Rockonmotorsports Todd Cuffaro prefers closed-course off-road racing to traditional desert runs because there's less expense, more exposure.

Most are headquartered in small industrial parks in El Cajon, Santee and Lakeside. But tucked away in Golden Hill?

That is where one of the area's newest teams is located. And it's no usual team.

Cuffaro Motorsports is the working dream of Todd Cuffaro, a 24-year-old USD business administration graduate.

“I started it on a loan from my parents,” Cuffaro said Tuesday. “I have to make it happen in two years or I'm done.”

Cuffaro will be racing this weekend in Chula Vista in the first of three local doubleheaders in the closed-course Championship Off-Road Racing series.

He will be racing in the ProLite pickup truck division, which doubles as an entry-level class for young drivers looking toward a racing career and veterans seeking to compete at a level just short of the more expensive Pro-4 and Pro-2 main events.

Like the CORR series itself, the ProLite class is expanding rapidly.

“My results are much the same as they were last year,” said Cuffaro, who ranks fifth in the points standings after six of 16 races packed into eight weekends. “But there are twice as many trucks as we had last year.”

The why of CORR's relatively overnight success goes to the core of problems elsewhere.

Although the short – and frantic – CORR races don't offer traditionalists the challenge of racing long distances in the desert, they are free of the hassles of competing in Mexico these days as well as the expense of establishing outposts over the long distances covered by such events as the Baja 1000 and Las Vegas-Reno.

Plus, fans pay to see CORR events because the short-course races are action-packed to the point that traditionalists believe the bump-and-run nature of CORR racing isn't true off-road racing.

Maybe so, but fans do pay to see CORR events. And the nonstop action has attracted the eye of television. Saturday's half of this week's doubleheader will be televised live on Speed Channel from 3 to 5 p.m., and NBC will air Sunday's racing from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Spectators and television mean there is money in CORR racing that there isn't in the desert. Which is another reason Cuffaro launched his dream of being a professional driver in CORR.

“I wanted to race and I started on road courses in the Pro Mazda Series,” said Cuffaro. “But when I looked at everything, it seemed like CORR was the series that was taking off . . . and it was centered right in my backyard.”

Plus, CORR wasn't that far from Cuffaro's racing roots. He started riding dirt bikes when he was 12 and raced a number of desert events on two wheels until he broke his back in a 2002 crash in a Best in the Desert race.

That got him into a buggy.

“Like any off-road racer, the ultimate would be to win the Baja 1000,” said Cuffaro. “But I like the shorter races. There is more bang for the buck. And when you are looking for sponsorship, there's a much better chance of a sponsor being interested if you are racing before large crowds on television.”

Which is where Cuffaro the business graduate blended with Cuffaro the racer.

But it's hard for a young racing team to make it on the returns from racing alone.

Were Cuffaro to win a race this weekend on the Chula Vista obstacle course known as the Quarry, it would pay $3,500, with $6,500 more coming his way through contingency awards from sponsors.

That would just about pay the bills up to the next race.

Cuffaro, however, has yet to win a race in a competitive field that includes three former class champions (Jeff Kincaid, Chad Hord and Robert Naughton). His best finish is a fourth recently in Pomona.

“I feel I'm getting closer to that breakthrough win,” said Cuffaro.

His team is already advancing on other fronts. His shop preps cars for two other race teams and he has built a second truck to rent to other racers. And he's starting a machine shop on the site with a business partner.

“I'm running it as a business,” said Cuffaro.

Bill Center: (619) 293-1851; bill.center@uniontrib.com