Weller with the No. 11 Optima Batteries Freightliner she raced at ChampTruck’s Thunderhill Raceway event in California last month.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 teams points race and the one for the drivers themselves.
And well in contention at this point is ChampTruck 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 says, she plans on continuing the quest this season as many times as she can.
Her day job owning and running Weller Racing, an ATV build-up shop in Chandler, Ariz., keeps her busy, as does her other full-time gig racing off-road UTV-like buggies on the Optima Batteries team — the same team she races for on the ChampTruck circuit — in the SR1 Series.
Weller holding up three fingers — for her third place finish — at the ChampTruck race held in Willows, Calif., last month.Her trip to California last month for the ChampTruck races at the Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, Calif., was also her first time driving a big rig, much less racing one. And she had to have a “crash course,” she says, 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 differences 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.”
The UTV-based off-road buggy Weller races in the SR1 series.She apparently picked up any differences fairly quickly, however, placing in the top three — including a victory — in all six of the weekend’s heat races, along with winning third in the weekend’s main event, the points-earning Podium Race. And though she may be unable to accrue enough points in the season to win the driver championship, due to intermittent participation, the points she earns in the weekends she can race will count toward the Optima team’s season total.
Weller says she’s not sure what other races throughout the year she’ll be able to attend, but she says 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 says. “I’m down for any of them.”
Here’s a gallery of Weller and her truck from May’s California races:
Krisztian Szabo, center, won the points-earning race at the Thunderhill ChampTruck event, with Mike Morgan, left, placing second and four-wheeler racer Corry Wheller, right, coming in third.
