CORR (Championship Off-Road Racing) was officially started in 1998 when it all but extinguished the late SODA (Short-course Off-road Driving Association) series. During the birth of CORR the majority of drivers in the SODA series moved over to CORR, thus vanishing SODA from existence. The SODA series tried to maintain what little it had before finally disappearing around the turn of the century. CORR has hosted a handful of events annually since 1998. In 2007 the series will host nine events with the Championship located at Crandon International Off-Road Raceway. Crandon has been the home of off-road championship racing since the 70s.Currently CORR is structured into nine divisions. The five truck series are: Pro-4, Pro-2, Pro-Lite, Sportsman-2, and Sportsman Stock. The three buggy classes are: Super Buggy, Single Buggy, and Light Buggy. The newest division is for Trophy Karts.

The Pro-4 Class...
Pro-4 is the division for four-wheel drive utility type (truck) vehicles. The vehicles must be capable of being driven through the front wheels. All the trucks are built/manufactured to be full size and they must be a standard production model which is made available to the public here in the United States.

The Pro-2 Class...
Pro-2 is the division for two-wheel drive full size utility vehicles. The vehicles weight must be at least 3400 pounds. As with the Pro-4 class, vehicles must be a standard manufacturer production model available to the public in the United States.

The Pro-Lite Class...
Pro-Lite is like the Pro-2 class on a diet. The trucks must have 250 horsepower, a weight of 2800 pounds, and there are restrictions on suspension travel. Currently, front suspension is limited to 12 inches of travel; rear is limited to 14 inches. Same goes for Pro-Lite as it does with the other Pro classes: truck must be a manufactured production vehicle available for the United States public.

The Single Buggy Class...
The Single Buggy class consists of a limited 4 wheel vehicle which uses a type-1, 1600 CC Volkswagen air-cooled engine with one person in the vehicle. Stock Volkswagen suspension must be used. Most parts may be reinforced or aftermarket, but they must retain the original part dimensions. Torsion bars can be cut and rewelded to attain different suspension attributes. Single Buggies essentially incorporate all the best parts of the Volkswagen Bug into a small, single seat racer.

The Super Buggy Class...
The Super Buggy Class consists of a 4 wheel vehicle utilizing many different engine combinations with unlimited suspension chassis designs. Engines are limited to c.c. limits from 1650 to 1835 depending on design and manufacturer. Little is limited on the Super Buggies leading to some intense races. Suspension and chassis are highly modifiable so no two racers are the same.

So why is this so cool? Chula Vista is hosting a CORR race on September 29th and 30th. Chula Vista is just South of San Diego right by the San Diego Bay. Since, you know, we all kind of go ga-ga for Baja we figured we might want to check this out. Looks like if all goes well (please no mid-terms) a group of us will be heading to San Diego for the race that weekend.

Who knows, a Super Buggy might make for one helluva Senior Design Project. If Baja SAE goes well forour team over the course of the next two to three years I wouldn't be surprised if we went on to race Trophies and Buggies, remember we are all sophomores (well now juniors). One thing is for sure, when we go to the 1000 and the CORR races we will be looking to link up with some of the teams for information on how they got started, what works and what doesn't, and most importantly any advice they could give to us for our futures as racers.

Off of CORR and onto our 2008 status:

We're still looking for cash to build our 2008 vehicle(s) with. Our goal is to enter two vehicles into twocompetitions each. At $500 a pop for entry fee we are looking at $2000 just for registration. The 2008 Baja SAE locations were disclosed recently and are to be held in Tennessee, Illinois, and Montreal Canada (what's that aboot, eh?). We don't want to float, so we're going to Illinois and Canada for our two comps. Incorporate travel across the entire US and back (perhaps a pickup towing our two vehicles on an open trailer instead of the gas guzzling Penske?) and we are looking at a hefty travel budget.

Competition expenses in 2007 ran us up around $3000-$4000. For competition alone in 2008 we are looking at a bill of at least $8000. Remember, the three guys from our team that went to competition in 2007 pitched in a lot of their own money just to make it to competition. Do the right thing and help us out, you haveto pay taxes so why not give your tax dollars to a great cause? In 2008 we will most likely have a large team traveling to competition which means more hotel rooms and more transportation. We cannot do this alone!

Design continues smoothly and we keep coming up with nifty ideas that we have never seen done before. Unfortunately a couple of those ideas will have to wait until 2009. What is awesome is that we have so much time to grow and learn since we all started this team as sophomores. There is no precedence or tradition; we are currently creating just that! We're that team that will show up to competition with something out of the blue and completely unforeseen, be prepared.

I'm stoked for CORR...

Copyright 2008 UA Baja Racing :: University of Arizona :: Tucson, AZ 85719