UTVUnderground Heads to Texas for Riding and Nascar with Arctic Cat

By Joseph “Joey D.” DiGiovanni www.UTVUnderground.com

Well another fantastic riding trip has been wrapped up and I am now back in the comfort of my home in Southern California, until next weekend anyway.  Arctic Cat brought us out to the Dallas/Fort Worth area to partake in some fantastic riding at a 600 acre ATV ranch called Rocky Ridge Recreational Ranch located just outside of Denton, TX. The ranch had everything a UTV off road enthusiast would love, well except for sand dunes…hahah…but we were able to not only ride some cool trails we also were able to enjoy some amazing weather and scenery.  From rocky trails to swamp marsh mud holes the ranch provided us with all we needed to experience the Arctic Cat line of UTV’s and ATV’s.

I spent a good amount of time with my partner in crime Troy from UTV Off Road Magazine riding in the Arctic Cat Prowler HDX 700 and Prowler XTZ 1000.  While I had access to drive these machines back during our Grand Canyon adventure I didn’t get the opportunity to really experience the HDX and its capabilities.  After this week I can tell you this machine was a real surprise.  It handled well at speed and was surprisingly capable in 4wd climbing up challenging sections of dirt and mud.  One feature and characteristic I enjoyed was the fact that when in 4wd with the front diff locked the unit still steered with ease.  It never once wanted to jerk the wheel from my hands and I credit the Electronic Power Steering for that.  The HDX has some unique features such as FOX air shocks in the rear and a bed that can transform into a flat bed by removing the side rails.  Storage is not a problem with the HDX, sporting 2 lower compartments in the rear wheel wells and a massive under the hood compartment that can double as a cooler.  In all the HDX is full of WIN especially if you are looking for a work horse that you can have some fun in.

OK, OK, enough of the UTILITY stuff right?  haha  Well we did get the chance to play in the XTZ 1000 some more.  And once again the Prowler XTZ 1000 impressed.  Now while it may not have some of the glitz and glamor the Commander has at 1000cc I will tell you that having driven both machines (and I think Troy could concur) if you put these 2 up against each other it will be a solid drag race to the line.  The Prowler has a responsive throttle unlike any of the other UTV’s I have driven.  Its steering provides for fun in the long corners where drifting is king.  Of course if hooking up in the turns is your preference then look no further than the on command 4wd switch. I have said it before and I will say it again, I would love to see some piggy back shocks on the Prowler with some compression and rebound adjustments but the mono-tube gas shocks on the XTZ are quite sufficient and definitley better than most mono-tubes that are on the market.  It was fun to hammer the gas and feel the pull that the H2 XTZ 1000 motor has.  Climbing hills was not a problem and there probably wasn’t a mud hole we couldn’t have gone through but not being experienced in the art of “mudding” I kept the machine clean!  haha

Now while I can’t go to crazy telling you guys too many details until December 15th I can tell you that there is not a new Prowler UTV right now.  Will there be a new “sport” model in the future?  Something tells me YES, but for today we will have to settle with the current Prowler lineup. Now I know you AC fans are probably throwing your arms up, but for you guys who enjoy AC products across the board then hang tight for some news that will come the middle of December.  For those that want a sport model UTV, just hang on to your britches and keep sending your feedback to us here at UTVUnderground as I can assure you the eyes of the Arctic Cat family are upon us!

Arctic Cat took amazing care of us on this trip.  Putting us up in a cool hotel that was attached to the Fort Worth, TX Bass Pro Shops.  One of the reasons that Texas was selected for this intro was because of NASCAR taking place and the reason that the Bass Pro Shops was selected was because Bass Pro and Arctic Cat were Co-Sponsoring Jamie McMurray’s #1 car for this race so it was a perfect storm if you will to all get together, go ride with AC, hang with the Bass Pro Shops people, experience their amazing store, and then head over to Texas Motor Speedway for some VIP fun at the track!

After some fun days of riding and some funny evening shenanigans Sunday was fun day and NASCAR was the venue.  Our first order of business was to head over to the “Village of Champions” which is where the racers and their sponsors host hospitality tents and guests of these racers and sponsors get an opportunity to have a meet and greet with the drivers and their associate team members.  As the guests of Bass Pro Shops and Arctic Cat we were able to interact with their top driver Jaimie McMurray.  He was a super down to earth guy and spent a good amount of time with us answering questions and giving us insight to the car and the track itself.  I would like to say that I was very thrilled to get to hear and listen to Jaimie describe his set up for Texas and how important tire pressure was here.

Once the meet and greet was complete I was off.  While most remained at the tent to go on a hosted pit tour I set out to take in all that Texas Motor Speedway had to offer.  After obtaining an adult beverage I made my way to a stage where a favorite country band of mine was playing, Asleep At The Wheel is a Honky Tonk band that is extremely popular in Texas.  After listening to a few awesome tunes I made my way into the merchandise trailer section.  Here is where I caught Robby Gordon heading to his trailer to do some PR.  After a quick chat with RG about his future off road plans post Monster Energy (yes RG has left Monster) and his upcoming Baja 1000 strategy I got hooked up on some Robby Gordon Off Road gear (NONE of it has the competing sponsors logo on it, I am Monster to the bone…haha) and autographs.  It was cool of Robby to hook up a fellow off roader and even cooler for him to spend so much time BSing amongst all those other fans.

After I was done bugging RG I made my way to go get my NASCAR team scanner and headset.  For those of you who have never been to NASCAR but plan to someday let me give you one tip that I learned my first time going to NASCAR some years ago.  RENT THE SCANNERS AND HEADSETS! Otherwise the race just becomes a jumbled mess of cars hauling butt around the track and its very hard to follow the race.  The scanners allow you to listen to every single teams radio chatter as well as listen to the NPR radio broadcast all while muffling the deafening sounds of 35+ 800hp machines!  Essentially the scanner keeps you in the race.  You can easily tune into your favorite team and follow their chatter or put it on scan and listen to all the teams as they talk.  Listening to teams come in and out of the pits was awesome, especially Kyle Busch as he was not short of 4 letter words and choice opinions of NASCAR officials!

Once equipped with my scanner and headset I made way to the stands where I would settle in for the remainder of the afternoon.  Here I got to see Willie Nelson (another of my favorite musicians) belt out all of his popular tunes to a crowd full of military personel.  The pre race festivities finished with a flyover of what I think was a B2 bomber.  Flyovers and the roar of 100,000+ fans gave me chills to the bone and now the race was ON and a crazy race it was.  Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton got into a fight on the track after they wrecked and took both cars out.  Kyle Busch went off on NASCAR officials over the radio and was blag flagged for unsportsman like conduct and Jimmie Johnson BENCHED his over the wall pit crew for poor performance thus having Jeff Gordon’s team come over and service his car during pits stops for the rest of the race.

As the race wrapped up we headed back as a group to our hotel where for one last night we would enjoy Texas.  My flight was first thing Monday morning and I was thrilled to see my family after being gone for 5 days.  Sure I was a little bummed to miss SEMA and of course Lucas Oil Off Road Racing in Las Vegas was also over the weekend but I wouldn’t have traded this trip.  It was a solid experience and it further bonded the Underground and our members/readers with another solid manufacturer in Arctic Cat.

I want to thank Arctic Cat and its representatives for inviting myself and UTVUnderground.com along for this ride.  I want to also thank Troy Merrifield of UTV Off Road Mag for being my partner in crime in Texas. Now its time to rest up cause next weekend the Underground heads south for 8 days at the SCORE Tecate Baja 1000 with our good friends at All German Motorsports.  As one adventure ends, another one begins!

To read more and see the entire photo gallery from Joey’s trip, please visit:

Links: