CHERRY VALLEY, Calif. (July 29, 2008) — Championship Off-Road Racing’s first visit of the season to The Quarry resulted in a rocky weekend for Rockstar Makita Team LeDuc.
Todd LeDuc, who finished fourth and third in the two Pro 2 races, thought things went pretty well. But dad Curt LeDuc, who watched mechanical problems on Sunday ruin a promising start for the team’s other entries, said CORR’s return to Chula Vista International Raceway was “a disaster.”
Kyle LeDuc, who drove his Toyo-shod Rockstar Makita Ford to fourth place in Saturday’s Pro 4 race, finished 10th on Sunday due to engine problems. Pro Lite rookie Brian Deegan, 10th on Saturday, was 19th on Sunday after the rear end housing broke while he was running eighth.
Curt, meanwhile, had a truly lost weekend. He was ninth in Saturday’s Pro 4 race after he “got crashed” at the start and 15th on Sunday, when the steering in his Ford broke at the start of the 16-lap feature. And to make matters worse, it all happened on the first weekend that both days of racing were shown live on television from the track that is built in a rock quarry surrounded by a wildlife preserve.
“My truck just doesn’t like live TV,” said the elder LeDuc, who also had finished 15th on the opening Saturday of the season with the SPEED Channel broadcasting live from Pomona. “This was my worst weekend in 10 years.
“There were a lot of mechanicals for a lot of teams. We’re just running these trucks harder than we’ve ever run them and we’re going to have to change some of the (preparation) procedures. The stuff that has worked for years and years isn’t working anymore.”
It could have been worse. But despite the disappointing race results, only Curt lost a position in the point standings, dropping from sixth to ninth in Pro 4.
Todd went into the fourth of the season’s eight events third in the Pro 2 standings and remained in third, 45 points behind the leader. Kyle stayed fifth in Pro 4 and Deegan 10th in Pro Lite, as well.
More encouragingly, the next event Aug. 16-17 is the third and last of the season at Pomona, where Todd won both races in June and had a pair of fourth-place finishes in April and Kyle has had a pair of top fives.
“I had no (mechanical) problems with my truck (at Chula Vista), none at all,” Todd said. “What hurt me a little bit on Saturday was that I slid into a dirt bank really hard and a bunch of dirt went into the wheel and got it off balance. It was bouncing so bad I thought I had a flat tire, so I slowed down a little bit.”
On Sunday, Todd qualified second and started fourth in a Rockstar Makita Ford he said was “extremely, extremely fast.” He got shuffled back to seventh in the usual bumping and banging that accompanies a race start, then worked his way back to fourth and got embroiled in a heated battle for second. Todd got the position briefly, then had all he could do to hold onto third after getting bumped from behind and driving the final lap and a half on a flat front tire.
The sellout event had been a success for the team in other areas, with a large turnout for an appearance at an area home improvement store on Wednesday and Makita Industrial Power Tools introducing an on-site Internet sales program.
“We’ve just want to win races for Rockstar and Makita and the rest of our great sponsors,” Curt said. “That’s the best way we have to tell them how much we appreciate their support.
“We’re going to be OK.”
In addition to Rockstar Energy Drink, Makita Industrial Power Tools, Ford Trucks and Toyo Tires, the team is sponsored by Kal-Gard Racing Lubricants, K&N Air Filters, KC Hilites, KMC Wheels, Precision Gears, Mogi Transmissions, Ringers Gloves, Automatic Transmission Design (ATD), MSD Ignitions, Sign Pros and Dragon Optics.
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