Off Road

Riverside CA (September 7, 2009)-Rick and his band of Husemans made the more than 30 hour trek from California to the fabled Crandon track with high expectations and a desire to show what the Monster Energy/ Traxxas/ Toyota/ Toyo team could do in front of more than 50,000 of the most rabid off-road fans in the country. Fans made the pilgrimage for the 40th Anniversary celebration of the Crandon track. Rick started the “Monster” weekend on fire by setting a new PRO 4x4 track record and the stage for another great showdown in a tight points battle for the Traxxas TORC Series championship.

As if the $40,000 prize money, a tight points race, and the coveted BorgWarner cup weren’t enough incentive to win Sunday’s race, throw the element of a live television broadcast into the mix and you’ve got the makings of some insane racing. The crowd was not disappointed-standing on their feet the entire race as a field of 13 powerful PRO 4x4 trucks roared past them on the front stretch at speeds of nearly 100 mph. The BorgWarner Cup race also served as the Round 12 series points race.

In any racing there are the signature catastrophic incidents. At Talladega and Daytona-they call it “the big one”, in Crandon, it’s the “land rush start followed by the turn-1 hole shot. This year was no exception. Turn-1 claimed six trucks including fellow Traxxas drivers Mike and Mark Jenkins. Mike took a wild ride into the infield fencing which prevented him from ending up in the pond. Rick Huseman survived the mayhem with only a flat tire and some fiberglass damage that would prove to be significant later in the race as he fought his way to the front. Due to the carnage, USAC made the call to restart the race. This allowed the team to change the tire and be ready for the restart.

When the dust settled from the second land rush start, Curt LeDuc had made the hole shot followed his son, Kyle LeDuc, then the Monster Energy drivers Johnny Greaves and Rick Huseman. By lap-2, both Kyle and Johnny were able to pass the elder LeDuc leaving Rick to literally fight with LeDuc for the third spot. On lap three, damage from the first crash began to take its toll on Huseman as a piece of fiberglass on the driver’s side made it almost impossible to see. Still he worked hard looking around it, managing to stay competitive and finally make the pass on Curt.

Huseman described his BorgWarner Cup race: “Obviously we had a strong truck this weekend, setting the track’s fastest lap time record for Toyota/TRD and Toyo in qualifying on Friday–but we were unable to really prove it on Saturday, losing third gear. Then the crash in turn one messed us up too–I just could not see well enough to get too crazy with battling for position. If it weren’t for my Dirt Logic shocks and Weismann transmission setup and along with the strong motor Toyota gave me, we would not have been able finished where we did. And, my Toyo tires stayed with me all the way to the end. They got me through that last turn with Curt banging on me and I was able to shoot ahead to the finish line and finish well for this Monster Energy/ Traxxas/ Toyota/ Toyo team!”

On lap six, Huseman had cleared was making a run to catch team mate Johnny Greaves, when Johnny bicycled and rolled. He would have been able to continue-but fuel had pooled up and poured down onto the motor and ignited when the track crews rolled him back over, taking him out of the race. Once again, Johnny’s misfortune turned into Huseman’s fortune. Huseman charged ahead to chase down the front running Kyle LeDuc.

Huseman’s Toyota and Toyo tag team proved what they are made of on the final turn when LeDuc tried to bump and duck inside of Huseman on the final turn. But Rick’s Toyo’s still had the forward bite and shot him out ahead on the outside of the turn to maintain and win the second spot, earning him his 9th podium. He has faired no worse than a top five in the 12 rounds of TORC series racing thus far this year. Rick widened his point spread on second place running Kyle LeDuc by 21 points.

Thirteen PRO 4x4 trucks were on the starting grid for Saturday’s race, the most this season, with Rick starting in the 6th spot. The first race of the weekend was filled with a lot of aggressive driving and crashes affecting just about all the machines on the track. Steve Barlow led the pack through the hole shot and around the track for lap-1. But Kyle LeDuc got into Barlow while they were both in the air, sending Barlow rolling hard into the bank in front of the large Saturday crowd.

Rick made it through the wreck but on the second lap he had a mechanical drivetrain issue on his black and green clad Monster Energy themed Toyota. He struggled through each lap pushing the number 36 as hard as he could without damaging the engine. Douglas, Hord, Greaves, and Curt LeDuc were up front leaving Rick to battle with the likes of Adrian Cenni, Mark Jenkins, Mike Jenkins, and Steve McCrossan for a top five spot.

On lap 7, Kyle LeDuc hit Adrian in the side causing him to flip taking himself and Adrian out of contention. As everyone tried to avoid the carnage, Mike Jenkins and Rick make contact as Cenni’s truck lay on its side as the field hit the start/finish line. The race ended with Huseman managing to squeeze out a fifth place finish and salvage valuable championship points. While the thousands of campers and fans partied through the night, the Huseman team had their Makita Power Tools screaming through the night to get the transmission replaced and the truck ready for the all important BorgWarner/Round 12 combination race on Sunday.