OFF-ROADERS TO RACE WAY THROUGH A.V. BIG NAMES AT 2-DAY EVENT.

Byline: GIDEON RUBIN

Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- A road map to make elite closed-course off-road truck racing a mainstream sport features two stops in the Antelope Valley.

The Championship Off Road Racing Series will open its season this weekend at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds for a two-day event that will feature some of the world's top off-road racing talent, including defending CORR 2 champion Carl Renezeder and NASCAR star Robby Gordon.

The CORR 2 Series, which features the world's most advanced closed-course competition, will return to the A.V. Fairgrounds on Sept. 15-16. Since the CORR 2's inception in 1999, the sport has been wildly popular in the Midwest but hasn't caught a wider audience.

"Our goal is to take this race from the Midwest to the rest of the country," CORR President and CEO Jim Baldwin said. "We want to make it a mainstream sport."

The races will be held along a 1.5-mile course, where 900-plus horsepower trucks will negotiate a course CORR officials say took more than four weeks and 3,200 man-hours to construct.

Four featured races will be held on both days starting at 2 p.m.

Among those to watch at this weekend's race is upstart Rodrigo Ampudia, who last season became the first Mexican national to win a CORR tour event.

For some, the CORR race has been a springboard to bigger things. Former CORR standout Jimmie Johnson is a five-time NASCAR champion.

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