I finally made it home to Alabama late last night. 33 hours, 8.5MPG.
My biggest mistake was assuming that I could take a RZR with a stock engine and be competitive. We had amazing support from DragonFire and Yoshimura. They installed their intake (
Ranger RZR Race Filter | Polaris Ranger RZR Performance), new Yoshimura exhaust (
DFR by Yoshimura Polaris RZR Exhaust), and the Yoshimura PIM2 and data logger - more on those to come. The difference those few components made was unbelievable. The throttle response was improved substantially.
Due to us being down quite a few CC's and HP's, I decided to gamble on running 30' tires to get through the rougher sections of the course a little faster. We new those tires would be hard on parts, but felt that was our best shot at a win. I didn't drive all the way to California from Alabama just to finish.
Apparently, we must have broken a rear CV pre-running a couple of days before the race. I drove it pretty hard a couple of days earlier to see if we could break any parts, but everything seemed to fair pretty well, or at least as far as we could tell. As soon as the start flag waved and we made it around the first big hill I started feeling a pop in the rear. By the time we made it through the first small whoop section it was apparent that there was a broken rear CV. Despite several attempts at making it up the first hill, I decided to call it quits. Three wheel drive wasn't going to cut it.
Due to all of the mechanical issues we had prior to the race, I keep telling myself that just making it to the starting line was an accomplishment, but the racer in me calls B.S. on that one. You can bet that this year was our one and only "learning experience" year and that we'll be back 100% next year competing for the win.
I can't thank you guys enough for your hospitality and help/advice with all of my mechanical failures. It's going to take me a few days to really take it all in, but one thing is for sure, I'm already planning for next year.
We'll also be headed out West a few times during the year for testing/races. I won't be unprepared in the desert again.