From Dustin Jones, S3 Powersports

The UTV world championship was a dead engine “land rush” style of start which basically means we start 15 cars wide with the cars off and key on. At the drop of the flag we all simultaneously fire the cars up and take off together in a mad scramble. We are familiar with this style of start because of our cross country experience and we felt somewhat prepared to race this way. We were lined up with some of the fastest racers in the series including Brandon Sims, Johnny Angal, Cory Sappington, and more. Being only our 2nd BITD race it is a very intimidating experience to line up with these guys that we had previously watched in a literal drag race into the desert.

When the green flag dropped we were fortunate enough to get our car fired up and get off the line quickly. Much to our surprise we pulled the holeshot in the pack of cars with Brandon Sims in a very close 2nd place. We were absolutely thrilled to have pulled holeshot and were driving hard with the feeling of a pack of wolves chasing us into the desert. We had a very strong first lap and was able to put quite a bit of distance on the competition but about 3/4 of the way though the first lap we suffered failure of both rear axels. Broke these in the “Fox Proving Grounds” which was the most brutal part of the course. We were not able to pre run the course like most of the other racers so we were running the track blind and had no idea the fox area would be so taxing on the vehicle. We continued to lead the entire first lap and went into the pits still in first but it would take us quite a while to repair the car and get back out on the track.

When we were finally able to get out of the pit we pulled out in 36th place. We had no idea we were had lost so many position but knew we would have to make a hard charge to the front so that is what we set out to do. Keep in mind these were only 16 mile laps. In the next 2 laps we made up 6 positions. The following 2 laps another 7 positions. And in the final 4 laps we were able to make up another 10 positions to finish 13th overall. The 2nd to final lap we suffered a flat rear left tire but had no idea until we passed the backside of the pitting area and our pit crew informed us we need to put and get it changed. My copilot informed me we were nearing the end of the race and i had to make the decision if i would pit or run on a flat tire. I radioed our pit crew to find out how many laps we had left before it was too late to pit. They let me know there was only one lap left in the race… I decided it wouldn’t be worth the time lost to change the tire so we chose to pass the pits and push on for another 17 mile lap on a flat tire.

This made the car very unpredictable and difficult to drive at high speeds. Battle the short coarse style infield was no easy take either. If one flat wasn’t enough we suffered a 2nd flat rear tire less than 2 miles into the desert section! We had chosen to push on with the single flat rear tire so there was no way we were going to let a 2nd one keep us from finishing. I know there were some scared spectators in the viewing and pit areas during that last lap because the car felt nearly out of control. Fortunately we were able to hold our position and roll through the finish in 13th.

It was very taxing trying to make up so much ground especially when we started in first and lead nearly the entire first lap but we knew it would be hard work if we were going to finish towards the top. Despite all the challenges we had a great time and were happy with just finishing the race and it was only a plus to finish in the top 1/3rd of the field.