Todd Cuffaro Dices Nissan/UPR 46 Pro Lite To Top Five Overall in CORR Season Opener
SPEED TV Broadcasts Race Live – First Time Ever in Off Road Racing!
San Diego, CA (April 28, 2008) – Championship Off Road Racing opened their season series race weekend with a victory as they broadcasted "LIVE" the first ever off road race on national television. Over the past three decades many races have been tape delayed, but CORR CEO, Jim Baldwin, continues to forge his vision in providing exciting off road racing live on television.
CORR included the huge field of Pro Lites in their television broadcast, which included Todd Cuffaro's 46 Pro Lite race truck. The strategy headed into the first race weekend of the series was conservative for Cuffaro Motorsports and it paid off handsomely as driver Todd Cuffaro raced the 46 Nissan/UPR CORR Pro Lite to two impressive top ten finishes.
Todd began the weekend with a solid qualifying effort that put his 46 Nissan powered Pro Lite in the top group of racers heading into the first Pro Lite race of the weekend. As the green flag dropped, the 46 allowed the field to settle down in front of him as a handful of the 28 truck field began to drop out of the race amid crashes and mechanical failure.
"My plan coming into the first race of the season was to get into the top ten and work towards the all important season championship. You really have to finish every race to stay in the running for the year end overall victory. As we expected, the first race was filled with broken trucks and close door-to-door racing all over the course. We were able to stay out of all the trouble and run our race. It worked out well as we finished up just missing the podium by less than a second," explained the 24-year old San Diego native.
Sunday's extravaganza began when Crew Chief Jorge Lameda discovered a pin hole rupture in the radiator of the 46 Pro Lite when under pressure. Jorge explained, "Early Sunday morning, we were finishing up the last minute adjustments to the truck and I saw a slight amount of liquid underneath the front of the truck and we pressure tested the radiator and found a pinhole leak that was significant under pressure. Unfortunately, the replacement radiator was not tabbed for the mounting points so we decided to pull out the second truck and went to work."
Todd qualified his backup truck in the 8th position among the 28 starters and once the race began, he charged his truck around the dirt track, sliding back a few spots before settling into a groove with a race truck that was setup slightly different. "
"The Nissan powered truck had a slightly different suspension setup that took a few laps to adjust to, but the power band on Nissan truck is awesome and I have a great connect with the feel of the truck," commented Todd.
Todd ran hard and charged towards the leaders in the last few laps of the race, but was unable to catch the racer he had purchased his truck from, and ultimately the winner in Sunday's race, Chad Hord.
Finishing in 8th overall in Sunday's Pro Lite race, Todd climbed from the truck all smiles as he put his 46 Cuffaro Motorsports team in the top ten both days. The dedication to the excellent prep in the garage led by Crew Chief Lameda and the wise driving by Todd places Cuffaro Motorsports in a tie for fifth place in the 2008 CORR Pro Lite Series Championship.
The top six Pro Lite teams are separated by a mere 23 points.
Todd concluded, "We are very excited about the performance of the team in the first race weekend. The goal was to finish in the top ten and that we did. The support from all of our partners involved in our program is one of the main reasons we were able to succeed in reaching this first step in this very long season. FOX Racing Shox provided us some critical support at the track, as did BFGoodrich, UPR, Nissan and our friends and family.
Championship Off Road Racing will replay the live broadcast of this weekend's race action on NBC Sports on Sunday May 25, 2008 10:30 a.m-12:30 p.m. PST.
Cuffaro Motorsports returns to the race track at the Las Vegas International Raceway at Primm on May 17-18, 2008 where Todd Cuffaro will pick up where he left off as he heads towards the CORR Season Championship.
Visit www.toddcuffaro.com for the latest video and photo galleries of racing action.
About CORR: Championship Off Road Racing™ brings high action, four wheel motorsports including 2 wheel drive and 4 wheel drive trucks to the closed course off road arena. The 2008 Championship Off Road Racing's race season includes eight events at tracks located in Los Angeles, CA, San Diego, CA and Las Vegas, NV.
CORR continues its long standing relationship with SPEED, broadcasting races each year on the automotive sports network. In 2007 CORR widened its television audience by partnering with NBC Sports to include 8.5 hours of CORR programming on the national network.
New in 2008, viewers will get even closer to the action as CORR moves to high-definition with 12 hours of programming on NBC and 16 hours on SPEED. Plus for the first time in CORR history CORR takes its racing LIVE for 6 shows on SPEED and 3 shows on NBC.
About Cuffaro Motorsports: Led by passion and driven by determination, Cuffaro Motorsports is made up of dedicated racers working together towards the ultimate goal of winning as well as achieving goals, a season championship. Todd Cuffaro has dedicated his life to the success behind the wheel of a race car and the 2008 season will be no different. Teamwork. Success. Victory.