June 23, 2008 (Fond du Lac, WI): The World-Series of Off-Road Racing (WSORR) continued the 2008 season with two rounds of racing at the Crandon International Off-Road Raceway over the past weekend. WSORR Pro-2WD rookie driver Dave Waldvogel and his Bendix® Brakes/Toyo Tires race truck entered the weekend 3rd in the season point standings after the opening weekend in Wheatland, Missouri. Dave has a history of good results at the Crandon track, and the entire crew was excited at the opportunity to compete in the Pro-2WD class at what most of the Waldvogel crew considers their “home” track.

On Saturday, Dave started the race strong, pulling into 2nd position off the famous “Oklahoma Land Rush Start”. At Crandon, the land rush start is basically a ¼ mile dirt dragstrip with several bumps and jumps, which feeds into Crandon’s turn one. Turn one is a high speed, variable banked corner with speeds exceeding the 100mph mark. Dave rigidly held the 2nd position over long-time veterans Dan VandenHeuvel and Scott Taylor, while keeping Kevin Probst, the leader of the race, in his sight the entire time. Nearing the halfway point of the race, Dave got loose in the hairpin corner in the back loop of the track, and VandenHeuvel and Taylor both made contact with the Bendix® Chevy. When they had all straightened out, Dave had fallen back to the 5th position, and had developed a violent shake in the truck’s front suspension. Dave cautiously felt out the truck over the next few laps, attempting to determine the reason for the vibration. Dave fell back to 6th position shortly after the spin, and held that position for the duration of the race, finishing in 6th.

For Sunday’s race, with the confidence earned from Round Three, Dave seemed to attack the land rush start even more fiercely than on Saturday, and this time it paid off, with the Bendix® Brakes/Toyo Tires Truck pulling the hole-shot and holding the lead through turn one. Dave held this position for the first lap, falling into 2nd behind Kevin Probst after sliding wide in the finish line corner. Dave continued to battle with Probst and Scott Taylor for the next three laps, and was in the 3rd position when there was a fire spotted underneath the Bendix® truck. Dave looked for the nearest track workers since they carry fire extinguishers and immediately pulled off the track. This ended the race for the Bendix® team, since the fire source could not initially be found. . Shortly after the race, the team determined that a fuel line fitting had failed, and was slowly dripping race fuel onto the exhaust of the 800HP-plus Bendix® race truck. This was causing flash fires, which luckily did not lead to any other significant damage to the truck. While attempting to exit the track to extinguish the reported fire, Dave inadvertantly made contact with a fellow Pro-2WD competitor, which actually caused more damage than the flash fires. With another race only a few hours later in the afternoon, the crew had their work cut out to get the truck ready to race again.

The race weekend ended with the Chairman’s Cup race, a challenge race pitting the Pro-2WD trucks against the Pro-4x4 trucks in an all out bragging rights money race. The afternoon weather had turned sour, with several on-again, off-again deluges of rain which made the track a slippery, sloppy mess. This is Off-Road though, and a little slop and rain wouldn’t keep these boys off the track. At the drop of the green, Dave again dug his way to the lead. In the extreme slop, judging entry speeds into typically high speed corners became treacherous at best. Dave fell back to 2nd position within the first lap, and held in the top three until failure of his helmet tear-offs eliminated all visibility for the Bendix® race truck driver. Dave attempted to maneuver his truck in a safe manner until he could regain visibility, but was caught up in contact on the front straight, ending his chances of a podium finish in the event. Dave continued for a few laps but pulled off after complete loss of his tear-off system had occurred. It was a very non-eventful finish to a weekend full of ups and downs. After the races, Dave commented:

“It is always disappointing to start a race well and not be able to finish. That happened to us every race this weekend for varying reasons…some of which were completely out of our control. My crew did a great job getting the truck ready all weekend, and they put me into a very fast truck both days. Even though we didn’t get the results this weekend, I am very happy with how the truck is working and am confident that we will get the Bendix® truck back on the podium soon”

After four rounds of racing, Dave is still holding onto the 3rd position in season point standings, 16 points out of 1st place. The next race for the Bendix®/Toyo Tires Pro-2WD is at the Bark River International Off-Road Raceway on July 12th & 13th.

The Waldvogel Off-Road Race team is sponsored by Bendix® by Honeywell. The Bendix® brand has been a leader in automotive braking technology since 1924. To find out where you can purchase Bendix® Brake products, or to learn more about the products made by Bendix®, visit www.Bendixbrakes.com.

Other sponsors of the Waldvogel Team are Toyo Tires, AMSOIL Synthetic Lubricants, Fox Racing Shox, MSD Ignition, Phlox Auto, Raceline Wheels by Allied, and Flowmaster Mufflers. For more details on any of Waldvogel Racing’s fine sponsors, and links to their websites, visit www.waldvogelracing.com