Bring It On!

Like its pilot, Evan's CORR Pro-2 Chevy Silverado spends most of the season perched in the transporter or flying around the fender-to-fender tracks of the CORR circuit. We caught both driver and driven at home in Riverside, California, after a hard-fought racing season. Evans built the space-frame truck in-house, with help from a variety of sponsors. "Companies were reluctant to sponsor me at first," Evan recalls. "When Chevrolet signed on, that broke the ice, and other companies were eager to sponsor me after that." Veteran fabricator Nye Frank laid the foundation by helping to craft the basic chassis. The 1-3/4-inch 4130 chrome-moly tubing was fused together one painstaking TIG-weld at a time. After the metallic skeleton's outline was completed, Evan changed a few things to his liking and finished the truck. Tubing, tabs, and brackets found their places and were soon filled with race-worthy componentry. Build time was about five months from start to start-up.

A vertical bandsaw and hydraulic tubing bender are among the tools that await the call of fabrication duty. Evan also keeps sheetmetal equipment such as a shear, bending brake, and bead roller on hand for panel work.

A torch-mounted amperage control lets Evan TIG-weld without needing a foot pedal. "I have a full-service shop, with the capability to build a complete truck." He plans on adding square footage so that one area can be dedicated to fabrication, with a separate space focused solely on prep. Separating the fabrication and prep areas will do more than merely add breathing room. Fabrication is often a dirty job that creates dust and scraps -- things that should stay far away from drivetrain and suspension internals.

A heavily braced Chrisman housing is filled with monster-size gun-drilled axleshafts that turn the drive plates of the full-floating rear axle assembly. The overkill axle strength is called on regularly when the truck lands with all its weight on one of the rear corners. A 10-1/2-inch Precision ring gear is bolted to a full spool that permanently locks both wheels together for maximum traction on the slippery Midwestern courses. The Precision Gear ratio is 6.20:1. Rear suspension travel is held at the CORR-mandated limit of 20 inches.

To create big suspension travel while maintaining a sensible track width, the control-arm mounts are placed far inboard. "This chassis is the sister truck to the Pro-4 F-150 that Nye Frank built for Rob MacCachren," Evan reveals. As originally configured, the forward control-arm mounts were so far to the front that they actually limited the turning radius. Evan pulled the mounts back a bit so that his truck could negotiate sharper curves. Since Evan plans to jump into the Pro-4 wars in future seasons, this truck will serve as a jumping-off point when fabrication begins. The current field of Pro-4 competitors is fairly narrow, although deeply laden with talented drivers such as Curt LeDuc and Carl Renezeder. There's clearly room for fast guys like Evan Evans to jump into the Pro-4 fray. Why bother with Pro-4? Simple. It's the premier CORR class.

During a desert race, a spare tire or two can spell the difference between motoring victoriously across the finish line and waiting out the hours until a chase crew can arrive with airtight rubber. CORR contests are so short that there's no time to change a flat, hence the lack of a spare tire at the stern of Evan's Pro-2 Chevy. Dents in the stout rear bumper attest to the full-contact body slamming that takes place on the CORR courses. The bumper bolts on to allow easy replacement and to give easier access to other components at the rear of the race truck.

Dry-sump oiling systems are expensive and complicated, but losing a race because your engine seized from a lack of lubrication is even more expensive and complicated. This spun-aluminum oil tank is just one of several components of a dry-sump system. The term refers to the way that the oil is stored in a remote tank instead of in the oil pan. A dry-sump oiling system uses a system-specific external oil pump that scavenges oil as it exits the engine and sends it through a filter, a cooler, and to the external tank. The engine draws the cool filtered oil from the bottom of the tank. In addition to storing the engine oil, a dry-sump tank flows the oil over a series of baffles that separate air bubbles out of the oil. Cool, clean air-free oil provides reliable lubrication for high-horsepower, highly stressed racing engines.

Driver safety is factor number one when designing a vehicle. Another cluster of tubes join at the roof for ultimate protection during a rollover. 'Cage tubing near the driver is padded to prevent bumps and bruises. Aluminum panels between the overhead tubes offer more protection than the thin skin of the fiberglass roof panel. Driver comfort is measured in terms of seat angle and whether or not the controls fit the driver's proportions. Cupholder? Not on this truck.

A pair of Evan-built coilover shocks suspends the front of the truck. Pneumatic bumpstops control upward motion when the truck slamsdown after a short-course jump. Custom Evan-built spindles and CNC brake calipers are needed just as much on a Wisconsin infield as they are 300 miles south of San Felipe. CORR's short courses emphasize cornering ability as much as bump absorption. Eighteen inches of front suspension travel is the limit for Pro-2. If this seems like short travel, keep in mind that the Protruck chassis uses an equal amount of front travel to duel in the desert. Goodyear rubber claws for traction at all four corners of the truck.

Short-course racers don't need codrivers, either. Peel away the panels that cover the passenger side, and you'll find Evan's self-built headers, the dry-sump pump, and the hand-actuated-brake master cylinder.

Holy tube cluster, Batman! The Pro-2 jungle gym gains strength by using strategic tube placement instead of sheer mass and bulk. Behind the cluster, a pair of PWR radiators chills the high-horse Leon Patton 400 small-block. Evan's truck doesn't have a windshield or back window, and air can readily blow right through. This yields the dual benefits of lower wind resistance and better cooling. Evan notes that, "Most of the time, we're not going fast enough on the tight tracks for wind resistance to be a big part of it. At Bark River, though, we can reach 100 mph, and I have a big advantage there over the guys who have a back window. The window acts like a big parachute and slows them down. I hold the fast lap record at Bark River, and I'm the winningest driver at that track."

Although Riverside, California, is becoming increasingly urban, there are still a few patches of open land. One such parcel of open land just happens to be a stone's throw from Evan's shop. The 2004 CORR Pro-2 runner-up missed the gold by the narrowest of margins and proceeded to show us the speed and skill that will capture a championship with just a little luck.

Team Off-Road would like to take credit for setting up this shot, but we can't. Always willing to try something new, Evan suggested a rooftop photo in his wheelchair. We weren't about to miss such an opportunity. The colors chosen for Evan's race truck and transporter were deliberate. Taking a cue from Indy Car and off-road racer Roger Mears, Evan decided to go with the bright scheme of yellow and white hues. "If I can't stand up, I want to stand out."