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TORC: Scott Douglas Chicagoland summary

TWO SECOND PLACE FINISHES ADVANCE SCOTT DOUGLAS TO JUST 7-POINTS OUT OF THE PRO 4X4 CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD Chicagoland, Illinois-The 2010 TRAXXAS TORC Series presented by AMSOIL PRO 4X4 points chase is shaping up to be an epic battle. With only two ...

TWO SECOND PLACE FINISHES ADVANCE SCOTT DOUGLAS TO JUST 7-POINTS OUT OF THE PRO 4X4 CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD

Chicagoland, Illinois-The 2010 TRAXXAS TORC Series presented by AMSOIL PRO 4X4 points chase is shaping up to be an epic battle. With only two races to go, the top three drivers are separated by just seven points. Scott Douglas, team owner and driver of the number 7 AMSOIL Kumho Ford F-150 has been in the thick of that battle since the beginning of the season, finishing on the podium (top three) in eight of ten races. The two he finished off the podium, Douglas was taken out by racing contact that knocked the AMSOIL Kumho PRO 4X4 out of contention. Douglas has been on the podium more times than any other PRO 4X4 driver this season, a consistency that is paying off as the season comes down to the wire.

In rounds 9 & 10 of TORC Series action at Route 66 Raceway in Chicago, Douglas forced the issue, refusing to relinquish his championship quest. A PRO 4X4 title would be the 12th Championship of this veteran off-road racer's impressive career.

TORC's Route 66 race was timed to run in advance of the NASCAR Trucks and IZOD Indy Car race weekend. The timing drew both promotional and marketing interest and new fan support from the other race series. Headlining the races, Kyle Busch made his off-road short course debute in a TRAXXAS Toyota Tundra PRO 2WD painted in full M&Ms colors.

Those events didn't take anything away from the action on the track. For round 9 of PRO 4X4 racing, Scott Douglas qualified second and started on the outside of row one. The start had the number 7 AMSOIL Kumho Ford in second after the first lap, but a very aggressive Rick Huseman bounced Dougas back to third on the second lap. Scott went to work on Huseman, while finding his own advantages on the quickly changing Route 66 track. At the half-way point mandatory yellow restart, Douglas took advantage of what he learned in the opening laps of the race an rocketed into first.

Scott held the lead for the next six laps, but a Banzai move by Rick Huseman dropped Douglas back to second. Douglas raced Huseman hard, but there were simply no passing opportunities without the risk of taking both trucks out of the points chase.

The second place finish put Douglas on the inside of row three (the top six trucks are invertered on the starting grid) for round 10. This was the race that had everyone on their feet. Douglas made a calculated move on the start that launced the number 7 truck to second by the time the field came back around to the start/finish line. Scott held second through one yellow and was quickly learning the lines and tactics of race leader Johnny Greaves.

Then, laps before the full-course mandatory yellow, Kyle LeDuc who was a lap down from an earlier roll, hit and turned Douglas at high-speed in midair over the big tabletop infield jump. The crowd gasp, but somehow, after hitting hard of the front left wheel off the side of the jump, Scott was able to save it and looped back onto the race line. The AMSOIL Kumho F- 150 was wounded, but not out. Douglas knew that something was broken or bent in the front end because the truck wasn't going straight anymore. Still, thanks to the Howe Performance Power Steering assembly, Scott was able to keep the truck pointed in the right direction and quickly get back up to speed.

Douglas regained second and held it all the way to the checkered flag. On the last lap, Red Bull driver Steve Barlow took an outside line with one turn to go and pulled along side Douglas. Both trucks were swaping side-to- side through the rough infield rhythm section, banging together several times. Scott held the position and earned his second-second place of the series, moving the DMS AMSOIL Kumho team just 7-points from the PRO 4X4 points lead.

Above all, Scott Douglas was privileged to carry an American Flag in his race truck that proudly flew over our troops in Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was an honor he didn't take lightly. AMSOIL founder Lieutenant Colonel Alber J. Amatuzio was a jet fighter commander in the Air Force and that experience with jet engine lubricants led to his dedication to bringing synthetic lubricants to the consumber market and the start of the AMSOIL.

Rounds 11 and 12 of the 2010 TRAXXAS TORC Series presented by AMSOIL are scheduled for September 4th and 5th (Labor Day weekend) at Crandon International Raceway in Crandon, Wisconsin where the championship will be decided.

-source: dms

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