Round 1 of the Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing So-Cal Regional Series kicked off at Glean Helen Raceway on February 15th, 2014. The UTV classes were stacked with tons of talented racers and machines ready for the brutal season ahead. The events that took place over the weekend were action packed and full of crashes, passes, and pure adrenaline. For 2014 the series has brought back the Walker Evans Racing Polaris RZR XP900 spec class, The Weller Racing SR1 Championship and the Unlimited UTV Class. But NEW for 2014 is the Production 1000 class. Finally a race season where the top OEM’s all have a 1000cc engine making it fair for Can-Am’s, Polaris’ and even Arctic Cat’s to run in! Now if we can get Kawasaki and Yamaha and maybe even Honda to step it up, we can start taking UTVs to even greater heights!

Racing was exciting as to be expected and there was good turnouts in most of the classes. Lucas Oil put the SR1, Unlimited’s, and Production 1000’s into one race. While we understand the time limitations, we think as the Production 1000 class grows we will want to see those classes broken into their own races. The faster SR1 guys we know will want it and the faster Production 1000 guys certainly want it. Cody Rahders representing factory Polaris and UTVUnderground will now be competing in both the RZR XP900 class and the Production 1000 class this year. Coming off a 2013 Championship in the RZR Xp900 class, Cody looks to add a little more hardware to his collection by bringing out 2 new machines for 2014. Round 1 would be a good showing for Rahders who took the overall win for the XP900 class, Just minutes after jumping out of his XP1000 from the previous race where he placed 3rd. Cody told us that it was his first time ever running his Cognito Motorsports built XP1000, but quickly proving he was comfortable enough to battle despite limited seat time.

Production 1000 will soon become the premier class at the series, if it isn’t already! 15 machines came out to the first round making it the biggest class in its debut race. Only 4 of the 11 high powered SR1’s would best the top Prod.1000 times laid down by Ryan Piplic, Tommy Scranton and Cody Rahders who would finish in that order in the class results. These 1000’s and their drivers are fast and it was easy to see that they are only going to get faster as the rounds go on. LOTS of body roll coming out of those machines and a ton of wheel travel dropping out as the racers hit the air. This is something we are not used to seeing in Lucas Oil race series. These UTVs have more travel then a Pro-Lite truck and more body roll then a Pro-2! Once the racers start to adapt their machines for these tracks, they are really going to start producing some serious lap times! Combine in the fact that these machines are selling faster then ever, we won’t be surprised to see some rounds where 20+ 1000’s are running around the track!

SR1, what can we say? The only class and vehicles that remain from the old guard of UTV racing at the Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series. Weller Racing were the founders of the class and to this day Jason, Jeff, and Corry continue to put their money where their mouth is not only competing in the class but also sponsoring and promoting the class. While the SR1’s don’t always get the love or exposure they deserve, they hold their own at the track demanding attention with every 12,000 RPM rev! Jason Weller himself arrived with an all new machine but unfortunately for him, in practice on Friday he would have a run in due to a bonehead move by a racer in another class. He would make repairs but his car would succumb to the damage in the race on Saturday. SR1 regulars, Brandon Kilgore and Gary Thompson would go 1-2 in their machines while newcomer to the class, but LOORRS young veteran Trenton Briley would round out the podium.

Overall 41 highly talented UTV drivers came out to battle at round 1. We watched Ryan Piplic, Cody Rahders and Tommy Scranton battle it out in the production 1000 class, cheered for Cody Raiders and Brandon Carr as they raced neck to neck in the 900 class, and watched Brandon Altmann roll and get right back on the gas in spectacular fashion to finish the race. The Crowd came in full force and so did the support for UTVUnderground.com. It felt good to be back at Lucas Oil and it was obvious that UTVs are alive and well at the So-Cal Regional Series! We would like to congratulate all those who made it on podium this weekend and of course we always want to extend a HUGE thank you to each and every racer, team, fan and company that supports UTVUnderground both on and off the track. Nothing makes our day more than to receive the love we get from all of you! See you April 5th for Round 2 at the Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park in Lake Elsinore, CA.

As a side note: UTVUnderground.com wants to thank Kenny Osborn of Black Rhino / Racer-X for introducing a new feature to the series this year. Kenny provided our staff with a race radio for us to listen in to race ops. This allowed us to know what was going on at all times. This was huge for our guys on the track shooting photos. This would not only be helpful for us, but for the race fan looking to stay in the know with whats going on, who is getting penalized, what the status is on a delay or when the next race is kicking off. In addition, as a member of a team you can rent these radios and have your teams frequency put in so you too can listen in to spotter / driver communications! Make sure to check this out next round!

Words by Joey DiGiovanni & Shilynn Milligan // UTVUnderground.com
Photos by Shilynn Milligan // UTVUnderground.com – shilynnmilliganphotography.com

RESULTS 

Weller Racing Sr1 / Production 1000 / Unlimited UTV

pos	start no.	competitor	laps	total time	diff	best time	best lap	best speed
1	835	BRANDON KILGORE	12	13:06.872		52.869	4
2	1	GARY THOMPSON	12	13:08.103	01.231	53.998	8
3	854	TRENTON BRILEY	12	13:09.367	02.495	54.427	6
4	814	ROBERT WILSON	12	13:09.767	02.895	54.234	9
5	915	RYAN PIPLIC	12	13:15.334	08.462	56.050	9
6	905	TOMMY SCRANTON	12	13:15.791	08.919	57.071	12
7	916	CODY RAHDERS	12	13:16.809	09.937	56.343	3
8	994	TYLER WINBURY	12	13:17.378	10.506	55.940	9
9	917	JOHN PACHECO	12	13:18.773	11.901	58.572	12
10	1	STEVE BEILMAN	12	13:22.037	15.165	59.001	5
11	680	DAVID NAGY	12	13:23.428	16.556	59.599	9
12	6	RC RAMSAY	12	13:25.587	18.715	01:00.046	8
13	819	ART WILLIAMS	12	13:28.884	22.012
14	822	BRANDON CUNNINGHAM	12	13:28.999	22.127	01:01.096	2
15	918	JASON MERRELL	12	13:32.371	25.499	56.477	9
16	941	KIPP MICKELS	12	13:32.667	25.795	01:02.109	8
17	888	BLAKE MALGREN	11	13:14.592	1 lap	56.178	3
18	924	JOE BUTLER	11	13:17.534	1 lap	01:02.341	3
19	856	SEAN LORENZ	11	13:37.777	1 lap	01:00.079	2
20	969	DYLAN WINBURY	10	14:18.683	2 laps	56.259	3
21	617	BRANDON HONG	8	08:40.037	4 laps	56.658	5
22	902	JEREMIAH STAGGS	6	05:56.315	6 laps	57.553	2
23	977	JEREMY MERRELL	6	08:24.714	6 laps	58.627	3
24	94	DUSTIN NELSON	4	03:36.851	8 laps	53.176	2
25	711	BROC DICKERSON	2	02:04.583	10 laps	59.299	2
26	69	STEVE BUCARO		08.888	12 laps

Walker Evans Racing RZR

pos	start no.	competitor	laps	total time	diff	best time	best lap	best speed
1	716	CODY RAHDERS	13	15:41.246		56.901	12
2	713	BRYAN CARR	13	15:42.737	01.491	57.416	13
3	757	MYLES CHEEK	13	15:43.751	02.505	57.841	6
4	765	WILL RODGERS	13	15:46.480	05.234	59.451	8
5	788	MARK PATRIDGE	13	15:46.639	05.393	59.424	13
6	703	TYLER PARKS	13	15:49.830	08.584	01:00.263	13
7	777	JAKE GRECO	13	15:55.380	14.134	59.874	2
8	749	JAKE YUBETA	13	15:55.566	14.320	01:01.762	2
9	711	BROC DICKERSON	13	15:56.295	15.049	01:02.381	9
10	772	KATIE VERNOLA	13	15:57.615	16.369	01:01.057	5
11	706	MIKE LEWIS	13	16:08.835	27.589	01:01.601	9
12	756	JUSTIN IMHOF	12	14:51.229	1 lap	01:01.498	10
13	764	BRANDON ALTMANN	6	07:15.028	7 laps	01:00.509	5
14	727	JAKE SHIREY	1	01:08.535	12 laps	01:04.584	1

 

Championship Points