Rockstar Makita Team LeDuc drivers will try to translate fondness

Tag : Power Tool Accessories
“I think we’re in good shape,’ Curt LeDuc said.Then he paused and laughed and said, “I say that every time,don’t I?”
LeDuc has in fact expressed that sentiment before each of RockstarMakita Team LeDuc’s appearances in the Championship Off-RoadRacing (CORR) series this season, and he hasn’t been wrongyet.
The highly-competitive, closed-course racing series reaches thehalfway point in its eight-race season this weekend (July 25-27)with rounds seven and eight at Chula Vista International Raceway,and all four Rockstar Makita Team LeDuc drivers are in the top 10in the point standings.
Pro 2 class star Todd LeDuc, who won both main events in the mostrecent event at Pomona, Calif., June 7-8, is third in the standingsand has four top 10 finishes in the six rounds. Younger brotherKyle, a rookie in the Pro 4 class, is fifth in the points and hasfive top 10 finishes. Team leader Curt LeDuc has a trio of top 10sand is sixth in Pro 4. And freestyle motocross legend Brian Deegan,a novice at racing on four wheels, has three tops 10s and is 10thin Pro Lite.
The brothers said the point standings are nice to talk about, buttheir focus is on winning races, because if they can do that thetitles will follow.
“I’m happy that we’re somewhat close in thepoints,” Kyle said. “We’ve made a statement sofar this year with my Rockstar Makita Ford and me driving it.We’ve qualified on the pole and we’ve run up front. Butwe need to win a race. That’s my goal.
“We know how to win. We’ve just got to step up and putit together.”
It would be no surprise to see both of the brothers in thewinner’s circle at Chula Vista because they’ve wonthere before and they love the racing at the facility south of SanDiego. Kyle has taken the checkered flag four times in the Pro Liteclass and Todd has three wins in Pro 2, including the 2007 seasonfinale.
“It’s my favorite track,” Todd said. “Thetruck and I usually perform really well there, and I think with thenew Toyo tires it will be a great advantage.
“The track is ‘blue groove’ dirt. It looks kindof like the sprint car tracks looked at the end of a race, reallypacked hard and super slippery. If you’ve got good throttlecontrol you can excel there, but you’ve got to really be niceto it.”
Kyle took part in a recent open test along with Deegan, who isfeatured in an article in Racer X magazine and will be both acontestant in and an ESPN announcer for the X Games at The HomeDepot Center in Carson, Calif., July 31-Aug. 3. Kyle drove theteam’s Pro Lite entry while Deegan drove his own practicetruck and Kyle said they went home with a “good feel”for the track, which is built in a rock quarry surrounded by awildlife preserve.
“The track is huge and it’s exciting, with all theelevation changes,” Kyle said. “It’s more of arace track than Pomona, with ups and downs and lefts and rights.It’s an awesome track.”
Curt LeDuc took advantage of the opportunity afforded by thesix-week break to accept the United Four Wheel DriveAssociations’ invitation to be the keynote speaker at itsconvention in New Hampshire and reacquaint himself with hisMassachusetts roots.
Todd said that most of the time, however, “we’ve beenworking hard and fixing everything” as well as helping Pro 2rival Evan Evans get his new truck ready to race. Curt LeDuc saidthat in a sense helping Evan Evans was a form of repayment for thehelp Evan’s father, Walker Evans, gave LeDuc when he firstcame West to race against the elder Evans and others at RiversideInternational Raceway.
The team also watched a lot of television when NBC and SPEED TVaired replays of the CORR races at Primm, Nevada, and Pomona andpaid particular attention to the performance of the Rockstar MakitaFords.
“We saw what we needed to change on the trucks and made someadjustments, Kyle said. “We cut a lot of stuff up on my truckand made some improvements.”
So, as the elder LeDuc has often said, Rockstar Makita Team LeDucseems to be in good shape for the final five races.
This weekend’s races will be televised live. Saturday’sactivity will be on SPEED from 3 to 5 p.m. PDT and NBC will carrySunday’s races from noon to 1:30 p.m. It will be the firsttime both days of a CORR weekend have been broadcast live.
In addition to Rockstar Energy Drink, Makita Industrial PowerTools, Ford Trucks and Toyo Tires, the team is sponsored byKal-Gard Racing Lubricants, K&N Air Filters, KC Hilites, KMCWheels, Precision Gears, Mogi Transmissions, Ringers Gloves,Automatic Transmission Design (ATD), MSD Ignitions, Sign Pros andDragon Optics.