“Black Rhino Performance Athlete Jerett Brooks Leaves Wheatland with a Podium Finish”
By Brett Carpenter
July 5, 2018, El Cajon, CA – Nobody said that it’d be easy; racing against arguably the toughest roster of competitors in all of short-course off road racing, that is. But they did say it’d be messy. Roughly 6 inches of rain leading up to race weekend with more rain on Sunday made figuring out the right combination of truck setup and tire grooving a bit more complex than normal. But it was an equal playing field nonetheless as everyone was in the same boat. With a few minor adjustments to the schedule due to the weather, we’d go racing on Saturday and Sunday as planned.
For round 4, Jerett would start on the 4th row after qualifying 7th. While certainly not ideal, Jerett was able to get a good start and picked up a couple positions after turns 1 and 2. And after a couple of laps, he’d move up a couple more spots. An intense battle with Brian Deegan ensued mid-way through the race and Jerett would make his way by Deegan for the lead. Unfortunately, with 2 laps to go, a tire issue would cause Jerett to lose the lead along with each position he gained from the start of the race. It would be a 7th place finish in round 4.
On Sunday, round 5 would be a bit messier with the amount of rainfall throughout the day. Jerett would have his hands full yet again starting on the inside of row 4. Like Saturday’s race, Jerett would have to make some moves to get to the front. After a lap, he moved up to 6th. Early in lap 2, he’d gain a couple more spots. Half a lap later, he’d get by Rodrigo Ampudia for 3rd. A caution on lap 5 would bunch the field up again and they’d restart with 5 to go. Brian Deegan would find his way past Jerett after the restart but a lap later, Jerett would make a beautiful pass to go from 4th to 2nd as he got Deegan back along with RJ Anderson at the same time. Jerett would maintain his position for a 2nd place finish behind only Rob MacCachren. It was a great bounce back performance in round 5.
After 5 rounds of racing, Jerett sits in 4th place in the points championship, 1 point behind defending class champion, Jeremy McGrath for 3rd. A quick stop in Reno for round 6 under the lights awaits us next month. Stay tuned for additional updates.
