Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 07/11/2007

For the second time in the 2007 season the ASA-Go Fast-Speed Truck Challenge Series will be visiting the beautiful, but often challenging, Orange Show Speedway located at the fairgrounds in San Bernardino, California this Saturday night, July 14th. Also for the second time this year the Las Vegas based United Racing will be sending two well prepared Chevrolet trucks for drivers Darren Young and Bear Rzesnowiecky sponsored by United Nissan, Quaker State and Sudden Impact. The team is hoping to raise their level of performance even higher than their first trip to the Orange Show back on March 17th. This is not to imply that there was anything wrong with that first race. Young and Rzesnowiecky finished second and third in that event. This weekend United Racing will be arriving at the famed quarter mile oval looking to improve those stats to a one-two finish.

United Racing will also be packing a lot of momentum to bring with them this Saturday night. This is especially true of Darren Young. The Gilbert, Arizona drive has been on fire lately and has won the last three series races in a row. There are two basic reasons for this. The first is rock steady driving performances and the second is outstanding restarts coming off of a yellow caution flag. A case in point that supports the latter is his most recent June 30th win at the Tucson Raceway Park. With two laps left in this race Young pulled off another one of his famous restarts and quickly moved from second to third. More importantly was the fact that he was able to take over the inside racing line. One lap later he took the lead and the win.

The competition has now been served notice that this two time series champion is working towards a three peat. Young goes into Saturday night second in the series standings a mere one point behind leader Victor Pfluger. He has already compiled a 2007 season record of three wins, five top five finishes and two top tens. Darren Young will be the first to tell you that this streak he's currently on is due to the hard work and dedication from his United Racing team that provides him the equipment needed to charge to the front.

At the other half of the United Racing tandem stands 15 year old Bear Rzesnowiecky. The series rookie, and third generation driver, goes into Saturday night with one win,four top five finishes and two top tens. He's currently third in the series' standings and only 40 points away from the top of the rankings. The Bear will also be coming to the Orange Show Speedway backed by winning momentum. He had a very busy week following his June 30th sixth place finish at Tucson Raceway Park. When he's not behind the wheel of his United Racing Chevrolet Truck he spends his off weekends driving his family owned Legend car.

Rzesnowiecky spent the Fourth Of July at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Bullring where he won the feature race after having to deal with a full field of 30 Legend cars on the three eighths of a mile paved oval. After pulling his car into victory lane the popular young driver gave away over 100 autographed teddy bears with is name and car number on them. Another higlight to the Las Vegas evening involved Reznowiecky's Legend car teammate and good friend Karl Forman who finished first in the Semi Pro Division and fourth overall in the feature. This young rookie driver, who is the son of United Racing owner Don Forman, is already showing a lot of future potential.

Three days later the Bear was back in his Legend car preparing to take on the massive 2.5 mile road course at the Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, California. This July 7th event was presented by NASA, National Auto Sport Association, but was also sanctioned by the Las Vegas Office for 600 Racing and INEX who compiles national points ranking for Legend car drivers.

This Willow Springs event was especially important to Bear's Dad: Steve Rzesnowiecky who is a member of his son's United Racing truck team as well as the mastermind of the family's Legend car effort. This race was a homecoming for the elder Rzesnowiecky who first raced there back in 1977. The champion road racer also spent 1986 to 1996 winning races in the track's Toyota Stock Car Challenge Series. He was really looking forward to watching his son race on a track that meant so much to his own career.

But it took a lot of business administration to make that race happen. NASA rules state that the drivers in all of their divisions must have a valid drivers liscense. While the Bear has been busy scorching race tracks in the western states area he's still one year away from street legal driving. Steve Rzesnowiecky contacted the NASA home office on the east coast to inform them that the event was also sanctioned by INEX and his son had national points in their rankings. NASA agreed and gave a green light to the race entry.

Once on the race track the Bear quickly showed everyone why he loves road racing so much. By the third lap of the race he was in the lead and turning laps a full second faster than the field. Those lap times soon turned into a full 45 second lead. In the world of road racing a 45 second lead basically means don't bother to look for the leader because you'll never be able to find him. But things turned sour when the Bear came down pit road on the white flag lap out of fuel. Steve Rzesnowiecky was completely stunned because he knew that the car had been packed to capacity with fuel before the race. One of the race stewards suggested that the driver perhaps should have ran slower laps to conserve fuel. While it may have been a valid point Steve Rzesnowiecky didn't feel it was the final answer to the situation. The defninitive answer came from an INEX official who informed the team that their rules allow the use of a five gallon tank for the larger road course events. The Rzesnowiecky machine had the standard three gallon tank on the car. You can bet that this situation has already been rectified.

The stage is now set for United Racing to make their second 2007 appearance at the Orange Show Speedway this Saturday night. Darren Young will be looking for his fourth consecutive win and to take command of the series' points standings. Bear Rzesnowiecky will be looking for his second win and to elevate his position in the standings. This will be backed by two well prepared trucks that will be race ready the moment they are rolled off of the haulers. Simply put: that's how United Racing rolls.

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