Hart and Huntington Knocks Out a Wild Weekend in Las Vegas

A wild
weekend in Las Vegas, isn’t that the whole reason millions visit sin
city every year? For many, yes. For some, the appeal is the famed Las
Vegas Motor Speedway that host a variety of racing competitions. The
racers and crews that maintain the exotic high performance machines of
the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series are wishing for anything but wild
and prefer a tamed down version. When the racing does not go according
to plan, the common phrase “the city that never sleeps” becomes the
real life scenario.

For ProLite
championship contender, Chris Brandt driver of the #82 MavTV / Hart and
Huntington Toyota, the typical race weekend began to play out on
Friday. Brandt qualified 2^nd fastest, just under a second
off the pace of Brian Deegan’s quickest lap. From there, Chris and the
crew made standard adjustments to tune the truck for the quick and
tight features the Las Vegas track is known for.

Come race day, officials clearly spelled out
the rules and penalties addressing the class of off road drivers that
overly aggressive driving would not be tolerated. However, like a
reckless band of highschoolers ignoring the teacher, the field of
ProLites forgot the morning briefing and drove with complete disregard.
“It was a smash fest” Brandt later described, “I had the line and then
here comes this guy trying to drive over the front of my truck.”  Chris
started mid pack after the inversion and aimed the #82 forward to work
through traffic. Instead contact from all sides slowed Brandt’s
momentum while the leaders pulled away.

By the time the Hart and Huntington ProLite
found any clean air, the competition caution was out. Again on the
restart, chaos collected in Turn #1 and then spit trucks colliding
coming off the ski jump. Contact on every corner and than a spin out in
Turn #4 punted Chris back into 6th. Now just fighting to finish in the
top 5, Chris did everything he could to move forward but there would be
only 1 lap left under green as the race finished under caution. Brandt
managed a 5th place finish and later in the pits remarked “I know it is
Off Road Racing and contact is part of the game, but that was just
stupid. There were 16 trucks on the track and 12 of them ran into me. I
wonder if they went to the same drivers meeting I went to. As bad as
that race was, we still pulled off a decent finish and we are still
leading the division by 11 points.”

Chris Brandt’s crew are some of the best in
the game and knocked out the night by repairing and putting the MavTV
Toyota back together for Sunday’s Round 14. Feeling solid and
optimistic Chris was looking forward to dishing out his version of
justice. “They cannot run into me, if they cannot catch me. I got my
BFG Tires and I am starting on the front row.” Unfortunately that
wishful thinking dissipated on Lap 3 when the #82’s drive train let go.
Brandt did everything he could to keep the truck going around the track
for points but with no drive power to the wheels it was just a lost
cause.

Chris took home 66 points versus the new
ProLite points leader, Marty Hart who was able to win both rounds and
earned 96 points. As the 2nd contender, Brandt trails Hart by 13 points
going into the final race of the 2010 season. Brian Deegan is behind by
27 points.

To view the behind the scenes webisodes click to the Hart and Huntington Off Road YouTube page: Click HERE

Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Round 15 and the
coveted Challenge Cup event go down on December 11-12 at Phoenix
Firebird Raceway in Arizona. This final race weekend is sure to be a
sell out so get your tickets now. If you missed any race action be sure
to tune into SPEED TV and CBS Sports to catch the complete race
broadcast.