Due to taking the race win at round eight on October 19th, we started on the pole alongside of Team Ford Racing who was hot on our tail at the last race. As soon as the flag flew, we both headed toward the 12 mile race course at full speed.
Ford Racing kept us honest through the first six laps until I was eventually slowed due to a couple of mechanical failures. Unfortunately, these failures kept us in the pits and on the side of the track long enough to put us out of contention for the win.
Even though the win escaped us at this round, thanks to a handful of key components, we were able to drive home with the fastest lap award.
View the in-car footage of the fastest lap of the night - http://www.octaneraceteam.com/races/utv-rally-raid-round-9-fastest-lap-award/.
At round 10 (on December 14th, 2013), we will have the two mechanical gremlins resolved will be ready to get the center seat Polaris RZR XP 900 back up on the top position of the winners' box.
Huge thanks again to GBC Motorsports for building such a bullet proof tire as the Dirt Commander. At this point, we have nearly 220 race hours on the GBC Dirt Commanders and our bullet proof HiPer wheels. We have had only one puncture in those 200+ hours. That has to be a record for any off road wheel/tire combination.
Again, the King shocks were dialed in perfectly, making our fast lap time possible.
Another key tool on this machine is the engine work performed by Benchmark Performance. It pulls strong out of the hole and continues to make power high in the RPM range.
The critical mechanicals suffered this past round will be long gone by the next UTV Rally Raid race on December 14th.
Learn more about our race program at http://www.octaneraceteam.com.
Full Sponsor List:
Polaris, GBC Motorsports, HiPer Technology, Octane Media, ATVScene.com, Blue Torch Fab, Yoshimura, King Shocks, DirtyDawg Performance, SXSPerformance.com, Benchmark Performance, K&N Engineering, K4 Switches, and MPFab.com.
Full race report is available at http://www.southeastsxs.com/race-reports/3050-2013-southern-series-round-9-race-report-november-23rd-2013-a.html.