Production Editor

Carl Renezeder admits he was a “freak” about motorcycles at a young age.                                                                                                 
“My dad got me my first motorcycle when I was in second grade,” he recalls. “We’d always do family trips out to the desert and I’d ride there. Of course, as soon as I’d get home from school, the first thing I’d do, I’d get my bicycle out and look for something to jump or some dirt to ride in or somebody to race.
“That’s what I loved to do. I can’t tell you exactly why. I guess I was messed up at a young age,” Renezeder quips.
That love of motorcycles, dirt and jumping eventually transformed itself into a different passion — one for off-road racing — and into a very successful career in Championship Off Road Racing.
Renezeder’s racing résumé is heavy with his many accomplishments: 65 career short-course victories in CORR’s Pro-4 and Pro-2 divisions as well as in World Series of Off-Road Racing’s Pro4x4 and Pro2WD classes; two Baja 1000 wins in 2007 and 1994; and multiple championships and milestones that include the Governor’s Cup, the Borg Warner World Championship and the inaugural Jason Baldwin Memorial Cup.
Though it was his love of motorcycles and bikes that propelled Renezeder into off-road racing, it was a different type of sport that set up the 43-year-old Montebello, Calif., native for success.
Renezeder began playing water polo while in the eighth grade, and his interest in riding bikes tapered off as he became more serious about the sport. He played water polo through high school and his college days at UCLA and earned the honor of All-American Water Polo player.
His dedication to water polo established a foundation he has been able to utilize both in his pursuit of racing glory and in his day job, running his real estate company, Oakwood Developments.
“Water polo is one of the biggest things for me in my life because it’s so hard,” Renezeder says. “It’s so hard to get up at 5:30 a.m. when it’s freezing cold outside and you have to jump in a 76-degree pool and get yelled at and get your butt kicked to swim and it’s raining out and you’re like, ‘What the heck am I doing here? I’d rather be asleep.’
“But the idea is that you do it because you want to win the next game. You want to be stronger than the next guy so you get the playing time. That set me up for my philosophy in business and in racing. It’s the will to keep pushing forward, to be aggressive.
“The similarities between water polo and racing are dedication and perseverance,” Renezeder says. “Any time you’re involved in a sport — whether it be racing, triathlons, water polo, whatever it is — to be the best you can be, you have to be very dedicated, you have to have perseverance, you have to, as the old cliché says, dust yourself off when you fall down and come back swinging again because you know racing is a series of highs and lows. You go from hero to zero in absolutely no time. You have to be on your game and you have to be willing to strive to go forward and do well.”

CARL RENEZEDER Birth date: April 16, 1964 Hometown: Montebello, Calif. Residence: Laguna Beach, Calif. Family: Wife Kelley and four children Education: UCLA graduate, 1987; All-American Water Polo player Occupation: Owns Oakwood Developments, a real estate company Hobbies: XTERRA triathlon, swimming, cycling, skiing, snowboarding, surfing

Even more than 20 years after his college water polo success, the physical preparation and conditioning required of competitive athletes remains with Renezeder.
“I still train a lot because I have that foundation. I still swim and I still ride bikes. I probably don’t hit the weight room as much as I should, but I still do depending on injuries,” he says. “When I race, it’s definitely an advantage. If you’re in good shape and you feel good, you’re not going to exert the energy that you are physically feeling tired. You can stay focused better. You’re more calm and relaxed; you can think better and make better decisions.”
After graduating from UCLA in 1987 and entering the working world as an analyst at an investment banking firm, Renezeder purchased a motorcycle and began racing locally. Before long, he had the opportunity to race a desert car, and he “decided to get into it” because he enjoyed it so much.
In 1994, Renezeder scored the Class 1 victory in the SCORE Baja 1000. In 1999, he purchased a truck and began competing in short-course events.
Now he and his team, American Flyer Racing, are marking their 10th season with sponsor Lucas Oil. Looking back, Renezeder never dreamed he would have achieved the level of success he has experienced.
“The biggest reason I did it is because I loved it. That’s one of the things I always tell myself whenever I get in the truck. This is what I love to do. That gives me a level of comfort,” he says. “I guess if you love something and you stick with it, eventually you’re going to get good at it.
“I think our team has done well in a number of aspects as far as results. We’ve done well, we’ve won a number of championships and quite a lot of races, and we’ve also done well with our sponsors. To have a sponsor like Lucas Oil be with us as a primary sponsor for 10 years says something; we must be doing something right. That’s a team effort. We’re always striving to improve, but I never thought we’d be where we are today.”
Where he is today, atop the off-road racing world is perhaps the most well known name in the sport, thanks to television coverage on NBC and Speed. But what does Renezeder count as success?
“I think that changes all the time,” he says. “Each year, it’s like, ‘I can’t believe we’re here. I can’t believe we did this.’ Then the next year comes and it’s like, ‘Wow. I can’t believe we’ve done this.’ Each year gets better.
“I think winning 50 career short-course wins, that was a big deal. And I’ve been so close three years now to winning both the Pro-2 and the Pro-4 championships in the same year. When I look at the big milestones, I think, ‘Wow.’”
But the biggest highlight came in 2006 when Dirt Sports magazine named Renezeder driver of the year.
“That was a big thing to me because that’s like your peers, you know? That was kind of a big deal for me.”
The racing has become a family affair for Renezeder. Wife Kelley races a 1600 c.c. buggy. Two of their daughters have followed in their footsteps, racing trophy carts when they’re not busy playing in the Laguna Beach water polo program.
As a new generation of Renezeders may be poised to chase off-road success themselves, what does the future hold for the family patriarch?
“I definitely see myself sticking with this form of racing, and the one reason why is because I love to fly through the air,” Renezeder says. “There’s no other form of racing where you can do that.
“There are some jumps that we fly over 200 feet, 30 feet high in the air, side by side, in 4,000-pound trucks. The car control is beyond what I think people realize it is. We’re going 80 mph through the air, landing in a corner side-by-side, laying on 800 horsepower around the corner. It’s pretty cool.
“I don’t know how you could get that kind of thrill doing any other kind of racing. Now you may ask an IndyCar guy what’s his deal and he may say he loves to go 200 mph. I love to fly through the air.”
And with the amount of success Renezeder has achieved thus far in his career, he must be flying on Cloud 9.