Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/535950
70 | Overdrive | July 2015 Custom Rigs July double-header The Meritor ChampTruck World Series was expected to return to the track with a July 4 weekend of racing under the lights at the Charlotte Motor Speedway and a mid-month jaunt to St. Louis' Gateway Motorsports Park. The new Meritor ChampTruck World Series truck racing circuit, in its first season this year, has just three races in the books, and through those three, the 2015 season points championship is still well up for grabs, both in the team points race and the one for the drivers themselves. Well in contention at this point is racer Corry Weller, who's raced at just one weekend so far. Her showing there, however, was strong enough to put her in the running, and she plans on con- tinuing the quest this season as many times as she can. Her day job is owning and running Weller Racing, an ATV build-up shop in Chandler, Ariz., and that keeps her busy, as does her other full-time gig racing off-road UTV-like buggies in the SR1 Series for the Optima Batteries team – the same team she races for on the ChampTruck circuit. Weller's trip to California in late May for the ChampTruck races at the Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, Calif., was also her first time driving a big rig, much less racing one. She had a "crash course," she said, in learning to pilot the Freightliner she raced. "I am used to very quick, precise short shifts," she said. "I spent the first day trying to take in the differ- ences between a diesel motor and how the gearing works and how the shifting works. There's a lot of timing with rpms and deceleration and acceleration I had to figure out." She appar- ently picked up those differenc- es fairly quickly, however, plac- ing in the top three – includ- ing a victory – in all six of the weekend's heat races, along with win- ning third in the weekend's main event, the points-earning Podium Race. Though her intermittent participation may leave her unable to accrue enough points in the season to win the driver championship, the points she earns in the weekends she can race will count toward the Optima team's season total. Weller's not sure what other races she'll be able to attend throughout the year, but she said the July 4th weekend Charlotte Motor Speedway event, the Virginia International Speedway race in August and the October-scheduled Portland race are ones she'd like to try. "They're all pretty epic tracks and places I've never been to," she said. "I'm down for any of them." — James Jaillet Meet ChampTruck's newest competitor, Corry Weller The UTV-based off-road buggy Weller races in the SR1 series. Weller holding up three fingers – for her third- place finish – at the Willows ChampTruck race. Corry Weller with the No. 11 Optima Batteries Freightliner she raced at ChampTruck's Thunderhill Raceway event in California in late May.