LAKE FOREST, CA – Three podiums on the opening weekend of the season is a great way to get your championship points in order.  Carl Renezeder brought home second and sixth-place finishes in his Lucas Oil/General Tire Pro-2, and a pair of podiums (second and third) in his Lucas Oil/General Tire Pro-4.

“Obviously, our goal is to put a mark in the win column each time we go out there,” explained Renezeder at the end of the race weekend.  “But if we don’t get that done, it’s nice to keep DNFs off the books as well.  Not finishing a race digs you into a hole that can be hard to climb back out of as the year progresses.  I’m happy with some of the changes we’ve made on the trucks for this year, and I’m confident about the rest of our season.”

The weekend opened with practice and qualifying on Friday afternoon.  Renezeder qualified his Pro-2 in the second position, then followed it up with a fifth-place qualifying effort in his Pro-4.  On Saturday afternoon he turned those results into a pair of second-place finishes.

The fields then re-qualified Sunday morning for round two of racing that afternoon.  Renezeder duplicated his round one qualifying effort with another second and fifth-place result in the Pro-2 and Pro-4, respectively.

He seemed to have a target on his truck in the Pro-4 race, as he got hammered on several different occasions, each time working his way back toward the front until he ran out of time to chase the top two spots.  He salvaged a third-place finish and was lucky the truck was still in one piece.  The Pro-2 race didn’t fair quite so well, and with nearly half the race remaining, Renezeder babied a broken truck to the finish.  Incidental contact broke the upper a-arm on the front left corner, so he was forced to limp it around the track for as long as it would hold.  Sixth place was an impressive result.

The series heads north of Phoenix to Surprise, Arizona the weekend of April 15-17 for rounds three and four of the championship, but you can catch all first weekend’s action on the following dates and times (check your local listings to confirm):

Rnd 1 – Saturday, 4/2/11 at 6:00 p.m. on SPEED (Pro-2)

Rnd 1 – Saturday, 4/9/11 at 10:00 p.m. on SPEED (Pro-4)

Rnd 2 – Saturday, 4/16/11 at 4:00 p.m. on SPEED (Pro-2)

Rnd 2 – Saturday, 4/23/11 at 6:00 p.m. on SPEED (Pro-4)

Rnd 2 – Sunday, 5/1/11 at 1:00 p.m. on CBS (Pro-2 and Pro-4)