-Honda
22. 907  Larry Job, Las Vegas, AlumiCraft-Honda, 1:02.195 (54.41mph), did not finish (5 laps)
Single Buggy (14 Laps)
1. 307  Bryan Freeman, Las Vegas, Fraley-VW
14. 312  Brock Krahenbuhl, Las Vegas, Fraley-VW, :33.676 seconds behind Freeman