CMDeerfoot Posted May 20, 2014 Share Posted May 20, 2014 Well, the very first regular season of SMRA has come to end, and what a wild ride it was. From the start, we knew this league was going to be unlike any other; but we had no idea just how fierce the competition was gonna be. But Houston quickly taught us what we should expect from a SMRA event, as the night was full of close races and incredible freestyles. From then on, we knew it was gonna be slobberknocker till the very end; though we didn't see some of what happened coming. As stated in a different thread, I started out with this team as a hired gun, bringing with him a brand new truck that was completely unproven; I had my doubts as to how the truck would perform, but those doubts would quickly be washed away (but i'll get to that later). The one thing I knew going in was that I was on a team I believed could make a statement, as all of our drivers were top notch; even our rookie drivers were upper crust in my opinion. 3 to 4 weeks later though, my roll on the team would take about as big of an about face as it could possibly ever take. I was contacted by Ryan McCauley, the original owner and founder of the team, and he asked me something that caught me off guard. He told me that he just wasn't that interested in overseeing the team anymore, and wanted someone else to take over ownership; and the first person on the list of candidates was me. I was honored that he came to me first, but at the same time I was apprehensive to accept his offer because I wasn't sure if I could run the team in the manner that I believed it should be run in. But, I said what the heck and agreed to take over ownership of Can-Am Racing; low and behold, my skills at owning and running a team would be tested from the word go. From drivers having to leave due to other commitments, to last minute schedule changes, and everything else in between; if a problem could arise, it did. But we persevered and showed everyone that night in and night out, we were always a threat; though I never could imagine the success we would actually achieve. It all started in Houston with Daniel Donnelly putting Overkill Evolution through it's paces, taking home the freestyle win; and it only got better from there. Numerous wins in wheelie contests and donut contests followed, but the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that I got 4 freestyle wins in the span of 3 weeks; but how is that possible you ask? Well, I ended up winning 3 straight freestyles in Lantern; but I also picked up a win in El Chupacabras, as I filled in for Edy who had to leave early. Even with all of the success we had, I still didn't foresee the biggest accomplishment this team had coming. As many of you know, Nick Kozak has been at this deal for quite a few years now (going back to the days of MTM2), picking up some impressive wins along the way; but the one thing that eluded him for all these years was a championship. But that all changed this year, as he walked away with not only the arena freestyle points title, but the overall arena points title. Seeing someone as deserving as him finally reaching the pinnacle was more gratifying than all of the separate wins the team picked up as whole, and it cemented my belief that this team will be a continuous threat for as long as SMRA (and Sim Monsters) is around. That leads me to today, where as you can see below, we are working diligently to get all of the trucks that are going to World Finals in tip top shape; that and fixing up our trucks in general (along with a few other things). Sadly, Overkill Evo won't be able to run due to it's driver being booked for a different event; but we'll still have 4 trucks making the long journey to Denver, Colorado to try and take home home some championships. However, as with any motorsports team, there comes a time where you have to take stock and see what changes need to be made heading into the summer and beyond; and that's exactly what we're doing now. First and foremost, we realized early on that we had WAY too many trucks to try and keep track of and maintain. Now while I knew we needed to trim the fat, I didn't want to just sell off trucks and fire drivers like a heartless s.o.b; cause all of the people in question I consider good friends. So I came to the only conclusion that felt logical to me, although I imagine some of you are gonna think I've lost my mind doing this; but I've never been the sharpest knife in the drawer anyway lol. *Post Continues Below* 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMDeerfoot Posted May 20, 2014 Author Share Posted May 20, 2014 After the SMRA World Finals, I will sign over complete ownership of Scrapper, El Chupacabras, and Newedle to their respective drivers and creators; that means that Beau Smith will own Scrapper outright, Edy Beltran will own El Chupacabras outright, and Preston Perez will own Newedle outright. Now while they may no longer be on the team, we will give them support if they decide to continue running in SMRA; I absolutely refuse to leave them hanging out to dry. But with their departure comes an issue, how are we gonna fill the spots they left behind? Well, we've already started to work on that as well. First part of the solution is getting our shock guru, the man they call Crazy (Michael Murray Jr.), to hop into the driver seat full time with his newest creation; Alcohol Abuse 2.0: The Relapse! (it's the blue truck lol) Crazy is a freestyle legend, and we expect nothing but jaw dropping performances from him. Part 2 of the solution is bringing in one of the most consistent and level-headed drivers around, that being Mark Iron; and with him comes a truck bearing one of the most legendary names in the history of the business, the AM/PM Rocket! We just recently purchased the truck from Buckeye Performance, and we're gonna make sure it's set up exactly to Mr. Iron's specs.Now you may have noticed a few other trucks that are here visting, those being Crushin' Chaos and Wreckless Intent. Now before you start jumping to conclusions, both trucks are here to get set up help and repairs respectively; but that doesn't mean that we're not in talks either . All in all, this inaugural season of both the SMRA and this team has been exceeded any of our expectations; and we're looking forward to what lies ahead this summer and going into Season 2. Stay tuned because we've got some big things planned for this team! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMDeerfoot Posted October 17, 2014 Author Share Posted October 17, 2014 Whew, has it been a busy off season for Can-Am Racing; so busy that we completely forgot to update this blog lol. But now that we have some time, we'll get everyone up to date on what's going on in our merry little band of misfits. So, the very first SMRA World Finals was an interesting adventure to be sure; and if I were to use one word to describe the night, it would be carnage. It would actually be easier to to tell you who didn't wreck, as the wild freestyle course claimed many victims; with all of our trucks included in the list of casualties. What we didn't expect to find was that the Can in Can-Am Racing (that being Canadian Crippler) suffered catastrophic damage as a result of the wild ride he took in freestyle, and at first we honestly didn't think the truck was that badly damaged; but once we got the truck back to the pits and removed the body, we were stunned by the amount of destruction that laid before us. The back of the cradle was ripped out when the axle got hooked on the crush van, the front and the back of the chassis was wadded up, and the shock towers were all bent out of shape; luckily, the cage held extremely well, with no noticeable damage on it anywhere. However, even with the amount of damage sustained in the crash, it was decided that Crippler would get a rebuild. The amount of work was roughly the same as building a new one but with a successful showing, it was difficult to justify to changing the formula completely. Thus other then extra bracing where deemed necessary, Crippler will receive most of its changes in the form of parts. A new transfercase, ProFab Reverser tranmission, axle housings, Ukraine tires (borrowed off of Overkill) and the old girl is ready to battle it out this coming year in the all new Canadian Tour!We are extremely proud of this new piece, and we believe that it'll perform even better than it's predecessor; but that wasn't the only thing we had to work on. One truck that has been apart of this team since day one, and that was used mostly as a display piece, is the big green Ford known as Liquidator. The truck was initially gonna be driven by the original owner of the team Ryan McCauley, but he turned over ownership of the team to your's truly shortly after the season began; his reasoning being that he felt he couldn't run the team in a consistent and effective matter, as he had matters outside of the racing world to attend to. But he did still hang around the shop (it is his shop after all lol), and he helped out when he could; but one things he really wanted to do was update the look of Liquidator, as he thought it looked a little too plain. But due to his departure as owner, those updates were put on hold and the truck was rarely used for anything other than displays for our sponsors; and the occasional new part test. But with the success of this team came new offers from sponsors from places we didn't expect to hear from (specifically South Korea), and their desire to have their own truck; that's where Liquidator comes in. Thanks to funds given to us by said new sponsors, Liquidator received the updates that RKM wanted to give it, and he even stopped by the shop to help finish said updates; the results of these changes can be seen below. We really love how the truck turned out, and we can't wait to see this thing hit the track this year; and yes, it actually is gonna run in season 2. We'd also like to thank the folks who helped make this happen, those people being the folks at Samsung, S-Oil, Doosan, and Kumho Tires. We appreciate their support, and we hope to perform up to their expectations this year. With that out of the way, I think it's time we shed some light on a couple of things. Now for those that remember, you may have seen the picture of Wreckless Intent sitting at our shop; and we told everyone not to jump to conclusions. We simply said that because at the time we were negotiating with the trucks owner/driver Josh Rhodes, and now we can actually announce it; Josh Rhodes and Wreckless Intent are the newest addition to Cam-Am Racing! We are extremely happy that we managed to sign one of the best drivers in the game, someone who has won multiple championships over the years, and we know that he'll make some noise in season 2.Along with Wreckless, another new addition to the team is the brand new Ford known as Crushin' Chaos. Daniel Donnelly was the man behind the wheel of Overkill Evolution last year, and he was one of the standouts from season 1; but he's always had a desire to run a truck of his creation, that's where Chaos comes in. Built to his exact specifications, this thing is state of the art and we're excited to see what comes of this new piece; now that does leave Overkill Evo without a driver, but we'll figure that situation out at a later date.But now you guys are probably asking yourselves, where is Rocket and Alcohol Abuse? Well, the answer is simple; both trucks have been stripped down and sent out to paint and powdercoat. We expect to get all of the parts and pieces back in a few weeks, and when we do it'll be full speed ahead on getting them finished. Oh, and by now I'm sure you've all noticed the change in scenery; and you're probably wondering just where the heck our trucks are currently stationed at. Again, the answer is rather simple; we've moved out of the original Can-Am Racing shop, and we're now renting out an old airplane testing facility. Why are we doing this you ask? Well, it's because of the fact that former team owner RKM has decided to join with another team that competes in SMRA, and he's gonna lend out the original shop to his new team; but in all honesty, this was a blessing in disguise. We've been thinking about relocating the team, and now this gives us a valid excuse lol. So for now, this old airbase will be our home; and hopefully, we'll be able to fly to new heights in season 2! (What, you thought I wasn't gonna make a corny airplane related joke? Y'all should know better by now haha.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMDeerfoot Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 Whew, what a year for Can-Am Racing! With last minute lineup changes, new truck builds, and a new tour format to deal with the second season was shaping up to be very interesting to say the least. Coming into this year, we knew we would be in the running for not only wins but possibly a championship or 2 as well; but in our wildest dreams, we never could've imagined the success we would achieve. We kicked off the year in grand style picking up 6 wins in the first 5 weeks, and it didn't stop there. More wins came as the season continued on and it started to dawn on us that we had a chance to do something special, and we did just that. By the time all the tours finished up and the points were tallied, we took home 7 of the 12 available points titles; a feat that probably won't ever happen again. Johan Seminario took the overall points title on the canadian tour, while the champion of the arena tour in season 1 Nicholas Kozak took home the freestyle points title on said tour, Michael Murray took not only the freestyle points title in the east tour but the overall league freestyle points title, and your's truly swept the west tour points titles; and even though it's been weeks since we won those titles, it still hasn't quite sunk in for me yet. But even though we accomplished all of this, that doesn't mean we're gonna rest on our laurels; we'll continue to do what needs to be done to ensure that all of our drivers have what they need to compete at the highest level. Now as for the world finals................well things didn't go exactly how we'd like but we really can't complain, as most all of our drivers who made it to Pittsburgh put on a good show for everyone; and we walked way knowing that we made a statement. But that leads us up to where we're at now, the off-season. As with most any sport, a lot of changes tend to happen during this period and some of said changes take people by surprise; and some of you might be asking yourselves what changes, if any, we have in store. Well, the biggest change is that Kozak has decided to leave Can-Am Racing and is now the heading up The Machine Shop.................and yes you read that right. I know this may come as a surprise, but there was already a plan in the works to split up Can-Am into 2 separate factions; but those plans changed. The future of The Machine Shop was bright entering season 2 as the team had a great run last year, but things became uncertain as team owner Dan Agosh found himself with a real life job working for Feld Motorsports; because of this, he was unable to run in most of the events, run his team, or oversee league operations. Now while one of these problems was fixed, the other loomed large throughout the season as there was no one to act as the leader for the team. Luckily, Kozak stepped in and helped them get things on track for the team; but questions about the future of the team still loomed large. Because of this, Kozak took it upon himself to contact Agosh about allowing him to take over day to day operations of the team; so after a couple of conversations, the terms were finalized and Kozak was made the new vice president over at The Machine Shop. While it is sad to see him go, I had a feeling he would want to run his own team again as he did back in the MTM2 days. Myself, as well as everyone else here at Can-Am Racing, wish him well on his new endeavor and we thank him for everything he did to help this team get to where it is today. So now you're wondering where that leaves Can-Am Racing and what are plans going forward are, and the answer to that is simple; we keep on improving the team in every way possible. While we knew it would be hard to find someone talented enough to fill void that Kozak left upon his departure, we secretly started scouting possible replacements; and in what could only be called the ultimate irony, we found our replacement(s) as a result of Kozak joining Dano's team. Before Kozak took on his new role and new team, Dano was looking for a new driver to add to his team; one of the people who inquired about the spot was Matt Demko. Demko made his return to full time racing this season after making some huge life changes, and his renewed focus showed as he was a threat to win every time out; and his teammate Fernando Martinez was no slouch either, as Fern is one the top up and coming drivers in the game. They had big plans for Season 3 but couldn't start on them due to lack of funds and resources, which is why they were looking to merge with another team. With that being said, I knew this was an opportunity I couldn't pass up so I got in contact with Demko; after a couple of discussions to work out the details, he agreed to merge his team with mine. For us, being able to bring both Demko and Fern into the fold is a huge step in not only filling the spot left by Kozak's departure, but also in making this team more of a threat to win night in and night out than it already was. But with this addition comes the end of a team as it was previously known, as per the agreement made with Demko, Can-Am Racing will now be known as Can-Am DiRTWerx; also, expect an update from Demko himself on the DiRTWerx blog sometime soon. Well, I believe that's all the news we have to deliver at the moment, but we are working on some new things for Season 3; so stay tuned for more updates as we venture on into this journey of SMRA competition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobbieMilburn Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Dang I come back from my pretty much year long hiatus and everything has changed. Awesome stuff though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Outlawed Posted July 12, 2015 Share Posted July 12, 2015 Life is dynamic man, the main goal of this "separation" is to keep the long term longevity of the league at the forefront. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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