1600 SINGLE BUGGY 2005-'06
CORR - Championship Off-Road Racing! October 2006, Rounds 7 & 8
What another great weekend of racing! All the weekend action led to the big finally on Sunday afternoon. The Pro 2's & 4's raced for $66,000 in the 1st ever Jason Baldwin (#66) Memorial Cup. It was a winner take all event and Mike Oberg in his Pro 2 managed to hold off Curt LeDuc who was charging hard in his Pro 4 on the last lap. Congratulations Mike!! Our races, Sportsman Single Buggy, were crazy and exciting. At the drop of the Green Flag on Saturday the 33 car field headed for turn 1. Vic Bruckman in the 399 car grabbed the hole-shot and never looked back. Jeff Barrett in the BRM 334 car started 23rd and came into turn 1 backing off the throttle a little. There were a couple of cars just in front of him that were making things exciting and he didn't want to get caught up in the action. That turned out to be a good decision. As the back of the field came into turn 1, there was a lot of mild contact until someone spun out in the dust cloud. I'm not sure, but it may have been Marcos Reyes in the 307 car that was the unlucky one that tried avoiding the spun car and ended up shooting across the track right in front of Jeff and hitting the wall. As the 307 car rode up the wall, Jeff had to back way off to avoid an early DNF. As the 307 balanced on the rear of the cage, Jeff was able to sneak by before it toppled on him. The 1st turn mayhem left one car out and the 307 was able to get running and finish the race. In the mean time there must have been 15 cautions during the 11 lap race... lots of rough driving and car failures. It took until lap 6 that Jeff was finally able to hit turn 5 without a yellow flag slowing him down. There was great action all over the track though but the yellow flags all over the place really kept the field spread out. There were lots of battles but in the end Vic Bruckman in the 399, Kevin Walsh in the 318, and Troy Morgan in the 355 rounded out the top 3. Jeff finished 18th out of 33. Sunday's action was amazing!! All 33 cars took the green and came flying thru turn 1 without casualties. There were 5 or 6 wide near the middle of the pack, it was crazy. As the field went thru dusty turn 2 and down the west stretch towards the big bowl of turn 3, you couldn't make out who anybody was. Coming up out of the bowl and into the right-hander of turn 4, the field was still incredibly tight. Jeff was sitting around 22nd or so with not a lot of wiggle room. This was by far the best race of the season with everyone staying tight the first half of the race. As for Jeff though, things took a turn on lap 2. He had been making his way thru the field and was up to 18th or so when he went for a ride in turn 5. Two cars in front of him set up to take the turn wide so Jeff took the inside line and had a great slide going. He was passing the 1st of the 2 cars when the guy behind him hit him in the side. Hardly any damage at all to the nerf bar (photo below), but with Jeff going hard and in mid-slide it sent his car rolling. At first it was like a slow motion tip onto the left side followed by the car lunging into the air and flipping, coming down hard on the front left corner of the roll cage. Jeff was ok, and as soon as the track crew pushed him over he was off again. He had a lot of ground to make up, and this time there weren't any yellow flags to slow down the field. Jeff did great out there though, he ended up finishing 24th out of 33. In the meantime John Fitzgerald (312) was walked away with the victory followed by Cory & Greg Boyer finishing 2nd & 3rd. After our 1st season of CORR, we had a blast, despite some disappointing finishes, but we're already excited about next season. We hope to put together a full season, stronger finishes, and hope that most of our rookie mistakes are behind us (basically not spinning out in the corners, lol). We'll see you in 2007!!!
CORR - Championship Off-Road Racing! July 2006, Rounds 3 & 4
Despite record breaking heat (and a lot of humidity) we had a great time at rounds 3 & 4. Friday's practice was great, with a lot of action and racers helping one another out. The crowd turn-out was understandably a little low on Saturday as the temperature reached 110º. Normal temps for Chula Vista this time of year are around the upper 70's. With the temperature cooling down to the upper 90's for Sunday there were quite a few more spectators that made it out. As for Team BRM OFFROAD, we made some chassis and suspension adjustments after rounds 1 & 2 but never had the chance to test before this weekend. Luckily everything went smoothly and we had a great practice session. There were a few track changes since round 1 & 2 and every racer out there can tell you how exciting and technical turns 2-4 were. Turn 2 became a high speed turn that allowed us to just keep the throttle down, unless the car in front spun. Turn 3 was a gnarly 180º, downhill, off-camber corner that provided plenty of action in every race. The BRM OFFROAD crew video taped all the racing action from Saturday and were only able to get a few race shots on Sunday. We'll try to get this all figured out by rounds 5 & 6 in September J. Sportsman Single Buggy action on Saturday was great! There were 31 cars in our class and Jeff Barrett, #334 in the BRM OFFROAD GRAPHICS car, started on the very outside of row 1, position 16. When the green flag dropped for the start of the 16 lap race, it was a mad dash to turn 1. Coming out of turn 1 Jeff was around 22nd or so. He carefully got thru turn 3 with everyone else (it seemed like they all took it pretty slow the first couple laps). Juan Sanchotena in the #305 car had a mild rollover coming into turn 1 at the end of lap 1 which unfortunately ended his day. Then another racer, Cissy Baldwin #386 of Baldwin Racing, had some front suspension trouble and broke pretty much right in front of the flag tower. This all lead to a full course red flag condition. Once everyone was cleared the rolling restart was given. By lap 3 Jeff had just made a pass on someone only to give it back up, along with 8 other positions, while spinning out at the dog-leg exit. He got himself going again and started working his way thru the field. The help of the full-course yellow on lap 10 allowed him to catch up to the rest of the field. At that point he was in 17th. When the green was given Jeff made a few quick passes and then was battling for a few laps with Marcos Reyes in the #317 Stylers car, and Vic Bruckman in the #399 ORW (Off Road Warehouse) car, who had an earlier rollover in turn 3. They had a great battle exchanging positions until Jeff was finally able to break free. He then managed to reel in Dave Collier of Gnarly Racing in the #300 SAI car as they went thru the mogul section before the dog-leg (or 'S') section. It was intense side-by-side action as they headed down the back stretch. Coming into turn 1 on the final lap, racing towards the checkers, Jeff was on the outside and that may have helped him keep more speed thru the turn. It was a close call at the checkers, but Jeff just edged out Dave to take 9th on the day. It was awesome! This is only the 3rd time Jeff has been in this car and the 5th race ever. We're usually out riding our quads and don't really have an area to take the buggies for testing and seat time. After watching video of practice on Friday, we discussed how to hit some of the corners and work different lines, as if we were on our quads. It sure paid off... it was great. The finishing order for Round 3 on Saturday was lead by Jeff Knupp in the #354 Napa car taking his 3rd win in a row at Chula Vista. Greg Boyer (316) took 2nd and Ryan Schank (398) finished in a close 3rd. Sunday's action was also good, but not for us. The top 12 racers from Saturday were inverted putting Jeff in position 3 of row 1. Now normally you would think this was a great spot, heck I did J. The green flag waved and the racers were off. Coming into turn 1 Jeff was in about 7th with Vic Bruckman (399) just on his outside, along with Marcos Reyes (317), Cissy Baldwin (386), Evie Baldwin (366), and David Caspino (361). David was having a lot of brake trouble on Saturday. His brake pedal would stick on the floor, so he had to decide if he should really use his brakes or just keep reaching down to pull the pedal up. The start was crazy and exciting as all 31 cars made it thru the first turn without incident. The field went flying thru turn 2 and headed for turn 3. The field slowed quite a bit to make it thru the nail biter (Reyes Racing kids can attest to that J) and there may have been a little contact by a few racers as everyone was trying to hold their line and at the same time not give up a position. Everyone seemed to make it thru turns 3 and 4 and they headed up thru the doubles. Coming into turn 5 Jeff was still around 8th or 9th when his back left wheel hooked a rut and forced him out of the inside line he had. He was then clipped by someone on his left as he tried to keep going, but that just caused him to do a 180 spin in the well-water corner and then he was hit square on by Joe Laff in the 304 car. He then saw Evie Baldwin, #366 of Baldwin Racing, coming right at him. There wasn't much she could do as her front left hit the front of Jeff's left nerf bar. Evie was out with a broken left front end and Jeff was left to gimp our car around to the pit area. So after ½ a lap BRM OFFROAD was done, as well as a couple others. The racing action continued especially in the off-camber turn 3. Cissy Baldwin (386) was coming in to turn 3 high (right outside portion) when she turned left in front of 2 racers. They both tried to brake in time, but there wasn't much they could do. Kevin Walsh in the 318 car bumped Cissy and rolled her over. It was like you could see it coming and it was in such slow motion. Kevin and the other racer kept going, hardly missing a beat, while Cissy had to wait to be rolled back over. Greg Boyer in the 316 car, Sean Kennedy in the 331, and Vic Bruckman in the 399 put on a great show all the way to the checkers, leading the field. Kevin Graves in the 388 car finished in a close 4th. Kevin had a solid weekend finishing 4th both days. Actually Kevin Graves has finished 4th in all 4 rounds at Chula Vista... we'll just start referring to him as "Mr. Consistency", even though I'm sure he would rather finish on the podium. The Pro classes and the Super Buggies put on a great show both days too! Tell your friends about CORR and come and check out the best in short-course off-road racing!!! For more info visit www.corracing.com Enjoy the pix below and feel free to email us if you have any questions about getting involved in CORR (Championship Off Road Racing).
CORR - Championship Off-Road Racing! May 2006, Rounds 1 & 2
All participants are real, our equipment is a basic digital camera, and we just love having fun & racing. After video taping the races in Round 1, we thought we should take some pix for our site. Enjoy the pix, hopefully they'll improve as the season goes on J. For 2006, all the southwest races are in Chula Vista, CA. The track is 20 minutes from downtown San Diego, just off I-805. To get to the track take I-805 south to the Orange Ave exit (exit #4) and go east. Follow Orange Ave for about 3-4 miles and take a right at the light on Heritage street into the spectators entrance. It's great racing that includes 2 sportsman buggy classes and 3 pro truck classes. If you're in the midwest, you already know how big CORR is. The pros hit speeds in excess of 100mph and seriously launch off the jumps. The action is intense and exciting. There is a lot to see and do at the weekend event including free pit access, meeting all the drivers, taking home free posters from the pro teams, and getting your favorite racers autographs. Not to mention the kids fun zone that has a ton of stuff to do for kids of all ages... so load up and head to the races!
CORR Beginnings - Chula Vista, CA 2005
WOW!!!! That was awesome!! We had a our first 2 CORR races at Chula Vista International Raceway on October 1st & 2nd and it was incredible!! We can't wait for the '06 season. There were 44 sportsman single buggies signed up to compete for the $20,000 grand prize. The class was much larger than Jim Baldwin and the rest of the CORR crew anticipated and ended up splitting our class in half as well as the purse. With 22 cars on the line the adrenaline was flowing. Jeff was in group A and Missy was split into group B so we had a BRM OFFROAD car in both races. On Saturday, Jeff and the rest of group A raced early in the day with a nicely groomed track. This was Jeff's first ever race and only the 2nd time in the car. He had about a ½ hour of testing in the spring. Missy and group B were the last race of the day, and the track was brutal as it saw action by the 38 stock trucks, super buggies, pro-lites, pro-2's, pro-4's, and desert trucks. The track layout was great though. At the start there was a landrush start to turn one, but not before launching off a 4-5 foot jump. Jeff wasn't too worried about what his car would do, since it's a proven race car. However, Missy wasn't so sure of the #319 car that we built. The only dirt it had seen up to this point was the pits. But Missy kept the hammer down and hit the jump full speed. This was highly recommended by the other racers out there too J. Jeff did pretty good on Saturday but had to fight the car in the corners due to some front suspension issues. He finished 16th out of the 22, not bad for his 1st race. We were able to address the front end issues after the race and Jeff did a lot better in race 2 on Sunday with a respectable 13th. Missy had a good time in race 1 as well. She was battling for a top 15 position when she lost her left rear wheel just as she went thru the rhythm section to get the white flag. Her day was done with a 17th place finish. The car did great in it's 1st race without any practice time, but we still have quite a bit to work out. We fixed the wheel (oblong holes now) and tightened the wheel nuts as tight as we could to prepare for race 2 on Sunday. The wheel stayed on throughout the duration of the race, but a few other problems were noted: the steering wheel would spin on the shaft in some corners, the shift linkage wouldn't go into 2nd gear, and 1 of the lugnuts on the rear left tire had come off with another lugnut that had backed itself off half way. Missy finished with a 16th place finish out of 22. We had a great time in our debut and are already excited about the 2006 season.
