Fans packed into the grandstands at Glen Helen Raceway last weekend for the latest rounds of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORRS) where veteran off-road racer Rob MacCachren was looking for an unprecedented 200th career victory.
The weekend started with qualifying of Friday, which was used for both Saturday’s and Sunday’s night races. MacCachren has an uncanny knack for qualifying exactly where he needs to be to put his ROCKSTAR Energy Drink / Makita Power Tools / BFGoodrich Tires / TRAXXAS truck at the front of the Pro2 Unlimited field. At the last round of LOORRS racing in Utah MacCachren started on the front row and led from flag to flag.
At Glen Helen MacCachren qualified second amongst 17 drivers, putting him on the third row for Saturday’s race and the second row on Sunday evening. Like the competition yellow, where the competitors are bunched up at the midpoint of the race, LOORRS inverts the starting positions from qualifying to keep the race excitement pegged. When the green flag dropped for the Pro2 Unlimited race on Saturday night, MacCachren knew that he had to keep out of the fracas as rollovers and hard contact caused the field to shrink.
“When we start this far back in the back our team sets up our Fox Racing Shox and groove our BFGoodrich Tires to hook up as the track dries out later in the race,” MacCachren revealed. At the mid-point of Saturday’s race MacCachren was in third place in the No. 21 ROCKSTAR Energy Drink / Makita Power Tools / BFGoodrich Tires / TRAXXAS truck and looking to advance. MacCachren didn’t only have to contend with Patrick Clark ahead of him though, he also was holding off a hard charging Greg Adler, who was fighting for a spot on the podium. As the track went away so did passing options, and MacCachren’s patient driving rewarded him with a third place finish.
The entire LOORRS schedule on Sunday was just a prelude the main event for the weekend: the premier Pro2 Unlimited class. The carnage started before the green flag even dropped when the generator lighting up the track quit functioning! “I was ready to just fire up the KC Hilites and keep racing!” MacCachren joked while waiting for the situation to be resolved. Anticipation built for 20 minutes before the lights came back on and trucks returned to the course. Despite starting fourth MacCachren was sitting in sixth place early in the race, but the patient veteran knew that the lighting generator wouldn’t be the only parts failure on this night. Greg Adler’s engine grenaded in dramatic fashion shortly after MacCachren passed Robert Naughton for the fifth place position. In the second half of the race MacCachren was able to fend off Naughton while battling Robby Woods to get back on the podium. Rob Mac ran out of time to move up beyond fourth place, but his consistency over the weekend paid off as MacCachren put the ROCKSTAR Energy Drink / Makita Tools team unofficially first in Pro2 Unlimited season points with five rounds of racing remaining. “Of course I love winning races, everyone loves winning races,” MacCachren cracked at the end of the weekend. “Winning championships are much more difficult; they require all the pieces of the puzzle. Not just a good driver but the best components and a team that has the knowledge to bring it all together.”
While his 200th career win eluded Rob Mac at Glen Helen, this historic event is only a matter of time. MacCachren is racing the next four weekends straight, starting with TRAXXAS TORC short course racing at Bark River this weekend, then BITD’s Vegas to Reno on August 16-18, followed by LOORRS racing in Reno on August 25-26, and then to the legendary Crandon Raceway on Labor Day weekend for more TRAXXAS TORC weekend. Interested in qualifying times and the latest race news or just want to know when Rob gets his next win? Follow the ROCKSTAR Energy driver on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/21RobMac.