Team ITP ATV and side-by-side racers posted overall racing victories at both the 2013 Best In The Desert Vegas To Reno race and the 2013 Heartland Challenge event in Iowa.
The No. 1917 side-by-side of Team Murray Motorsports/Del Amo Motorsports/ITP won the UTV Pro class overall at Round 4 of the BITD desert series in Nevada. ITP-backed Team Woodhead Mafia won the AA class and ATV racing overall at the ten-hour portion of the Heartland Challenge outside of Carlisle, IA.
"We couldn't have dreamed of better results from our top racers," said Pat McGuire of ITP Public Relations. "The Murray Motorsports team got a much-deserved victory at Vegas to Reno. Justin Lambert's Cognito Motorsports team also took second in the 1900 class, so it was a great BITD weekend for ITP. Despite horribly dusty conditions and the challenge of competing for ten hours overnight, we also had great success in Iowa at the Heartland Challenge. Adam McGill and Braden Henthorn won the Pro ATV class and ATV racing overall using ITP tires and we couldn't be happier. Both of these events offer extreme challenges for man and machine, and to have our tires on top of both podiums is certainly high praise."
BITD
Round 4 of the Class 1900 P portion of the Best In The Desert racing series was the challenging and highly popular Vegas to Reno event, widely known as the longest off-road race in the United States. Eleven side-by-side vehicles completed the course in the UTV Pro class, including Team Murray Motorsports/Del Amo Motorsports/ITP, the winning team. Heading into the round, the Murray Motorsports team trailed the class points leader by 22 points and was looking to make up some ground in Nevada.
First off the line, the Murray team held around a ten-minute lead at the 100-mile marker. Things tightened up at the midpoint of the race. In fact, three teams swapped for the lead during the 380- to 415-mile sections, according to Derek Murray. After that, the series points leader took over the lead in the faster section of the course, but later dropped out due to a mechanical problem.
A short time later, Team Murray regained the lead and never looked back. Murray said the No. 1917 vehicle was the only side-by-side to remain in front of the super-fast and relentless Unlimited four-wheel vehicles that started the race some three hours after the SxS vehicles. This was just the second time in BITD series history where a side-by-side finished in front of the unlimited vehicles.
After more than 540 miles and 12 hours of racing, the Murray team had its first overall win in 2013 and had gained valuable points in the race for the 2013 BITD UTV Pro class title chase. The Vegas to Reno victory netted the Murray team 166 points and, because the points leader finished in eighth place, unofficially pushed Murray into the class points lead by four points. Team Murray Motorsports, (comprised of brothers Derek and Jason Murray, Bill Kugel and Monty Aldrich) finished 32nd overall out of 76 vehicles in its racing segment, which lumps motorcycle, ATVs and UTVs together, and even finished ahead of some of the racing trucks.
"The Ultracross tires and T9 wheels held up well and were the perfect combination for the Vegas to Reno race," said Derek Murray. "The race featured several fast sections and also some rough areas, but the ITP tires are a great high-speed tire and also were awesome in the rocky terrain, offering great hookup."
The Congnito Motorsports/ITP team of Justin Lambert, Justin Sheakley, Jim Neasbitt and Jeremiah Staggs finished second in the 1900 P class at the Vegas to Reno round, to unofficially climb to within two points of sixth place in the overall BITD UTV Pro class standings.
Round 5 of the BITD series, the BlueWater Desert Challenge, will be held in October.
Heartland Challenge
Featuring ATV and side-by-side racing classes in both team and ironman (solo) formats, the sixth annual Iowa ATV Hare Scramble Series Heartland Challenge endurance race was held Aug. 16-18 outside of Carlisle, IA. UTVs competed Friday evening in a four-hour race, while ATVs competed in the ten-hour overnight event Saturday. A three-hour Youth racing segment was also a part of the schedule. The off-road course featured both man-made and natural obstacles as well a thick, lingering dust that made things even more troublesome for the racers.
In the ATV portion of the Heartland Challenge, Team Woodhead Mafia, a two-rider team comprised of ITP Pro Adam McGill and fellow GNCC Pro Braden Henthorn, won the ATV overall and AA class. The team, which completed 34 laps in a little more than ten hours and seven minutes, ran a combination of ITP Holeshot GNCC front tires and ITP Quadcross XC rear tires on its way to the victory.
Team JB Off-Road/ITP (Jarrod McClure, Jeff Rastrelli and Randy Hamilton) finished fourth in the AA division and overall using ITP tires. A total of 76 ATVs competed in all the classes, but only seven completed at least 30 laps in the ten-hour event. BCS Performance/ITP Pro Josh Creamer entered the Ironman class and fought his way into second place early on, but had to drop out after six laps due to a mechanical issue with his quad's gearing.
In side-by-side action in Iowa, the top finishing ITP-supported team in the UTV Open class was the husband and wife tandem of Tim and Julie Farr (JB Off-Road Racing/ITP). Farr ran ITP Terracross RT X/D tires on the rear of his side-by-side vehicle. JB Off-Road/ITP teammate Kyle Chaney also competed in Iowa and actually was the early leader before an aftermarket steering mechanism failed, forcing him to pit for repair. Once the fix was completed, Chaney went back out and tried to make up time and positions but ran into more trouble. This time he and another racer collided in the dust and Chaney's race ended at the 2:36:08 mark.
