Survived the first race of the season, no breakdowns, EPS system ran without a hitch through 15 miles of racing and constant use. I did add a second battery into the system.
Finished 11th out of 20 with 19, then 18, then 17 minute lap times.
Still the only homebuilt underdog going against an ever tougher field of UTVs.
Most of those ahead of me ran large in the 11 to 15 minute lap range, the 11s put in by the two top dogs, one of whom holds the fastest lap of line ever in a VW buggy that runs in ultra modified class--he uses UTV as a pre-run and smoked the field til he broke it -- i beat him LOL.
Turning 26-inch tall tires with the present gearing is a bit of a torque hit on the chain system. swapping from 32T to 39T driven sprockets at the rear hubs, 2nd gear wound out too often but 3rd wasn't up to the rough stuff, causing me stalls every lap in the rough to the tune of 1-2 minutes per lap lost.
Rear trailing arm angle is also an issue with too much anti squat. To much bounce in the rough, so a shock re-valve, and a 4 inch move of the upper shock mounts is underway to get the arms into upward vs rearward travel arc with softer rebound rate and faster compression shim changes.
Ran the short obstacle course on sunday, a first for me since i can't usually stay the extra day. Head to head on an inside/outside loop course with lots of turns, berms. rocks n ruts. Would have done well but the throttle stuck twice, so my buddy in the Teryx beat me. Had his number otherwise.
Also ran the same deal in the Overall version of the event, which puts everything from quads to KOH style rigs in the mix for top doggy in double elimination format. Made it through 8 runs, beat a quad, a vw buggy and blew the start against a long wheel base jeep and also lost to a koh style rig, but woke them up with some close races.
first lap of the coal buck race vid
My first ever short course lap in UTV -- got better as i got the turns memorized -- throttle stuck while in 3rd and i overshot the turn while locking it up and stalling it out.