Lovell-Off-Road-6-21-13Crandon, WI – “We’re back!” exclaimed Roger Lovell after winning the 2nd Round of the Dirt Riot Mountain Series in front of a hometown crowd. Lovell Racing had a banner weekend with Roger nabbing a win and Brad finishing on the podium twice in Bark River.

Roger Lovell piloted the #1 AMSOIL/Torchmate/BFGoodrich racer solo this weekend as the team split for double duty. Running on a hometown track has it’s advantages and Roger expressed confidence in tackling the race alone, “On a course like this, you pretty much know the dangers and gotchas. After pre-running, I had a plan and stuck to it.” Roger is no stranger to wins at RAM Off-Road park where in 2007 he took the XRRA National Championship.

Lovell qualified 5th putting him ahead of most traffic. Typical for Roger’s style, the longer the race the faster he becomes. After the halfway point in the race, Roger had a 7-minute lead and finished the race a full lap ahead of the competition. “My family and crew really helped out and the truck ran flawlessly all day.” The win puts Team Lovell in the series lead.

Meanwhile, Brad Lovell was struggling to defend the team’s TORC Pro-Light Championship. At home on the fast tracks Brad immediately set fast time in practice but suffered a catastrophic rollover and minor fire. “We’ve had some disastrous weekends this year and it felt like the start of another.” Brad explained. The crew jumped on the truck and got it patched together in just over an hour enabling Brad to make qualifying. The effort paid off as the team qualified 2nd.

In the Friday race Lovell got a good start and despite bruises from other racers, pulled off a 2nd place finish. “Getting on the podium felt like a ton of weight lifted off my shoulders. Finally, we are running strong again!” Saturday’s race saw Lovell finish 3rd after a near rollover on the last lap almost cost him his podium spot. The team would face cooling issues in the final race of the weekend but still managed a 6th place finish. “Overall we had a great weekend and are back on track for another winning season!”