Flying Dutchman Off-Road Race Team

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crandon, wi
Round 3 & 4

The Flying Dutchman team drove through the Wisconsin north woods, to the biggest off- road facility in the country, Crandon. The name alone gets people excited. Dan Jr’s Pro Lite was ready and Dan Sr. decided to bring the Pro-2 during his CORR series break and run the Amsoil/ Kumho team colors in the two division races, as well as the 2X4 vs. 4X4 Forest County Potawatomi Chairman’s Cup race. The Crandon dirt looked good as always and with perfect weather conditions all week, we expected a well prepared track. Unfortunately, unlike every other track, we had no Friday practice and could not try any adjustments before the race.

Saturday - Round 3

Pro-2
Crandon is famous for its side-by-side land rush start, but WSORR officials forced Dan to start behind the other trucks in a second row. Their ruling was that since he didn’t race in the first weekend of WSORR, he must be penalized. It didn’t matter. Dan got a good jump on the green flag and by turn one, already made it into the top five. Coming into the tight ‘gravel pit’ turn, the top trucks were fighting for position and killing their momentum. Dan took advantage of this and made a move to the outside. He passed three trucks in one move and stole second place! Now Dan went to work, reeling in the leader, who happened to be Amsoil/ Kumho teammate, Mike Oberg. Dan was able to catch his teammate, but passing was difficult and Dan was careful not to make contact. Third place was now also able to catch up and put pressure on Dan. The team watched carefully because the third place truck was under a ‘no touching’ probation and would be given a black flag for “any contact.” Coming through the gravel pit, the third place driver tried to make a move to the inside, and hit Dan’s left rear coming out of the corner. They were locked together momentarily and lost ground to the leader. Instead of penalizing the driver, WSORR gave him a warning and he was allowed to continue. The next lap, the contact was worse and Dan’s rear bumper and bedsides were badly damaged. The Flying Dutchman crew complained to officials, but the penalty was simply ignored. The white flag finally came out Dan still held second place. The third place driver was relentless and tried another move, but couldn’t make it stick. Now going through the gravel pit for the last time, they came out side by side in a drag race for the final corner. Now Dan was behind by a nose, but still held the inside line for the finish. Dead even coming out of the corner, they touched front tires twenty feet from the finish line. The tires quickly wrapped around each other, locking both trucks together, sending them spinning out of control and into the wall just barely past the finish line. It was a photo finish that will never be forgotten and as the drivers untangled their battered trucks, everyone waited for an official decision on who placed where. Thankfully, the SPEED TV crew was there to catch the action from several angles and allowed the entire Crandon crowd to view slow motion replays over the infield jumbo-tron. The crowd was pumped up when they saw The Flying Dutchman clearly crossing the finish line ahead, in second place. The finish was decided to go under review and everyone had to wait until 8:00 that night. Everyone in Crandon was confident that second place was Dan’s, especially with the other driver’s no touch rule in affect. Clearly, the WSORR officials were playing favorites. Not only was Dan ruled in third place instead of second, but he was given a five point penalty for contact. The other driver’s probation was ignored by officials. Crandon fans were outraged when they heard the decision the next day.

Pro Lite
Dan Jr. lined up on the land rush start with sixteen Pro Lite trucks. Going through the dangerous turn one, JR came out cleanly in the top ten. In turn two, Dan had to slow and barely missed hitting a spinning truck. At the end of the first lap, JR made it around two more trucks and held seventh. After losing time from avoiding the spinning truck, he was slightly behind a pack of trucks and tried to make up ground. The lap times between third and eighth were identical and nobody could make up any time. The whole race was spent chasing and sixth was still just out of reach. The team was happy that the truck ran well for a good seventh place.

Sunday - Round 4

Pro-2
With the odds stacked against him again, Dan Sr. started from the back row. Before the race even started, the crowd was excited- expecting more conflict. Dan came from behind in turn one and made it up to fourth. The first few laps were slippery as the track was over-watered, and it was a little slick the whole race. Dan was planning on a dry track and like many drivers, he used up all his tear-offs in the first two laps creating a vision problem. With the top three getting a head start from Dan, they would prove to be very hard to catch. Three laps in, Dan got a break and advanced to third when the leader broke. He raced on trying to catch the top two and posted the fastest laps of the race, but they were just too far away. The Dutchman came in third for another strong podium.

Pro Lite
JR started again with another big field of Pro Lite trucks. The track was over-watered again making it slippery and slimy. At the green flag, the Kumho’s hooked up anyway and got JR’s Nissan into fourth place. The team was excited at JR was chasing right on the bumper of two past champions. The top four quickly pulled away and left the rest of the trucks behind. The truck seemed to be running strong, but on the second lap, a wave of bad luck hit the leaders. Three of the four trucks in the top group broke down, all two corners away from each other. JR’s truck had a mechanical failure and caught on fire, but it was put out by the on-board fire system and he got out without injury. Although disappointed, JR showed he can run with the leaders.

Chairman’s Cup challenge
This challenge race is always exciting, racing the Pro-2 trucks against the faster Pro-4s. Since this race wasn’t for points, it looked like Dan would finally get a fair start and everyone was waiting to see what he could do. Once again, the track was badly over-watered. With standing water all over the track, the Pro-2 trucks were like sitting ducks to the Pro-4s. Trouble immediately off the start, a Pro-2 driver tried to cut off the rest of the trucks and turned hard into the driver just to the right of Dan. This caused a chain reaction as that driver now ran into Dan, causing heavy damage to the front end. It was like starting from behind again now, but it did allow teammate Mike Oberg to grab the holeshot. The leaders were already out of reach, but Dan started working on the trucks that got by on the start. Into lap two, Dan was back into fourth place. He caught another truck in lap three, who cut him off and spun him out. As Dan got squared up again, two trucks were able to get by, but Dan quickly caught and passed him and another truck back by the next lap. The other driver that got by was teammate, Scott Douglas, and with Dan now back into third place, all three Super team trucks were running one, two, three!! It was extremely impressive, and something that has never been done before. They ran like this for two laps, until Douglas went out of the race and Dan was passed by a pro-4, who would eventually win the race. The final five laps of the race, Dan fought hard with another hard charging pro-4 and was able to hold him off well, but was finally overcome halfway through the last lap. Dan scored a fourth overall, and was the second two wheel drive truck to finish.

The team would like to thank all the representatives from Amsoil and Kumho who cheered us on all weekend as well as Brian Schmidt from Miller Electric, who was nice enough to do some work on our welder at the track. Thanks to Wegner Automotive for sending a tuner and Charlie from Automatic Transmission Design, who was there as always. Also, congratulations to the entire Amsoil/ Kumho team. In six tries at the points races, the teams scored only once outside of the top three, which was a fourth. In total, the Super team racked up two wins, two seconds two thirds and two fourths including the Cup race. A dominant force in Crandon!

The team’s next event is Bark River, Michigan July 13-14.

Always Racing,
The Flying Dutchman
Dan Vanden Heuvel