Stronghold will try to tame the Wild West this weekend

RIVERSIDE, California (May 27, 2014) - Since March of 1929 Reno, Nevada, has called itself "The Biggest Little City in the World."

A few miles east of there, on the outskirts of Sparks, Nevada, is a race track that can lay claim to being the most interesting and unique facility used in the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series.

The track is called Wild West Motorsports Park and it's where the Stronghold Motorsports team will be Friday and Saturday nights (May 30-31) for the Reno Off Road Nationals, the third of the eight events on this year's schedule and the first of two visits to the area.

The bowl-shaped, 1-mile track with its 1,000-foot elevation change has hosted rounds 11 and 12 of the series the past two seasons and Stronghold has fared well in the four races. The team got eight top 5s from five different drivers in 2012 and last year had seven top 5s from drivers Brandon Bailey, Larry Job, Bryce Menzies and RJ Anderson.

Bailey and Job will carry the team's MAVTV/Toyo Tires/SolarWorld colors in rounds 5 and 6 this week and again in rounds 11 and 12 in August, Bailey in the Pro 4 class and Job in Pro Buggy.

Both drivers will have some new challenges, however, with all the on-track activity compressed into two days and the races at night, when visibility will be provided by powerful, computer-controlled light standards.

Spectator gates will open at noon both days. There will be practice and qualifying Friday afternoon and qualifying only on Saturday. Racing will start at 6 p.m. both nights with the Pro Lite Last Chance Qualifier and Modified Kart main event. The pro class features will get under way following opening ceremonies at 7:30 p.m. with the 16-lap Pro 4 contest closing the show both nights.

Bailey, the Pro 4 Rookie of the Year last season, will go into this weekend seventh in the class standings, but just 34 points behind the leader and only 5 points out of fifth place. Job is ninth in Pro Buggy due to a transmission failure that left him 19th in the most recent race, but the Las Vegas, Nevada, veteran is just 11 points out of fifth.

Team manager Matt Salgado said Stronghold recently spent a day testing at Lake Elsinore (California) Motorsports Park and "found some things on the truck, mostly suspension stuff and sway bar stuff," to adjust before loading the transporter for the trip to northern Nevada.

Salgado said that once at the track, where the vehicles reach higher speeds than usual because of the track's length, finding the right carburetor settings and gear ratios will be the main items of business.

Bailey did not compete at Wild West in 2012 and last year finished ninth and fifth in the two Pro 4 main events. Job, a general contractor who frequently can be seen on the television show "Flipping Vegas," should have a good starting point for this race. Last year he finished in fourth place in both races.

STRONGHOLD MOTORSPORTS 2014 SCHEDULE