Young Gun 2017 UTVWC Race Recap

[JoeyD23]

Houston, TX (Apr. 27, 2017) – Utv World Championship was Felix Racing’s Young Gun debut race. As if racing based out of Houston, Texas wasn’t difficult enough I had two cars to get ready for this race. Thankfully, the 1958 car was in the capable hands of my team mate in Pahrump Nathan Shaffer. While we were coordinating our efforts my job was to get him the parts he needed while focusing on getting the Polaris XP 1000 Young Gun car updated with a new Throttle Out motor, H-Town suspension, Walker Evans/Double E Racing shocks, Streamline oversized rotors, Turner axles custom fitted, MRT tires on Keizer spun aluminum wheel along with an assortment of other parts…… plus we had to get it fitted to 5 ft nothing Young Gun driver Shelby Anderson.

Some of the major parts were late down to the wire putting the prep schedule in a real bind for time. Just a couple days before the race I left Houston with the car and a bunch of parts and the hope we would somehow cobble together but the odds were 50/50. We decided that no matter what she was going to be in the desert race even if we had to put her in my 4 seat 1958 car. I knew she was really looking forward to the race and I promised her a car and I desperately didn’t want to let her down. So I pull into Phoenix and we drop the motor in and the car has no power. It runs like a twin engine boat with one motor. It hadn’t been tuned but that just didn’t seem to explain what we were hearing and experiencing so I loaded up for Pahrump where 1958 (Biggie) was getting its final prep by Nathan. I stopped by Fodrills to have a door skin made to replace the original one that had been rolled 4 times. Danny said it would be an easy job. So with two 3 month old German Shepard puppies in tow I headed over. Well “easy” is a vague term….the aluminum guy wasn’t there so Danny said we can figure this out together! Together? I never worked with aluminum or rollers or any of that but I did what I was told and by 10:30 that night we had one door panel and a roof panel. I know not much but it was great working with him and meeting Bill Whittington who we battled at Parker and Larry Ragland as well. Are you getting the picture yet?

I just turned 60 and I’m the youngest one so I still have to do all the dirty work....Myself and the pups had a great time working at the Fodrill shop which is very unique if you never been there. Let me just say the minute you walk in you know they been working on race cars for a long time. Anyway, on to Pahrump. We worked a full day and finally figured out we had 3 electrical issues one being a sensor. Once we got that figured out we had to decide what we were going to do about the ride height. The car was way too tall. Maybe my weights were off but we needed to squat this car down at least 3 inches and a 90 lb driver wasn’t going to do much. Walker Evans jumped into the fray and with direction from George White we decided on the spring changes needed. Walker had some but the others we ordered from Eibach to pick up at will call….at the same time UPS had delivered parts to the wrong address so we sent the Anderson girls into action tracking down the truck while Shelby and I were at Benchmark Performance tuning the motor. Basically it was chaos all around but we just kept fending off the obstacles and they were numerous some of our own making. For example Chris Hawks noticed we didn’t have any bolts in the motor mounts in our rush to install the motor and we put the rear brake cylinders on backwards. but not until we spent a few hours trying to bleed the brakes. Just stupid stuff from being in too much of a hurry as time ticked away. I asked Shelby to drive it around the farm road and she said it didn’t have any power. I panicked

1958 RZR Before the Young Gun rebuild.

New and improved Young Guns Polaris RZR.
I finally handed off the car to Shelby with the plan to meet in Needles to test the car on Thursday before contingency. The test suspension tuning with Walker Evans and a weekend of shaking the car down was not going to happen……we just had time to clutch the car and install the springs and rotors. The Magik Kustom Graphics wrap was going to have to wait to install we were running out of time fast. Thursday around noon we took the car out for the first drive on a ridgeline road really rough and technical. If you missed a turn here or the car stepped out your probably going to roll it. She made a couple passes so then I did a couple with her. She was fast and precise and as treacherous the terrain I was not nervous at all….well maybe just a little but it quickly passed as I had confidence she could handle the car.

Friday was contingency and we somehow manage to get the car wrapped by one of Shelby’s friends at the last minute. The car looked nothing like its former pink self and a lot of people asking about the Young Gun program and expressing their support for the project. We got both cars through tech without issues and starting prepping 1958 car for the race. I was looking forward to starting on the same row as Shelby and racing together hoping both cars would finish. Saturday morning my co driver was checking the clutch and came back with the motor mount broke in half and a pan full of oil. We decided to focus our attention on the Young Gun car. The cars were all lined up and everyone a little nervous about the dust and pile ups that have delayed the start. She seemed to sit there waiting for the flag forever but finally it came and she was in the front part of the pack I’d say 5-8. She avoided the carnage on the course and made it around for the first lap in the top 10 we think. It was hard to judge positions with all the delays but she was looking real good and the car was handling and running well. On the second lap she was in about the same relative position to the lead cars so the race plan to go easy the first couple laps and let the cars spread out was going well. On the third lap she said she was pitting. There was some confusion as to what the problem was but we had limited parts resources the way we had to haul everything out in a pick up. Turns out we had a huge hole blow out the 90 degree bend in the header. Looked like an undetected crack just burned out. That might spell the end in short course but this was a desert race and we don’t quit so her dad Rod and I removed the hot header and took the one off the disabled 1958 car and sent her on her way. She said the car was running better but missing in the rough stuff so we pitted her on lap 3 but couldn’t find anything unusual. Injectors were fine but the rougher the course got the worse the car ran. She said the car was iffy to get around another lap so we held her for the checker after lap 5. Somehow we got our wires crossed and I sent her too soon and ended with a DNF….Ouch! Cost us 30 pts and 12 more for not finishing all the races. Oh well we just need to do well at V2R. Hopefully we will have the Young Gun car at V2R or another race for Round 2. Speaking on behalf of the Felix Racing Team and myself it was an awesome first race experience with a Young Gun driver. We all learned a lot as can be expected. It was exciting to be around a new driver with all the anxious trepidation that comes with a big race and any first time experience. Shelby, her dad Rod, mom Kathy, sister Katelyn and the entire crew that helped on this was great to work with. They helped in every way they could and in a very short time we bonded as her team.

There is nothing I would do different…..we all did the very best we could but yeah next time we will be more prepared and hopefully some of those that offered their support will come forward and get involved. One thing I did learn is Young Gun needs a focused team so we will be looking for people that want to get involved with the car prep and testing, logistics, and pit support, and co drivers. I may even merge my race program to run both Rzr’s if there is enough interest and support. Going forward I can see a Young Gun A team and B team and as the program progresses move up to the Turbo class to create a graduate Top Gun program. Not every interested young person will start driving the car. It takes a lot to compete in desert racing but it builds character and toughness. Maybe we will take this to Baja…..talking about toughness! At the end of the day the program will be whatever the people involved create it to be……just like life it is what you make of it. This program should be more than about racing it can be about team building and working with others setting our own personal agenda aside to work together towards a common goal. That’s my answer to all the people who asked me what is the program about……

We started this program as a way to develop fresh talent and provide young racers an opportunity to test their skills in the desert. Hopefully it will get the support to build newer cars and continue to promote the sport to the youngsters who really are the future of the sport. Team Young Gun will be looking to assemble a team for Vegas to Reno with at least 2 driver teams. Anyone interested in participating is welcome to contact me. We need help with pit/chase crew, prep support, social media and video/photographer, logistics, and in general people who want to be involved and contribute to making a very cool program even better. Contact George Felix. [email protected]