The Speedwerx/TraLo Motorsports/Arctic Cat short-course team competed in rounds seven and eight of the Championship Off-Road tour on July 31-August 1 at Dirt City Motorplex in Lena, Wisconsin.
The team had four Arctic Cat Wildcat XX’s competing in the event—Jeremy Houle 54 in Pro Stock, with Jake Jorgenson 11 leading the Sportsman class effort with rookies Andy Houle 4, and Tony So 28 making his debut subbing for Lucas Houle.
Here is the race report from Speedwerx…
The team has made quite a few laps at Dirt City, and it showed in Friday’s practice rounds where even the rookies got up to speed quickly. In the Sportsman class practice session, Andy was ninth quickest, Tony 10th, and Jake 12th. In Pro Stock, Jeremy was 10th in practice and picked up the pace to time in sixth in the qualifying session.
Sportsman SXS Saturday: Jake started second, with Tony in 14th and Andy 19th in the 30-car race. Jake took the lead off the start and built up a nice lead before the competition caution put the field on his back bumper. When the green flew again Jake pulled away and took the win in dominating fashion, making it seven straight top-five finishes in the first seven rounds. Andy fought an intermittent electrical issue and struggled to maintain speed finishing in the 23rd position. Tony was upside down on the first lap and lost two laps before the track crew flipped him back over, he ran some competitive laps before a mechanical issue ended his day early in 29th.
Pro Stock SXS Saturday: As usual, the Pro Stock main was the first up after the main event opening ceremonies and Jeremy was lined up sixth in the 22-car field. Just as the racers pulled on the track, it began to downpour—no one was really ready for the rain and chaos broke out as the green flag flew. Jeremy made a few moves early and found himself in fourth place but was out of tear-offs after the first lap. He pushed on and was running down the race leaders just before the halfway caution.
On the restart, he quickly moved into third place and was looking for a way into second when he was hit with a face full of mud. Unable to see, he hit an infield tractor tire and the damage dropped him back to 14th, the last car on the lead lap. The series officials would later make the call to postpone the remaining Pro truck races until Sunday due to safety concerns.
“We should have had two wins today, we lucked out on our car setup with the rain but I didn’t have enough tear-offs on for the mud.” – Jeremy Houle
Sportsman SXS Sunday: The Saturday night rains had passed quickly and everyone was eager to hit the track again. Jake was starting third, Tony 16th, and Andy 20th in the 29-car main. All three of the drivers started to move forward at the drop of the green. Jake was in second and looking for the lead but wheel-to-wheel contact on one of the jumps bent the steering and he was forced to retire on lap four in the 29th position. Tony was battling hard and worked his way up to seventh at the competition caution with Andy not far behind in 10th. A few laps later, Tony made a pass into third and was looking for a podium finish when the caution flew on the final lap. A hit from behind just after the restart put Tony up on two wheels and then another hit when he landed back on all four broke a tie rod and he was forced to pull off the track with a 25th-place finish. Andy was shuffled back in the last lap melee and was scored 12th at the finish.
“Our cars have showed great speed but our bad luck has been unbelievable this year.” – Jake Jorgenson
Pro Stock SXS Sunday: Jeremy started seventh with an invert based on lap times from Saturday’s race. At the start Jeremy made some quick passes and found himself in third after lap one and before long he was up to second. At the competition caution he was still in second but a bobble by the leader allowed the eventual race winner to sneak by, putting the 54 machine back to third. A restart with two laps to go allowed Jeremy to move back into second place and he was able to hold on to the checkers for his first podium of the season.
VDIEO | Speedwerx/TraLo Motorsports/Arctic Cat Team Wins At Champ Off-Road Lena National | Race Highlights
Replays of the livestream broadcasts for both days at Dirt City will be available soon at the following link:
https://champoffroad.com/on-demand/
Up next will be the Bark River Off-Road National on August 14-15 at Bark River International Raceway in Bark River, MI. The races will again be broadcast with a free livestream on Saturday and Sunday at https://champoffroad.com/livestream/. They will also be available to watch on the FloRacing/FloSports platform, and will be taped for broadcast at a later date on CBS Sports.
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