Young guns and surprise guests turn Firebird Raceway into an action packed racing holiday weekend

Halloween weekend in Chandler, AZ usually brings high temps and trick or treaters; however this year would bring the rumble of Offroad racing.

October 31st marked the beginning of the Whiplash Halloween Race. This course is located at Firebird Raceway in chandler. The track is about a mile long, has long sweeping turns, fast straight aways, and close technical sections. All the racing took place on Sunday with the practicing happening all Saturday, and the practice would prove to be just as exciting as the racing.

Racers from all over Arizona, and from parts of California and Nevada, traveled out to Firebird Raceway to do battle with other competitors. A couple of young guns would shake things up this weekend, as Mitch Porter (Mark Porter’s son) would be taking over the reins of the Dragon Fire Pro2. He is 16 years old and doesn’t even have his driver’s license yet, this race would be his third time behind the wheel of the Pro2.

Dustin Smith, a local 1450 driver would be hungry for a win this would mark his second race. Saturday would be a long and hot day of practicing. While some drivers would take it easy and get a feel for the track which can change a lot during the race others pushed their racecars to the limit and then father.

As 1377 a buggy caught a rut and rolled coming into turn four. After the practice the UTV’s raced. The UTV’s were broken up into three classes, China Lites, Pro Mod, and Sport Mod. The UTV’s raced on the track for one hours, seeing who could last the one hour would prove to be more important than who had the fastest lap time, and after the dust settled Eric Bartlett in pro mod would come in first doing 47 laps, with Branden Sims and Mike Wolfskill taking a close second and third. In sport mod, Jerry Thompson would take first holding out for 43 laps, then Eric Bergman and Terri Kary rounding out the top three. That would conclude Saturday’s action.

Sunday the Trophy Karts would race first. They were broken up into two classes, PW and Mini class. They raced for 30 minutes, which once again would prove that you must first finish race to finish the race first. The Trophy Kart was a very competitive race as they were rolling and pushing their Karts to the edge, left and right. In the PW class Resse Bailey would clinch the first place spot doing 18 laps and Parker Steele would run a close second place one second behind bailey, and Kelsey Mao from Las Vegas would come in third. In the Mini class, Gray Steele would take the checker; he completed 19 laps, with Kol Bailey a close second only three seconds behind Steele, and Chris Neese rounding out the third spot. Earlier in the day Shannon Campbell showed up, and wanted to go racing, so he entered his old rock buggy in because the new one was clean and ready to go to SEMA. Before the race he took a couple of practice laps to get the feel for the course. Then the race took place; however before the race the decision was made to race all the trucks and buggies together at the same time on the track, so that was going to make for some exciting and intense racing.

After the race started Shannon Campbell (class One) and Scott Martenson (class 10) would battle back and forth for the lead. Then Martenson got tangled up with a lapped buggy putting him out of the race.

As for the trucks, Rick Thomas (TT) and Mitch Porter (Pro2) were challenging each other for the lead of the truck class, and then a mandatory caution went out, to clear a few wrecked racecars off the track. After the mandatory caution the exciting racing continued, as Shannon Campbell was again out in front, but close behind him was Lonnie Hart (class 10). As the white flag waived Campbell was out in front, but a rock punctured a hole in his radiator, causing him to drop back and Lonnie Hart to take the win, and Shannon Campbell to take Second with Mitch Porter reeling him in for third.

For the class break down, Mitch Porter took first in Unlimited Truck, Shannon Campbell took first in class one, Scott McCracken took first in class 8, Lonnie Hart took first in class 10, Carl Rohrer took first in class 5, Alan League took first in sport limited (class 13), and Dustin Smith took first in 1450 truck.

That would wrap up the exciting race weekend at Firebird Raceway.

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Renezeder Wins U2 & U4 Championships

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRIMM, NV (November 15, 2007) – In a span of just three short hours
this blustery afternoon in the high desert of Primm, Nevada, Carl
Renezeder went from five-time to seven-time national short course
champion by winning the Unlimited 2 and Unlimited 4 titles in the
Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series’ inaugural season.

“This is unreal,” expressed a stunned but ecstatic Renezeder after
winning the second championship. “I’m so proud of my guys and so
excited for our sponsors, my family and my fans.”

The day wasn’t without drama. With only five points separating
Renezeder from second-place rookie, Jeff Ward, the team had to finish
within two positions of Ward to lock up the title. In the final
corner of the final lap, Todd LeDuc got around Ward, and Renezeder was
crowned Unlimited 2 champion by just one point. This was his fourth
two-wheel-drive championship of his career.

In the Unlimited 4 category, the cushion was a bit bigger, with a
17-point lead ahead of Alan Pflueger. Adrian Cenni made contact with
Renezeder in turn one just after taking the green, and the field
stacked up behind them, putting Pflueger upside down and damaging
Renezeder’s truck. The race had a complete restart and in the end,
Pflueger had too much damage to continue. His DNF locked up the
championship for Renezeder, who then took the opportunity to race his
way to the front. He worked his way up to the third spot on the
podium and finished the season with championship number seven, his
third four-wheel-drive championship.

“A brand new series, a brand new tire, and our team was able to put
together a season like this…amazing,” concluded Renezeder.

The team will wrap up its season with the Lucas Oil Challenge Cup in
Lake Elsinore, California on December 11-12. It will be all about big
cash a bragging rights, and they’ll get to do it with the number one
plate on both trucks. History is in the books.

Midwest Off-Road Racing Elect Board of Directors

Appleton, WI (November 12, 2009) – The organizers of the Midwest Off-Road Racing (MORR) group met Wednesday evening, November 11, to elect a board of directors and continue to finalize the legal side of the organization. A group of twenty very committed off-road enthusiasts met also to clear up misconceptions about the mission of MORR.

The group worked to clarify the MORR Mission Statement. The result is the following:
Mission Statement
The goal of the Midwest Off Road Racing group is to insure affordable racing for the Midwest Sportsman Off Road Racer by uniting racers with a common voice. Maintaining affiliations with approved sanctioning bodies will allow the competitor and the enthusiast to enjoy off road racing now and in the future.

MORR is not creating another race series. In fact, the group is working with TORC to bring back affordable Sportsman racing. The initial talks between the two groups on this point are very promising.

As of November 11, 2009, TORC has posted the race dates for the four race weekends in the Upper Midwest. These are PRO and Sportsman events. MORR has also expressed the need for additional Sportsman racing in the Upper Midwest, and TORC is actively working to address that issue.

MORR is also in the very early discussion stages of additional Sportsman concerns, updates on these issues will be announced in the near future.

The other order of business was the election of the MORR Board of Directors. After eleven members were nominated, each candidate briefly voiced their qualifications and goals for the group. All candidates were highly qualified, but only seven could be elected.

The 2010 MORR Board of Directors
President – Dan Vanden Heuvel
Vice-President – Ross Hoek
Secretary – Mike Vanden Heuvel
Treasurer – Pat Flanagan
Directors at Large – Don Demeny
Geoff Dorr
Mike Reusche

All board members will be available for questions and comments at the TORC Midwest Sportsman Banquet on December 5, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

A general membership meeting to fully explain and discuss the mission of the Midwest Off-Road Racing group will be scheduled after the first of the year.

In the first ten days since the MORR website went live, 150 racers, team members, companies, and fans have added their support to the Midwest Off-Road Racing Mission If you haven’t already, show your MORR support and visit www.midwest-offroadracing.com/petition.htm .

If you have any questions or concerns about the Midwest Off-Road Racing group you can contact any board member via email:
Dan Vanden Heuvel – flydtmn77@aol.com
Ross Hoek – ross@rosshoek.com
Mike Vanden Heuvel – racermike177@aol.com
Pat Flanagan – pflanagan1@new.rr.com
Don Demeny – racing@bayland.net
Geoff Dorr – mgdorr86@hotmail.com
Mike Reusche – philsinc@ymail.com

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