Bark River, Michigan (July 14,
2010) - After a few tuning changes to the chassis following
Friday afternoon practice, Scott Douglas was confident he had a
fast truck for Saturday's Round 3 of TRAXXAS TORC Series presented
by AMSOIL racing. Qualifying Saturday morning proved the point.
Scott Douglas blistered the track with a 1:20.2 second lap - 3/10s
quicker than the next fastest truck driven by Johnny Greaves.
Normally the number one qualifier starts in the front, but USAC
officials decided to shake up the points race and have the top six
drivers draw for starting position. Douglas drew a six, bumping
him back to the outside or row three.
Following a parade lap, TORC dropped
the green flag on a rolling start, which launched the 800
horsepower trucks down the hill toward turn one. The trucks ahead
of the number 7 AMSOIL Kumho F-150 fanned out and there was no
opportunity to improve position so Douglas fell in line in the
sixth spot around turn one. The track was soaked from heavy rains
in the weeks leading up to the race, and the track crew worked
hard to deliver a fast racecourse for both the racers and fans.
By Saturday, the surface was coming
around, but easily displaced by the high horsepower trucks that
produced big rooster tails off the tires. Back in sixth place,
running in heavy roost from other trucks, overtaking the truck
ahead meant a visor and chest full of dirt and rocks. Douglas was
held up behind slower
traffic and had to muscle his way to the front.
During a battle with
Mike Jenkins for third, Douglas' truck was bumped
out of four-wheel-drive. PRO 4X4 trucks are very difficult, if not
impossible to drive at speed without four-wheel-drive. After
realizing what had happened, Scott was able to reengage the
BorgWarner transfer case and bring the number 7
AMSOIL truck back up to race speed. The pass was made to third,
but by this time, the race leaders had checked out and there
wasn't time to catch them before the checkered flag. The third
place finish increased Scott Douglas' impressive podium ratio,
which is one of the highest in professional short course off-road
racing. It was Scott's sixth consecutive podium finish this year.
The Douglas Motorsports AMSOIL Kumho
Ford F-150 was in top form for Sunday's round 4 of TORC Series
racing. The inversion put Douglas in the second row and he was
able to tuck inside and hold a fast line through turn one in
second place with a great run on turn two. Douglas went high on
the berm in two and had a clean shot around the top line. But the
second row of trucks was three wide. On the inside, Rick Huseman
had to miss the concrete wall and hit
Mike Jenkins turning Jenkins into Douglas under
full power. The contact was hard enough to lift the AMSOIL Kumho
Ford F-150 off the ground. Scott was able to gather it up and
continue, but the front end and steering didn't feel quite right.
Still, Douglas was in second and the truck was running, so he
pushed it back up to race speed in an effort to run down the
leader. At the end of the first lap coming down the hill into turn
one, Scott got on the brakes and pitched the truck into the
right-hander and it went hard left into the concrete K-rail. The
earlier turn two contact sheared the tie-rod mount from the
upright, but not completely. When Scott got on the brakes to set
the truck up for turn one this time around, the load ripped the
tie rod free and the left wheel steered hard left to the wall.
Game over.
"It's always hard to get knocked out
of a race by circumstances that are beyond your control,"
commented Douglas after the race. "This one was especially tough
because we knew we had the truck to beat this weekend. Our
qualifying time was the quickest PRO 4X4 lap all weekend, faster
than the both Oakley Bomb Run award laps when the leader had clean
air and was able to run hard. We know the AMSOIL Kumho Ford F-150
is running in top form, so all we can do it set our sights on
Rounds 5 and 6 at Oshkosh in two weeks."
Rounds 5 and 6 of the 2010 TRAXXAS
TORC Series presented by AMSOIL are scheduled for July 23rd
and 24th in Oshkosh, Wisconsin at Oshkosh Speedzone.
Douglas Motorsports would like to
thank all their great fans and sponsors, including; AMSOIL, Kumho
Tires, Baileigh Industrial, KC Hilites, MasterCraft Seats, Fox
Shox, Walker Evans Racing Wheels, Raceline Oil Pumps, Miller
Electric,
BorgWarner, Ringers Gloves, Hawk Performance, Howe
Performance Power Steering, J&H Transmission, MSD, Peterson Fluid
Systems, and Phil's Inc.