2014 Guthrie Racing KOH Recap by Mitch Guthrie
We started off about 4 weeks ago with 2 bone stock Polaris XP 1000s and a Polaris XP 900 which was raced last year in the WORCS series. Our goal was to turn the XP 900 into a pre-run car for KOH. So Mitch Jr. and I dug in and turned the 900 into a prerunner in just a few days.
Next we had the 1st WORCS race of the season quickly approaching only 2 weeks away on January 18th and still had a stock XP 1000. We were slowly collecting parts and the car was pretty much a frame now. We spent every minute from the time Mitch Jr. got out of school until 9:00 p.m. every night thrashing to get it together and race ready with all of our great sponsors new parts. We were able to get it together 2 nights before the race.
We then got home from the WORCS race on Sunday and started into the bone stock KOH car with 2 1/2 weeks left until the race, it was another thrash. I put work to the side and was in the garage every day and night, Mitch Jr was right by my side from the minute he got out of school until it was time to go to bed. He is an awesome help and never complained. My friend Justin also helped as much as he could. Again we finished the car the night before we were to leave to KOH 2014.
We arrived at the lake bed to wind blowing sideways and a dust cloud for 2 days. My friend Justin Adkins came there to pre-run with us and run the pits. Saturday we went prerunning and anything and everything that could go wrong did. I won’t bore you with details but…. 1 blown XP 900 engine my fault, 1 blown XP 1000 axle, 1 bent XP 1000 trailing arm. It wasn’t going so good.
(Race day)
Wednesday morning we wake up to a great day and feeling good. We are 3rd off the line where we get a holeshot and catch the next car about 5 minutes later; we are running a good pace but not one that we will hurt the car as we know we have a long day ahead of us. Soon we see dust ahead of us and realize that it is the car running in 1st Simms, so we keep a fast but steady pace and next thing you know Blake and Crowley come blazing by us. So I ask Mitch Jr. what do you think? Should I keep with them or stay at this pace? He says LOUDLY in my ear quit worrying about them! I said ok.
By mile 40 or so we now found ourselves in front. Blake had an issue and so did Simms our strategy was paying off. We pull into the pits around mile 53 and find out our tie rods had come loose and we don’t have the right allen wrench anywhere. So we sat in the pits for 10 to 15 minutes while 3 cars went by us. I still wasn’t too worried and wanted to get the car fixed the best that they could. So a lot of red loctite and a makeshift tool and we were back running with no more than finger tight tie rods.
We left the pits and caught the 3rd place car right away and passed them, we were now on our way to the first rock trail where we spotted 2 cars ahead up in the canyon known as Aftershock. From then on we started pushing hard in the rocks and we were slowly reeling them in. By highway 20 we had caught both Enochs and Simms. We had to wait as they were both side by side in the canyon so I decided to try and winch around them on a steep side of the hill where there wasn’t much of a trail. By the time we winched up there Simms was out in front again and moving fast and I believe Enochs had lost an axle so they waved us by. We were running behind him just enough to keep him in sight but not push too hard as the rocks on fissure mountain are sharp. We then went down jackhammer and into Chocolate thunder where the XP 1000 climbed right up it.
We now started pushing hard heading into wrecking ball realizing that it was now or never. As we came into wrecking ball about 200 yards up we saw Simms winching and that was our opening, I found a line to the right of him and from then on I pushed the car as hard as we could trying to put as large of a gap between us and Simms as possible. From then on Mitch Jr was checking for dust and looking back but Simms was nowhere in sight. We then came into the finish to see the checkered flag.
We winched 3 times all day, these XP 1000’s are unreal in the rocks and in the desert. I want to first and foremost thank Justin Adkins we couldn’t have got this win without him. Also friends that helped get the car perfect before race day and in the pits. Nick, Bob, Joe, Brother Matt, Benny, Dave, River John, Eric, Poison Spider, Ron Romero and the Campbell’s and crew for their help and fun every year. My wife for working so hard and putting up with me and Mitch jr.
Thank you to our Sponsors which we couldn’t be racing without their help. Polaris, Walker Evans Racing, Magnum Offroad, Muzzys Performance, Nelson and Nelson, Tire Balls, Maxxis, SuperAtv, Factory Utv, Assault, Rugged Radios, and UTVUNDERGROUND.COM thanks for everything Joey!
We started off about 4 weeks ago with 2 bone stock Polaris XP 1000s and a Polaris XP 900 which was raced last year in the WORCS series. Our goal was to turn the XP 900 into a pre-run car for KOH. So Mitch Jr. and I dug in and turned the 900 into a prerunner in just a few days.
Next we had the 1st WORCS race of the season quickly approaching only 2 weeks away on January 18th and still had a stock XP 1000. We were slowly collecting parts and the car was pretty much a frame now. We spent every minute from the time Mitch Jr. got out of school until 9:00 p.m. every night thrashing to get it together and race ready with all of our great sponsors new parts. We were able to get it together 2 nights before the race.
We then got home from the WORCS race on Sunday and started into the bone stock KOH car with 2 1/2 weeks left until the race, it was another thrash. I put work to the side and was in the garage every day and night, Mitch Jr was right by my side from the minute he got out of school until it was time to go to bed. He is an awesome help and never complained. My friend Justin also helped as much as he could. Again we finished the car the night before we were to leave to KOH 2014.
We arrived at the lake bed to wind blowing sideways and a dust cloud for 2 days. My friend Justin Adkins came there to pre-run with us and run the pits. Saturday we went prerunning and anything and everything that could go wrong did. I won’t bore you with details but…. 1 blown XP 900 engine my fault, 1 blown XP 1000 axle, 1 bent XP 1000 trailing arm. It wasn’t going so good.
(Race day)
Wednesday morning we wake up to a great day and feeling good. We are 3rd off the line where we get a holeshot and catch the next car about 5 minutes later; we are running a good pace but not one that we will hurt the car as we know we have a long day ahead of us. Soon we see dust ahead of us and realize that it is the car running in 1st Simms, so we keep a fast but steady pace and next thing you know Blake and Crowley come blazing by us. So I ask Mitch Jr. what do you think? Should I keep with them or stay at this pace? He says LOUDLY in my ear quit worrying about them! I said ok.
By mile 40 or so we now found ourselves in front. Blake had an issue and so did Simms our strategy was paying off. We pull into the pits around mile 53 and find out our tie rods had come loose and we don’t have the right allen wrench anywhere. So we sat in the pits for 10 to 15 minutes while 3 cars went by us. I still wasn’t too worried and wanted to get the car fixed the best that they could. So a lot of red loctite and a makeshift tool and we were back running with no more than finger tight tie rods.
We left the pits and caught the 3rd place car right away and passed them, we were now on our way to the first rock trail where we spotted 2 cars ahead up in the canyon known as Aftershock. From then on we started pushing hard in the rocks and we were slowly reeling them in. By highway 20 we had caught both Enochs and Simms. We had to wait as they were both side by side in the canyon so I decided to try and winch around them on a steep side of the hill where there wasn’t much of a trail. By the time we winched up there Simms was out in front again and moving fast and I believe Enochs had lost an axle so they waved us by. We were running behind him just enough to keep him in sight but not push too hard as the rocks on fissure mountain are sharp. We then went down jackhammer and into Chocolate thunder where the XP 1000 climbed right up it.
We now started pushing hard heading into wrecking ball realizing that it was now or never. As we came into wrecking ball about 200 yards up we saw Simms winching and that was our opening, I found a line to the right of him and from then on I pushed the car as hard as we could trying to put as large of a gap between us and Simms as possible. From then on Mitch Jr was checking for dust and looking back but Simms was nowhere in sight. We then came into the finish to see the checkered flag.
We winched 3 times all day, these XP 1000’s are unreal in the rocks and in the desert. I want to first and foremost thank Justin Adkins we couldn’t have got this win without him. Also friends that helped get the car perfect before race day and in the pits. Nick, Bob, Joe, Brother Matt, Benny, Dave, River John, Eric, Poison Spider, Ron Romero and the Campbell’s and crew for their help and fun every year. My wife for working so hard and putting up with me and Mitch jr.
Thank you to our Sponsors which we couldn’t be racing without their help. Polaris, Walker Evans Racing, Magnum Offroad, Muzzys Performance, Nelson and Nelson, Tire Balls, Maxxis, SuperAtv, Factory Utv, Assault, Rugged Radios, and UTVUNDERGROUND.COM thanks for everything Joey!
