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Taylor and Hoek, Ford and Skyjacker Rule Crandon World Championships
(9-2-08)
CRANDON, Wisc., – A capacity crowd at the 2008 BorgWarner World
Championship Off-Road Races witnessed the biggest off-road racing
spectacle in the history of the sport, some surprising upsets,
dominating wins and more over Labor Day weekend at legendary Crandon
International Off-Road Raceway.
Skyjacker sponsored Ford race trucks of PRO racers Scott Taylor,
Belvidere, Ill., and Ross Hoek, Holland, Mich., ruled the roost at
Crandon, while Jeff Kincaid’s Traxxas Forest County Potawatomi
Toyota also excelled throughout the final weekend on the Lucas Oil
World Series of Off-Road Racing Tour 2008.
Taylor laid claim to the off-road racing’s most cherished prize by
winning the 2008 BorgWarner Shootout. Taylor, a previous winner of
the notable silver and gold BorgWarner Cup in 2002, repeated with a
dominating performance in the final race of the World Championship
weekend. Already the sole racer to have competed in all 14
BorgWarner Shootouts, Taylor sped to victory in his 900 HP PRO 2WD
pickup besting a field of 20 other competitors winning the 10-lap
romp over Crandon’s 1.5 mile track in 15:06.
Taylor reigns as the mythical “King of Off-Road Racing” until the
15th race next year during Crandon Raceway’s gala 40th anniversary
celebration. Taylor outdistanced nine PRO 4x4 race machines that
have dominated previous Shootout races. Taylor is the only driver to
have won the race in a 2-wheel drive pickup and now he has
accomplished the feat twice.
In a race conceived for PRO 4x4 race trucks, for the first time in
history no single 4x4 reached the podium. Runner-up in the event was
Hoek’s PRO 2WD Skyjacker Ford while Dan Vanden Heuvel, Appleton,
Wisc., who sewed up the Lucas Oil World Series of Off-Road Racing
PRO 2WD class championship over the weekend, placed third. The first
WSORR Super Truck to take the checkers was Ben Wandahsega in his
Forest County Potawatomi Toyo Tires Chevy 2-wheel drive truck.
Not to be overshadowed was a stellar performance by Jeff Kincaid –
the country’s most well-known PRO Light Pickup racer. Kincaid
outgunned 10 other competitors to win the 2nd annual Forest County
Potawatomi “Decision at Sundown” PRO Light Pickup Challenge Cup race
that kicked off the ’08 World Championship weekend. He came back to
win the final round of WSORR racing on Sunday, capping his season in
the Midwest with a 2008 WSORR Series class Championship for his
sponsors Traxxas, Forest County Potawatomi and BF Goodrich.
It was an emotional moment for Kincaid of nearby Argonne, Wisc., as
after competing in the PRO Light Pickup class for 15 years, he is
expected to move to a higher horsepower class next season and he
succeeded in going out with a final win in front of his hometown
fans.
The Forest County Potawatomi and BorgWarner serve as major title
sponsors at Crandon.
The BorgWarner World Championship Off-Road Races concluded the 2008
season for both WSORR and Crandon Raceway. Off-road racing returns
to Crandon next year with a special anniversary celebration. The
2009 season kicks off with the annual Forest County Potawatomi Brush
Run Races June 20-21. That will be followed by a commemorative 40th
anniversary BorgWarner Off-Road World Championships again over Labor
Day Weekend, September 4-6, 2009.
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