STI BLACK DIAMONDS ON TRACK FROM COAST TO COAST

STI Tire & Wheel’s ultra-versatile cross terrain radial tire, the Black Diamond, is proving to be just as competent on race courses as it is on rocks, mud, sand and snow. At tracks from one end of the country to another, side-by-side UTV drivers are realizing how much of a performance advantage the Black Diamond can provide.

For example, in the most recent World Off Road Championship Series (WORCS) event at Speed World MX in Surprise, Arizona, Nic Granlund took his STI Black Diamond-equipped Polaris RZR to a convincing victory in the highly competitive SxS Production 850 class. This former quad racing star from Las Vegas topped a field of 18 cars in a race that lasted just over 41 minutes. For this race Granlund had his Black Diamonds mounted on STI’s brand-new HD Alloy Beadlock wheels—a smashing debut for the groundbreaking product.

With three top-five finishes in four events, Granlund now holds fourth place in the class point standings (and he didn’t even compete in the opening round).

On the opposite side of the country, John Yokley is showing how well the Black Diamond works in the woods. Driving a Polaris RZR XP 900 for Big Country Powersports, Yokley is enjoying considerable success in Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) racing. He and co-driver Jarrod McClure got their feet wet in UTV racing in this series—which takes place at selected GNCC events—during the first round in Washington, Georgia. They placed seventh overall out of 46 entries, also good for seventh in the XC1 Modified class. That result was nearly duplicated at the next round in Union, South Carolina, where Big Country placed eighth overall and again seventh in class in an extremely dry and dusty, hour-long race. Thanks to this consistent performance and tire reliability, the team currently stands a promising sixth place in season points.

Shooting back to the western end of the nation, the UTV racing effort of Auburn Extreme Powersports continues to impress with its own impeccable RZR XP 900. As you may recall, this team made a splash at the recent King of the Hammers event. The car was then entered in a Valley Off Road Racing Association (VORRA) short course event at Prairie City in northern California, where it had a highly competitive battle in progress until breaking a CV joint late in the race. For an entertaining in-car video of this adventure, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwZ_MfoT1Yg.

It’s activities like these—putting a product through the wringer like only racing can—that provides tremendous feedback to STI engineers to help make future tires and wheels even better. We’d say our current level of development is already in the winner’s circle.

STI tires and wheels are available at finer ATV/UTV dealers everywhere, through MTA Distributing. For more information, to place an order or to locate an STI dealer, visit www.stitireandwheel.com or call: East (318) 255-0049; West (951) 272-0971.