Team Jean XMF Polaris RZR Takes 2nd at VORRA Hawthorne 225

| September 14, 2010 | 0 Comments

Pre-running for the Hawthorne Desert Race

By Dennis Jean

We awoke early Saturday morning to a bright sunny day and readied ourselves for an early pre-run of the 55 mile plus Hawthorne loop. As we followed the Can-Am Commander of Jon Crowley on the start of the pre-run we immediately found that clean air was going to be at a premium during the race as without a breeze the dust laid on the course in front of us.

The course gave the racers a variety of terrain. The first 5 miles was a mix of narrow, rocky trails through washes. The next 12 miles was basically a silt bed following the power lines, we knew under racing conditions this section would be extremely dusty. Once through Check 1 we found ourselves in a slight uphill climb through the hills for the next 10 miles or so. As we emerged from the hills the high speed roller coaster section was in front of us for the next 10 plus miles, then there was another 5 miles of flat trail with intermittent silt beds. Once through Check 2, with 15 miles to go, we found ourselves in another silt bed and then headed back into some of the rockiest terrain since the Reno Xtreme race. This section was tight, rocky and slow going. As we rolled back into the pits we knew we were going to be for a ride on Sunday.

UTVs on display after tech inspection

Sunday morning brought us a slightly nippy race day and during our prerace inspection of our Razor a broken shock bolt, which we quickly fixed with the help of our rock solid pit crew. UTV’s were off the line at 8 am and luckily for the XMF built Polaris RZR we had drawn the first starting position. The clean air was exactly what we had hoped for and built a 45 second lead on the Kawasaki Teryx of Jon Crowley. Jon slipped by us in the pits as he was using Check 1 for gas and we were using the Main Pits for gas. Unfortunately the 2nd lap brought a minor steering issue which we stopped and patched until we could get to ProPit for a quick weld repair. As we knew we were well behind the 1965 Teryx we paced ourselves the rest of the race to ensure that we completed the race. The course changed dramatically during the race with the silt beds and ruts getting deeper. The last 10 miles were some of the toughest terrain we had encountered with rocks and deep ruts that put our XMF suspension, ITP tires and Factory UTV skid plate to the ultimate test.

1959 Team Jean XMF Polaris RZR

With this being our first season of UTV racing our only goal was to be able to finish all four VORRA desert races. Having achieved the goal we would like to thank our sponsors for helping us with their products and expertise to attain our goal. XMF for a stout and stable UTV frame and +8 suspension, Walker Evans for our reliable shocks, Muzzys for our exhaust and HiPer Technology for our carbon fiber racing wheels. I would also like to thank Sean Cook for being a rock solid co-driver and keeping me on task during race as well as his family for being a quick and efficient pit crew.

We are now prepping our UTV for the final two VORRA short course races to be held at Prairie City SVRA outside of Folsom, CA in the hopes of maintaining our points lead in the UTV class.