Team Associated's Carl Renezeder Continues his Path of Pro 4 Domination

With the season now in full swing, the Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series heads back to its Southern California home to battle it out at the beautiful Lucas Oil Motorsports Complex in Lake Elsinore, Ca. The Lake Elsinore track features some of the biggest jumps of the season, along with some new obstacles that were added by Lucas Oil to make for more interesting racing. Of those obstacles, the most eye catching would have to be the bump jump that was added to the center of a very high speed turn one. With trucks and buggies sliding sideways at near full speed, this jump made for interesting strategies and line choices when race time came.

The racing action got under way after opening ceremonies concluded in the early afternoon. The Pro 4 class took to the track under some scattered clouds and temperatures in the low 80's. The trucks came to the line with Todd LeDuc and Eric Barron on the front row. Behind them was current points leader Carl Renezeder, who was looking to continue his undefeated streak in the class, and last year's points champion Kyle LeDuc. When the green flag waved, Eric Barron got a jump on the rest of the field and was able to get a good sized lead. A few laps into the race, Kyle suffered a flat and had to pull into the pits, at the same time, Corry Weller brought out the caution with an incident. Kyle was able to get out of the pits and not go a lap down. Barron and Renezeder, now leading the pack around the track, were pulling away from the rest of the field, when Barron was dealt an unlucky card and got a flat and spun allowing Carl to take over the lead. That was all that was needed for Carl, with the pack battling behind him, he was able to stretch out a lead and take the checkered flag to continue his winning streak in the Pro 4 category.

The day would be concluded with the Pro 2 class taking to the track. Todd LeDuc started on the front row filling in for Brian Deegan who was at X-Games in Barcelona, Spain and alongside him was Carl Renezeder with Marty Hart and Rob Mac in the second row. When the green flag came out, the top four ran away from the pack. Rob Mac looked to make a pass early in the race and was able to do so, but when he did, Kyle Leduc spun and killed the motor, bringing out the caution. With the caution coming out just as the pass was made, Carl got the position back. With the restart, Todd was followed by Carl, Rob Mac, Hart, and Robby Woods also was looking to join in the mix. On the restart, Woods made a move past Hart for fourth and had his sights set on the podium. He drove too deep as they came down the hill into turn three and ran into MacCachren and Renezeder causing the pileup in the corner. When it became untangled, Rob Mac was in second, Woods in third, and Carl in fourth. Woods was given the black flag for the move and officials stopped scoring him when he didn't serve the black flag. Todd kept it clean and was able to bring home the win for truck owner Brian Deegan, as Rob Mac took second and Carl Renezeder finished with a solid third.

Come Sunday, Carl was in a position to tie the single season win record with 6 straight wins, which was done last year by Kyle LeDuc in his Pro 4 championship campaign. With the season almost midway through, teams and drivers are starting to think more about points, and just how much every point is worth. After the early morning qualifying session, the field was set for Round 6. The front row contained two drivers that combined have over 300 off-road wins in Carl Renezeder and Rob Mac, and in the second row was the LeDuc brothers in Kyle and Todd. When the green came out, Kyle got a great jump and was able to get past Rob Mac in second and was hot on the rear bumper of Carl. On the second lap, Eric Barron blew the motor, ending his day and weekend. With the field getting stacked back together, Kyle was looking to head to the front and not let Carl take his record of consecutive wins. Later in the race, the pressure from Kyle dropped off when a transmission issue caused him to slow and was eventually overtaken by Rob Mac who was sitting in third. On lap 10 the caution came out for Ryan Beat, who was filling in for Josh Merrill in the #22 MavTV truck, when he spun and killed the motor in the race line. This was not what Carl wanted to see. Rob Mac was now on his rear bumper and was hungry for a win. With the green flag dropping and only a few laps left, Carl had his hands full. The two showed an amazing amount of driving talent and control of their trucks as they swapped lines and at times were only inches from each other. They kept it clean and Rob Mac couldn.t make the pass which allowed Carl to take his 6th straight Pro 4 win of the season.

The Pro 2 class would be the last race of the weekend like usual and just like the Pro 4 race that happened prior, the front row was occupied by Carl Renezeder and Rob Mac, followed by Marty Hart and Todd LeDuc who was filling in for Brian Deegan once again. When racing started the main pack stayed pretty close together which made for some great driving behind them. Kyle LeDuc was able to see the leader and put on a charge going from fifth to third in only a matter of a couple laps. On lap 7 Mike Porter had a fire in the engine compartment and with that the red flag had come out. After the fire was extinguished, the field went under caution and went back to racing on lap 9, with Rob Mac out front followed by Renezeder, and Kyle LeDuc. Robby Woods was battling hard to make his way into the top 5 working on Todd LeDuc when LeDuc had a mechanical issue and had to give up the position. Austin Kimbrell brought out the final caution when his motor blew with only two laps to go. Lucas official decided to go with a green, white, checkered finish. Rob Mac, Renezeder, Kyle LeDuc, Adler, and Woods were the top five coming to the green. Kyle got a good drive on the restart and looked to get by Carl, but he drove it too hard into turn 2 and lost most of his momentum allowing Woods and Adler to pass. Rob Mac had a little something extra that day and Renezeder couldn't get close enough to make a battle for the lead. Rob Mac took home the win and was followed by Carl Renezeder and Robby Woods.

With Rounds 5 and 6 completed, the point's battles are starting to take shape. We head out of California and up to Tooele, Utah which is just outside Salt Lake City and to the Miller Motorsports Complex for Rounds 7 and 8 on June 22nd and 23rd, where we will reach the official half way mark of the season. Be sure to check out all the racing action when it comes to a city near you!