Dueling series can’t survive

Everyone in motor sports -- fans, racers, league owners -- should have learned a lesson from what happens when two similar series wage war.

Maybe you've heard of the Indy Racing League. It spun off from Championship Auto Racing Teams in 1996 and created dueling series for Indy-style cars.

The IRL's IndyCar series won the battle as CART became Champ Car and died a slow, agonizing death a couple of years ago. The IRL won but has not come close to regaining the fan base that American open-wheel racing once enjoyed.

Apparently, two short-track, stadium-style, off-road racing groups didn't study that sad chapter of racing history.

The Traxxas TORC Series races into these parts for the first time tonight at Las Vegas Motor Speedway's Dirt Track.

The Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series competes for the third time this year in three weeks in Primm.

Each races similar two- and four-wheel trucks and a variety of buggies.

TORC has blended stops at short-course, off-road havens in Wisconsin and Michigan with events in California, Texas and now Las Vegas.

The Lucas series had two events in California and one near Phoenix, in addition to three in Primm.

This form of racing could be the future for professional off-road racing in the country, but not if they follow the path taken by Indy cars.

Off-road racing condensed into stadium settings is ideal for fans who can see all the action directly in front of them and for television to broadcast it.

That might sour the stomachs of die-hard desert rats, but land developments, environmental impact concerns and the growing endangerment of sponsors threatens open-desert racers more each year.

The Las Vegas debut of TORC will be a two-night event on a makeshift course at the speedway's dirt track that hosted two stadium-style events put on by the SCORE Desert Series and Las Vegas Events from 2005 to 2007.

As exciting as the SCORE stadium races were, with crowds of better than 8,000 each night (despite being in the heat of summer), it involved trucks and buggies built for wide-open desert racing and not designed for the tight turns of stadium racing.

The bumping and banging entertained crowds, but racers were not pleased with the extent of body damage, and, as such, their interest waned.

At the same time, Championship Off Road Racing, which originated in the central part of the country, was bought in 2005 by Jim Baldwin. He moved it to the West Coast a year later and created temporary stadium venues for races before going belly up last year due to mismanagement and a sagging economy that hurt his Southern California home-building business.

Then two entities rushed in to gobble up the CORR carcass.

Motocross Hall of Famer Ricky Johnson created TORC, which features former Supercross and extreme motocross legends Jeremy McGrath and Travis Pastrana. They've proven to have derring-do whether on two wheels or four.

Johnson also races in Unlimited two-wheel drive, where he is second in points to Las Vegan Rob MacCachren, who is the best active off-roader on the planet. Another Las Vegan, Bryce Menzies, 22, won both rounds of Unlimited two-wheel racing in last weekend's Lucas event near Phoenix and is expected to cross over to compete at the speedway.

Short-course off-roaders and Supercross riders provide the most action you'll see in racing.

This motor sport deserves a chance to survive, but only one gunslinger can win a high-noon showdown.

In the meantime, Southern Nevadans benefit from their battle with more races than any market can support.

The only advantage of a dueling series is more races -- that is, until one goes bankrupt. And that's just a matter of time.

Jeff Wolf's motor sports column is published Friday. He can be reached at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247. Visit Wolf's motor sports blog at lvrj.com/blogs/heavypedal/ throughout the week.