Hoek Welcomes Nitto Tire and Trailready with Solid Start at Primm Valley

The start of the 2014 TORC Series presented by AMSOIL saw Ross Hoek Motorsports take his PRO-4×4 race program to the next level. The team welcomed Nitto Tire and TrailReady Beadlock Wheels as team partners as Ross Hoek nearly finished on the podium in the opening round of the season. The solid weekend performance definitely caught the attention of the fans and competitors of the short-course off-road racing world.

Ross Hoek Motorsports traveled across the country to the opening weekend of the TORC Series early enough to take advantage of the two day test session. The added track time allowed Hoek to familiarize himself with the updated Primm Valley layout, as well as give the team and tire engineers the opportunity to tune the chassis set-up of the #10 PRO-4×4 to the Nitto Grappler Project Tire/TrailReady Wheel combination.
 
The opening round at Primm Valley saw a great door to battle between the #10 Nitto Tire/TrailReady/Motive Gear/ATD Transmission/Allstar Performance PRO-4×4 and the #5 driven by Mark Kvamme. After trading the third place position a few times in the late in the race, Hoek finished fourth, just. .254 seconds behind the final spot on the podium.
Even with the close racing, the silver Nitto Tire PRO-4×4 had only the usual between race preparations. The team worked on changing a few chassis settings as the race surface changes its characteristics as the race weekend progresses.
 
The race weekend also saw multi-time PRO-4×4 champion Ricky Johnson coaching Ross Hoek on the differences between driving a 2WD (PRO-2) race truck and a 4WD (PRO-4×4 ) race truck. Johnson also acted as Hoek’s spotter on race days.
 
The starting order for Sunday’s Round 2 was determined by Saturday’s race results with the top four positions starting in reverse order. This put the Nitto Tire/TrailReady PRO-4×4 on the front row. Once again Hoek ran consistent lap times bringing home a sixth place finish.
 
“Our team is definitely making progress getting our lap times closer to the top drivers in our class,” noted Ross Hoek. “Getting Nitto Tire and Trailready on board is huge for the team. Nitto Tire is also a TORC series sponsor which helps Ross Hoek Motorsports with great track support. Look for our team to get quicker and quicker as the season progresses. Ultimately our goal for this season is to put our Nitto Tire/TrailReady/Motive Gear/ATD Transmission/Allstar Performance PRO-4×4 on the podium.”
 
Chris Corbett, Nitto Tire’s Light Truck & Motorsports brand manager adds, “We’re excited to partner with Ross and his team for the 2014 season. Their race program will further develop our Grappler Short Course tires.”