The forty-eighth edition of off-road racing in Crandon, Wisconsin on Labor Day weekend saw Douglas Motorsports compete in all three of the unique races that were on the schedule. When all the dirt had settled, the AMSOIL Rusty's Off-Road Cooper Tire Walker Evans Racing PRO-4x4 brought home a weekend best third place finish in Saturday's TORC race.
The biggest race of the short-course off road season happens every year in Crandon, Wisconsin and the Crandon Cup event definitely lived up to all the hype. Short-course racers from all across the country raced in front of over 50,000 dedicated short-course race fans.
Weekend began on Thursday with practice sessions for all the PRO classes. Douglas Motorsports spent the time trying different set-ups as the team is constantly looking to improve the speed of it nine hundred horsepower hot rod.
The first race of the weekend saw Scott Douglas lined up for Round 11 of the TORC Series presented by AMSOIL. The nine lap race saw the #7 AMSOIL Rusty's Off-Road Cooper Tire Walker Evans Racing PRO-4x4 stay out of any potential melee leading up to the halfway mandatory caution. When racing resumed Douglas really stepped up the pace, putting pressure the second place truck of Johnny Greaves. On the final turn of the race, Douglas took one final run at Greaves only to finish about five feet short from taking the second spot. The third place effort also saw Scott Douglas turn the second quickest lap of the race.
Sunday's Crandon Cup PRO-4 race would see most of the TORC regulars as well as racers from the LOORS series go head to head for a piece of the $37,000 purse. After a solid run on Saturday, the Douglas Motorsports team was very optimistic for another strong performance.
After surviving some initial pushing and shoving coming out of Turn One for the first time, the #7 AMSOIL Rusty's Off-Road Cooper Tire Walker Evans Racing PRO-4x4 concentrated at moving up the running order. On lap two, the truck developed an intermittent ignition issue which hampered the speed of the truck. Undaunted, Douglas continued to press on. When the checkered flag came out after nine laps, Douglas settled for a fifth place finish.
With only a few hours before the AMSOIL Cup, the crew quickly went to work diagnosing the ignition issue. A faulty crankshaft sensor was found and new unit was installed. With that complete, the goal of winning a second AMSOIL Cup was team's only priority.
The PRO-4/PRO-4 Shootout, more properly known as the AMSOIL Cup had one of the strongest fields in recent memory and Scott Douglas was one of the drivers to watch. The ten lap sprint would see Douglas involved with another racer in the opening lap of the race, bringing an end to the weekend for the team.
"The weekend started off pretty good for us with a podium on Saturday," remarked Scott Douglas. "Our confidence level going into Sunday was really high and even with the issue we had in the PRO-4 Shootout, I thought we would have a shot at another AMSOIL Cup win. But it just wasn't in the cards. Hats off to Crandon for putting this amazing weekend together. I know our sport can build on this experience and really look to the future for more events like this. Again thanks to my crew, they really kept me and the truck in the game all weekend and thanks to AMSOIL, Rusty's Off-Road, Cooper Tire, Walker Evans Racing, KC HiLites and all our other partners for their support. We have one more weekend of racing on the schedule and I expect to make it a great one."
The final weekend of the TORC Series presented by AMSOIL is September 23-14 in Elk River, Minnesota.
