I’ve come to the conclusion that all of you West Coasters have lied to me about beautiful weather and perfect track conditions. For years, I have been coming out to the West Coast for off road races but have never seen so much bad weather at one time.
The first round of the 2012 WORCS series took place at the rain-soaked Glen Helen Raceway. I knew when I drove over a flooded wash coming into the park that it was going to be a long race day.
As the parade lap left the line at 4PM, I was becoming more comfortable with the new Blue Torch/DragonFire Polaris RZR-XP 900. At that time, the car had literally only about 20 minutes on it, so everything was still breaking in. Lining back up on the start straight landed me in the third row, due to basically being a nobody in this series and carrying-over zero points from the previous season. At this time, it didn’t seem like a big deal since there was a 30 second gap between starting rows.
As row 1 and row 2 takes off the adrenaline begins to flow. Finally, after seemingly hours, my row leaves the line. It’s at that point that I realize I didn’t bring enough motor. I was forth around the first corner. It took me a couple of laps to work around those drivers. I expected to have a little time with a clear track after working to the front of my row. Unfortunately, rows 1 and 2 had begun to spread out by that time. I clocked lap after lap behind slower drivers, greatly affected my lap times, but the Glen Helen course was actually laid out very well and was a blast to drive. On the flip side, about 95% of the course was completely one line with no room for two SXS’s. 
It wasn’t until the last couple of laps until I caught up to faster drivers running a similar pace to mine. By that time, my radiator was completely clogged and my tear offs were almost gone. On the next to last lap, I was driving on my last tear off and by that time it was beginning to get dark. Low light and muddy tear offs is a recipe destined for disaster. Through one of the transition ditches on the course, I must have hit a large rock with my right rear tire, causing an immediate flat. It turned out to be a huge stab wound in the sidewall. 
Shortly after getting the flat, the engine overheated and went into limp mode, no doubt accelerated due to the extra resistance of the flat rear tire. I was forced to pull over to the side of the track and let it cool off. Meanwhile, I dropped from 3rd or 4th all the way down to 15th. The lap times are now posted. Seeing that my “Behind” time was adjusted 1 minute due to starting on the third row, that would have put me right at 3rd or 4th place overall had I continued my pace without the flat and clogged radiator. Everyone has an excuse, though. There were plenty of fast cars and talented drivers at the race. I feel blessed and privileged to have even been in the mix. I can’t wait for the next WORCS race in Primm, NV.
So, the morale of the story – don’t start on the third row when there are 49 SXS’s on the track at the same time.
We’ll get’em next time.
This was also the first time out for a couple of new products I wanted to mention. First off, DirtyDawg contributed to our racing efforts this year with their RZR-XP 900 clutch kit. I can’t believe how much better the vehicle performs approaching a corner, descending down hill, and even in the air. The DirtyDawg clutch kit is seriously the best single modification I have ever done to a RZR-XP. I am not exaggerating in any way.
Another product worth mentioning is the UHMW skid plate system from Pro Armor. My early background in off road racing was in quad racing, so I have been around Pro Armor for many, many years and our sponsorship relationship goes back about that many years as well. In the past, I have always looked at UHMW as a less protective material than aluminum and have always preferred aluminum over UHMW. Well, all of that has now changed. I installed Pro Armors skid system on the RZR-XP 900 only a few hours before I took the vehicle out for its shake down run. Through the practice lap and during the race, the skid plates impacted rocks and other obstacles on the Glen Helen course. There were a few times that I was sure I ripped a hole in the skids. To my amazement they are barely even scratched. I’m a firm believer in the Pro Armor UHMW skid system now.
We also used a handful of other new products like a very nice exhaust system and intake from DragonFire Racing and a great set of 3″ shoulder harnesses from PRP Seats. Those products will also get some special coverage in some upcoming posts on this site. Please check back soon for more details.
Special thanks to OctaneMedia.com, Polaris, Blue Torch Fab, ATVScene.com, DragonFire Racing, Pro Armor, DirtyDawg Performance and PRP Seats.