Douglas Makes History on NBC

AMSOIL/Kumho Tires Super Team driver Scott Douglas picked an opportune time to pick up his first win of the 2008 season. The El Cajon, Calif. native picked his home track (Chula Vista) and made a historical run in becoming the first Pro 4 driver to win a Championship Off Road Racing event on live network television (NBC).

Entering the weekend, Douglas had mad the podium in five of the first six CORR races and a strong run on Saturday brought that total to six.

The inverted starting grid put Douglas on the outside of row two. Just moments after the green flag was waved, the red flag came out as fellow AMSOIL/Red Bull driver Steve Barlow had a hard crash, flying end over end in the air, as his truck attempted to fly over the front straightaway table top. Fortunately, Steve was okay, but the truck was in need of serious repair.

The rolling restart saw Douglas and his #7 AMSOIL Kumho Tire Sycuan Casino Ford F150 hold its fourth place position, at the end of the first lap. After four laps, Scott is challenged by #99 Kyle LeDuc, but the attack ends as LeDuc rolls on lap seven. (LeDuc lands on his wheels and keeps going, but loses a lot ground to Scott.) Then, #3 Rick Huseman, feeling pressure from Scott, came into Turn 5 too fast, and had to drive through the Hot Pit to avoid rolling over. This moved Douglas Motorsports in third place. After fourteen laps, Douglas finishes Round 7 on the podium, in third place.

Sunday morning qualifying saw the grey and black AMSOIL Ford stop the clocks at 53.425 seconds, the second fastest qualifying time in PRO-4.

Quickly, Douglas moved in behind the leader, Johnny Greaves, as Huseman was right on the Douglas' rear bumper. The top three stayed in this order through the mandatory caution on lap eight, and the full caution on lap eleven. Several times Huseman made a run, but the Kumho Tires kept Scott in second place. Then on lap twelve, Greaves hit the Turn 2 berm hard, bending a tie rod and damaging his power steering. This put the Douglas into the lead. Huseman took one final shot at Douglas, but the El Cajon driver pulled away for his first win of the season in front of a nationwide, NBC audience.

"I couldn't be prouder of my crew," said Douglas. "It's the biggest reason we've been on the podium in seven of the eight races, and always qualifying up front all year long. The Round 8 win is the result of my crew. This truck has been solid all year. Saturday night the guys worked until 10:00pm checking and rechecking everything and it shows in our results. The track in Chula Vista is really hard on equipment. It's really fast, yet it has many of the abusive characteristics of a desert race. It was great to win when NBC Sports was broadcasting live, in front of my hometown fans, with AMSOIL supporting us at the track. Having everyone here made the victory that much sweeter."

Other AMSOIL drivers had solid weekends with Chad Hord taking a fourth in Pro Lite on Sunday after getting caught up in two wrecks on Saturday. Mike Oberg pushed his Pro Lite up at least four spots on both Saturday and Sunday, finishing ninth on Sunday despite a bad crash during qualifying. The Oberg crew had less than two hours to get the AMSOIL Chevy back on track for the top ten run.

The next race for CORR is the third and final race in Pomona, Calif, August 16-17.

Until then, we'll see you at the races.