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For immediate
release
June 11, 2007
Chetek, WI
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Ruppel Charges Hard Ends Early
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Eric Ruppel
and his #837 Phil's Inc, Art Carr Transmission, Halama Synthetics,
BFGoodrich Tire Ford F-150 came to the opening rounds of the 2007
World Series of Off-Road Racing looking confident as the
entire truck was stripped down, and upgraded in several areas. The
limitations of the Stock Truck division does not allow for exotic
suspension or major modifications to the engine, but team was able
to replace the steel pickup bed with fiberglass bed sides. Along
with running bead locked wheels Eric and his crew were looking
forward to the inaugural 2007 WSORR race season.
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The new season
saw a new race series in the midwest, as well as, a new race venue,
the Steele County Fairground in Owatonna, Minnesota. The facility
was awesome. The fairgrounds were right in the middle of a fairly
large town, as the track was a layout that used the existing half
mile banked dirt oval.
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Saturday -
Round One
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The start had
Eric come out of turn one in fifth place. The next six
laps had Eric battling #863 Al Koniter for the fourth spot.
On lap 5, Eric attempted to clear the second set of triple jumps and
nearly rolled the truck. On lap 6 Eric attempted the same move in
order to pass Konitzer. Unfortunately, the second try ended the day
for #837 Phil's Inc, Art Carr Ford F-150. The truck nosed in
heavily into the dirt, nearly rolling again, but this time the truck
lost power and would not restart.
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Afterwards the
team found a cracked starter housing, and a broken shock mount. The
crew went to work replacing the starter and repairing the broken
mount. "I got abit over confident about the ability of the
truck," commented Eric Ruppel. "The new engine has some much power,
I really thought we could clear that triple. Fortunately the damage
was minor. Kramer and the crew had the truck ready by dinnertime."
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Sunday - Round 6
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The race teams
were greeted with a race track that was muddy and partly underwater.
During the night and early morning, heavy rains blanketed the area.
WSORR cancelled practice and went to work drying out the track. By
the time the Stock Truck division hit the track, the surface was dry
and very tacky. The condition of the race surface was almost
perfect. Eric started on the front row and quickly grabbed the lead
into turn one. As Eric downshifted and applied the power coming out
of turn one, the differiential broke. Once again ending his race.
Afterwards, the crew found a broken pinion gear, probably caused by
the hard hit during Saturday's race.
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The next race for
Ruppel Motorsports
is June
23-24, in Crandon, Wisconsin for the WSORR Forest County Potowatomi
Brush Run.
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Eric Ruppel thanks all his supporters including:
Chetek Off-Road
Art Carr Transmissions
Phil’s Inc. – Truck Stuff
Halama Synthetics -AMSOIL
BFGoodrich Tires
True Flow Filters
Summit Racing
Optima Batteries
MSD Ignition,Dynomax,
Fox Shox, American Racing, Ringers Gloves,
Racing Optics, &
A & J Landscaping.
-Mike Reusche, marketing - MTG
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Currently Ruppel Motorsports have
marketing opportunities available for the 2007 Lucas Oil WSORR
Sportsman series.
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- To contact Eric Ruppel
at Chetek Off-Road. Call (715) 924-2729 or email:
rupe@chibardun.net
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