Cole Mamer Wins At The Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park!

After a five-month hiatus, the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series returned to Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Chandler, AZ to kick off the 2014 season. The long winter allowed many of the most talked-about teams to make vehicle, sponsorship, and even driver changes. With the countless hours in the shop preparing trucks and buggies completed, teams were looking to start the season off on a good foot and chase after the prestigious 2014 championship.

The newest member to the Team Associated short-course off-road team, Cole Mamer, came out swinging in the Mod Kart class on Saturday. He jumped out to an early lead and didn’t let anyone else out front. Cole ran wire-to-wire and was able to take home the opening round win. Another Team Associated driver, Brooke Kawell, put in a great run and worked herself from deep in the pack into the fourth position. Late in the race, she briefly slowed due to a loose plug wire, causing her to fall back a couple of spots. She came back fighting and finished with a respectable and hard-fought 5th place finish.

Sunday morning came around and Cole’s previous day win was stripped due to a post-race infraction in tech. Late in his run on Saturday Cole was hit by another driver, knocking his suspension hard enough so that it shortened the kart's wheelbase by an eighth of an inch, ultimately disqualifying his first place points. Cole was looking for redemption and starting once again on the outside of the front row would be a major help. On the start, pole sitter, Travis Pecoy held the lead and Cole dropped back into the third spot. As the race continued, Cole made a pass into the second spot and had his eyes set on the back bumper of Pecoy. After the completion yellow, Cole managed to make a clean pass and he took over the lead. A late incident brought out the caution and officials decided that a green/white checkers would conclude the race. Cole held off Pecoy on the restart, Pecoy spun, collecting a couple other karts, giving Cole a large gap to work with, as he played it conservative and drove to a weekend sweep.

After the karts ran, the pro classes kicked off with the Pro2 division. Stacked with many veteran drivers, such as Carl Renezeder and Rob MacCachren, they had their hands full with several new faces to the LOORRS Pro2 field. Starting the race on the front row was multi-time Pro2 champion Bryce Menzies and 2012 class champion, Brian Deegan. On the start of the race, Menzies led the pack while Carl Renezeder was looking to move forward from his 5th place position. Renezeder’s first victim was young gun RJ Anderson. Renezeder got underneath RJ and moved into fourth and was looking to get by Rob Mac next. RJ had other plans and stuck with the veterans and was able to make an outside pass on Renezeder and MacCachren as they came together in the split line coming onto the straightaway. The trio entered the big “Ski Jump” three wide with Carl coming out on top, making a two-position pass as they all entered the next corner. Carl then made some space between RJ and MacCachren and came up onto the rear bumper of Brian Deegan. Renezeder and Deegan swapped positions a couple times. Bryce Menzies had all but checked out by this time and ended up holding onto the win leading the race wire-to-wire followed by Renezeder and Deegan.

In the Pro4 category Eric Barron was the fastest truck on the track both days as defending class champion Carl Renezeder would suffer drivetrain issues all weekend. Eric ran hard Saturday, finishing in a solid second place and capturing the Fast Lap award. Sunday he was not so lucky when he too suffered drivetrain issues, sidelining him mid-way through the race.

The first two rounds have shown that this year isn't going to be a walk in the park for a championship in any class. Each class is stacked with an immense amount of talent, which is going to make the drivers and teams work extra hard if they want to walk away at the end of the year on top of the points. With teams already hard at work preparing for the next round, which will be back in Southern California at the Lake Elsinore Motorsports Complex in Lake Elsinore, you can bet that those who didn't fare well in the first two rounds aren't going to roll over, but they will get back charging even harder.

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