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Carl Renezeder Earns First Pro-4 National Championship

Carl Renezeder’s latest accomplishment has been a long time coming. For the past five years that Renezeder has been competing in the Lucas Oil Championship Off Road Racing Series, he has pushed himself, his team and his race trucks to the extreme striving for a national championship. The Lucas Oil-sponsored driver finally achieved his goal by clinching the 2003 Pro-4 National Championship title during Round 14 at Unadilla Valley Sports Center in New Berlin, New York.

Prior to the season finale, there were 22 points separating the top four drivers in Pro-4. The drivers and teams were full of anticipation as the championship would be decided in the final two rounds of competition. During Round 13 on Saturday, Renezeder finished behind winner Johnny Greaves after the top four trucks suffered a pile-up on the second turn of lap six. Renezeder recovered from the accident to finish second and increased his points lead by 10.

“We knew going into the weekend that we had to play it conservative if we wanted to win the Pro-4 championship,” said Renezeder. “We were ten points ahead of Kurt (LeDuc) and all we needed to do was keep the equipment together and finish well.”

With the Pro-4 championship in the palm of Renezeder’s hand after Round 13, all he had to do was make one lap on Sunday to clinch the championship. “We played it very conservative in Round 14,” explained the Southern California native. “All I had to do was complete one lap and we had the championship. I started the race in the very back and stayed behind all the other guys until I completed lap one. After that I hammered down and unfortunately the ring and pinion broke but we were still able to finish fifth.”

During the 2003 season, Renezeder earned four Pro-4 wins (Round 6 in Crandon, Round 8 in Bark River and Rounds 11 and 12 in Crandon) and twelve top-five finishes in 14 starts.

If winning the Pro-4 championship wasn’t enough, Renezeder also drove his Lucas Oil Pro-2 Chevy to victory in Round 13. This was Renezeder’s third season victory in Pro-2 and probably the most exciting. With just six points separating the second and third place drivers in the points chase, it was a fierce battle between Renezeder and Evan Evans right to the end. Renezeder crossed the finish line first followed by Scott Taylor and Evans.

During the 2003 season, Renezeder earned four Pro-4 wins (Round 6 in Crandon, Round 8 in Bark River and Rounds 11 and 12 in Crandon) and twelve top-five finishes in 14 starts.

The 2003 season was full of first time accomplishments and career bests for Renezeder and the Lucas Oil team. Renezeder recently won the $100,000 BorgWarner Shootout as well as winning the Long Jump Contest by jumping 192 feet (Bark River, Michigan, August 8, 2003); recording the fastest 2WD All-time lap record at 1:26:64-seconds (Crandon, Wisconsin, August 31, 2001); becoming the only driver to win both Pro-2 and Pro-4 World Championship Races in the same race weekend (Crandon, Wisconsin, Labor Day 2002); and winning the 1994 Baja 1000 in the Unlimited Class.

Renezeder has steadily improved over the past five seasons of CORR competition. The 2002 season was the first season Renezeder competed in both the Pro-2 and Pro-4 and earned fifth and third in the points standings, respectively. In the three years prior, Renezeder finished third in Pro-2.

The Lucas Oil crew has a full schedule in the off-season; including competing in the Baja 1000 in his newly built trophy truck and testing both Lucas Oil trucks. “The off-season is definitely going to be busy for us,” said Renezeder. “We plan to continue researching and developing our program so we can come back in 2004 and be more competitive.”

“We owe a lot of our success to Lucas Oil,” explained Renezeder. “They have continued to support our program with excellent products as we continue to grow and become more competitive. It’s a great honor to be able to bring them their first off-road championship. With the help of our others sponsors, including BF Goodrich who provides us with the most dependable tires on the market, we hope to come back and win the Pro-2 and Pro-4 championships next year.”

Renezeder’s list of sponsors includes Lucas Oil Products, BF Goodrich, K&N Filters, Goodridge, Precision Gear, Auto Meter, MSD Ignition, JE Pistons, Oakwood Development and MLS.

For more information on Carl Renezeder or the Lucas Oil Championship Off Road Racing Series, logon to www.teamrenezeder.com or www.corracing.com.

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