Photography: Stuart Bourdon and Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series 

Growing up in Southern California, Casey Currie was a gearhead from the start, just like the rest of his famous family. However, that didn’t mean he was going to rest on that last name everyone in the off road and hot rod world would easily recognize to get him somewhere.

In 2003 Casey worked hard to snag the MDR Series class championship in his Jeepspeed racer and hasn’t stopped since. Instead of being just being a part of his family heritage, he has been forcibly adding to its character and prestige.  

Casey has since raced quite a few different vehicles over the years and in each has proven his ability to finish on the podium. Pro Trucks, SuperMoto, Class 1 buggies, and so many more are on his list of “been there, done that.”

The Starting Line

In 2006, Casey jumped behind the wheel of a Pro Lite race truck in the old Championship Off Road Racing (CORR) series for Art Schmitt and Factory Nissan, and made it to the coveted podium position during his rookie season.

The next year, at age 22, Casey became the youngest person to ever own a short-course race team. Not letting that pressure sway his determination, he finished second overall in points after getting seven podium spots and 11 top four finishes. Casey ended up building his own Pro Lite truck, cutting his teeth and working to fine tune the truck.

He later upgraded to a wicked V8 Pro Lite and utilized his experiences to build a better, faster, and more simple race truck. His and the team’s efforts were certainly rewarded. Casey finished the first year with the new V8 truck by scoring the championship. The team took first in four races and a top three spot in all but two races throughout the entire season.

All New Machine

Well over thousands of hours of work later, Casey has the new number 2 race truck that he races today in the Pro Lite class of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORRS). Having a love for the building and engineering, Casey spent hours upon hours working out the perfect weight bias in his truck, ultimately ending up with a center mounted fuel cell and becoming the first Pro Lite with centered weight distribution.

The entire truck was built in-house at Casey’s shop, Casey Currie Racing. Casey said, “We tried to think outside the box. We want to make racing more simple.” His goal was to have the fastest rig as well as the easiest to work on. His only change, if he could build it all over again, would be to alter the positions of a few tubes in the cab to create a little more room for him while racing. Pretty minor for a build of such magnitude.

Pushing 500 Ponies

Powering the rig, Casey went with a 343 ci V8 pushing around 500 hp and 500 pound-feet of torque. Cooled by a massive CBR radiator with quad-fans, the high-performance engine was built by Redline Performance Engines in Anaheim, California and utilizes a Braswell carburetor to feed the fuel into the cylinders.

From there, the fuel gets ignited by an MSD Ignition system and spent gases are pushed out through a Magnaflow exhaust system. Power is fed through a Turbo 400 manual-valve-body transmission built by Rancho Drivetrain. A hefty transmission cooler chills out back next to the huge radiator.

Casey controls the manual-valve-body with a custom-built gate shifter. The transmission output spins up an Inland Empire rear driveshaft that turns the yoke of a Currie Enterprises Fab 9 rear differential. The rear end is rocking stout 35-spline axles slid into a spool for better traction and a set of Motive Gear 6.00 ratio gears to get the tires spinning.

Custom Designed Suspension

Sporting a custom-designed CRC suspension front and rear, this Jeep Wrangler look-alike truck has a super low stance. Bilstein coil-overs wrapped in Eibach coils do the damping duties in both front and rear. Bilstein bypass shocks give an assist. The 5 on 5.5 CRC Racing hubs support the QTM disc brakes and wheels during racing abuse.

The independent front suspension cycles 12 inches of travel bumped and strapped, using heavy duty heim joints on the frame side of the control arms and uni-ball joints on the spindle side. The tail end of the truck uses a multi-link rear suspension that cycles 14 inches of travel. Helping to keep the rear of the truck level through the corners is a customized Currie Enterprises Anti-Rock sway bar system.

Handling the traction department is a set of 265-75R16 BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/As that are wrapped around Black Rock beadlock wheels with a massive six-inch back space for the right stance. The front and rear tires are custom grooved depending on the race track to help give the truck just the right traction on each different course throughout the season.

Inside the 1.75-inch 4130 chromoly steel chassis, Casey is secured in a Sparco seat behind a Sparco quick-disconnect steering wheel. A MoteC dash and computer offer up data. The custom left-mounted transmission shifter has an adjustable QTM brake bias controller to distribute brake pressure to the Tilton master cylinder.

In The Hunt

Backed by sponsors such as Monster Energy, Currie Enterprises, and Motive Gear, Casey is working hard in the Pro Lite class. As of this report, he holds eighth place in the 2014 LOORRS events, but Casey isn’t that far from nailing a top three position at the end of the season. Racing against the likes of Sheldon Creed (currently first) and Brian Deegan (currently second), Casey does have a heck of a job competing with them.

Rubbing is racing though, so expect big things from Casey Currie and the number 2 truck. The next Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series event is August 1-2, 2014 at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernardino, California. Be sure to check back for full coverage. Off Road Xtreme will be there!