2024 UNLTD Championship Chase: Unlimited Truck SPEC
The 2024 UNLTD Off-Road Racing season concludes on October 2-6 with the return of the California 300. As we prepare for an epic finish to this year’s campaign, we’re going to take a look each week at the top racers across the dozens of classes that make up a typical UNLTD entry list.
For this installment, we take a look at the top names in the Unlimited Truck SPEC field—one of the deepest and most exciting racer groups in the sport:
The Front-Runners
No discussion of UNLTD’s Unlimited Truck SPEC field can start without Kyle Jergensen. The former BFGoodrich Tires Mint 400 overall winner moved into the SPEC class for this season as Magnaflow and Camburg’s driver of choice, and he rewarded their faith with a class win in the Great American Off-Road Race. Jergensen’s four-lap time of 6:57:45 was more than five minutes clear of Troy Grabowski for the class victory, as well as good for second overall in the Unlimited Race.
While late issues in the season-opening Parker 400 knocked him down to 10th in that race, Jergensen’s 321 points are enough to give him the points lead coming into the California 300. Not far behind him, though, is Brent Fox. Fox finished second in the Parker 400 to open the season and eighth at the Mint 400 to score 318 points of his own, leaving him just three off the lead.
Still in the Hunt
Jergensen and Fox have a little bit of breathing room from the next group of drivers, but all four are within 27 points of the championship lead. Seventh place finishes at both races have given Cole Hardin 308 points coming into Barstow, while Terry Householder (6th in Parker and 10th at the Mint) has 306, Jack Olliges (3rd and 21st) enters the event with 301, and Thomas St. Peter (9th and 19th) has 294.
While all four drivers have some ground to make up, a DNF from either of the leaders will do the trick. The California 300 pays 35 points to start and 45 points to finish, so aside from the larger points haul for finishing the race if your competitor falls out, you get an extra 45-point boost just for making it to the finish line. That’s why drivers like Olliges and St. Peter, despite finishing four laps at the Mint hours behind Jergensen, made sure to get it to the finish line in March.
Householder comes into the California 300 as the defending class winner. Joining his son Adam, who won the Unlimited Truck class and overall Unlimited Race, as a winner of last year’s event was a thrilling moment for the family—and this year, both Householders have a chance to sweep both the race and championship if the cards fall just right. In addition, St. Peter finished second in class and third overall in the inaugural race two years ago.
Dark Horses
The next few drivers in Unlimited Truck SPEC points took a DNF in one of the first two races, leaving up to 45 points on the table—and, if that DNF came at the Mint, much more thanks to all of the one-off drivers who scored strong finishes there. It’s hard to imagine that any of them can take the championship, but a top-five points finish is plausible for any of these drivers on the entry list in Barstow.
James Scully, Sid Mattila, Andre Laurin, and CJ Faison complete the top 10 in points through two races. All four DNFed in Parker and bounced back to finish the Mint, with Scully’s fifth place finish in class best of the group. Both Scully and Laurin ran in Barstow last year, with Laurin placing fourth in class.
So far, 17 Unlimited Truck SPEC entries are on the entry list for this year’s California 300—the most in event history. The drawing for qualifying positions for SPEC and other qualifying classes, as well as race day spots for other classes, takes place this Sunday at noon PT.
Catch up on all of the 2024 UNLTD Championship Chase posts:
July 18: UTV Modified/UTV Stock/Youth
July 25: Limited Truck
August 1: Limited Car, Vintage, and Military
August 8: Motorcycles
August 15: UTV Pro NA and Pro Stock
August 22: UTV Pro and Pro Open
August 29: Class 10 and Class 5 Unlimited
September 5: Class 1, Class 1 Unlimited, and R400: Unlimited