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The Off-Road Championship

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TORC: The Off-Road Championship
SportOffroad racing
Jurisdiction United States
Founded2009
PresidentBJ Birtwell
ReplacedWSORR
Closure date2018
Official website
www.torcseries.com

TORC: The Off-Road Championship (TORC) was an American short course off-road racing series. It tours throughout the United States featuring professional four and two-wheel-drive Trophy Trucks along with a Pro Light class. TORC was founded by off-road racing driver Ricky Johnson in 2009. It was known as the Traxxas TORC Series, owing to title sponsor Traxxas, from 2009 to 2013. It was purchased by The Armory in August 2013.[1] It was sanctioned and officiated by the United States Auto Club (USAC) since its inception.[2][3]

A multi-year deal between TORC and NBC Sports was announced in 2014 where it was confirmed that NBC would carry not only the series' on-track events but its docu-reality series as well.[4] However, the series returned to Fox Sports in 2015. Coverage of events for 2016 and 2017 was broadcast by BeIN Sports.

The series has not returned since announcing the cancellation of all events in 2018, the series itself would then quietly fold near the end of 2018 with the series website being taken down shortly after.

History

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Chad Hord PRO 2WD truck from 2013 at Crandon

The series was founded in time for the 2009 season by former motocross racer and Motorcycle Hall of Fame member Ricky Johnson as the Traxxas TORC Series[5] after hosting an off-road racing event at his Perris Auto Speedway in 2008. There were two large sanctioning bodies in short course off-road racing for 2008: CORR and WSORR.[5] CORR had been sanctioning events on the West Coast and WSORR had sanctioned Midwest events.[5] CORR closed before the end of the 2008 season and canceled its final two racing weekends.[5] TORC took over the sanctioning of most of the Midwest events.[5]

USAC assumed complete management of the series starting in 2010.[3] The Armory took over ownership of the series in late 2013 to handle all marketing and operations of the series.[1][6] USAC remained on board as the sanctioning body. One of The Armory's first acts was securing an exclusive 5-year agreement landing the series championship weekend at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway starting in 2014, ensuring no competing sanctions can race at the track.[7] In late 2015, Mountain Sports International took over managing the series.[8] MSI immediately announced adding sportsman racing back under its sanction starting in 2016.[8]

In March 2018, the series announced that it would hold no events in 2018.[9][10]

Divisions

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Pro 2 demonstration
Rick Johnson demonstrates a Pro 2 Trophy Truck at Oshkosh (2009) – 555 kB, 7 sec
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The series was originally divided into Pro, Sportsman, and Grassroots divisions.[5][11] The Pro division is headlined by a four-wheel drive (PRO 4WD) trophy truck class. It also has a two-wheel drive trophy truck class (PRO 2WD) and a light-duty two-wheel drive pickup truck class (PRO Light).

The series began with a Sportsman truck division, consisting of four- and two-wheel drive truck classes plus a stock truck class. Sportsman buggies featured regular 70 horsepower buggies plus a light class with restricted 55 horsepower engines.[11] It had three grassroots classes all featuring stock vehicles. The Formula 4x4 trucks were stock 4x4 trucks or SUVs, Classix race cars were stock cars with modified suspensions, and the Enduro trucks were two wheel drive 3/4 ton pickup chassis.[11] The Sportsman division later was later dropped by TORC and a separate entity named Midwest Off Road Racing (MORR) was created to sanction those trucks. TORC restored the sportsman classes for the 2016 season after MSI took over its sanction.[8]

Drivers

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2013 and 2014 PRO 4WD champion Johnny Greaves

Champions

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Year PRO 4WD PRO 2WD PRO Light
2009 Rick Huseman Rob MacCachren Jeff Kincaid[12]
2010 Johnny Greaves Ricky Johnson Casey Currie
2011 Ricky Johnson Bryce Menzies Andrew Caddell
2012 Ricky Johnson Bryce Menzies Brad Lovell
2013 Johnny Greaves[13] Bryce Menzies Keegan Kincaid
2014 Johnny Greaves C. J. Greaves Jerett Brooks
2015 C. J. Greaves[14] C. J. Greaves[14] Doug Mittag[14]
2016 C. J. Greaves[15] C. J. Greaves[15] Kyle Hart[15]
2017 C. J. Greaves[16] Luke Johnson[16] Kyle Kleiman[16]

Other drivers to compete for TORC championships include: Brian Deegan, Chad Hord, Jarit Johnson, Scott Taylor and Olympian Nick Baumgartner.

The Pro Buggy class saw its youngest champion ever in 2012, Mitchell deJong joined the series at 14 years old and won the championship against adult veteran racers, in just his rookie year.

Tracks

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C. J. Greaves PRO Light truck racing at Crandon in 2014

Before the inaugural season, TORC announced that it secured an exclusive deal with Bark River International Raceway and a 15-year exclusive deal with Crandon International Off-Road Raceway.[17][18] It partnered with NASCAR-related tracks in 2013 including Tony Stewart's Eldora Speedway and Friday and Saturday events in conjunction with the Sunday NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Chicagoland Speedway.[19] TORC did not race at Chicagoland in 2014 but announced shortly after the completion of the season that it would once again host an event at the facility's dirt track in conjunction with the NASCAR Nationwide Series race there June 18–20, 2015.[20]

Television coverage

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In 2009, PRO events were televised on national television in the United States with ESPN2 covering the 2009 events at Texas, Crandon's spring event, both Bark River events, and the second Perris event.[23] ABC televised the first 2009 event at Perris and it broadcast Crandon's World Championship Off-Road Races race live.[23] Marty Reid was the lead play by play announcer along with Tes Sewell. Former Miss USA Kimberly Pressler was the pit reporter.[24]

From 2010 through 2012, The Off Road Championship aired on Discovery HD Theatre (now Velocity) and was produced by The Armory (www.thearmoryagency.com) with executive producer B.J. Birtwell. Season 1 consisted of twenty 1-hour episodes which aired from Sept 2010 to March 2011. Four seasons of the program have been produced. These shows featured a style which TORC refers to as docu-reality, the distinguishing feature of which consists of more talk and less live-style racing action coverage.

For 2013, Speed TV broadcast live coverage of the Saturday evening PRO truck events for all the race weekends, excepting the final September event at Primm which was scheduled for NBC. Speed covered two races live, which coverage was also re-aired on Fuel. NBC also broadcast one event. The Armory continued to produce TORC's Television programming in 2014 and 2015 on NBC Sports and Fox Sports, respectively. Bobby Gerould and National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Brady Doty were the broadcast host and PXP announcers while noted motorsports broadcaster Tony Bokhoven was the Pit Reporter.

References

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  1. ^ a b Carter, Allison. "The Armory Acquires Off-Road Racing Series TORC". Archived from the original on November 12, 2013. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  2. ^ a b "TRAXXAS TORC Series Hosts Season Opener at Texas Motor Speedway Dirt Track". WhoWon.com. 2009-05-11. Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  3. ^ a b "TRAXXAS Off Road Championship Under New Direction". Traxxas TORC Series. March 12, 2010. Archived from the original on 10 April 2010. Retrieved 2 April 2010.
  4. ^ "TORC Reaches Multi-Year Agreement with NBC Sports". TORC Series. 2014-02-11. Archived from the original on 2014-03-10. Retrieved 2014-02-11.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Burns, Josh (2009-05-16). "Hart, Johnson, Huseman Win at Round 1 of the Traxxas TORC Serie". Off-Road.com. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  6. ^ "The Armory Acquires Off-Road Racing Series TORC: The Off-Road Championship; USAC Remains Sanctioning Body".
  7. ^ "Crandon to Remain Exclusive Home to the TORC Series". TORC: The Off-Road Championship. Retrieved November 23, 2013.
  8. ^ a b c "New Schedule and Management Announced for 2016 TORC". TORC: The Off-Road Championship. Archived from the original on November 13, 2015. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  9. ^ "Lucas Oil supports off-road series to replace TORC". Tire Business. 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2018-06-26.
  10. ^ "Lucas Oil Fills Void With New Off-Road Racing Platform". Lucas Oil Fills Void With New Off-Road Racing Platform | Performance Racing Industry. Retrieved 2018-06-26.
  11. ^ a b c "Divisions". Traxxas TORC Series. Archived from the original on 2009-04-05. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  12. ^ "TORC Series Finale in Las Vegas". Off-Road.com. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
  13. ^ "Official 2013 points standings". Traxxas TORC Series. Archived from the original on October 31, 2014. Retrieved October 15, 2013.
  14. ^ a b c "Drivers' Standings". TORC. Retrieved October 31, 2015.
  15. ^ a b c "Drivers' Standings". TORC. Archived from the original on October 9, 2016. Retrieved October 4, 2016.
  16. ^ a b c "Drivers' Standings". TORC. Archived from the original on June 25, 2018. Retrieved March 11, 2018.
  17. ^ "Crandon Raceway Announces 15 Year Exclusive Deal with Traxxas TORC Series". DirtNewz.com. 2009-02-18. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  18. ^ "Traxxas announces Title Sponsorship of TORC". RC Car News. 2009-02-24. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  19. ^ "TORC Sets Eight Weekend Schedule". National Speed Sport News. January 2013. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  20. ^ |"TORC Confirms Return to Chicagoland". National Speed Sport News. August 2014. Retrieved August 28, 2014.
  21. ^ "2013 schedule". Traxxas TORC Series. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved January 14, 2013.
  22. ^ "The Traxxas TORC Truck Series Presented by AMSOIL Race Preview: Crandon". Race-Dezert.com. 2009-06-12. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  23. ^ a b c "2009 Official schedule". Traxxas TORC Series. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  24. ^ "ESPN and Traxxas TORC Truck Series Team-Up with ABC Networks for Extreme Truck Racing Inaugural Season". Official Press Release reprinted by Crandon International Off-Road Raceway. 2009-05-07. Archived from the original on 2009-06-17. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
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