Ontario, Calif. - Team ITP will have numerous teams competing Feb. 18-20 in the 2016 UTV World Championship event in Laughlin, NV.
Branden Sims (Lonestar Racing/Polaris), fresh off his recent second-place podium finish at the 2016 King Of The Hammers, joins fellow ITP-supported teams Cognito Motorsports and S3 Racing as headliners at the second-annual desert race.
Justin Lambert (Cognito Motorsports/Polaris) won the UTV Pro Production class at the Best In The Desert Parker 250, while the tandem of Dustin Jones and Shane Dowden (S3 Racing/Can-Am) won the new UTV Turbo Production class. Like many desert racing teams, these frontrunners choose 30-inch ITP UltraCross R Spec tires when competing in the harsh desert environments.
"We've had a great start to the 2016 season and expect more of the same from our team of racers at the UTV World Championship," said Rhett Turpin, ITP director of sales. "We've already seen Justin Lambert and Dustin Jones in the winner's circle in BITD this year and just had Branden Sims put his UltraCross R Spec tires on top of the podium at the King Of The Hammers race in California. With the rest of our proven team racers' skill levels and because they're running ITP tires, we have a legitimate chance at securing numerous podiums and capturing that coveted UTV World Championship trophy."
The UTV World Championship event is part of the 2016 Best In The Desert racing schedule and serves as round two of the seven-round series. The opening leg of the BITD series kicked off with the Parker 250 in Parker, AZ. Team ITP was well represented as Justin Lambert's No. 1918 Cognito Motorsports/Polaris RZR XP1K, outfitted with 8-ply, 30-inch ITP UltraCross R Spec tires, won the UTV overall and the 1900 Pro Production (non-turbo) class. ITP racers also won the new UTV Turbo class and produced a podium sweep.
Dustin Jones and Shane Dowden (S3 Racing/Can-Am) won the UTV Turbo class and were joined on the box by ITP drivers Logan Gastel and Can-Am/ITP/Murray Racing's Derek and Jason Murray.
Any of these aforementioned racers have a shot at winning at the UTV World Championship, but ITP has even more talent coming to Nevada. This includes two reigning 2015 BITD champions in the form of Johnny Angal and Lacrecia Beurrier and Mitch Guthrie Jr.
Angal won the 2015 BITD 1900P Pro class title using ITP UltraCross tires and Beurrier took home the UTV Unlimited crown using the same proven tires. Guthrie finished ninth in the UTV Turbo class at the BITD opener. He just recently finished fifth, riding shotgun with his six-time KOH champion father, Mitch Sr., at the 2016 KOH event.
Team ITP competes in every major racing series in North America and around the world. Desert racing is one of the most grueling forms of racing, in that it challenges both man and machine. It also requires tires that offer impeccable, all-around performance.
The one commonality all these desert-racing teams share is tires. The 30-inch ITP UltraCross R Spec is the tire of choice for every ITP team competing in the BITD series.
For more info on the UTV World Championship race, visit BITD/UTVWC.
