Words and photos by: Chris Blais & Ben Meza
Round 3 of the new DP4 Racing Series took place in Red Mountain, Ca. at one of our favorite racing areas also known as “Charlie’s Place/ Wagon Wheel”. This would be my first DP4 event I have participated in. I have been in contact with the promoters many times who are friends of ours from District 37, but due to my commitment to another series for the year, I haven’t been able to make it to one of their events until now. My co-driver, Jeremy Gray, is out of town this month for work so I invited my OG Blais Racer, Ben “Benny” Meza, to co-drive with me for this race. I have to say that I was very impressed by the course lay-out, how organized it all was, and the tech/pit area when I arrived. It looked and felt very professionally run. These guys have practice from all the years of helping at the NHHA events and with their own race clubs.
We spent Friday afternoon testing some new parts and KWI clutching set-ups in preparation for the hot temperatures. Ben Meza practiced some tire changing and I got him acclimated to the speed of my Can-Am X3. The car was working great with my fresh Kenda Tires, UTVShocks.com suspension by Tom Morris and PWR Tune horsepower.
This event would attract 20 cars for just their 3rd event, which was awesome. There were a couple of drivers I recognized, that we race with at another series. I knew they would be some good competition for us. We would draw a 2nd place starting position for this race and I wanted to hammer down to get into the lead so I could stretch out a nice gap.
I was able to close the 30-second gap in the first 5 miles but Robert Knuckles was doing a good job going just fast enough to hold me off. I stayed close to him but just out of the dust where I could see and not make any mistakes. I knew I just had to stay close enough in the pits for my gas man, Gilbert Davila, to handle his business and get us out front. Gilbert did just that with a lightning fast gas stop and we would take the physical lead!
Ben and I cranked it up for laps 2 and 3 and would gradually pull away. On the fourth lap, we would see our competition Robert Knuckles in the pits cheering us on. They had a problem and were out of the race. Ben and I just held a solid trail riding pace after that and were able to take the win by 16 minutes over 2nd place! Once again, not a single issue with our car or prep and my team got us handled in the pits as always. It’s amazing what these cars can do and the beating they can take. I would like to give a shout out to ZRP for making some amazing knuckles and hubs that can take that kind of beating for the 6,000 race miles I now have on my car. Sometimes we forget about certain people and products because they work flawlessly for so long you don’t have to think about the product. Thank you!
Next is this Saturday, June 22nd out in California City for the AVE 150 Twilight event. Race starts at 6PM! This race report is a little late but we have been working on prepping the car all week so we can run another flawless race. Thank you to all our family, friends and sponsors that stick by our side so we can do the things we love and win races. Great Job to the DP4 racing crew for putting on an exceptional event. We had a mix of every terrain out there, washes, fast, slow, very slow and technical, whoops, and valleys. I couldn’t ask for much more than that and I am looking forward to their night race event in July.
Special thanks to all our sponsors who jumped back on board for our 2019 season. Thanks to everyone for believing in me!
- Tom Morris/ UTVShocks.com (Best shock tuner I have ever had a chance to work with)
- Eibach Springs (Best springs around that don’t sag!)
- KWI Clutching (Kris Werth is the man! My car rips and not a single belt issue all year)
- RJ Fabrication (For the best looking car & roll cage out there)
- Kenda Tires (Mastodon HT’s kick butt)
- Raceline Wheels (Not a single wheel problem all year)
- Baja Designs (Best lighting around, my sponsor for almost 20 years)
- Impact Safety (Best helmets a guy could ask for)
- PWR Tune (Awesome performance and customer support)
- EPowerSteering (HD power steering unit so I can easily drive one handed)
- Safecraft (Auto fire suppression to keep me safe as it’s harder for me to get out of the car)
- Zollinger Racing Products (Amazing quality knuckles & hubs to handle the abuse)
- RokBlokz (Sweet mud flaps and trailing arm guards)
- Sector Seven (Mirrors that you can actually see out of and lights that work amazing)
- Teixeira Tech (The best radius rods around)
- Blud Lubricants (Best oil around)
- Pops Powders (All our powdercoating needs)
- NecksGen (Most comfortable neck brace I have ever worn)
Thank you again to everyone and I look forward to a great 2019 Race Season!
If your company is interested in working with us for 2019, let us know. With our race team, we are able to promote your products along with selling them in our on-line store and shop! We are also looking for a Title Sponsor to help represent our winning team for 2020! (714) 343-5263
