Lovell's Open We-Rock Series With Win

Team AMSOIL rock climbing racers Brad and Roger Lovell teamed up for the first 2008 WE-Rock rockcrawl and were victorious in the highly competitive Pro-Mod class. All the previous stars returned for 2008 and the class saw the addition of many veteran Super-Mod competitors such Tracy Jordan and Jason Scherer. The Pro-Modified was by far the largest class in the Perris, Calif. event with 24 entrants.

To the team’s delight, the newly developed Fabtech/AMSOIL/Ford Ranger remained stable and predictable throughout the day.

“I never felt that I pushed it harder than I needed to," said the driver of the truck, Brad Lovell. "I quickly developed faith and felt right at home in the driver’s seat. My biggest concern was our competition. We had been following Tracy Jordan all day and developed a lead, but the running order would favor him on the second day.”

As the first day wound down, Brad lined the truck up for a tough climb on course B1. He pushed a front tire into the rock and the BFGoodrich Krawler obediently crawled to the top. As the second front tire approached, Brad repeatedly stabbed the gas pedal looking for traction. The right bounce finally launched the Ranger up the ledge but while Brad stayed focused on traction and throttle, he abused the power steering pump causing damage.

The start of the day two saw the brothers with a strong 21 point lead over a tie for second place between Jordan and Troy Bailey. Unfortunately, the Lovell's were first to run A4 and needed to decide whether or not to tackle the huge 20 point bonus ledge.

“You have one chance when going down ledges - you either land on your tires or your roof," said Brad. "I don’t think a driver out there wanted to do it but we knew we had to if we wanted to protect our lead. It was roughly equivalent to driving off of a house with only a bail of hay to break your fall. I was pretty nervous as Roger lined me up, I kept telling myself to trust my spotter and have faith in my suspension. Down I went and opened up all 400 horsepower as the front tires landed. Without a bounce the rear tires contacted the ground and I knew we just raised the bar for everyone behind us.”

Team Lovell twisted, turned, and climbed their way through the rest of courses and widened their lead to 26 points over Jordan and nearly 100 points over third place. As the pair approached the finals the realization came that the only battle now was between them and Jordan. The Jordan brothers worked their way through the final course and made it further than any previous team but were unable to finish. This handed the Lovells the win before the Fabtech/AMSOIL/ Ford Ranger even entered the course. Team Lovell skillfully worked the vehicle between the gates and became the only Pro-Mod team to finish.

The WE-Rock victory gives Lovell Racing back to back wins and a season points lead in both XRRA and WE-Rock, all in the same vehicle.

The next stop for the Lovells is XRRA Round #2 in Albuquerque, N.M. on May 3.

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

Visit the AMSOIL website for more information on AMSOIL racing and AMSOIL Synthetic Lubricants.