Hord is the BOMB at the Big House, Wins AMSOIL Cup

Crandon, WI—Labor Day Week-end in Off-Road Racing means one thing: racing at the Big House, that is Crandon International Off-Road Raceway. This weekend the Hord Racing team would have to prep the truck for four different races. Before racing could start there were the usual festivities downtown on Friday morning. Trucks were on display lining the streets as fans got to walk through before seeing the annual parade. There was also the driver's meeting for the AMSOIL Cup race, that would be held Sunday evening, the biggest race in Short Course Off Road Racing.

Following the parade the team readied the truck for Friday night's racing action, which was the Round 4 makeup race from the spring run, when torrential downpours left Parson's Pond flooding the track. Chad took the green flag and came into turn one in second place, right on the heels of the leader. Both trucks seemed to have the field covered and were pulling away before the mandatory caution. After the restart Chad appeared to be closing the gap between himself and first place when, with two laps to go, the entire tread ripped off his right rear tire. Chad was able to hold on for his first second place finish of the season.

Chad also received his first Oakley Bomb of this season for having the fastest lap of the race.

SATURDAY: ROUND 9

Rain through the night on Friday would result in the cancellation of Saturday mornings practice session. The Hord Racing Team was confident with the truck after Friday's race and had it prepped and ready to go for Saturday's racing action. The BOSS Snowplow, AMSOIL, Nissan Titan would line up for the land rush start in the fourth position. The BF Goodrich tires put the Nissan Power to the ground and the truck would hold it's fourth position coming into the famous turn one at Crandon Raceway. Chad was patient and ran a clean race patiently waiting for opportunities to make the pass. At the mandatory caution Chad had maintained his position, reeling in the leaders. At the restart Chad made his move and began to work his way through the to the front. When the checkered flag came out Chad found himself in second place again, having run another great race and making up significant ground in the points standings.

SUNDAY: ROUND 10

Sunday morning brought more rain to Crandon and the start of the Pro-2WD race was delayed by more than an hour, while the track crew tried to clear the mud and improve racing conditions. During the delay more rain came. When the Pro-2WD's took the start they came through turn one much slower than their usual pace. The BOSS Snowplow, AMSOIL, Nissan Titan came through turn one in seventh position. Mud had blocked Chad's vision as he came into the turn and his tear offs stuck. Unable to see Chad had to slow to clear his vision to avoid contact with the wall or another truck. Once underway Chad was able to work his way into the fourth position. Again his tear offs stuck and Chad lost two positions in the back section of the track. It was difficult to distinguish trucks as they came by as this was one of the muddiest races that we have ever seen in the Traxxas TORC Series. Chad battled his way back into fourth place before the checkered flags came out. Once again Chad took home the Oakley Bomb for the fastest lap of the race.

HORD WINS THE AMSOIL CUP

The Hord Racing Team had their work cut out for them to prep the truck for the AMSOIL Cup Race on Sunday evening. With their race delayed more than an hour a significant amount of their prep time was gone. The team immediately got to work trying to clean away as much of the 1,000+ pounds of mud that caked the truck after Round 10's racing action. Half came back with the truck to start inspecting it while the others stayed back to scrape the inner aluminum body and panels. With moments to spare the Hord Racing team was one of two Pro-2WD's to make the call for the start of the AMSOIL Cup Race which places the Pro-2WD's and Pro-4x4's against each other in the biggest race in Short Course Off Road Racing. The Pro-2WD's would take the green 20 seconds before the Pro 4x4's. With only two Pro-2WD's it wouldn't take long for the Pro-4x4's to get to the front. When the green flag flew The BOSS Snowplow, AMSOIL, Nissan Titan came through turn one in the lead and never looked back. Chad put down lap after lap of flawless performance. At the halfway point it looked like the Pro-4X4's would catch him on the last lap. Relentlessly Chad pushed his truck to the limits and continued to set lap times consistent with those of the Pro-4x4's. As the white flag came out the entire crowd was cheering as they were witnessing only the second Pro-2WD driver in history win the fall cup race at Crandon. Only four of the ten Pro-4x4's entered put up a lap time faster than Chad's, typically they average two seconds a lap faster. It was an exciting moment for the Hord Racing Team and the biggest race win of Chad's 15 year career. His name will be engraved on the traveling cup trophy and placed in the record books!