Long Time Coming: 5 Minutes with Rick Huseman
By Eric Johnson
"It's definitely too soon to not race for the championship," said Rick Huseman after sweeping rounds five and six of the Traxxas TORC Series 4x4 Truck series at Crandon last June. Up to that point, the native of Riverside, California had won five of the first six races of the series and looked, well, unbeatable. "People ask me if I’m going to slow it down a little bit and try and get this championship. I'm like, "It's not even halfway over with yet. I still have to drive as hard as I can to get as many wins as possible. It's too early in the season to try and kick back if you know what I am saying. I still have to fight for every win."
In his 900-horsepower, 4,000-pound #36 Monster Energy/Traxxas/ Toyo/Toyota Tundra Pro 4X4 Truck, Huseman kept fighting to maintain his consistency throughout the summer months, finding his way upon the podium in the next five of eight rounds. Now, with only the last two rounds remaining in the 2009 TORC Championship Series – this Friday and Saturday night at Las Vegas Motor Speedway-Huseman has a 28-point lead in the Pro 4X4 Championship. And a championship has been a long time coming for Rick Huseman. Since beginning his professional off-road racing career in the Pro Lite classification in the late 1990s and continuing right up through the Pro 4X4 class, Huseman has placed second in various championships on five different occasions. Now knocking on the door of his first major title, in Huseman's words, "I have to win this one." On Monday afternoon we talked to the Riverside local to see where his head was at heading into the Las Vegas finale.
Rick, dumb question, but here we are four days out from the TORC Series finale in Las Vegas and the Pro 4X4 Championship is yours to win. How are you feeling about things?
I'm feeling real confident. We just have to pull off a decent weekend and we should be able to get the championship, no problem. I'm feeling pretty confident about the whole thing.
You have, what, a 28-point lead, right?
Yes, 28 points.
So baring any crazy misfortune, you should be in good shape, huh?
Yeah, we should be in real good shape. We just need to have a clean weekend and depending on how may trucks are there, we should just basically have to start both races and we should be able to pull it off.
Would you breath easier by wrapping it all on Friday night?
I would. All I have to do is on Friday night if I finish in front of Kyle [LeDuc]–no matter where I finish–then it's wrapped up. So that would be a really great thing to celebrate on Friday night and still have another race to go where I can just drive as hard as I can, you know? But I have to play it safe on Friday night. I just can’t try and kill it and beat Kyle because I have to make sure I finish off the season good.
You've won six races this season and were out of the top 10 only once. Dare I be so bold, you certainly deserve this title…
Yeah, we've definitely been working at it. The truck is working great and they new Toyota motors they've been giving us are awesome. They have so much power. Everything is just working great.
I don't mean this the wrong way, but why have you done so well this year when a driver and truck as strong as Johnny Greaves and his Toyota have struggled with mechanicals and some inconsistency?
Well, for one, he has a brand new truck this year. I mean since the last race, they've already gone out twice testing and they're still trying to figure that truck out and trying to get it to where it's working like it's supposed to be. He's just struggling to get that truck to proper. That's the problem with building a new truck. Sometimes it takes a long time to get it back dialed in. It's just one of those things.
As far as your current race truck, you've been tweaking and fine tuning on it for a while now, right?
Yeah, this is our fourth season on that truck, so it's pretty dialed now. You know when you have that many races on it and you're fine tuning on it after every weekend, making it better and better, it's pretty dialed now.
Rick, one thing that I've noticed at the races is that always rolling around in the dirt and wrenching on your truck quite a bit.
(Laughter) Yeah, I like getting in there and making sure everything is done right. I mean I'm a big part of the team myself. I do the transmissions and the rear end and the clutches and everything. That's my job.
The late, great Ayrton Senna of Formula 1 fame would spend hours on end with the engineers and mechanics to make sure he knew understood how every and every part of his car worked. With your "hands on" approach to your equipment, do you think that's an advantage for you and the team in the long run?
I think so. I think it helps a lot. It builds your confidence that everything is done right. You kind of oversee what's going on. You know if you get some guys working for you that don't really care, or they care, but aren't as meticulous as they should be, that's when you start having problems. My family working on the truck, they want to see me win just as much I do, so they're going to try and do everything in their power to make it right.
If I have it right, your professional off-road career started right around 1999. Does that sound correct?
I can't remember when it exactly started. I was doing one-off races back then. Then I ran a full season in 2000.
And from 2001 and onward, you placed second overall in the Pro Lite division four times!
I finished second four times in the Pro Lites (laughter).
Was all that frustrating for you?
It was very frustrating. Back then I was younger and I didn't realize how much a championship meant and how much help in the long run in my career. In a couple of those championships I had a big points lead in the last weekend and just threw them away by just driving too hard. I definitely could have won a couple of more championships if I had my head on straight, but I've learned a lot since then and I've realized how precious championships are. You know we got a second in the championship last year by default because the CORR Series stopped. I was tied with Carl Renezeder for the championship and they gave it to him because had one more win than I did. So that's five second place finishes in championships now, so this one I have to win. It's going to mean a lot.
To that end, what'll mean to you to win the championship this weekend?
It'll mean everything. We've been going at this a while now. Like I said, we've had five second places. We're due for a first place. It's not like we're not fast enough. We're always there. To pull it off will be great. It'll be good for the whole team. It'll be good.
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