UTV WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS SHIFT TO LAKE HAVASU

This year marked a new venue for the UTV World Championships. For the last few years the event has been held in Laughlin, Nevada. Owners, Matt and Joshua Martelli changed the event venue to Lake Havasu, Arizona. With the iconic lake and jagged rock mountains as a backdrop, the event was held at the popular Standard Wash OHV area just a few miles outside of Lake Havasu City. The move comes after more than a year of research and development along with coordination with the Lake Havasu BLM office.

The venue change allowed the Martellis to triple the size of their poker run and invite more racers to participate in the weekend’s events. First up on the schedule– qualifying. Only the Desert Turbo, Normally Aspirated (NA) & Unlimited classes were able to qualify for starting positions on a 3.76-mile course. The UTV World Championships catered to kids as well with Youth 170, 250, 570 and 1000 classes. The Youth UTV classes are a great way for the kids to get their feet wet in desert racing. In the Youth 170 and 250 classes, drivers can get their start as young as 5 years old all the way up to age 12. Their course included a 2-mile land rush start with grand prix finish. Minimum age for the Youth 570 starts at 12. Victories were awarded to Paxton Schendel in Youth 250, TJ Siewers in Youth 170. Ethan Groom won the Youth 570 class. Polaris added a bonus for all of the youth winners¬– $15,000 worth of support from the company for their race programs. The money is part of a new youth sponsorship program.

Ronnie Anderson led the short-course event wire to wire with an easy win. Anderson had the holeshot and never looked back. Friday

afternoon, the Pro NA and Pro Unlimited UTV’s took to the course for a 5-lap desert race totaling 148 miles. The father and son team of Macy and Dodge Poleman cruised out front all afternoon completing the five 29.6-mile laps in 4 hours, 26 minutes. Kaeden Wells finished second and Travis Zollinger finished third. It wasn’t all that easy for a few racers who had some bad luck on the course at checkpoint 10. Reports from the race radio channel was “we have three racers down at checkpoint 10, the course seems to be eating vehicles”. If you are Dodge Poleman, you know how to navigate that type of mess as he had no issues securing his second career UTV World Championship title.

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Other events at the UTV World Championships included a Desert UTV Rally and Sportsman race. Racers did a total of 118.4 miles across 4 laps. Chris Blais and his brother Nick took a victory in that race driving a Can-Am. Chris Blais was paralyzed after a moto accident while pre-running for a desert race in Nevada in 2007. As UTV racing has grown more popular over the years, racers have made names for themselves in the sport. Off Road celebrities who have had opportunities to race everything from top the line Trophy Trucks to short course race vehicles have taken notice of UTV racing and are now participating in growing events like the UTV World Championships. One such racer is Robby Gordon. Gordon has raced just about everything all over the world. He even campaigned a couple of Wild Cat XX vehicles in the Dakar Rally. Gordon announced last year he would be building his own brand of UTV called the Speed UTV, based on his knowledge of off-road racing. Both Robby and his son Max Gordon campaigned the new UTV in the Desert Pro class. Robby and Max finished 22nd in a field of 45 vehicles. Robby came back the next day and raced in the Desert Pro Turbo class,

finishing 8th. Doug Fortin started out front in the Desert Pro Turbo Class. Fortin is known for making steering products for just about every class of off-road racing vehicle. He is also an accomplished racer. Fortin was out front for the first two laps of the race, but it wasn’t long before 4th place qualifier Ryan Piplic settled into the lead for the rest of the race. Piplic finished the race in 4 hours, 12 minutes.

The UTV World Championships were a huge success. Lake Havasu mayor Cal Sheehy checked out the race. Sheehy is excited for the event to return to the area in 2021. The Martelli brothers have already announced next year’s event will be held October 13th17th 2021.

The G6 is Geiser Bros latest Trophy Truck build. Since 1995, Geiser has been building championship winning race trucks. The Gaunt Motorsports G6 truck was originally like a Trophy Truck. The engine was changed to an LS3 to meet the rules of the SCORE Spec trophy truck class. The engine power in the class cannot be greater than a stock sealed V8. This is the first spec truck built on the Geiser G6 platform. It features a lower center of gravity with improved offroad handling. The Gaunt team was involved in the entire build process, which allowed them to personalize the truck just the way wanted it. Every build is precision cut with Geiser’s custom parts and stamped with their logo. Fox Shocks and Eibach springs are used on the suspension.

LEFT: The G6 has a custom Tubeworks offroad durable rear end. RIGHT: A hydraulic system adjusts the KC Hilites light bar up and down while racing. LEFT: Under the hood is a Dougans Spec LS 3 racing engine. Per the rules of the class, motors must be sealed and are limited to stock V-8.

BELOW: Gaunt personalized the G6 with a Pit Boss Jack, traction mats,spare axles and a Safecraft fire

suppression system.

The interior of the G6 has all of the bells and whistles. A large Lowrance HDS 12 inch screen allows the co-driver to see everything on the map. A lead-nav system provides a secondary GPS for navigation. The co-driver can also monitor everything on the Motec digital dash system. Drivers are secured inside the cab with Simpson seats and safety equipment.

The final points totals have been calculated for the Best in The Desert 2020 Season. Racing was off to a roaring start with Jason Voss taking a Trick Truck win at the Parker 425– BITD’s first race of the season in January. Adam Householder claimed an overall weekend win at the Laughlin Desert Classic in February. The COVID-19 Pandemic then sidelined everything in March forcing Best in the Desert to revise their schedule. When racing resumed in June, Luke McMillin took the win at the Sliver State 300. Bryce Menzies then won Vegas to Reno. At the final race weekend of the season in Parker, Arizona for the Bluewater Desert Challenge, Justin Lofton took the overall

win. So, with different winners at each event, who wins the overall season championship? None of these guys.

Proof that consistency is key, Concrete Motorsports Team owner Kevin Thompson and “wheel-man” Harley Letner take the season championship. The Concrete team was near the front of the pack at every event. Jason Voss came into the final race with the points lead, but a bad crash would send Voss to the hospital on Day 1 of the two-day event. His truck was heavily damaged and would not finish the weekend. Adam Householder finished 14 points behind Concrete Motorsports in the season standings.

All of the racers were allowed one “throwaway race.” This was decided mid-season to help out racers that were unable to travel due to restrictions during the pandemic. To make things even more exciting, the Silver State 300 and Bluewater Desert Challenge were double points events.

Three points separated Brandon Bailey and Michael Frye in Class 1500. Desert racing legend Sam Berri had the point lead coming into the Bluewater Challenge. A DNF would wash away his championship hopes this season. Michael Frye took the season win.

The 6100 class saw a tight point battle between Kyle Jergensen, Ray Griffith and Troy Messer. Jergensen earned himself the 28 points he desperately needed to claim the championship. Seth Quintero won the UTV Pro Production class by a single point over

Kaden Wells. Phil Blurton was crowned champion in the UTV Turbo Class.

$667,000 in purse winnings were paid out this season proving that off-road racing does pay off– maybe just a little.