Rain, Wind, Setbacks and Victory for Team Renezeder in Laughlin
LAKE FOREST, CA (January 29, 2008) - After much debate at the start of the weekend as to whether the 48-mile races each day of the SCORE Laughlin Desert Challenge would be attrition or sprint races, by the end of the weekend, both turned out to be true. A team had to survive the course, but it also had to be quick to bring home a trophy. For Carl Renezeder and his Lucas Oil/BFGoodrich Trophy Truck, the event had its highs and lows, ultimately ending in a win on Sunday afternoon amidst a rain-soaked, heavily rutted course.
“Desert races are usually thought of as endurance events,” explained Renezeder. “We knew we’d have to have a tough truck to get us to the finish line, but it had to be fast as well.”
After qualifying third out of 24 trucks on Friday afternoon, the team suffered a setback on Saturday with a gear failure that knocked them out of the race only two laps into the eight-lap event, relegating them to a last place start on Sunday. And that’s when things turned around.
“The truck felt better than ever,” commented Renezeder after Saturday’s disappointing finish. “I just want a shot to drive this thing to the finish line.”
He got his wish and he capitalized on it. Twenty-two trucks left the line ahead of him on a wet, soaked Sunday afternoon, and Renezeder had only eight six-mile laps to beat all of them. Great battles on the track with Rob MacCachren and Robbie Gordon entertained the umbrella clad crowd, and when the checkered flag flew, Renezeder had not only beat the field on corrected time, he had passed all 22 trucks ahead of him and finished physically first as well.
“Turns out that the 14 tear-offs we put on our helmets were about 86 too few,” remarked co-driver, Mike Seat, while wiping sandy bits of course off his face. Luckily, the less than perfect race conditions didn’t deter them, allowing them to put a positive finish on the opening race weekend of Team Renezeder’s 2008 season.
