BEST IN THE DESERT Vegas to Reno August 14, 2015

The GMZ’s Q66 team also elected to run Tire Blocks here and ran the same GMZ tires for the entire race. They recovered from a broken chain and bent sprocket as well as getting off course in the dust to record the second-place finish.

GMZ's Q66 Jeremy Gray & Robbie Cockrell

“We’re pretty happy,” said Cockrell. “This was a last-minute deal for us ,so we didn’t get a lot of time to test the bike. I think if we had more time, we could have hammered a few things out on the bike. My plan is to make sure the Hancock’s don’t have a perfect season. I want to be a spoiler.”

The Q66 team scored their best finish of the BITD season in the 2nd spot

The Dirt Fiend’s Q11 team took third when Prather crashed. After Kendall stopped to help Prather, the team contended with tire problems as well as a broken chain during the race to complete the podium. Funke celebrated his last race in ATV competition with the third-place finish. A firefighter by trade, Funke is retiring from competition to focus on his career

Q11's Conrad Funke ran his last BITD race at the Vegas to Reno

“I saw Danny Prather’s crash, so I stopped to make sure he was OK. He told me ‘Get going. You have a race,’” said Kendall. “After that I hit a wash and it knocked the chain off, wrapping it around the swing arm. I took my time to fix it. We were secure with third, and we just went from there. I wasn’t sure we had enough for those Hancock boys. They’re really tough to beat.

Trent Kendall & Conrad Funke rounded out the top three

“Just finishing this race is a battle,” added Kendall. “The Pro ATV Class is just so tough this year. The top three in the ATV class are consistently finishing with the top-10 motorcycles. That is just unheard of. It takes a perfect combination of good sponsors, a strong motor, good prep, skill and luck. Anyone can win on any given day.”

The Q3 Dirt Works Team of Bryan Hulsey and Michael Burrows made the long trip to Nevada from Missouri, and the pair secured a fourth place finish after battling early on with the Q83 Team of Cody Mitchell and Colt Brinkerhoff. In the end, the Q3 Team was able to pull away and secure the fourth place finish.

Q3's Bryan Hulsey & Michael Burrows finished in the 4th spot

“The dust was horrific,” said Hulsey. “It was tough to follow the course. Colt had a pretty good get off, so Cody Mitchell had to finish the whole race. We battled with Cody for a while until he started getting tired and we held on. Obviously there are few things we would have done differently. I think we lost all of our positions due to inexperience. We enjoyed it, but we both want to come back. We didn’t realize there was going to be that much of a learning curve for desert racing.”