For Round 3 of the Lucas Oil Regional Off Road Series Cody raced in both the Stock Polaris XP class as well as the Pro Open class in a Pro Lite truck and finished the weekend out with a pair of 2nd place finishes.
In the XP class Cody qualified for the main event in 2econd place missing the pole by .04 seconds and the for the main he started outside row 3 with the inversion. When the green flag flew 20 XP’s charged forward and by turn two with cars spinning and going off course it was hard to tell who was who then a small hole opened up and Cody drove out of the carnage in 5th and proceeded to run down the leader.
By the 3rd lap Cody was in second place and the two broke away from the pack in a 9 lap battle for the lead. Cody did make a pass once and the two were side by side several times but he was unable to make anything stick and crossed the finish line .6 seconds back in second place. More importantly, he also made up the 6 point deficit on the series leader to end the day tied in points for the overall championship in the Stock XP class.
“I love the XP! It’s so fun to drive, the Fox 2.5 shocks make the ride plush and the ITP tires we ran at Lake Elsinore work just as good here. What a blast.â€
For Pro Open the R3motorsports crew had spent over 130 hours fixing and refining the #16 ProLite to try and make up for the trucks less than stellar debut at Round 2 and the time spent was beginning to pay off.
In the qualifier the truck put in five solid laps and Cody placed fourth, then for the main the lineup was inverted and he found himself in an area he wanted no part of, the pole.
The green flew for the main and Cody jumped out front, got through turn one, ran wide in turn two, and let the field pass.
“I was not ready for that yet (the pole) because we really haven’t race tested the truck the last thing I wanted was to wreck and take someone else out too, I wanted to run my own pace first.â€
By the end of lap one Cody was in 5th place out of 9 trucks.
On lap two the leaders took themselves out moving Cody to 3rd.
On lap four Cody began to feel comfortable with the truck, he moved into second and started to pressure the leader which began another battle for the lead. For the next nine laps the two trucks went at it, Cody had even passed and led for one lap but was repassed and finished out the race .3 seconds back for his second, 2nd place finish of the weekend.
“I could have had Alan between turns 4 and 5 on the last lap, he missed a shift but my truck just wouldn’t hook up, I need my Toyo’s (tires). We raced with three different used tires on two different wheels that we got with the truck and turned lap times good enough for 11th at the last National here. We still a have a minor issue with the carb, I need the ProLite to steer like my XP900 does, get the rear shocks dialed in a little more, a body, some real tires, then test. Were close.â€
Cody Rahders and R3motorsports would like to thank all our sponsors for their help;
Polaris, UTVunderground.com, Magnum OffRoad, Fox Shocks, Superchips, ITP Tires, Muzzy’s, K&N Filters, Team Alba Racing, K1 Racegear, Lucas Oil, Black Rhino, RacerX Motorsports, Toyo Tires, Cognito Motorsports, Starting Line Products, American Star Racing, VP Race Fuels, Method Wheels, Fiberwerx.
Thanks to our crew chief Troy Patterson, Kenny Osborn, Nick Novak, Kevin Sullivan, and Ron Patterson.
Doug Rahders
R3motorsports
619-887-8070
Cody Rahders
#816 WORCS 2012 Production 700 Champion
#16 LORORS 2012 SuperLite Champion
#16 LOORRS 2012 SuperLite 6th
Story and Words sent over from Doug Rahders.
