BITD Silver State 300 Race Report/Recap
#1913 Branden Sims
I will start out by saying I think I forgot what sleep was over the weekend. We woke up and left Prescott, Az Friday morning at 3am in an attempt to get to tech/contingency early. We arrived in Vegas at the Alienate at around 9am and decided to get tech out of the way. We cruised through tech and I was instantly approached by a UtvUnderground media guy for an interview. We discussed our plans for race day and other small talk. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with friends and sponsors at contingency. The next mandatory event was the drivers meeting that was scheduled at 6pm and I was ready to get that over with. By this time I was sunburnt and exhausted.
Friday night we had reservations at a hotel in North Vegas, but once the drivers meeting ended our plans changed. It was late and we decided to drive up to the track in hopes of getting a couple more hours of sleep the next morning. We made it to the track at about 11pm and fortunately found a friend with a 5th wheel that let us crash out. Race day was coming fast!
Saturday morning (race day) came quickly and we were forced to wake up at 4am! We were 10th to leave the line and we were ready for battle. We lined up at 5am with the first bike leaving the line at 5:30am. One by one the bikes left then quads, and finally us the Utvs. We watched each Utv in front of us head off into the desert that was blanketed in dust. There was no wind which meant we had a lot of dust to contend with. We left the start line and hammered down. Shortly after the start we ran into dust like I had never experienced before. I decided to play it safe and proceed with caution seeing that it was a 300 mile race. My clutching was far from perfect for this race, we were only able to reach speeds up to 65mph and a max rpm of 6200. I felt like I was driving a diesel with a nonfunctioning turbo. We slowly picked off competitors until we reached the forest trails where the dust was more manageable. At this point I really picked up the pace and began to pass more of the competition. We came into pit 3 which was my first pit in 5th place physically and only needed fuel. We fueled up and left the pits ahead of another team. We continued to keep a fast pace to the point where I started to get eye contact with the helicopter. I knew the heli was with the leaders so that really helped me know where I was. I pushed hard and gained a lot of ground. We passed Utv inc in a wash section where he was changing a tire. That put us physically 2nd and close to 1st on time. On another tight and curvy mountain road section I was able to catch and pass Jagged X for the lead. I carried the lead through pit 6 which was my 2nd and last scheduled pit of the day. We left pit 6 with no one in site behind me. About 10 miles out of pit 6 I blew a wheel and was forced to pull over and change it. Halfway through my tire change I had to watch Coastal, Cognito, and Jagged X fly by me. We got the tire changed climbed back into the car and hammered down. We played catch up for the rest of the race where we were able to keep our distance with the front runners close. I knew it was going to come down to minutes at the end. We kept our momentum up and ended up crossing the finish line 3rd physically. After the time was figured out we were 3rd place finishers. Not too bad for my 2nd BITD race following a 3rd at the Mint 400 and a 2nd at King of The Hammers.
Once again I want to thank everyone that helps make this possible for me: Northern Arizona Auto & Off Road, Lonestar Racing for the suspension products that put up front, Fox Shocks for the amazing ride and control, ITP Tires and Wheels for getting me the 300 miles with no tire failures, Factory Utv for the protection to keep my car looking new, Rugged Radios, Rigid Lights, and UTVUNDERGROUND/Mad Media/Rusty and the rest of the crew for the media to make the UTV class the fastest growing class with the most entries!!!!
#1913 Branden Sims
I will start out by saying I think I forgot what sleep was over the weekend. We woke up and left Prescott, Az Friday morning at 3am in an attempt to get to tech/contingency early. We arrived in Vegas at the Alienate at around 9am and decided to get tech out of the way. We cruised through tech and I was instantly approached by a UtvUnderground media guy for an interview. We discussed our plans for race day and other small talk. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with friends and sponsors at contingency. The next mandatory event was the drivers meeting that was scheduled at 6pm and I was ready to get that over with. By this time I was sunburnt and exhausted.
Friday night we had reservations at a hotel in North Vegas, but once the drivers meeting ended our plans changed. It was late and we decided to drive up to the track in hopes of getting a couple more hours of sleep the next morning. We made it to the track at about 11pm and fortunately found a friend with a 5th wheel that let us crash out. Race day was coming fast!
Saturday morning (race day) came quickly and we were forced to wake up at 4am! We were 10th to leave the line and we were ready for battle. We lined up at 5am with the first bike leaving the line at 5:30am. One by one the bikes left then quads, and finally us the Utvs. We watched each Utv in front of us head off into the desert that was blanketed in dust. There was no wind which meant we had a lot of dust to contend with. We left the start line and hammered down. Shortly after the start we ran into dust like I had never experienced before. I decided to play it safe and proceed with caution seeing that it was a 300 mile race. My clutching was far from perfect for this race, we were only able to reach speeds up to 65mph and a max rpm of 6200. I felt like I was driving a diesel with a nonfunctioning turbo. We slowly picked off competitors until we reached the forest trails where the dust was more manageable. At this point I really picked up the pace and began to pass more of the competition. We came into pit 3 which was my first pit in 5th place physically and only needed fuel. We fueled up and left the pits ahead of another team. We continued to keep a fast pace to the point where I started to get eye contact with the helicopter. I knew the heli was with the leaders so that really helped me know where I was. I pushed hard and gained a lot of ground. We passed Utv inc in a wash section where he was changing a tire. That put us physically 2nd and close to 1st on time. On another tight and curvy mountain road section I was able to catch and pass Jagged X for the lead. I carried the lead through pit 6 which was my 2nd and last scheduled pit of the day. We left pit 6 with no one in site behind me. About 10 miles out of pit 6 I blew a wheel and was forced to pull over and change it. Halfway through my tire change I had to watch Coastal, Cognito, and Jagged X fly by me. We got the tire changed climbed back into the car and hammered down. We played catch up for the rest of the race where we were able to keep our distance with the front runners close. I knew it was going to come down to minutes at the end. We kept our momentum up and ended up crossing the finish line 3rd physically. After the time was figured out we were 3rd place finishers. Not too bad for my 2nd BITD race following a 3rd at the Mint 400 and a 2nd at King of The Hammers.
Once again I want to thank everyone that helps make this possible for me: Northern Arizona Auto & Off Road, Lonestar Racing for the suspension products that put up front, Fox Shocks for the amazing ride and control, ITP Tires and Wheels for getting me the 300 miles with no tire failures, Factory Utv for the protection to keep my car looking new, Rugged Radios, Rigid Lights, and UTVUNDERGROUND/Mad Media/Rusty and the rest of the crew for the media to make the UTV class the fastest growing class with the most entries!!!!
