#xpwarrior
Active Member
1965 #XPWARRIOR Henderson 160 Race Report
The field of UTV’s grouped up at the end of the Main Pit area waiting to be sorted as scheduled. Many of the top names in the class came to play and there was a title on the line with a close point’s race between the point’s leader Johnny Angle and Justin Lambert and other close races for other spots on the list like that between Jagged X and the Murray’s. We were to be 8th row off the line and as we began watching everyone move around I started talking to my co-driver about the field of teams that showed up. The first group in race two left the starting line and the UTV’s were moved to the gate. The second row left on the green light and the Mad Racing car, in the same lane we were lined up in, flipped in the first turn! It really sucks to see a fellow competitor roll their car but I know these guys and went for a bite to eat with them the night before. My co-driver Chris, quickly calmed me back down as we watched the starts continue but our lane get backed up as the Best in the Desert crew try to right the Mad Racing car and allow for racers to continue. We finally pull up to the line and the lane is now clear, the flipped car is driving and the others as moving down the course. I give Casey Folks a thumbs up and looked over to the 4 seat chassis Polaris lined up against us and thought to myself, “I have got to do everything I can to beat this car before the no passing zone.” The light turns green and I ease into the throttle. When we clear the starting chutes the other car is about two car lengths in front of us. I begin our attack to pass as Chris hits the siren. The beginning of the course is pretty whooped out and I am hoping our 2 seat chassis car can negotiate without a problem. We continue gaining speed and make the pass. We take the XPWARRIOR/VAPECO car through the course at full throttle for the next two miles to the first Danger which is a road crossing. Chris starts calling it out over the intercom, “Danger ahead…it’s the road crossing…checkup…Danger! CHECKUP!! DANGER!!...” I continue at full throttle into the road crossing and jump the road landing a little sideways and clipping the berm on the other side of the road which ended up breaking our debris deflector on the trailing arm. The car powered through the no passing zone to the quarry where we used the brakes for the first time and negotiated the technical and rough area. Just toward the end of the quarry section we were powering up when the six bolts holding the steering wheel to the quick disconnect hub sheered/stripped. There I am trying to turn the car in an easy right but the wheel is no longer connected to the car. Luckily, I pedaled the car enough to cause a sharp left and drove the car away from the traffic lane to stop and assess the situation. We got really lucky this happened where it did, in all reality! The extended time it took to fix the failure allowed for every car in Race 2 to pass us. We did get the wheel attached to the hub and continue on the course. We made the decision in the car to radio the chase crews to notify we were going to ditch the strategy we had and come into Pit A for an assessment of the steering because safety was a big concern. Our contention for a podium was gone, but the race was not over for us.
We continued on the course trying to make it forward to Pit A worried about our steering issue, but the competitive nature kept rearing its head and we would find ourselves driving fast again and in traffic making passes under power and seeing vehicles off course fixing issues. Reality would set in that our steering was not completely safe and getting to top speeds in rough terrain might not be very safe and we would back down again. We did have a humorous situation with a Jeep Speed Race Vehicle. Around rm21, Chris tells me a vehicle is coming up behind us. We were driving conservative due to the steering so I sped up to find a place to get over let them pass. There was vegetation and huge rocks everywhere and I didn’t want to cause damage to my vehicle or a fine from BLM. Just as I got to open ground and moving over, the Jeep Speed bumps us (I never heard a siren and the GoPro didn’t either). We both make the left turn and we are now side by side tearing down the road. Chris tells me, “there is a sharp left 90 coming in a quarter mile… 200 feet let him go.... 100…stop, turn!” I hit the brakes turned right and made the corner; the Jeep Speed that bumped us went flying straight through the corner. The road we turned onto was quite the mess. We came flying into the dust at about 50mph and almost broad sided a class 1500 pre-runner sitting perpendicular into the fence and then after we made it around that we ran up on a cluster that was a Trophy Truck Pre-running right behind a UTV with another UTV next to them and another about fifty feet in front all doing about 25mph and creating a huge dust cloud that made it so you couldn’t see any of the dust lights, not even the blue strobe.
A few miles later we finally made it to Pit A after seeing the UTV inc car on the side of the course with an issue. We spend a considerable amount of time in the pit trying to assess the issue and fixing the problem. It was very important to know the car was safe prior to heading out to Beer Bottle, so we waited for another one of our crew members to arrive from Main Pit to give the car a look. Once the crew gave us the green light we went back out on the course. Now I am not making excuses for our finishing position. I commend my crew and could not be more proud of them. I merely want anyone reading this race report to understand that safety is, and should be at the forefront of any team’s agenda when racing. OK, back to it… Back out on the course the car was handling well but once the gremlin is in your head, it is hard to shake. I am driving the car as hard as I feel safe doing so. I think I only got the car above 60 a few times after the steering failure. I did my best to shake the thoughts and push through, but Chris and I only cared about finishing the entire mileage allowed for UTV’s at this point. We negotiated the remainder of the first lap without issue and passed a few more cars from other classes and ours that were either moving on the course or stopped on the side. Just before the Lake Bed we came up on a UTV. It looked like a Can Am from behind and we wanted to try to make a pass. The Can Am hit the lake bed and hit full power…we hit the lake bed and hit full power. The Can Am pulled away from us faster than I have ever seen. That thing was so fast that we lost sight of it by the time we got to the other side of the lake bed. Now I bring this up because of the difference in manufacturer design. Next year will be another controversial season with the ECU rules for the Turbo class. Anyway, about a mile later I passed a Can Am sitting on the side of the course and presumed it must have been the vehicle that I was trying to chase across the lake bed. It seems that the 2900 car of S3 still has those pesky issues that have prohibited it from having the clean races Dustin has had in his Can Am. I did have one other issue on lap one in a whoop section. I misinterpreted the section and came in at the wrong speed, then made it worse... I engaged some brake standing the car up in an endo. Looking straight down thinking about an inevitable flip about to happen, my foot immediately hit the gas and righted the car on all four wheels. Having lost all momentum the remaining whoops were pretty fun. That is sarcasm. Lap two began after a fuel stop at Main Pit, but we only grabbed 5 gallons so we were going to have to pit once more. We just needed to get out on the course to ensure we get every mile. Our fuel gauge in the car was bouncing and showing us empty and a quarter tank most of the times I was seeing it. Not wanting to chance running out of fuel I elected the extra stop. This really sucks. Our car didn’t start in the morning and we had to jump it. We think the IRC drained the battery but IRC claims that the tracker shouldn’t have drained the battery over night. So our car was running the engine while we staged, were fixing the steering, sitting at Pit A for what felt like an eternity…I didn’t want to chance the fuel level.
The second lap was fun! The steering was out of my head for most of it, but we did limit our top speed out of a concern for safety. Arriving at Pit A to get enough fuel for a finish we found our crew in great spirits. We had arranged a deal with the Monster Energy TT team of BJ Baldwin and the MAVtv Team. They wanted a specific pit location so we secured that for them since we were out there before their race began. Some of BJ’s guys assisted my guys in checking the 1965 XPWARRIOR/VAPECO car while it was quickly fueled on lap 2. It was really awesome to have that big team assist us! (even if it was for like 30 seconds...good to have friends) Then just as we are getting ready to leave the pit, BJ’s co-driver for the second half of their race, Brandon, leaned in our car to tell us that BJ would be up my ass in about 40 minutes so I better get moving. I quickly did the math in my head….I am about rmXX…the finish line is at rmXX…holy shit!!! I really need to get going or I am going to be a hazard on the course for those guys. So with about 50 miles to go and the TT vehicles doing about a mile a minute I didn’t know if I could get to the finish before I was a nerf away from needing a new car. We pulled out and started to put down some descent steady driving. Once we were within 8 miles of the finish we believed we would make it. As I entered the final turn toward the spectator areas I said to Chris my co-driver over comm, “you know I really love racing and hope we can keep doing it” “I hope we can afford every race next season and keep this whole dream alive” Chris reassured me that we would and that we would figure it all out. I said to him, “you know, I wish I had like 100K in the bank and knew if I wrecked this car I could build a brand new one in time for Parker or someone had our back that said go out there and drive the shit out of it…If you wreck the car on that final stretch because you pushed it too hard in front of the fans we will get you another car.” Chris laughed in the mic and said he loved being in the car with me. Just at that moment we were making the final easy turn into the spectator area…I pushed down on the gas pedal harder than we had the previous trip through and the car was literally jumping from whoop to whoop. We were at a steady speed about 55-60 and I said, “Well I hope the fans think it’s worth it…and the car holds together”. I locked my elbows in, worried about the steering a little, and floored the car giving it all she had leading into the final spectator area. The car kept climbing in speed as it skipped over the top of the whoops and I felt so exhilarated. The culmination of a long day of racing and many months of hard work to end a season with a finish was being felt in that one moment of pushing it in front of the sports fans in a little “Golf Cart”.
It doesn’t seem all that important until you have one in your hand; those finishing pins are coveted by us all. Though the podium finishers get a trophy and we all dream of hitting that podium, it is the feeling of crossing the finish line that begins the addiction to this sport. I wish Casey and the people of Best in the Desert could give a pin to the people I have in the pits. Chris and I usually try to give a pin to at least one of the crew that did an amazing job that day. I must thank everyone that came out and helped for the Henderson 250, The Edmondson Family…Pops, Steve…our crew, Greg, Tim, Sam , Bryce, Kevin Whalen and VapeCo, Dan Fisher and everyone at Lone Star Racing, Sparks Performance, Tensor Tires, Method Race Wheels, RideNow Powersports, UTV UNDERGROUND and all those out in the field taking photos, Grant from Boost’n & Roost’n, our friends and family, and BJ Baldwin, Brandon and the entire Monster Energy/Toyo Tires Team. Since this is a season ending race report I would also like to thank Andy and Katie Prins from RacerTech for their support at the beginning of the season.
Thank you to all of the racers who make this sport what it is and the fans that make it worth it. To all of the Joe Schmo’s out there…KEEP RACING AND NEVER GIVE UP!
The field of UTV’s grouped up at the end of the Main Pit area waiting to be sorted as scheduled. Many of the top names in the class came to play and there was a title on the line with a close point’s race between the point’s leader Johnny Angle and Justin Lambert and other close races for other spots on the list like that between Jagged X and the Murray’s. We were to be 8th row off the line and as we began watching everyone move around I started talking to my co-driver about the field of teams that showed up. The first group in race two left the starting line and the UTV’s were moved to the gate. The second row left on the green light and the Mad Racing car, in the same lane we were lined up in, flipped in the first turn! It really sucks to see a fellow competitor roll their car but I know these guys and went for a bite to eat with them the night before. My co-driver Chris, quickly calmed me back down as we watched the starts continue but our lane get backed up as the Best in the Desert crew try to right the Mad Racing car and allow for racers to continue. We finally pull up to the line and the lane is now clear, the flipped car is driving and the others as moving down the course. I give Casey Folks a thumbs up and looked over to the 4 seat chassis Polaris lined up against us and thought to myself, “I have got to do everything I can to beat this car before the no passing zone.” The light turns green and I ease into the throttle. When we clear the starting chutes the other car is about two car lengths in front of us. I begin our attack to pass as Chris hits the siren. The beginning of the course is pretty whooped out and I am hoping our 2 seat chassis car can negotiate without a problem. We continue gaining speed and make the pass. We take the XPWARRIOR/VAPECO car through the course at full throttle for the next two miles to the first Danger which is a road crossing. Chris starts calling it out over the intercom, “Danger ahead…it’s the road crossing…checkup…Danger! CHECKUP!! DANGER!!...” I continue at full throttle into the road crossing and jump the road landing a little sideways and clipping the berm on the other side of the road which ended up breaking our debris deflector on the trailing arm. The car powered through the no passing zone to the quarry where we used the brakes for the first time and negotiated the technical and rough area. Just toward the end of the quarry section we were powering up when the six bolts holding the steering wheel to the quick disconnect hub sheered/stripped. There I am trying to turn the car in an easy right but the wheel is no longer connected to the car. Luckily, I pedaled the car enough to cause a sharp left and drove the car away from the traffic lane to stop and assess the situation. We got really lucky this happened where it did, in all reality! The extended time it took to fix the failure allowed for every car in Race 2 to pass us. We did get the wheel attached to the hub and continue on the course. We made the decision in the car to radio the chase crews to notify we were going to ditch the strategy we had and come into Pit A for an assessment of the steering because safety was a big concern. Our contention for a podium was gone, but the race was not over for us.
We continued on the course trying to make it forward to Pit A worried about our steering issue, but the competitive nature kept rearing its head and we would find ourselves driving fast again and in traffic making passes under power and seeing vehicles off course fixing issues. Reality would set in that our steering was not completely safe and getting to top speeds in rough terrain might not be very safe and we would back down again. We did have a humorous situation with a Jeep Speed Race Vehicle. Around rm21, Chris tells me a vehicle is coming up behind us. We were driving conservative due to the steering so I sped up to find a place to get over let them pass. There was vegetation and huge rocks everywhere and I didn’t want to cause damage to my vehicle or a fine from BLM. Just as I got to open ground and moving over, the Jeep Speed bumps us (I never heard a siren and the GoPro didn’t either). We both make the left turn and we are now side by side tearing down the road. Chris tells me, “there is a sharp left 90 coming in a quarter mile… 200 feet let him go.... 100…stop, turn!” I hit the brakes turned right and made the corner; the Jeep Speed that bumped us went flying straight through the corner. The road we turned onto was quite the mess. We came flying into the dust at about 50mph and almost broad sided a class 1500 pre-runner sitting perpendicular into the fence and then after we made it around that we ran up on a cluster that was a Trophy Truck Pre-running right behind a UTV with another UTV next to them and another about fifty feet in front all doing about 25mph and creating a huge dust cloud that made it so you couldn’t see any of the dust lights, not even the blue strobe.
A few miles later we finally made it to Pit A after seeing the UTV inc car on the side of the course with an issue. We spend a considerable amount of time in the pit trying to assess the issue and fixing the problem. It was very important to know the car was safe prior to heading out to Beer Bottle, so we waited for another one of our crew members to arrive from Main Pit to give the car a look. Once the crew gave us the green light we went back out on the course. Now I am not making excuses for our finishing position. I commend my crew and could not be more proud of them. I merely want anyone reading this race report to understand that safety is, and should be at the forefront of any team’s agenda when racing. OK, back to it… Back out on the course the car was handling well but once the gremlin is in your head, it is hard to shake. I am driving the car as hard as I feel safe doing so. I think I only got the car above 60 a few times after the steering failure. I did my best to shake the thoughts and push through, but Chris and I only cared about finishing the entire mileage allowed for UTV’s at this point. We negotiated the remainder of the first lap without issue and passed a few more cars from other classes and ours that were either moving on the course or stopped on the side. Just before the Lake Bed we came up on a UTV. It looked like a Can Am from behind and we wanted to try to make a pass. The Can Am hit the lake bed and hit full power…we hit the lake bed and hit full power. The Can Am pulled away from us faster than I have ever seen. That thing was so fast that we lost sight of it by the time we got to the other side of the lake bed. Now I bring this up because of the difference in manufacturer design. Next year will be another controversial season with the ECU rules for the Turbo class. Anyway, about a mile later I passed a Can Am sitting on the side of the course and presumed it must have been the vehicle that I was trying to chase across the lake bed. It seems that the 2900 car of S3 still has those pesky issues that have prohibited it from having the clean races Dustin has had in his Can Am. I did have one other issue on lap one in a whoop section. I misinterpreted the section and came in at the wrong speed, then made it worse... I engaged some brake standing the car up in an endo. Looking straight down thinking about an inevitable flip about to happen, my foot immediately hit the gas and righted the car on all four wheels. Having lost all momentum the remaining whoops were pretty fun. That is sarcasm. Lap two began after a fuel stop at Main Pit, but we only grabbed 5 gallons so we were going to have to pit once more. We just needed to get out on the course to ensure we get every mile. Our fuel gauge in the car was bouncing and showing us empty and a quarter tank most of the times I was seeing it. Not wanting to chance running out of fuel I elected the extra stop. This really sucks. Our car didn’t start in the morning and we had to jump it. We think the IRC drained the battery but IRC claims that the tracker shouldn’t have drained the battery over night. So our car was running the engine while we staged, were fixing the steering, sitting at Pit A for what felt like an eternity…I didn’t want to chance the fuel level.
The second lap was fun! The steering was out of my head for most of it, but we did limit our top speed out of a concern for safety. Arriving at Pit A to get enough fuel for a finish we found our crew in great spirits. We had arranged a deal with the Monster Energy TT team of BJ Baldwin and the MAVtv Team. They wanted a specific pit location so we secured that for them since we were out there before their race began. Some of BJ’s guys assisted my guys in checking the 1965 XPWARRIOR/VAPECO car while it was quickly fueled on lap 2. It was really awesome to have that big team assist us! (even if it was for like 30 seconds...good to have friends) Then just as we are getting ready to leave the pit, BJ’s co-driver for the second half of their race, Brandon, leaned in our car to tell us that BJ would be up my ass in about 40 minutes so I better get moving. I quickly did the math in my head….I am about rmXX…the finish line is at rmXX…holy shit!!! I really need to get going or I am going to be a hazard on the course for those guys. So with about 50 miles to go and the TT vehicles doing about a mile a minute I didn’t know if I could get to the finish before I was a nerf away from needing a new car. We pulled out and started to put down some descent steady driving. Once we were within 8 miles of the finish we believed we would make it. As I entered the final turn toward the spectator areas I said to Chris my co-driver over comm, “you know I really love racing and hope we can keep doing it” “I hope we can afford every race next season and keep this whole dream alive” Chris reassured me that we would and that we would figure it all out. I said to him, “you know, I wish I had like 100K in the bank and knew if I wrecked this car I could build a brand new one in time for Parker or someone had our back that said go out there and drive the shit out of it…If you wreck the car on that final stretch because you pushed it too hard in front of the fans we will get you another car.” Chris laughed in the mic and said he loved being in the car with me. Just at that moment we were making the final easy turn into the spectator area…I pushed down on the gas pedal harder than we had the previous trip through and the car was literally jumping from whoop to whoop. We were at a steady speed about 55-60 and I said, “Well I hope the fans think it’s worth it…and the car holds together”. I locked my elbows in, worried about the steering a little, and floored the car giving it all she had leading into the final spectator area. The car kept climbing in speed as it skipped over the top of the whoops and I felt so exhilarated. The culmination of a long day of racing and many months of hard work to end a season with a finish was being felt in that one moment of pushing it in front of the sports fans in a little “Golf Cart”.
It doesn’t seem all that important until you have one in your hand; those finishing pins are coveted by us all. Though the podium finishers get a trophy and we all dream of hitting that podium, it is the feeling of crossing the finish line that begins the addiction to this sport. I wish Casey and the people of Best in the Desert could give a pin to the people I have in the pits. Chris and I usually try to give a pin to at least one of the crew that did an amazing job that day. I must thank everyone that came out and helped for the Henderson 250, The Edmondson Family…Pops, Steve…our crew, Greg, Tim, Sam , Bryce, Kevin Whalen and VapeCo, Dan Fisher and everyone at Lone Star Racing, Sparks Performance, Tensor Tires, Method Race Wheels, RideNow Powersports, UTV UNDERGROUND and all those out in the field taking photos, Grant from Boost’n & Roost’n, our friends and family, and BJ Baldwin, Brandon and the entire Monster Energy/Toyo Tires Team. Since this is a season ending race report I would also like to thank Andy and Katie Prins from RacerTech for their support at the beginning of the season.
Thank you to all of the racers who make this sport what it is and the fans that make it worth it. To all of the Joe Schmo’s out there…KEEP RACING AND NEVER GIVE UP!
