Lonestar Racing UTV Places Thrid in 2011 King
of Hammers Race
Rotax Your Rhino Places Third
at 2011 PitBull Tires King of the Hammers
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Lonestar
/ Rotax Your Rhino UTV Piloted by Brian
Bush & Greg Frantz
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In Phoenix, AZ (2/16/2011)
– The 2010 Whiplash Racing Pro-Mod champions
Brian Bush of Rotax Your Rhino, and co-driver
Greg Frantz of Lonestar Racing, take home a third
place finish in their first running of the King
Of The Hammers!
2010, Brian decided that he, and
Lonestar Racing had molded his 2006 Yamaha Rhino
into a machine that could not only finish what
has been described as the toughest off-road race
in the world, but he believed he could race with
the leaders (the who's who of UTV racing), and
finish in the front of the pack. Unfortunately,
he runs a Rotax V-twin engine, and was ineligible
due to the fact that this particular engine was
never offered in a UTV from the factory.
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This Yamaha
Rhino is powered by a Rotax V-Twin Engine
much like the new Can-Am Commander 1000
UTV
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July 1, 2010, Can-Am released the
all new Can-Am Commander which comes stock with
the same popular engine that Brian, and many others
currently run in their outdated Yamaha Rhino's.
Brian's first reaction to this news was that he
would be in contention to enter the 2011 running
of the King of the Hammers! The team ran the Whiplash
Offroad Racing Series in 2010, and did surprisingly
well for their first entry into an entire race
series. The Pro-Mod championship was theirs for
the taking. The car that Brian built only had
1 part failure during the whole series, causing
their only DNF for the season. (Wheel studs)
When it came time to prepare for
KOH, there wasn't too much to do to the
car. Brian installed a set of 3/8" UHMW
skid plates from Factory UTV, a
Quickshot spare tire and jack mount from Pro-Armor,
a set of Pitbull Rocker
26.5" tires, a second battery and bracket
from Rhino Parts and Performance,
and a hand-me-down winch from his friends at
Freedom RV in Tucson.
The two didn't have time to get
to Hammer Town early enough to pre-run the
race course. Because of this they were quite
nervous and spent most of the
night before the race worrying, and reading
race course maps and
strategizing the run. "I must say that
the course markers were clear and
well laid out. Thanks to Reid Nordin for the
time he invested in this"
The morning of the race was a
frigid one. Some were reporting temperatures
under 30 degrees. Brian and Greg made their
way to the starting line and were placed in
16th position out of 18. Once they were rolling,
and nerves were settling, Brian began to get
a feel for his taller ride height, larger tires,
and no sway bar. By the first technical section
they had passed two or three cars and were making
their way over the first obstacle when they
encountered stopped race traffic and a race
car blocking the course. At this point Greg
exited the vehicle to assist the stuck racer.
During this time, Brian shifted the car into
reverse and immediately felt the shifter linkage
break. With some quick thinking, he was able
to remove a portion of the engine cover and
discovered he could shift the transmission by
reaching into the engine compartment. By the
time Greg was back to the car, at least five
minutes had passed and the stuck race car was
still blocking the course. Greg scouted an alternate
route down and around the stopped traffic. Once
the team made it down the mountain and into
the valley, Brian put his foot in it and didn't
look back.
Save for the broken shifter, the
LSR XTR-F suspended Rhino was working flawlessly
and they were able to take on some of the biggest
whoops and ruts they had ever seen. Not much
was slowing them down. When they made their
way into the first named rock section called
"Elvis", there were a number of stuck,
and/or slow moving vehicles blocking the course.
Again, Greg got out to assist those drivers
through this section. What took probably only
five minutes felt like an eternity to Brian
who was as patient as could be. Once these vehicles
were moved, Brian quickly made his way down
through the rock section with Greg spotting
him.
Once back at race speed, Brian
was driving as if he was going to win this race.
They had no idea where they stood, but assumed
it was towards the front of the pack as they
had already passed a handful of cars, and some
that were broken on the side of the course.
When they reached the second named
rock section, "Aftershock" they immediately
knew that this section was going to be the "make
or break" part of the course. After rounding
the first corner they were greeted with an excited
audience that was cheering them on. While running
this section, Greg was out of the car spotting
for lines. Sometime during this section a number
of spectators told Greg that our team was running
in first place. Once through the section Greg
reentered the race car and told Brian what he
had just heard. Neither of them could believe
that they were in first place as they knew that
they hadn't passed 15 cars. At any rate, this
news was enough to excite the two into believing
that they would not only finish this race, but
finish on the podium. Nervously, Brian once
again put his foot in it as to not allow any
other racers to catch up. This was met with
some resistance from Greg as he wasn't going
to allow Brian to throw it away due to his excitement.
There were a few "boulders" that Brian
hit so hard the car became partially airborne.
"We can't say enough good things about
Factory UTV's UHMW skid plates."
Once the team made it over the
last pass and had a view into Hammer Town,
they slowed down for a moment to look for traffic
up front, and behind.
There was no sign of any traffic in either direction,
and the team still
didn't know for sure whether they were in the
lead or not. What they did
know, was that there was nobody behind them
for miles.
The last three or so miles was
a heavily whooped out downhill sand section
with the opportunity to open the car up, and
put Lonestar Racing's XTR-F
suspension to the test. Brian set the cruise
control around 55 mph through
this section as it was obvious that we could
have gone much faster, but
doing so was risking throwing the race away
and they were running low on
fuel. When the two made it to the "Green"?
flag, they were told it was the
finish line and that they had placed third!
"This race was by far the
best racing experience of my life! There is
nothing cooler than high speed desert racing
mixed with some of the most
demanding and technical rock crawling that a
UTV has ever encountered. I
have done my share of rock crawling in UTV's,
but never under race
conditions. This alone makes for an adrenaline
rush like no other! Also,
the fact that we're able to race our UTV's at
what is likely the biggest
off-road race in the country, makes it all that
much cooler.
I would like to thank my co-driver
Greg Frantz for being flat out awesome! He's
a level headed guy with the skills and patience
to put up with me, and help guide me along the
way. I wish you guys could hear our PCI intercom
chatter. We're quite hilarious. We're either
scared silent, arguing about something, or joking
and laughing our ass' off while we race! I wouldn't
have had the successes that I've had in off-road
racing if it wasn't for him. You rock G."
"I would also like to thank
Ultra4Racing, Dave and Jeff Knoll, Reid Nordin,
Joey DiGiovanni, Rusty Baptist, and Michael
Green of Pitbull Tires for
sponsoring this event!
Congratulations to Jagged Extreme for taking
home the win, and Mitch
Guthrie for his second place finish!"
Special thanks to our friends
and sponsors: Rotax Your Rhino, Lonestar Racing,
www.UTVForums.net, TCP Performance, Seizmik,
PCI Race Radios, PRP Seats, Pitbull Tires, Muzzys,
Banners Plus, Unisteer, Dalton Industries, UTV
Offroad Magazine, AZ Amsoil, and, HJC Helmets
About Lone Star Racing:
Lone
Star Racing is a production and custom manufacturer
of the highest quality racing and recreational
products for ATV's and UTV's. Having been in
the business for almost 20 years, they have
been producing race winning chassis and suspension
components for all types of racing, ranging
from the street to off road. Their 45,000 sq
ft facility in Mesa, AZ is home to many dedicated
team members that provide life to the 23 CNC
machining centers. LSR combines this with CAD
software to eliminate errors in all of the tube
bending, laser cutting, milling and lathe work,.
They also have many TIG welding stations and
an in house powdercoating facility. LSR also
offers installation and maintenance for your
ATV
www.lsracing.com
(800-457-7223) |
