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On 13 May, The Checkered Flag sat down with Willie Freshour, president of the Short-course Off-road Drivers Association (SODA), about a wide array of topics. Subjects of discussion included the 2022 season opener at Slinger Speedway a week prior, the upcoming round at Gravity Park USA, and SODA’s place in the Midwestern off-road racing scene.

Provided below is the full transcript of the interview. Some text has been altered from the original dialogue to improve readability and remove verbal pauses. An audio version will be released soon.

An article summarising the interview can be read here.

Transcript

TCF: Where did the idea to race at Slinger come from?

WF: A mutual friend of the owner of Slinger and myself that races off-road trucks and he always had the idea to do it. Me and the owner of Slinger kind of were hesitant. We thought it was a dumb idea at first. Even the SODA organisation, we talked about it in a meeting, and one of our board members was like, ‘Have you ever been to SODA?’ It’s a concrete bowl with walls on it, like how are you supposed to have an off-road race? But we figured it out, obviously.

David Vidales won the FIA Formula 3 Championship Sprint Race from pole in at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, to give himself and Campos Racing a home win, and his first in the category.

He started from pole after Zane Maloney was penalised for missing the weighbridge in Qualifying, ahead of Juan Manuel Correa and Jak Crawford.

The Spanish driver moved straight across to the right to cover Correa into Turn 1, with the 30-car field making it through the first sector cleanly.

Alexander Smolyar battled away with Oliver Bearman through Sector 3, eventually getting the better of the Prema Racing man in time to lead into the final chicane.

Vidales was beginning to build a slight gap at the front, while Hunter Yeany began to slip back down the order and pitted for a new front wing.

It had been two years, six months, and thirteen days since Stewart Friesen won a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race. On Friday night, he finally ended the drought as he led sixty laps and held off Christian Eckes to win at Texas Motor Speedway.

Friesen and Eckes, both Toyota drivers, dominated the race as they combined for 100 of 149 laps led. However, Ryan Preece—who led the third most with twenty-seven—was in the right place at the right time as he won the first two stages.

Preece and Friesen battled throughout the race, but the latter struggled to utilise the resin laid on the track. After the race, Friesen described this as “mistake number one. Then mistake number two was when we got with the lapped cars and Preece got by me again. Then I was like, this thing is good. Needs to be a little tighter and change the balance a little bit.”

Carson Hocevar entered the picture as the race crossed triple-digit laps. Hocevar traded the lead with Friesen and Eckes multiple times before Friesen, who received pushes from Preece on following restarts, found the advantage. A wreck involving Eckes’ ThorSport Racing team-mate Ben Rhodes resulted in overtime, where Friesen once again had a strong restart to keep Eckes at bay.

“When the #17 (Preece) lined up with me, I was like, ‘Okay, I’ve got a real racer in my back pocket,'” said Friesen, “and he shoved the heck out of me. I’m terrible on restarts and that was probably the best one on old tyres. Just didn’t spin the tires and got a jump then threw a slider in one and two and it stuck.”

Roman Stanek will start the FIA Formula 3 Feature Race on pole at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday, while David Vidales will start on Sprint Race pole on Saturday morning after a penalty for Zane Maloney.

Vidales started the Sprint Race from third at the season opener in Bahrain in March, eventually finishing tenth.

Maloney will start both races from the pits after missing the weighbridge when he pitted mid-session, with the Trident team working on the car immediately afterwards. That penalty means he forfeits pole position for Saturday’s shorter race.

The temperatures had continued to rise after Free Practice; that didn’t deter too much of the field though, as they looked to set representative times early.

Kaylen Frederick‘s early benchmark was usurped by Caio Collet inside the first ten minutes, with Franco Colapinto going second and Practice-topping Victor Martins third.

The opening free practice session of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend saw two new faces join the FIA Formula 1 World Championship fray, with Jüri Vips and Nyck de Vries getting their maiden outings on Friday.

FIA Formula 2 frontrunner Vips was running with Oracle Red Bull Racing in place of regular driver Sergio Pérez, and although he finished at the bottom of the timing screens, it was clear that he was not looking for outright pace and was consolidating and checking his simulator work correlated with what was seen on track.

The Estonian felt the whole experience of running in an official practice session on a Grand Prix weekend was amazing, and although it was a busy session of running, he was pleased with the job he did and the knowledge he learned.

“My experience today was amazing,” said Vips. “Just to drive on the Grand Prix weekend is an incredible moment. When it first got announced I just kept thinking about when I first started karting and it was just a hobby and now I am going to get in the car.

“It was a busy session, we did lots of aero mapping so we never planned to do any push laps. I can see why F1 is so hard because these sessions are very hectic!

Max Verstappen believes his Oracle Red Bull Racing team can be happy with their Friday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, despite the Dutchman ending only fifth fastest overall.

Verstappen, the winner of the past two Grand Prix in Emilia Romagna and Miami, says the long run pace of the RB18 appears to be good at this stage of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend, but they are still lacking pace over a single lap, which will be all-important when it comes to Saturday’s Qualifying session.

He also said that the Pirelli tyres are finding it tough around the Barcelona track, and it will be important for Red Bull to find a solution to minimise their issues across the rest of the weekend.

“Overall it’s been a good day, the long runs look positive so we can be happy with that,” said Verstappen.  “It has been a bit tricky to find the right balance with the heat and we still have a lot of work to do over one lap.

“It’s tough on the tyres around here, we are not on top of that just yet but at least we know the weather will be consistent tomorrow. I’m looking forward to pushing hard as a Team come qualifying tomorrow.

George Russell was happy with the progress the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team has made with their W13 since the Miami Grand Prix, with the Briton ending second fastest in the afternoon session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday.

Russell placed fourth in the morning session before ending just behind Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the second session, with the car handling much better than it has at any point of the season to date in Spain.

The dreaded porpoising that has been hindering Mercedes since the start of the year has been significantly reduced, meaning Russell was able to have more confidence behind the wheel, which in turn meant a strong day when it came to competitiveness.

“In Miami we were quickest on Friday, here we’re second but the car is definitely reacting differently,” said Russell.  “We don’t have the porpoising on the straights which is great but we’re still experiencing it here and there through the corners which ultimately we need to dial out.”

Russell believes the Oracle Red Bull Racing and Ferrari teams are still likely to be ahead of them when it comes to the rest of the weekend, but he feels it was a good start to the weekend.

Charles Leclerc ended both free practice sessions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Friday with the quickest time, with the Monegasque racer aiming to return to winning ways this weekend.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver has seen main title rival Max Verstappen triumph in the past two Grand Prix to reduce his advantage at the top of the Drivers’ Championship to just nineteen points, but he started the weekend in Spain in the right way.

Leclerc says his short runs looked promising on Friday, but they have work to do on their long runs, something he hopes they can address.

“Our qualifying runs don’t look bad, but we have some work to do, in particular on our race pace and on tyre management,” said Leclerc.  “The stints we did on the Soft compound felt better than those on the Mediums. 

“Tonight, we will analyse our latest data to find where we can improve on this track, as the conditions are very different to the last time we were here during winter testing.”

Virtuosi Racing’s Jack Doohan took his second pole position of the 2022 FIA Formula 2 season after setting a ferocious lap on a scorching day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

The Australian driver will start ahead of Hitech Grand Prix’s Jüri Vips on the front-row of Sunday’s Feature Race grid after beating him to pole by just two-hundredths of a second with the Estonian setting a late lap which looked like it would topple the Alpine junior’s effort.

Frederick Vesti rounded out the top three qualifiers, with the third place grid start being his best starting grid position in the second-tier to date. He was two tenths off Doohan’s pace-setting time but it was enough to bump PREMA Racing’s Jehan Daruvala down into fourth position.

After two red flags in the morning Free Practice session, Qualifying was completely incident free. The biggest challenge that the drivers faced was getting their soft-compound Pirelli tyres into the optimum operating temperature and keeping them there with track temperatures soaring above thirty-nine degrees celsius.

Many of the drivers seemed to set very competitive times in the first two sectors, but it was the final sector where some struggled to keep the tyres within their said working range which saw them fall short of where they wanted to be.

Charles Leclerc ended Free Practice 2 the same way he ended the morning session, on top. The championship leader demonstrated strong pace at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in what were scorching conditions.

The Monegasque driver ended the day with just over a tenth of an advantage, from none other than both Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team drivers. George Russell occupied second whilst Lewis Hamilton delivered in third. Both Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes have brought a large upgrades package to the Spanish Grand Prix, which so far seems to be working for them both.

Mercedes’ drivers found themselves in a Ferrari sandwich at the end of the opening day, as Carlos Sainz Jr finished the first day at his home Grand Prix in fourth. Oracle Red Bull Racing appear to have some work to do, and certainly some pace to find, Max Verstappen ended day one in fifth whilst Sergio Pérez was down in seventh spot.

In Verstappen’s defence, the Dutchman was top following the drivers medium tyre runs, before slipping down the order when everyone fitted the soft compound. The more experienced Spaniard on the grid, Fernando Alonso, kept his Spanish compatriot in good company after ending Friday in sixth-place, just two tenths behind Sainz.

Pérez did well Friday afternoon to get up to speed quickly, the Mexican didn’t feature in the morning session as Formula 2 driver Juri Vips got an opportunity to drive the RB18. The biggest talking point of the weekend so far is the new green Red Bull, the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One Team introduced some substantial upgrades on the first day of running in Spain, with the car now having a very similar design to Austrian side.

Victor Martins went quickest around the reprofiled Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Free Practice as the FIA Formula 3 Championship arrived at the circuit for the first time since in-season testing in April.

Most of the optimal running came later in the day; Zak O’Sullivan‘s early 1:35.420 placed him in the lower reaches of the midfield by the time the flag fell.

Reece Ushijima was the first driver to go into the 1:34s, with David Vidales setting a 1:33.932 despite increasing temperatures as the 45-minute session progressed.

Oliver Rasmussen, Zane Maloney and Roman Stanek moved their Tridents to the top later on, occupying the top three at times as Stanek held top spot with a 1:33.304.

Joint-Championship leader Leclerc pipped Martins as the pair did battle on the timing sheets, going just 0.076s faster on what will be a quicker circuit than in previous visits, due to the re-designed, more open Turn 10-11 section.

The Short-course Off-road Drivers Association (SODA) was a household name from the 1970s to 1990s as the premier location for short course competition. Despite its history, it disappeared for three decades before the brand was revived in 2021 by Willie Freshour, a stock truck racer who serves as its president. Ahead of the second race of the 2022 season on Saturday at Gravity Park USA, The Checkered Flag received the opportunity to speak to Freshour about the series.

Freshour was initially not keen on organising races since being a driver, father, and owner of a welding company in Wisconsin was already more than enough on his plate. A phone call to Gravity Park owner Bob Schneider about races at the track turned on him when Schneider suggested he hold one himself: “Anytime anybody puts a race on, an off-road race, if it’s not more than a day’s drive, I always try to make it and support the track and the race. When I called him, he’s like, ‘Well, whatever you want to do,’ and I said, ‘No, I don’t want to put on races,’ and he’s like, ‘I know you’d be good at it.’ I said, ‘Well, maybe, but I’m a racer and I already own technically two businesses.’ I’m like, ‘I’m a busy guy and I have a young family,’ and he’s like, ‘Why don’t you just throw a special?’

“I told him I would if two of my friends that were very experienced would help me, and I called them up, they said they would. So I told Bob I would, and within like a week, they both quit, and I ended up restoring SODA.”

The opportunity to bring back the SODA identity came after Freshour noticed the rights to the long dormant name, complete with its archives and some equipment, were available.

“We made all the phone calls and found out we could acquire the name for our short series and then late in the series, we found out the tech trailer still existed and it was at a farm for twenty-three years,” he recalled. “It had all the tech equipment in it and plenty of mice. So our blue tech trailer is actually the original SODA tech trailer from the eighties and nineties with all the equipment and tools in it.

In an official statement posted to the Campos Racing social media channels, the Spanish racing outfit have announced that Ralph Boschung has been withdrawn from the Barcelona race weekend due to “significant neck pain” which he sustained during round three in Imola.

Boschung was able to take part in Free Practice on Friday morning which was where the injury seemed to flare up again, ruling him out for the rest of the weekend.

Campos Racing’s official statement reads:

“Unfortunately, our driver Ralph Boschung will not be able to participate in thus weekend’s round in Barcelona.”

“The Swiss driver begain to have significant neck pain after Round 3 in Imola. However, he was confident he would be able to race this weekend, but after today’s free practice he realised that he could not drive at the best of his abilities and has decided to withdraw from the event and focus on his recover to try to be 100% for the next round in Monaco.”

The GMR Grand Prix was one of the most chaotic IndyCar Series races in recent memory, and the changeable conditions created a fantastic opportunities for this year’s rookie class. Four of the six finished the top fifteen, with three of those results being career-best finishes. Who shined bright through the storms at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course? Let’s break it all down in this week’s IndyCar Series Rookie Report.

CALLUM ILOTT – JUNCOS HOLLINGER RACING

QUALIFYING: SEVENTH – RACE: EIGHTH (-1)

After the heartbreaking end to his Honda Indy Grand Prix of Alabama, Ilott finally has a race finish to match the pace he has shown in recent weeks. He reached his second straight fast twelve in qualifying, narrowly missing out on the top six but still delivering the best qualifying performance to date in his own career and the teams.

On race day Ilott was very competitive, battling for position on track all race long. He had to claw back some positions after a late call to move to wet tyres, but came home with an eighth place result. Like qualifying, this was the best career finish for both himself and the team. During the final, rain-soaked laps of the race, Ilott said visibility was minimal.

“I couldn’t see anything at the end. It was more about survival and hanging on at that point,” he said. “There was so much water and spray everywhere.

Aside from the visibility, Ilott was very pleased with the result and momentum this team is carrying.

The nine-time world champion and 2022 Rallye Monte-Carlo winner Sébastien Loeb has retired from the rally for the day as the Frenchman crashed out on the first stage of the afternoon loop at Rally de Portugal.

Loeb lost the control of his M-Sport Ford World Rally Team Ford Puma Rally1 about 20 metres from the start line on the Special Stage 5 – Lousã 2 and crashed in to a brick wall on the very fast left-hander.

The car picked up damage on the rear-right corner and unfortunately couldn’t continue, both Loeb and his co-driver Isabelle Galmice are okay as the impact was on very low speed.

Before the accident, Loeb was leading the rally with just 0.5 second over Toyota’s Elfyn Evans who has retaken the lead at the moment; The Welshman had led the rally after the two morning stages before Loeb passed him on special stage 4 – Arganil 1. Evans is now leading the rally with 2.1 seconds over Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville who was the fastest on the Super Special Stage – Coimbra yesterday evening.