At Lime Rock Park, We Just Keep On Truckin’
In the late 1980s showroom stock racing was the next big thing. There was IMSA’s Firehawk series, an SCCA endurance championship that would go on to become the World Challenge, and various one-make series that included Volkswagen Golfs, various Renaults, and even Corvettes.
When someone (perhaps former Lime Rock promoter, and later SCCA staffer, Jim Haynes) threw out the goof-ball idea that racing small pick-up trucks on paved road courses might be wildly entertaining It was so preposterous it was hard to resist. And thus, the SCCA RaceTruck Series was born.
These four-cylinder mini-pickups were widely available, and the racing rules required that they meet “showroom stock” (more or less) specifications. In no time at all no less than 9 (!) manufacturers* were pulling trucks off the assembly and massaging them to support this unconventional concept.
The trucks were not especially fast or graceful, but they were darn competitive. They also engendered some grassroots improvisation. With their open truck beds, was it faster to race with the tailgate up or down? For one spell the Archer Brothers (who would go on to notable success in the Trans Am Series) showed up with the stance of the truck’s nose pitched upward in the air stream. Counterintuitively some time in the wind tunnel revealed this actually provided less aerodynamic drag than being on the straight and level.
And so it was that the Coors RaceTruck Challenge found its way to Lime Rock Park in August of 1988. Two dozen of the unlikely racers made a frantic start, using all the pavement and most of the grass in Big Bend. Over the course of the next half hour the boxy racers went dipping and diving through the corners and vigorously bump drafted whenever the roadway straightened out. Despite being as aerodynamic as a brick the RaceTruck lap record would stand at an even 80 miles per hour.
This may look like a country road, but it’s actually Big Bend in it’s Natural Form!
When the checkered flag fell it would a one-two finish for Nissan, followed by a Jeep in third, and Californian Ray Kong would go into the record book as the first driver to put a Truck into Lime Rock’s winner’s circle.
For the 4-cylinder trucks that was one and done at LRP, but that’s not the end of our story.
By the late 1990s NASCAR’s Busch North Series was a well-established attraction in northwestern Connecticut. In fact for many years Lime Rock Park served as a popular venue for series finale and championship-decider.
But for a local racer to jump into Busch North could be a daunting move, going on the road to different tracks and higher stakes. Enter the PRO (Professional Racing Organization) Tour. Based on a rules package that limited components to a single supplier, the specifications aimed to provide equalized competition where driver talent could shine. The tube-frame chassis and V8 powerplant would already be familiar hardware. To give the PRO Tour a distinct look, rather than a generic sedan body, the Tour chose to emulate the success of NASCAR’s emerging Craftsman series by choosing pick-up truck bodywork.
The PRO Truck Tour debut season in 1997 visited a unique variety of race tracks, from quarter-mile bullrings to the series finale on Lime Rock’s road course.
Road-racing was all new for the PRO Tour competitors, but there was one outlier who had what might be called “the unfair advantage”. Brett Roubinek came up through the ranks of SCCA weekend warriors, including open-wheel Formula Continental, and the prototype-style Sports 2000. While those cars were totally different from the Tour’s V8 Truck, Roubinek was also an instructor for the Skip Barber Racing School and had mentored a number of NASCAR Busch North drivers in the hidden secrets of the fast way around Lime Rock Park’s challenging terrain. For Roubinek the move to the PRO Truck tour was all about building a team that could springboard him to Busch North.
The PRO Trucks made a competitive and entertaining Lime Rock debut. It turned into a day when the hometown favorite would parlay his skill and local knowledge into a trip to victory lane, and Brett Roubinek added his name to the Lime Rock record book as the track’s first V8-powered truck winner.
photo by Dave Moulthrop
Roubinek, and many others from the Pro Truck Tour, would move on to the Busch North series. Today, still with fond memories of his racing days, he maintains his automotive performance connection as CEO of the Transportation Research Center in Ohio.
The Pro Tour Trucks would return for three more races at Lime Rock. To bring this story around in a full circle, their final appearance was won by Seth Crocker. If the name isn’t familiar, perhaps you’ve heard of another member of that New England racing family? Seth’s sister Erin Crocker (Evernham) is the only female to win a feature race with World of Outlaws dirt track sprint cars, and competed in over 25 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series races.
As we eagerly anticipate the Lime Rock debut of the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series and the LIUNA 150 June 27-28, who will be the next driver to add their name to this unique page in the Lime Rock Park record book?
For more information on the LIUNA 150 visit, https://limerock.com/events/nascar/
*If you couldn’t name the 9 SCCA RaceTruck manufacturers, they were: Chevrolet, Dodge, Jeep, Ford, Nissan, Toyota, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Isuzu.