CORR Off Road

Toyotas Trucks Once Again Successful in CORR Round at Chula Vista

After a long summer break, Championship Off Road Racing returned to action this weekend, making its first visit of the season to San Diego International Off Road Raceway (also known simply as "The Quarry") in sunny Chula Vista, Calif. As is usually the case, Toyota Racing Development's trio of superstar drivers -- Jeff Kincaid, Johnny Greaves and Rick Huseman -- all provided the series-record crowds some thrilling moments as they battled for race wins and precious championship points.

The first race on Saturday's ticket was Pro 2, and Greaves started the race in his No. 4 Monster Energy/Forest County Potawatomi Toyota Tundra (now fitted with an automatic transmission) from the tenth position. He picked up one spot on the opening lap, but it would be another six before he could manage to overhaul Scott Taylor's No. 8 Ford for eighth position. Despite sustaining a rearward assault from Alan Pflueger's No. 28 Chevy on the restart from the competition caution, Greaves managed to pick up two more spots during the last stint and bring his Pro 2 ride home sixth.

"We just put an automatic in it, so we're getting used to it and figuring out how to drive it again," Greaves said. "But that's the best I've felt in it in a while. It started doing things the way I wanted it to, so all we have to do now is match the engine package to the new transmission."

Kincaid began the day's Pro Lite contest in seventh, but was forced to pit after getting collected in a pileup on the last corner of the first lap. The pit stop took place during the ensuing full course yellow, and upon exiting the pits, race officials told Kincaid over the radio to line up behind the No. 77 of David Reyes, indicating a full restart.

However, after the restart, CORR officials determined that it was not a full restart, and that Kincaid should have taken the green in his No. 4 TRAXXAS/Forest County Potawatomi Tacoma from the back of the line. Unfortunately, Kincaid was the one who wound up paying for race control's mistake in the form of a stop-and-go penalty. The five-time class champion managed to salvage a ninth-place finish, but was understandably displeased with the situation afterward.

"Competition director Tony Vanillo said, 'Go in this spot [for the restart],'" Kincaid explained. "We went in that spot and then they penalized me afterwards. Who knows where we would have finished, but it's unfortunate that they made that kind of mistake."

The final race of the afternoon, Pro 4, saw Greaves starting fourth and Huseman starting fifth. But the start would have to be repeated after Chevy pilot Steve Barlow tumbled down the frontstretch in spectacular fashion. The need for a second start mattered little to the two Tundra drivers, though, as Greaves and Huseman were second and third by the end of the first lap. They would hold those positions through the competition caution and into the eighth lap.

Unfortunately, it was nearing the end of lap eight that Huseman's No. 3 Fabtech/Toyo Tires Tundra got up onto two wheels, and the Californian somehow managed to keep the truck from ending up on its roof. But in the process of trying to bring the truck under control, Huseman entered a collision course with the hot pits, and was thus forced to drive through and wait briefly before reentering the track while traffic passed. He managed to fight his way back to seventh at the finish, but was yet another driver unhappy about spending time in the hot pits.

"They held me back in the pits to let all the trucks go by so I didn't pull out in front of everybody," he said. "We managed to salvage a seventh, so that's about all we could do today."

Greaves, meanwhile, was pushing his No. 4 Monster Energy/Forest County Potowatomi Tundra to the absolute limit, but the abundance of local yellows due to crashes meant he simply could not find away around arch rival Carl Renezeder's Ford, and thus had to settle for second.

"There were a couple spots on the track where I had a little run on him," Greaves recalled, "but I needed probably two or three laps to set something up, and we never really got that much of a good green flag racing for a whole lap. It screws up your whole rhythm."

Sunday started out as a great day for Greaves, as he was poised to start his Pro 2 Tundra on the outside of the front row for that race, and on the pole in the Pro 4 race (with Huseman alongside for an all-Tundra front row). But before the Pro 2 race even began, it was over; apparently, a hasty repair made in the relatively short time between qualifying and the race was a little too hasty.

"We came in after qualifying and we had a seal blow out in the rear end, and we only had 15 minutes to get it fixed," Greaves explained. "I got on the gas on the parade lap and ground some stuff up right away. Then we tried to get it fixed, but the race was already halfway over by the time we did. That's part of the deal."

Looking to rebound from the disappointment of the Pro 2 result, Greaves rocketed into the lead ahead of Huseman and the rest when the Pro 4 race went green. A late full-course caution prompted a green-white-checker finish, and even then Greaves looked to have the field covered until, in Turn 3 on lap 15, the power steering quit, allowing second-place Scott Douglas, third-place Huseman and all other lead-lap trucks by and putting Greaves back to ninth at the finish.

"It's pretty disappointing, but that happens," Greaves said.

Huseman, meanwhile, hounded Douglas for much of the race, but just couldn't quite complete the pass, and wound up second as a result.

"We got on the inside of him a couple times, and I thought we could get him," he said. "We're happy with a second."

Kincaid started the Pro Lite race in eighth and looked to have the speed to pick off his rivals one-by-one as he so often does. Unfortunately, the gremlins appeared to be out in force on this day, as the Tacoma slowed drastically on the second lap and pulled off the track, leaving the Wisconsonite to watch the rest of the race from the roof of his wounded truck.

"It was running really good at the beginning, but I think we had an engine problem," he said. "So far we've been doing pretty good in the motor department, and I guess what matters is how we rebound after this. We should be right up there next time, so we'll see how it goes."

SATURDAY
CLASS, DRIVER, TRUCK NUMBER, START, FINISH
Pro 2, Johnny Greaves, No. 4, 10, 6
Pro 4, Johnny Greaves, No. 4, 4, 2
Pro 4, Rick Huseman, No. 3, 5, 7
Pro Lite, Jeff Kincaid, No. 4, 7, 9

SUNDAY
Pro 4, Rick Huseman, No. 3, 2, 2
Pro 4, Johnny Greaves, No. 4, 1, 9
Pro Lite, Jeff Kincaid, No. 4, 8, 25