DISNEY, Okla. — The legendary No. 24 will be retired from Ultra4 USA competition following today’s 4400 Unlimited class race at Legends of the Fall.
The No. 24 belonged to Zandy Willems, who entered the Ultra4 series in full force four years ago. Willems lost his life during the series’ visit to Crandon Int’l Raceway in September due to a hard crash on the opening lap of the 4400 race.
The beloved driver is being honored this weekend at the Ultra4 series finale in Oklahoma.
In 2018, Willems approached Chip McLaughlin and Brad Christiansen with the goal of racing Ultra4. And so, the Rufus Racing team was born.
The team debuted with the race car they refer to as “Donkey” and they haven’t let up since.
Over the years, Rufus Racing has expanded to include three cars in the 4400 Unlimited class — the No. 24 driven by Willems, the No. 4 driven by Chip McLaughlin and the No. 78 driven by Pip Justice. The team also fields an entry in the 4900 class.
“Zandy was Mr. Rufus. He was our leader, and he’s going to be missed,” McLaughlin said.
Diamond Dave, the lead mechanic and fabricator at Rufus Racing, developed the car design that the No. 24 will be displaying today. It’s a throwback to the very first Ultra4 race that Willems appeared in and features a midnight black paint scheme.
“We normally have all the cars wrapped in the same colors, but this time we went back to the black,” Dave said. “Since we’re going to retire everything, might as well send it out like we started it.”
McLaughlin will be behind the wheel of No. 24 for one last run, co-driving with Christiansen during the Ultra4 4400 Unlimited class race at 2 p.m. (ET) on Saturday.
“His motto was, ‘go make memories.’ We’re going to carry on that tradition and make more memories for him,” McLaughlin said.
Watch the live broadcast on SPEEDSPORT.tv.