The World Series of Off Road Racing faced a major hurdle last weekend as it went head to head with the NBC backed Championship Off Road Racing series. AMSOIL rolled out its plan to support both series by breaking up the AMSOIL Super Team of Scott Douglas, Dan Vanden Heuvel and Mike Oberg.
Douglas and Vanden Heuvel headed to the west coast for the CORR event in Pomona, Calif. Douglas rolled out his Pro-4, four-wheel drive Ford F-150 for the two rounds of racing. In qualifying, Douglas grabbed the seventh spot as the top eight Pro-4 trucks qualified within two seconds of each other.
In Saturday's Jason Baldwin Cup Qualifier, Douglas started in the middle of the pack and was soon battling for third position. The veteran driver got caught up in lapped traffic and eventually finished in fifth. In Sunday's points race, Douglas qualified again in seventh. In the 14 lap race, Douglas put the Pro Power horsepower to the Kumho Tires. By lap ten, the #7 AMSOIL Ford F-150 was in second place. Douglas was looking to take the top spot away from 
the leader, Johnny Greaves. Unfortunately, Douglas pressed too hard, got out of shape, allowing three trucks to get by. With time running out, Douglas came home with a well fought fifth place.
"The wholesale changes we made to the truck were right on," said Douglas. "The Kumho Tires worked well, AMSOIL kept our Pro Power engine running cool and strong, and my crew gave me a truck that had a shot at the win. Today was just awesome. There was a lot of passing, everybody raced clean, it was really fun out there today."
Vanden Heuvel, meanwhile, was the talk of the Pro-2 class all weekend long. Vanden Heuvel started sixth in Saturday's point's race. After a red flag restarted the race, The Flying Dutchman tried to gain a spot each lap. He moved to 5th, and was going for 4th with 3 laps left when contact was made with another truck and damage was done to the left front shocks. Not wanting to cause more harm to the truck, he pushed the Pro-2 # 77 as hard as he could on the straight-aways and corners while easing it over the jumps for the last 2 laps. At the checkered flag, Dan came in sixth.
The first event of Sunday was the Jason Baldwin Memorial Cup Qualifying race. Vanden Heuvel started in the pole position and took command of the competition until the 29 truck passed him in turn seven. While they fought for the lead, behind them were two other trucks battling for position and one went over the wall. Shortly after the leader started slowing and Dan saw the opportunity to take back the lead.
The AMSOIL Kumho Tires Pro-2 proved to be a tough truck to pass as they raced side by side for two laps before the #48 truck spun out. Vanden Heuvel quickly pulled away from the field until the mandatory yellow flag on the eighth lap. Vanden Heuvel relinquished the lead on the restart, he held on for the 2nd position at the finish.
“It was great to put the AMSOIL/Kumho Tire truck in the lead for most of the race and I wanted the win so bad in front of the sold out crowd, but getting to the finish line was just as important," said Vanden Heuvel. "We’ll take 2nd and be back here again for the 4th round of Pro-2”
In the next Pro-2 points race, Vanden Heuvel took the lead into turn two as the #10 spun, causing the field a delay in their chase. The 2nd & 3rd position trucks were about five truck lengths behind when one flipped end over end and landed on the wheels. He continued to race while the fourth place truck got by both and chased down Vanden Heuvel. They went back and forth until one lap before the yellow flag when Vanden Heuvel fell to third.
When the green flag waved again, Vanden Heuvel got an incredible jump on the two leaders and had passed both by the end of the front stretch and once again regained the lead. He continued to lead with three laps to go before the #41 truck was looking for a slight mistake by Vanden Heuvel. He bobbled slightly and fell into second, keeping the position through the finish line.
While Douglas and Vanden Heuvel were playing in the California sun, it was their teammate who was picking up four podiums in two different classes in the Midwest. The WSORR held its season opener, The Owantonna Nationals, in southeastern Minnesota. Scott Douglas had fellow AMSOIL Super Team member, Mike Oberg drive his secondary PRO-4 truck in the WSORR event. Oberg and his Jason Baldwin Memorial Cup winning ride are a regular competitor in PRO-2WD division. In a show of support for short-course off-road racing, Douglas arranged for Oberg to represent Douglas Motorsports, and their sponsors, at the Midwest event. Oberg made Douglas Motorsports proud as he took the #71 AMSOIL Ford F-150 to victory in both rounds of racing at the Steele County Fairgrounds.
Oberg also was a top driver in the Pro-2 division, taking his Chevy to a second and third place finish during the two days of racing."We felt that it was important to our sponsors and our sport, to find a way to compete at both events this past weekend," said Douglas. "Fortunately, Mike and I have many of the same sponsors, so there wasn't a conflict. Jeremy Meyer, motorsports coordinator for AMSOIL, liked the idea, so we put it in motion. I think I said it before, but there's tradition in this sport that needs to be respected. After the Mickey Thompson series ended, the Midwest off-road promoters really cultivated the short-course version of off-road racing. Now we are back racing on the West Coast, where it all began with Mickey. Hopefully, we can create a huge national traveling series that incorporates all participants."
The next event on the CORR schedule is the Chula Vista Raceway, just outside San Diego, CA on June 9-10. Stay tuned to the NBC network in your area for the Jason Baldwin Memorial Qualifier race, which will air on Sunday, May 27th 2-3 EST.
Until then, we'll see you at the races,
Jeremy Meyer
AMSOIL Racing Coordinator
