The 2016 BITD kicks off in Parker AZ. Tech is held in the parking lot at the Blue Water hotel. Everyone was talking about the 4 days of rain they had leading up to the race. Dust free desert racing is rare. After spending months building a car its not hard to miss some of the small things but the crew at Suspended Fabrication nailed and we passed tech with ease. Finally it feels like I can rest for a few minutes and gather my thoughts. First thing to come to mind is I am sitting in the middle of the Arizona desert getting ready to race a brand new machine with zero test time. What have I gotten myself into?
We started 18th off the line. The Yamaha YXZ1000R felt strong but the suspension was a little soft. BITD blades the course so it was still smooth and fast. As we dropped into the sand wash around 6 we started passing other racers. Yamaha power felt great and the car was starting to work good. As we approached the alternate pit we hit our crew on the radio to let them know we wanted to adjust the ride height. The pit was fast and as we headed back onto the race course. We saw another UTV sitting to the right of the course. We were building speed as we got closer my co-driver sounded the siren and I pushed in the clutch to coast by them but they shot left right in front of us and there was no time to react. I was unable to stop in time and would hit the other UTV’s rear driver side with the front passenger side of our car causing significant damage to our car. We got out and got the two cars free and were towed back into alternate pit where we would work on the car for around 1 hour to try and make repairs so we could finish. We made temp repairs that wouldn’t even last a mile and had to make the decision that our race in the new car was done and call our pit crew for a ride.
The Yamaha is back at Suspended Fabrication fixing the damage. The YXZ will be ready for the UTV World Championship in February.
A big thanks to all the sponsors that helped me get here.
Alba Racing . PRP Seats . Yamaha . Lonestar Racing .
Rugged Radios . MSA Wheels . EFX Tires .
STV Motorsports . Factory UTV .
Suspended Fabrication.
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