Lovell Breaks Through in Crandon
Brad Lovell has won enough races in his storied career to be considered one of the best overall off road racers in history. His 95% podium rate in everything from rock crawling to rock racing proves the Colorado native knows how to get the job done. With that level of success, moving into short course racing should have been as easy as building a truck and lining up, right?
Lovell's rookie season in the Traxxas TORC Series presented by AMSOIL in 2010 was a mixture of bad luck, rookie mistakes and a huge learning curve. That curve started to level off towards the end of the year, when Lovell finished as high as fourth in Bark River. Overall, his lack of podium success left him unfulfilled and he committed himself to being on top in the 2011 Pro Light class.
At the opening round in Red Bud, Lovell showed his hard work in the off-season had paid off. From the opening lap, Lovell not only led, but pulled away from a very talented field of drivers. A fuel issue after the mandatory caution dropped Lovell back to 12th, but by leading the opening race gave the AMSOIL driver a much needed boost of confidence.
In Crandon, Wis. this past weekend for the second weekend of TORC racing, that new-found confidence was once again on display. Lovell grabbed the holeshot at the Crandon's infamous Turn One, but a major crash behind on the first lap brought out the red flag and a restart. On the restart, Lovell came out in third, but quickly pushed his way into second behind Traxxas/AMSOIL driver Andrew Caddell. Lovell continued to push Caddell to the end, coming in second and landing himself his first career podium in off road racing.
"Last year was one of the hardest years of racing I have ever had," said Lovell. "But we stuck with it, and after Red Bud, we knew we could get on the box in Crandon."
On Sunday, heavy rains once again curtailed racing at a TORC event this year. Racing was cancelled for the day and is likely to be made up as part of the Labor Day Weekend schedule at the Big House.
