KC HiLiTES races Terracross with KC-hot shoe, Darren Parsons, at the wheel

Posted on July 1, 2015

Terracross

KC HiLiTES enjoyed the pleasure of racing in the Terracross series for the first time last weekend at the Del Mar fairgrounds, thanks to help from PRP Seats and one of our hot shoe desert drivers, Darren Parsons. For those who aren’t familiar, Terracross is a UTV race series that blends elements of a Supercross track with open, desert-style sections to build the ultimate UTV race track. Racers from all walks of life line up to race the Polaris RZR vehicles, and Darren Parsons jumped in the PRP Seats/ KC HiLiTES car for the first time and almost took the win! Here is his account of the race… Enjoy!

Darren Parsons:

Monday the 22nd of June, and I received a call from KC HiLiTES and PRP seats saying that I was invited to come race my first-ever Terracross race at the Del Mar fairgrounds on Thursday and Friday, June 25-26, 2015. TerraCross is basically UTV Supercross.. Never having done it before, second turn, second jump I proceeded to do roll my brains out. Not fun! But a great learning lesson right out of the gate…

The TerraCross crew fixed the car easily, and thankfully the PRP safety equipment kept me safe enough to continue on racing with no issues whatsoever. I ended up not getting any practice laps and was thrown into the qualifier where I did proceed to roll… again! But, I still managed to finish 4th! I was now starting to gain confidence in learning from my mistakes…

Darren Parsons Going For a Wild Ride

My explanations for the roll overs- so that was the qualifier for the “day 1 racing”. The next day we started with the qualifier for day 2 racing. I led the entire qualifying race until 2 laps to go where the Polaris pro world champion Brandon Sims (also a KC HiLiTES-sponsored driver) finally got by me, leading me in for a second place finish. This better result allowed me to transfer straight into the final for day 2 final.

I had to do an LCQ (Last Chance Qualifier) for day 1 racing due to not getting a top 3 in my first qualifier. I messed up twice there, where I started in between low and high, fell to the back, then two laps in my passenger seat came loose and was bouncing around in my lap, I had to stop and toss it out at the pits and continue for a 3rd, not giving me the top 2 for a transfer spot to the day 1 main.

In the Polaris Pro day 2 main, I took the smart line off the start. This awesome idea immediately landed me in 4th and out of the sh*t show in the back of the pack. I passed the third place guy and was top three for the first 8 laps. We had 10-15 seconds on the rest of the field; they grouped us together and Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg pulled some dirty moves on me, took out my power steering and the contact resulted in one of my tie rods getting bent. I passed him back, but couldn’t hold 4th off with the damage and ended up losing 3rd to the 2014 Terracross champion with 1-1/2 laps to go, finishing 4th out of 30 of the best UTV drivers in the world! I was ecstatic to have the opportunity PRP seats and KC HiLiTES gave me to be able to capture everyone’s attention wrecking so hard the first day; then I was that redneck desert racer that made a 180 turn around for day two, leading the pack most of the day, and ending in a top 4 for the pro final!

About KC HiLiTES

Since 1970, KC HiLiTES has been designing and manufacturing auxiliary performance lighting for off road vehicles. As the original manufacturer of off road lighting, beginning with the Daylighter®, we have a rock solid reputation for quality and performance. Specializing in Jeep, Truck, SUV and Off Road lighting, our products are always designed with innovation, performance, quality and customer service in mind; backed by our 23 year warranty. We offer the most balanced lighting portfolio giving customers flexibility and choice across size and technologies including Halogen, HID and LEDs. Usable light is something that definitely has to be seen to really understand.