The John Holtger Racing Team made their 2nd appearance for the season in San Bernardino, CA for rounds 3 & 4 of the Lucas Oil So-Cal Regional Off Road Racing Series. This was a double-header race weekend with races on Saturday and Sunday.
While John and team finally got lucky and did not encounter any travel woes to get to the 
race, there was another very unexpected obstacle to deal with. John took the track ready to go for practice Friday afternoon, and on turn 2 he had a wicked rollover. Landing right side up, he took off and finished the rest of practice! Unfortunately, the impact of the rollover caused his right hand to come into contact with one of the bars pretty hard; causing a bone to be broken! After spending the evening at the hospital and getting a temporary cast, it was unknown as to whether John would be able to race or not.
13 drivers were registered to participate in the Mod Kart class for Saturday’s Regional race. After some careful consideration, it was determined that with a special brace John would be able to race. He had some great laps during qualifying, and was able to qualify 4th! What a crazy race it was! John maneuvered way up to 3rd, and then the car in 2nd spun him out on turn 2…this caused him to fall back to 9th. He raced his way up to the front 5 and after getting black flagged he had to move to the back of the pack again! On the last lap he went full throttle and ended up with a 4th place finish…with a broken hand!
13 drivers participated in the Mod Kart class for Sunday’s Regional race as well. Qualifying didn’t go quite as planned. 2 laps in John’s engine blew up! His time on those 2 laps was still good enough to put him in 8th to start, but since the team had to switch out engines completely, he ended up having to start last. Determined to take a podium, John was ready to race hard! On turn 1 right at the start there was a massive crash. Several cars rolled over (thankfully all racers were unharmed). LOORRS decided to do a restart, so after John made his way up to 6th he had to start in the back again! At the mandatory caution, John had worked his way up 3rd! Battling to keep his position, he finished the race with a 3rd place podium finish!
Overall, this was a very successful weekend, and put John in 2nd place for points in the So-Cal Regional Series! 
On May 18th and 19th John and team will be racing at the brand-new Dirt City Motorplex in Lena, WI! John will be competing in his 2019 XYZ 1000 UTV at the SXS Spring National Race! This will be the 2nd of 3 races in the series. John is currently holding the 2nd place position in the Sportsman’s class, so stay tuned as he battles to keep it!
The Lucas Oil Regional Off Road Racing Series picks back up in June along with the start of the Lucas Oil MW Short Course Racing Series!
