Official 2011 Soboba Grand Prix Pics, Vids, & Results

LSRGreg

#877 SR1 UTV - UTVUnderground Approved
Jan 26, 2009
365
10
0
What an amazing race!! Gotta throw out mad props to Jacob and the whole Soboba Crew. It was a great weekend full of plenty of excitement, and by far, the largest UTV race of the year with 41 entries! Joey, Rusty and Brian do a hell of a job covering all the action, and that deserves huge credit for bringing all this action to the masses that couldn't be there!

After getting drawn in the 3rd row, i knew i had my work cut out for me. There was going to be tons of chaos during the first few minutes with 41 cars all trying to get up front through the MX style course section. I was directly behind Mark Turner, and i remember using him to stop as the log jam in turn 1 unfolded. My bumper got caught underneath his rear, and he towed me around the 1st corner and unlatched over the 1st jump. After seeing my rear onboard footage, and some video of the start from Dirty, I was surprised to see myself in 2nd to last place with only the trophy cart with a 1000 engine (that wasn't even in it for the money) being the only car behind me! I knew i was at pretty big disadvantage not having the luxury of reverse, and really high gearing to make it through some of the unbelievable tight sections this course had to offer. I gotta throw out a huge thanks to Brian B, my boss Dan, and Bobby V for bringing me out Brian's shocks, as i had zero chance running my short course shocks. I went through hell for the 1 hr prerun on friday getting passed by bone stock rhinos. So i wasn't even going to attempt racing sunday without some major changes.

Talk about dust and traffic jams. I think this is probably one of the only races where you have to stop and wait for cars to make it through sections. It reminded me of being on the freeway in rush hour traffic! haha. I was just praying that i wouldn't fly off a cliff as i was blinded by the dust on the ridge sections. My goal was to play it smart, and just start picking off cars as fast as i could. Towards the end of the 1st lap I could feel, and see out of the corner of my eye, my engine moving around already. I thought for sure there was no way it would make it 2 hrs with this kind of abuse. So I drove as delicate as i could over all the jumps to keep from shocking the drivetrain, and rendering the car undrivable. It took a lot of self control, as i knew i could go twice as fast flying over most of the jumps instead of rolling them, but i knew it would spell disaster. And there is no chance of a win if the car breaks. As the race went on, I could feel it getting worse, and my throttle pedal getting closer to the floor, as the engine moved further away from the proper mounting location. But i kept plugging away and passing cars. It wasn't until lap 3 that i finally got a little breath of fresh air and could open the car up. It was a rush flying down the back lower canyon stretch at the top of 3rd gear going somewhere around 80 mph. There was soo much sandy mud packed into my wheels from the creek, and sandy canyons, that I thought my wheels were going to fly off as the steering wheel was almost vibrating out of my hands! What a rush!

With about 2 laps to go, i kept wondering how much time we had, and if i could make it to the end. Coming down the canyon my engine started to sputter as i was getting low on fuel. With the pickup at the back of the tank, and heading down those steep trails, i knew it should keep going once i got to the flat areas. The ruts down in the creek areas were getting so deep, there was a perfectly groomed flat top from all the skid plates dragging across. It was like driving a slot car, just holding on to the wheel hoping it wouldn't catch and jerk out of my hands any more than a couple times. It felt like i had blown shocks because the a-arms and chassis were dragging so bad. I don't think we could have done one more lap without cars getting high centered! haha. Finally, the checkered flag. I had never been so relieved to see it! Not having a clue where i finished, i found Jacob, and they said i finished 5th unofficially. I was shocked i was able to move up so far especially with a group of so many talented UTV racers. After seeing the official results, i finished 6th behind the group that was previously mentioned. You were all really lucky I got such a terrible start! haha :D Only 20 cars out of the 41 finished! Huge congrats to all the racers that even finished, let alone towards the front of the pack! That's an amazing accomplishment! I can't wait for next year! I am glad I could be apart of it. I am also glad that there were no serious injurys! Glad Mark, RJ and Code are all ok, and to the others that were flipped over on the side of the track. I got close to that situation a few times in the dust!
 

Monstrosity

Turner Racing - UTVUnderground Team Driver
Apr 19, 2010
19
3
0
Arizona
www.daystarweb.com
Congrats Greg, I am glad your SR1 was in the hunt. I knew you would be up there. Way to stay in it. I had a go-pro facing backwards so it should have some good footage.

I was happy with my 17th place finish. Key word for me this weekend was FINISH!
 

Monstrosity

Turner Racing - UTVUnderground Team Driver
Apr 19, 2010
19
3
0
Arizona
www.daystarweb.com
Mark, thank you again for supporting and coming out to compete. I am so sorry about your car but glad you walked away both in good spirits and in good health. You will see by my video of the wreck I was terrified of the results....it will come soon so stay tuned!
Joey,
<O:p</O:p
No worries, UTVs come and go, Memories last forever.<O:p</O:p
 

130hp RZR-S

51mph up olds hill
Apr 7, 2009
165
2
18
murrieta, and glamis
Thx for the vid and all your help at the race Reed.... you have video proof that RJ did pass the rzr4 for the lead at 3:15 ish,, then the unfortunate crash...Great job Beau on the win...you had that rzr4 Balls out the entire race!!!
 

699Brent

#699 Pro UTV - UTVUnderground Approved
Nov 8, 2009
36
1
0
54
Great race! Once again the Soboba Grand Prix will be remembered as one of the most fun races of the year. Between the deadly ridge with 100 ft drop offs and the narrow ravene that was not much wider than a rhino, it was a challenging course.
I want to thank my mechanic Mike Amezquita, Chad Mittag and Funco for dialing in my 699 Teryx prior to the race. It takes a lot to keep these cars runing hard for 2 straight hours.
Thanks to Joey D. and everyone else that keeps this sport going!
 

JoeyD23

#utvunderground
Jan 9, 2009
18,569
1,368
113
44
North County San Diego
www.utvunderground.com
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/p4fFxA3JZEQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/p4fFxA3JZEQ?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
 

brevndeb

Your Mom
May 5, 2010
911
5
18
47
Beaumont CA-B-Town
I was thinking how bad ass this event was with the jump contest on sat night and the 7 mile grand prix with a little short course and a little desert racing action and even some water crossing action all wrapped in one made a great day of fun for everyone. I would love to see more of this kind of racing it keeps the racers on their toes and makes it so that anything can happen. It was a good event for spectators to watch as well.I hope that there is more events like this in the future!
 

LSRGreg

#877 SR1 UTV - UTVUnderground Approved
Jan 26, 2009
365
10
0
RJ broke a tie rod and rolled off one of the ridges.. and did not finish.

G-
 

tatum

Hans Solo - 2009 UTV Baja 500 & 1000 Winner - UTVU
Feb 10, 2009
1,450
198
63
arizona
Well I gotta say it wasnt my best day racing although the turn out and track were awesome.I got up at 5:00 am and loaded the truck and trailer and headed for cali.Arrived about noon and saw all the good race vehicles and was really happy.
I got a second row draw and was caught in a big cluster in the first turn and have know idea what position I came out but probably about mid pack.I was able to pick off a couple of people before getting to the mountain part of the track and then it was near impossible to see anything.I think I stopped 3 times waiting for dust to clear and one time I was about off the side of the mountain.
The dust got better as the race spread out but between the dust and the sun and going up and down the the hills I started getting sea sick about 45 minutes into the race.Soon after I went to pass a car on the infield section and caught a groove in the corner an put the car on the side.It seemed like forever but I was probably less than a minute before enough people arrived to roll me back onto the wheels.
No sooner did I get going and start passing people and I noticed the car was up to 240 degrees and had to pit.My pit guys got me cooled down and going with in a couple of minutes and off I went.On the second to last lap I couldnt take it anymore and had to pull over and throw up.Other than that everything went good.HA HA
I would like to thank my buddy Scott for coming with and pitting for me along with Bobby Van Beekums guy Danny for helping.Also thanks to Joey D and all the UTVUNDERGROUND people who came out and helped.
 

699Brent

#699 Pro UTV - UTVUnderground Approved
Nov 8, 2009
36
1
0
54
Great video you posted of the actual race. Someone put some effort into getting all those locations/ angles to give you a real sense of what the race was like.

Other than a few roll overs- was there any real injuries?:eek:
 
Last edited:

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
17,292
Messages
179,387
Members
12,145
Latest member
felipebenjamin000