Thursday was practice and qualifying, the pro turbo felt good in practice and we just had to make some minor adjustments for qualifying. The field of 20 Pro Turbo SXS lined up for the qualifying laps as Leland took off from the start he caught the slower guys sooner than he anticipated and he had to make his way around them slowing him up a bit and with the two laps that he got they qualified 14th out of 20 so that put then on the second row for Saturdays land rush start.
Saturday round 11 of the Championship Off Road series: As the green flag dropped on the famous land rush start, at the Big House in Crandon, all 20 Pro Turbos taking off at the same time and headed into corner one Leland came out in the 13th spot so he had some work to do in the 6 laps of the race with driving hard and keeping out of trouble. After passing some cars they found themselves in 11th at the half way point, with 3 laps to go it was a dog fight with some other cars rubbing and some wheel to wheel racing he ended up in p10 on the checkered flag lap. It was a good hard fought battle with the best Pro Turbo drivers in the country and left them very excited for Sundays World Championship Race.
On Sunday for the Red Bull World Championship Race, and with Saturdays lap time, that put them on the front row in P9 for the land rush start. At the start of the race as they came out of the famous corner one in the 11th spot Leland fought his way through passing cars on every lap until he found his way up to 7th, at the same time a car rolled over sending out a full course red as everything got cleaned up. Leland started in 7th on the restart with 2 laps to go, he got a great jump on the start and with rolling into the barn turn he passed one car putting him in 6th, as they came around for the white flag lap Leland was right on the bumper of another driver in front of him. as they came around the barn turn and heading down the back and into the gravel pit turn Leland had a great run coming out with one corner to go passing that car and taking the checkered flag Leland ended up with a top 5 finish in the World Championship Race for 2023. What a way to end the weekend with a little celebration in the pits following the race. They are very optimistic heading into the last rounds of the 2023 Championship Off Road series, that will be held at the Mid-America Outdoors facility in Jay, OK.
Stay tuned for results and more racing updates.