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Rocket Man Looks Ahead to Crandon

CRANDON, Wisconsin — Dan “The Rocketman” Baudoux traveled to the West Coast for Rounds 3 & 4 of the Traxxas TORC Series presented by AMSOIL after a challenging weekend of racing in the high plains of Texas. The Mole Lake Casino sponsored, nineteen-time championship team was looking for “California Gold” as Round 3 & 4 were contested at the Perris Auto Speedway in Perris, California.

Round 3 and 4 of the TORC Series…………..

The PRO-2WD starting grid positioned the #7 Mole Lake Casino Miller Lite BP Petroleum BFGoodrich Tires Ford F-150 well back in the field when the green flag dropped for both Friday’s and Saturday’s races.

In Friday night’s event, coming up from the very back of the back, Dan, was working with difficult track conditions. The racing surface changed drastically from the daytime practice session to the evening race time. This made the rear starting position even more challenging. The twenty lap event had Dan staying on the throttle, watching for his lanes, and staying out of trouble to take the checkered flag in ninth place.

After the race Dan said, “Having started so far in the back of the pack, I am tickled to have finished in the top 10. Given a few more laps. I would have been up in the top 5! We are gonna go back to the pits and dial in the truck for a run at tomorrow night’s race.”

The next morning, the Fox Shox technicians changed the shock valving, and the BFGoodrich tire engineers installed a different groove, as the team prepped the rest of the truck for Saturday’s round of racing.

Round 4 saw Dan make a quick charge coming out of the first turn, (thus his nickname) moving into 8th place.

Even though the race is only 15 minutes long, patience can be a very important part of racing in this high energy and stressful environment. Unfortunately, one of the Rocketman’s fellow competitors had other ideas. On lap 3, the #7 Ford was charging through the infield turn when another truck used Dan’s passenger side door as an additional set of brakes. The resulting impact tore the side rails and body panels off the truck; broke loose the oil sump tank and battery as well as pinched several oil lines feeding the engine. Once the carnage was done, and the involved competitors were out of the way, Dan tried valiantly to continue on with the race. However, without oil pressure, Dan quickly shut down the power plant saving the engine from total destruction. This ended the weekend for the #7 Mole Casino Miller Lite BP Petroleum BFGoodrich Tires Ford F-150

Afterwards Dan, visibly shaken and usually vocal stated, “The race truck looks like a grenade went off next to my driver’s seat. It is a mess. There should have been a black flag thrown for that driver. It wouldn’t have helped me, but drivers need to know that t-boning another truck like that is unnecessary, dangerous, illegal, and will not be tolerated. Somebody is gonna get seriously hurt if this is left to continue. Has this happened on the other side of my truck you would be holding this interview right now!”

Team Baudoux has a tremendous amount of work to do to get the #7 Mole Lake Casino Ford F150 race ready for Crandon, but Dan puts it best, “Now it is our time to return to our home turf. We will be ready for Crandon and look forward to hearing our valued fans cheering us on. ….. Crandon, get ready for the Rocket Man’s return!”