Cody Rahders Nears Podium at LOORRS Season Opener
- 21 jun 2012
Due to the inverted 6 start, Rahders was positioned on the outside of row three for Saturday's main event race. He used that morning's five lap practice run to let his competitors drive, stating, "The truck was so good Friday I didn't want to take any chances with it, plus you can learn a lot by watching your competition. It really helps." Then, inexplicably, Lady Luck ran out. Last minute changes to the Superlite race time by the Lucas officials (from 2:30 to 5:30), along with multiple restarts during the ProLite class postponed the SuperLites race until around 6:20, placing the sun nearly at eye-level. It didn't take long before Rahders was nearly blinded near the end of lap one by the sunset, causing him to collide with a competitor, a crash that broke the competitor's truck and earned Rahders a black flag "stop & go" penalty of last place.
Refusing to give up, Rahders coaxed Lady Luck back into the passenger seat for a few more laps. By the mid-race caution, Rahders had started to make up for the penalty, and by the restart, he had made up enough ground to take fourth place. "I was struggling with the sun and the leaders were putting in some fast laps," Radhers admitted. "I wasn't close enough to make a move so all I could do is wait and hope for one of them to make a mistake." Fighting the odds has always been Cody's M.O. When he's not piloting his Superchips SuperLite truck, Cody Rahders is racing a new 1,000cc-powered SR1 in the the Lucas Oil Off-Road Series' UTV class. The swap to four wheels from two came after motocross accident put Cody on a life flight to the hospital with a broken femur. Since then, Rahders has been seemingly unstoppable. During Sunday's qualifier Radhers qualified in third. The young shoe was destined for the bronze spot that race, as the lead changed several times between the top three. By the caution, Cody Radhers had taken the third position. At the restart, Cody took turn three wide and was passed, followed by an untimely spin out in turn four, putting him back to sixth. Another heartbreaking spinout during the following lap put him in dead last. Lady Luck had bitten back yet once more. Thankfully, by the checkers flew, he had climbed back up enough to round the weekend out with a fourth place on Saturday and sixth place on Sunday. "We talked a lot about the race on our way home," Rahders lamented. "Saturday was in the high 90's and Sunday was 30 degrees colder, the track changed so much with the cooler temperature we were off on our set up. We know what we did wrong and what we need to change if we ever have a weekend like that again." Find K&N products for your vehicle using the K&N application search then use the K&N dealer search to find a K&N dealer in your part of the world. |
