Lovell Racing continued their two truck effort this past weekend at the XRRA Rock Race in Moab, UT. Roger Lovell debuted his revamped #32 DirtLogic Ranger alongside Brad Lovell’s recently constructed #232 Fabtech Ford. The brothers went up against 40 of the nations top rock racers to see who would rise to the top.

The sun crept down the red rock canyon, a cold wind blew, and the drivers gathered to review the running order. As luck would have it, Brad drew poorly and was forced to face the toughest course without the benefit of watching others. The course had the usual jumps and rock climbs but also featured a massive boulder lined trench. “We flew through the jumps and rock climb then tried to straddle the trench,” recalls Brad, “In retrospect that was a bad idea. We got a tire caught, tried to back up, and rolled. It cost us 6 minutes and was a horrible start to the season.”

Roger, however, had different luck. The #32 DirtLogic Ranger made short work of lane #1 setting the fastest time. Roger comments, “Doing 50 miles of this at King of the Hammers really gave me the seat time to feel confident behind the wheel. We spent a day tuning the DirtLogic air shocks in the dunes and the truck felt great.” Roger then marked another respectable time by raking the truck through the rock trench that claimed his teammate and was sitting in 5 th place as the afternoon came to a close. During the final race of the day, however, bad luck struck. The bell housing fractured, wedged itself against the flywheel, and immediately disabled the truck. “It was incredibly frustrating to finish a strong day this way. We were positioned to be in the final round but our luck ran out. It was a freak occurrence that won’t happen again.”

Back in #232 Brad and co-driver Mark Hayward were tearing up the track with the 400 HP Pro-Formance Unlimited Ford motor. “We figured we were out of the running and decided to go for experience and season points,” said Brad. The formula worked and #232 was shaving full minutes off of the competition. “The truck proved incredibly stable and strong. I never felt that I was pushing it beyond its abilities.” At the end of regular racing, Roger’s misfortune made room for Brad in the finals as the Fabtech Ford slid into sixth place with less than a 10 second margin.

With no time to develop strategy, Brad and Mark suited up for 2 more rounds of racing. In lane #1 Brad was fast but overshot a double jump that cost precious time. This effort was only a second faster than his previous time. He would fair well in lane #2 with a well paced clean run. With no knowledge of how the course times added up, the team finally relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the show. Brad would finish the day with a total time of 15:52, over 40 seconds faster than second place. “We came from last place to first place,” adds Brad, “I am amazed by what this truck can do, it is blistering fast. I am exceptionally proud of our team, sponsors, and family for building this vehicle and getting a win our second time out.”

The next competition is only 3 weeks away – WE-Rock Round #1 in Perris, CA April 10-12. Look for more news soon as Brad and Roger team up to test the #232 Fabtech Ford in the premier rockcrawling circuit.