As unlikely as it seems, Rob MacCachren had never won a Pro 2 race at Wild West Motorsports Park. He’s won at the Reno/Sparks, Nevada-area track in Pro 4, but not in Pro 2, the class in which he’s won the championship two out of the last three years. Thanks to two dominating wins in Pro 2, it’s also the class in which he holds a now-even-more commanding lead in the 2016 title chase. Just for good measure, he scored a Pro 4 win as well, although that one may have come as a bit of a surprise.

The dramatic and, to use the drivers’ words, treacherous, Wild West Motorsports Park always makes a spectacular setting for the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series. With its big elevation changes and extremely long straights leading into and out of tight hairpin turns, the track is tricky to set up for. That was especially true for this weekend, when temperatures hit the mid-90s and dry winds meant the track changed quickly from the beginning of a race to the end. In fact, a caution-filled Pro Lite feature on Sunday even featured a mid-race watering because the track dried out so quickly. But when a driver hits the setup right at this track, it spells bad news for the competition, and things certainly seemed to go that way for MacCachren.

“We struggled here in the beginning when they first started coming up here,” MacCachren said. “We just worked harder and harder and harder. I think all that came to fruition to get us a truck that was very strong. It made it easier for me.”

MacCachren started his Rockstar Energy/Makita Tools truck on the front row both days, making his job even simpler. RJ Anderson started alongside him on Saturday, and ran second for the duration of the race. The best battle was between Carl Renezeder and Jeremy McGrath for third, which was impressive considering McGrath had a big crash in qualifying in which he hit, then launched over, the Turn 3 K-rail, requiring a lot of work to his Pro 2 to get it race ready, where he started at the back. McGrath was up to fifth after two laps, then moved up to challenge Renezeder for third. The two traded positions several times before Renezeder claimed it for good.

McGrath has a better day on Sunday. Running fourth in the early going behind MacCachren, Renezeder and Anderson, he was battling with Anderson for second when Renezeder faded on a restart. When he got by Anderson, McGrath started hounding MacCachren.

“Jeremy was definitely pressuring me a little bit today. He made me make a few little mistakes, and I was was laughing: ‘Chill out. Rob. Take a breath, and get yourself a gap again.’ It was an excellent race,” MacCachren said.

MacCachren’s surprise win came in Pro 4 on Sunday – a surprise because the race was absolutely dominated by Renezeder, who started second, took the lead from Doug Fortin on lap 3 and seemed to have no trouble when Fortin came back at him. It helped that Kyle LeDuc had some flat trouble, and then Fortin had issues of his own. However, a slight miscue and a too-sideways landing off the small jump leading into Turn 4 sent Renezeder tumbling. Even he seemed perplexed by what went wrong as he examined the track after he exited the truck. That handed the lead to Eric Barron, with MacCachren and LeDuc behind. LeDuc looked to have another victory in hand when he passed MacCachren and Barron, but MacCachren came back at him to take the victory.

LeDuc had won the previous day in the No. 99 Monster Energy/Toyo Tires truck, starting on the pole alongside Barron after a two-truck inversion. Behind him, there was a lot of chaos, and a bit of a shock podium. First Fortin and Barron battled, with Fortin taking second when Barron went a little wonky off the big drop after Turn 1. But then Barron came back, and Fortin slipped even further. After a yellow when Bradley Morris and Adrian Cenni tangled – remember that later – Renezeder and Fortin got by Barron, then Barron spun. Then Renezeder encountered a problem, first pitting, then limping around. Fortin spun, getting hit by Greg Adler. MacCachren had retired, so now it was Morris and Cenni following a runaway LeDuc. Cenni passed Morris for second, and they finished in that order, with Morris scoring his first podium finish in the class and Cenni’s first since 2012.

The racer who put out the greatest drives of the weekend without getting the ultimate result was Brock Heger in Pro Lite. Heger helped make Pro Lite the best race of Saturday. Starting fifth behind Jerett Brooks after a six-truck inversion (Ryan Beat was the fastest qualifier), he followed Brooks to the front past polesitter Cole Mamer. An early yellow for a Jeff Hoffman roll packed up the field, and Heger went on the attack.

Brooks bobbled coming out of Turn 1 on the restart, and Heger took advantage to take the lead, but only briefly, as Brooks took the position back a corner later. As it turned out, Heger had a deflating tire, and slipped behind Beat as well. Fortunately for him, a yellow for Mickey Thomas’s upside-down truck in Turn 1 allowed him to hit the pits for a new tire without going a lap down.

Headed for the restart at the end of the longest line, Heger made his intentions clear from the beginning, making big move after big move and ending up fourth after just over a lap of green-flag running. But with three of the top contenders in the class in front of him, his chances of landing on the podium were slim.

“I had a good run going,” Heger said. “The drier the track got, the faster my truck got. I tried to put it in on Jerett in Turn 1, and I ended up clipping the inside wall, giving me a flat. Jeremy [team owner and spotter McGrath] actually spotted it for me, and said, ‘Dude, we need to get that tire changed, but you’re going to go a lap down.’ I wasn’t going a lap down, I was either going to run it to the checker or to a yellow. The crew got it changed fast . I wasn’t going to come out of this with another fourth, so I charged hard. I was trying to get Brandon [Arthur], and luckily Brandon and Ryan Beat got together and tightened it up for me.”

It was on the penultimate lap that Arthur hit Beat in Turn 4, spinning him, but also losing a position to Heger. The contact earned Arthur a black flag alongside the checker, and Beat got third back when Arthur was moved to the last position on the lead lap.

Up front, Brooks was untouchable late in the race in his Rigid Industries/General Tire/Bilstein truck, and ran to his fifth win of the season and a nice boost in the points battle with Arthur.

“I was on rails at first, but it got pretty dry at the end and pretty rutted up in Turn 1,” said Brooks. “Before the first yellow, I kept making mistakes, and I knew I had to improve on them. When Brock started pressuring me, I started driving a little too hard, and almost threw it away a few times. After the last caution, the truck just came alive. We got our setup right for that. I felt really comfortable, dodging the ruts, and I think I just started checking out.”

On Sunday, Heger absolutely dominated most of Sunday’s race, as bizarre as it was. It took three tries to actually get a start, then it went immediately yellow. On the first attempt, Broc Dickerson rolled in Turn 1; Sarah Burgess rolled in the same spot on the second. Then came caution after caution. With every one, Heger pulled out a gap over pursuers Brooks and Ryan Beat. Then it all went wrong. On a restart, Beat got by Heger – Brooks had fallen back with an ignition problem – and then Heger made a bit of contact with a barrier, causing a flat. Being late in the race, he had no chance to really make up the lost ground after he changed it, and Beat took his third victory of the season in his Rockstar Energy/Lunarpages truck.

Tire trouble was the theme of Saturday’s Pro Buggy race, which helped Darren Hardesty Jr. come from fourth to take the victory in his Bilstein Shock Absorbers/Mickey Thompson Alumi Craft, his second of the season. On Sunday, Kevin McCullough, who finished second on Saturday, led flag to flag in his Stapleton Roofing/ProAm Foddrill, followed by Garrett George and Mike Valentine, who scored his second bronze finish on his birthday weekend.

The Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series next heads to Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park for the second time in 2016, this time for a pair of night races on Sept. 23-24. It will be the last doubleheader for points of the season, as the finale at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in October will include one points race followed by the Lucas Oil Challenge Cup races.

Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Rounds 11 and 12
Wild West Motorsports Park, Reno, Nev.
Aug. 13-14, 2016

Round 11 Winners
Pro 4, Kyle LeDuc
Pro 2, Rob MacCachren
Pro Lite, Jerett Brooks
Pro Buggy, Darren Hardesty
Mod Kart, Trey D. Gibbs

Round 12 Winners
Pro 4, Rob MacCachren
Pro 2, Rob MacCachren
Pro Lite, Ryan Beat
Pro Buggy, Kevin McCullough
Mod Kart, Hailie Deegan