United Racing overcomes some adversity at Tuscon

by Dave Grayson

When the United Racing teams joined their fellow ASA Go Fast Speed Truck Challenge competitors, April 21st, at the Tucson Raceway Park they arrived at the track with a great deal of enthusiam not to mention momentum from the success of the previous event in Lake Havasu City-Arizona.

United Racing drivers Bear Rzesnowiecky and Darren Young finished one-two at the Havasu 95 Speedway in their matching Chevrolet trucks sponsored by United Nissan, Sudden Impact and Quaker State.Both drivers arrived in Tucson tied for third in the series’ points standings.

But sometimes the highest levels of enthusiam and momentum can get upstaged by bad racing luck such as the disappearance of a handling set up or a cut tire. It was that form of bad racing luck that upstaged what appeared to be another very successful night for United Racing.

Darrren Young turned up a very good qualifying run, that just barely missed being the fast time of the night, and started the race on the outside of row one.

Throughout the vast majority, of the 100 lap feature, Young was a strong factor in this race and was often seen racing door to door with the eventual winner Victor Pfluger during the early laps. Unfortunately, somewhere around lap 39, the handling started going away and Young now found himself having to saw the steering wheel even harder to make his truck turn. Despite the severity of the situation, he managed to keep his truck in the top five all the way to lap 81 before the handling problems became even worse. Still, he managed to score a very credible ninth place finish in the race despite the tough circumstances.

Despite the hard race, Young was still able to smile after it was all over. Commenting on his night at Tucson Raceway Park he said “as cool as the weather, and the track, got out here tonight the truck definitely got loose and we really didn’t anticipate that. All of the guys that are normally really tight at the beginning of these races, and end up really tight at the end of the races, are the very same guys who did really good tonight. It was a little tough, but what do you do? I certainly want to thank United Nissan for the opportunity but it was definitely not the finish we would have like to seen coming out of here.”

There was another factor that a lot of people were not aware of: Darren Young was playing hurt and has been nursing a broken collarbone. Commenting on the situation he said “I actually still have a broken collarbone. Believe it or not, I broke it about a month ago and I’ve gone through three races with a broken collarbone. I’m still healing with that and I need at least the two weeks,(before the next race on a road course), so I can turn right and left. I would have been in a world of hurt if we would have had a road course race a little earlier” The fact that Darren Young had to saw the steering wheel of an ill handling truck with a broken collarbone for 100 laps truly makes him a racing iron man.

On the other side of a long night in Tucson was United Racing’s Bear Rzesnowiecky. His #3 Chevrolet ran strong throughout the first half of the race and he was consistently hovering from fifth to seventh place just patiently waiting for the time of the race to start his move to the front.

But that anticipated move was upstaged with a cut tire, on lap 51, that had him spinning around on the frontstretch. It also forced an unscheduled pit stop and removed the Las Vegas driver from the lead lap. Despite the reversal of fortune, Rzesnowiecky returned to the action and drove to a respectable 15th place finish.

Commenting on his Tucson evening, Rzesnowiecky said “we had a right rear going down. It probably came off of a caution flag and I think we might have ran over some debris, maybe a pop rivet. But this very awesome team got me back out on the track. I personally want to thank Kendall, Howard and my Dad, Steve Rzesnowiecky, for that fast tire change that allowed to get back out on the track.”

United Racing Team Manager Lee Keach took the evening in stride and said “Darren was just loose all night and he fought it as hard as he could while trying to hold the other trucks off. Then Bear, in the 3 truck, had a flat tire with about 40 laps to go. That’s just racing, it’s just the way it goes sometimes.”

Despite the Tucson evening, the members of United Racing found a way to remain in an upbeat mood. Part of that may be because they know what’s coming next: road course racing. The next two races on the ASA Speed Truck Challenge Series schedule includes a May 5th stop at the Firebird International Raceway, in Chandler-Arizona, and a June 2d visit to the mammoth road course at the California Speedway, in Fontana-California.

If you look at United Racing’s track record for road courses in recent years you’ll find some very high marks. Both of their drivers has a great deal of experience at this type of racing and both of them love the concept of turning left and right on a race track. They both also have some impressive career stats on road courses to back up that experience.

Look for United Racing to shine on these two upcoming road course races simply because running strong on the track and being strong off of the track is what they do best.