450grl
The First Lady of SXS - UTVUnderground Approved
Hey all!! 
Well, as some of you know, we have been hard at work at the shop swapping my 800cc Rhino motor (sniff...bye motor! On Ebay right now, actually...) with a Yamaha R1 streetbike motor. To go with this, Jason has engineered an entire drivetrain/mounting kit that will fit Yamaha Rhino race frames (ones that are typically built to the rules of short course racing).
This has been a frustrating year, to say the least.....as a Rhino racer, going up againt the V-twins has been a challenge, for sure - but I also feel like our little single cylinder time has come - unless there is some serious restructuring of current UTV Series classes.
So......when my Rhino lost against the impact with the wall at Monster Jam, we decided to not only make it as good as new - but....much like Robocop (haha), make it even better!
The swap went well, and the kit came together beatifully. Pretty soon, Jason and Jeff were ready to give it it's first test at Snowflake! It did great!! Except for the shift cable breaking in the first lap, my Rhino ran like a champ! (we have since gone to a solid linkage)
NEXT test would be last weekend at M4SX! Since we plan on racing this in a new short course class, we had to see what it would be really like out there -and even though Perris is a tight track, it would still be fun to see how it did!
Let's just say that I almost peed myself once or twice - it's SO much fun to hit the gas pedal and have your helmet hit the back of your headrest! Even with the gearing a little tall for Perris, I still had a blast learning how to drive my new Rhino! Two wheel drive is pretty cool - yes, it's harder than 4, but that's why it's fun! 6 speed manual is also fun - I never made it past 3rd gear....at Perris, 2nd will pretty much get you around as fast as you need to go! The motor sounds awesome - the power is super fun....a little boggy in first gear coming out of tight corners, but a little clutch work and I was figuring it out! On the straights, sometimes when I hit the gas too fast, it was hard to keep it straight, but even that was fun!
The kit was flawless! The motor was great! I finished my race and won my class (they had me and the Prowler 1000's in sort of a demo class).
So....here we are....at the brink of something new and very cool! Change is good - change keeps things interesting and from growing stale and boring! We are planning on having a whole class for the SR1 Rhinos next year, where hopefully we can pull those retired race Rhinos out of retirement, and make things FUN again for all of you Rhino racers! I have made a tentative rulebook already - basically it limits the motor, the suspension, the weight, the width/length, tire size, motor placement, etc.....so that each vehicle is as "equal" as possible to ensure THIS is a DRIVER's class!
M4SX says they are on board if we get enough for a class, and I am hoping that LOORRS will find this class interesting enough to pick it up, as well, in 2010.
We have a ways to go to secure a class - and we will be putting a lot more testing in on my Rhino, but we are looking forward to reviving UTV racing a bit in 2010! There is more in the works, so I will be giving updates as we go along......
Well, as some of you know, we have been hard at work at the shop swapping my 800cc Rhino motor (sniff...bye motor! On Ebay right now, actually...) with a Yamaha R1 streetbike motor. To go with this, Jason has engineered an entire drivetrain/mounting kit that will fit Yamaha Rhino race frames (ones that are typically built to the rules of short course racing).This has been a frustrating year, to say the least.....as a Rhino racer, going up againt the V-twins has been a challenge, for sure - but I also feel like our little single cylinder time has come - unless there is some serious restructuring of current UTV Series classes.
So......when my Rhino lost against the impact with the wall at Monster Jam, we decided to not only make it as good as new - but....much like Robocop (haha), make it even better!
The swap went well, and the kit came together beatifully. Pretty soon, Jason and Jeff were ready to give it it's first test at Snowflake! It did great!! Except for the shift cable breaking in the first lap, my Rhino ran like a champ! (we have since gone to a solid linkage)
NEXT test would be last weekend at M4SX! Since we plan on racing this in a new short course class, we had to see what it would be really like out there -and even though Perris is a tight track, it would still be fun to see how it did!
Let's just say that I almost peed myself once or twice - it's SO much fun to hit the gas pedal and have your helmet hit the back of your headrest! Even with the gearing a little tall for Perris, I still had a blast learning how to drive my new Rhino! Two wheel drive is pretty cool - yes, it's harder than 4, but that's why it's fun! 6 speed manual is also fun - I never made it past 3rd gear....at Perris, 2nd will pretty much get you around as fast as you need to go! The motor sounds awesome - the power is super fun....a little boggy in first gear coming out of tight corners, but a little clutch work and I was figuring it out! On the straights, sometimes when I hit the gas too fast, it was hard to keep it straight, but even that was fun!
The kit was flawless! The motor was great! I finished my race and won my class (they had me and the Prowler 1000's in sort of a demo class).
So....here we are....at the brink of something new and very cool! Change is good - change keeps things interesting and from growing stale and boring! We are planning on having a whole class for the SR1 Rhinos next year, where hopefully we can pull those retired race Rhinos out of retirement, and make things FUN again for all of you Rhino racers! I have made a tentative rulebook already - basically it limits the motor, the suspension, the weight, the width/length, tire size, motor placement, etc.....so that each vehicle is as "equal" as possible to ensure THIS is a DRIVER's class!
M4SX says they are on board if we get enough for a class, and I am hoping that LOORRS will find this class interesting enough to pick it up, as well, in 2010.
We have a ways to go to secure a class - and we will be putting a lot more testing in on my Rhino, but we are looking forward to reviving UTV racing a bit in 2010! There is more in the works, so I will be giving updates as we go along......
