DuneFest 2011 Recap

[Crowdog]

Jon Crowley's // UTVGuide.Net DuneFest Re-Cap!​

This will take several posts, so bear with me... If you want more, or are just impatient, you can check out all of my pictures at: 2011 DuneFest.

DuneFest takes place at Winchester Bay in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. This year's event took place August 3 - 7, 2011. If you have never been to DuneFest, put it on your calendar. There is so much going on that you could spend your whole time in the vendor area and checking out events and racing without ever getting out into the dunes to ride. Reedsport/Winchester Bay Chamber of Commerce puts on DuneFest, and I have got to say they do a great job keeping everything organized and making it an enjoyable experience.

There were four ATV/UTV Manufacturers on location near the main stage. Yamaha, Kawasaki, Arctic Cat and Can-Am were giving demo rides of the Teryx, Commander, Rhino and select ATVs.

Vendor participation was done a little from last year, but also on hand were Elka Suspension, Muzzys, ModQuad, Crazy Keven, Got Sand?, MotorcycleUSA.com, and more.

 

[Crowdog]

For this trip I brought along my 2011 Kawasaki Teryx with a new 916cc Muzzys engine and a set of paddle tires from Fullerton Sand Sports. When not out riding in the dunes, it was displayed on Vendor Row in the Got Sand? booth and also at the Kawasaki demo trailer.

This was the first time in the dunes with our 2011 Kawasaki Teryx and I was very impressed. After rock crawling in Moab and on the Rubicon, the dunes are a completely different animal, and it performed well. The extra power from the Muzzys 916cc v-twin added just enough to get me through the dunes at a good pace. With the extra power, I was even more excited about the LoneStar Racing +5" XTR-F suspension with Fox shocks. Stable, plush, but firm when I needed it. I even went on a night ride and put my Rigid Industries Dually LED lights to the test. They turned night into day. Enough said!

My Muzzys 916cc is a stage I setup with stock heads, billet 916cc cylinders and pistons, valve springs, bored out Brute Force throttle bodies, Muzzys Pro Pipe, air filter, MSD and DigiTune with an Air/Fuel guage. I wanted something that would give me a big boost over stock, but also be very mild-mannered for everyday use. While I would like to have more ponies in a pure dune type engine, I absolutely love how nice is idles, starts and putts around. If I change my mind down the road, all I really need is head work.

To help keep things cool, I have a CBR radiator. Bolts right into the stock location, and I have not had any cooling issues. I may look into a CBR oil cooler as well to make sure things stay that way.

 

[Crowdog]

I arrived on Tuesday and unloaded quickly as this was my first trip to the dunes with my new engine. I hooked up with friends that all had RZRs and had a blast with the beautiful weather and expansive coastal dunes. We even found a jumping spot and some of the guys aired it out a bit.

Lots of RZR XP's in the dunes and also several turbo RZR S and even Cliff with his turbo Apex RZR.

 

[Crowdog]

Wednesday's competition included the Tug-of-war. The Tug-of-war replaced last year's tractor pull and I am not quite sure why this was changed. Tug-of-war just doesn't work with UTVs. They turn into roto-tillers and bury themselves without making much of any forward movement. Check out the video below and you will see. I hope they switch back to the tractor pull for next year.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Y69hZxFbdM"]Rhino vs. RZR Tug of War at DuneFest - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Crowdog]

Later in the day, I hooked up with Elka Suspension as they installed and tuned a set of Stage 4 shocks. It is very cool when aftermarket manufacturers and vendors are on location to sell, install, tune and answer questions. I would hope to see more vendors and manufacturers up at DuneFest 2012. This is the largest dune event in the country and a perfect way to reach out to dune enthusiasts.

Dave from Fullerton Sand Sports got some new Stage 4 Elka shocks installed on his Polaris RZR XP, then took it out and jumped it big! Dave talks very highly of this setup, and he likes to dune hard.

 

[BLR]

Spent most of my time on Vendor Row with (SaveTheRidersDunes) explaining to riders how much dune/trails
we may lose if they don't get involved...we had Maps blown up of the potential trails that we may lose.
but on Friday & Sat. the Blue Ribbon Coalition along with a couple of friends maning the both we finally got out to see and participate in some of the events

this is one of the stops on the poker run

 

[onerich]

That's some great stuff ! Thanks for putting it together for us .

 

[Beach Leo]

Looks like a great time Jon. Thanks for sharing

 

[RangerBurger]

I got to take a raptor 700 and a yfz450 out for a demo from the Yamaha trailer. Very cool of the manufacturers to come out. I think I see a sport quad in my near future. Bummed that Polaris wasn't there giving XP demos. I saw your Teryx on vendor row. Thing of beauty for sure. Was only there on Thur and spent the rest of the week at Coos Bay. Next year I'll try to stay for a couple days and meet more folks. Thanks for the great pics and write up.

 

[Crowdog]

Thursday came and I joined up with JC and Shane from MotorcycleUSA.com for a ride. They had brought out their demo Polaris RZR XP that had some aftermarket dirt tires that really spun up in the sand. Not the greatest choice for performance in the sand, but they threw up a nice roost!

I joined up with a Bill Lanphier as he went out for a sand car photo shoot, and Dave, Seth and Jay came along. Much to my liking, this group doesn't like to sit around much. So while Bill was busy shooting photos of the sand car, we played around in the dunes. I jumped out to snap some photos after Seth Fargher from DWT decided to go big on a Suzuki Z400.

While that was going on, I tossed my Teryx keys to Dave from Fullerton Sand Sports and he took a quick spin.

 

[aaronjuarez]

Nice post and thanks for sharing. Oregon is definetly a place I would like to visit next. maybe we will have to make dunefest 2012.

 

[Crowdog]

Later in the day, it was back to the main event area to check out the UTV Barrel Racing. Three barrels were setup in a standard Western Barrel pattern that looks like a triangle. Riders had to negotiate some very tight corners.

And a bit later the afternoon, it was time for the Show & Shine. Just a handful of UTVs competed in the event, but there were some nice paint jobs on display.

 

[Crowdog]

Friday morning started as usual in the vendor area, but I was over at the American Sand Association booth helping sell raffle tickets for the 2011 Buckshot sand car. This car will be given away at the Sand Sports Super Show in September. Tickets are only $20 or 6 for $100.

2011 ASA, Buckshot and Monster Energy Raffle Car


Some cool things are coming together for next year's raffle as well. Be sure to make it out to the Sand Sports Super Show as we will hopefully be leaking some info when the show starts.

 

[Crowdog]

After the coastal fog had burned off it was time for a Helicopter Ride over the Winchester Bay dunes! I hooked up with the official DuneFest 2011 photographer and went up with Apex Helicopters. Apex is based up in Florence, and run tours of the dunes on a regular basis.

ATV/UTV Semis

Main Area

Banshee Hill

 

[Crowdog]

After the helicopter ride, it was time to head back main stage area for the Last Man Standing UTV Race. This event is on a pretty tight track and has two drivers sent out at a time with a double elimination. Once they've lost twice, they are out of the race. The course is real tight and there is not much room to pass so typically whoever got the holeshot, ended up winning the race. A Polaris RZR XP won the race and was also the most popular entry, but there was also a few Yamaha Rhinos a Kawasaki Teryx and a few RZR S.

This Rhino was setup for drag racing and did quite well. Took the holeshot on several races and moved on until the guy in this RZR XP made a move in a corner and flipped him over.

Last Man Standing winner

 

[Crowdog]

Saturday, I hooked up with Dave from Fullerton Sand Sports and the guys from K&T Performance to get a closer look at what they have done for turbo kits with the Polaris RZR XP. I got a chance to drive K&T's white RZR XP that was sporting their pump gas turbo kit. Although they still had some clutch tuning to do, the XP had some crazy power! We cruised the dunes for a while then found a spot where we could get some wheelie shots. Dave drove the white XP and Rayce drove their race XP. The power to weight ratio that these cars put down is very impressive.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtF2MO7wwAw]K&T Performance turbo Polaris RZR XP - YouTube[/ame]

Last picture of the turbo is of the race setup - about 175 HP

Both pump gas and race versions run water to air intercoolers up front.

 

[Crowdog]

I know this isn't UTV related, but the guy in this Jeep Grand Cherokee was airing it out pretty good. Had to stop and get some shots. Supposedly 1600 HP!

 

[JoeyD23]

sick thread Jon!!! Thank you for sharing it with us!!!

 

[BLR]

a few of us taking a break out by the lake resting area..

 

[BLR]

A friend of ours doing the barrel racing..

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2dmlq_Vzk0"]DSCN0067.AVI - YouTube[/ame]