Official 2nd Place for Father – Son duo in the 25th annual Best in the Desert V2R!
The first 50 miles we battled a belt temp sensor issue. Our sensor kept cutting out and only showed real temperatures part of the time. We were very conservative at times without the belt temp data and were more aggressive when the sensor worked. We kept an overall conservative pace as this is a long race and in order to win, we had to first make it to the finish. At RM 77 we came up on our teammates Brooklynn and Kale on the side of the course changing a tire. They were in a bad spot and by the time we realized it was them we had passed any safe opportunity to pull off the racecourse and lend a hand. We were able to radio HPR who was running relay for both EVP cars and gave him their location. Our Rugged Radios worked flawlessly and we were able to get important information to the teams.
We had no mechanical issues or malfunctions due to a solid built Can-Am. The build and prep were done with the help of our friends over at Jeffries Performance, which was on point. We ran the whole race on one EVP World’s Best Belt with EVP Shift-Tek clutching. Our MRT tires and KMC wheel setup took a beating and had zero failures. Our S3 Powersports arms held up perfect and our Shock Therapy #IQS shocks worked flawlessly. The adjustability came in handy throughout the different terrain. At one point at RM280 we hit a massive boulder head on which sent us flying but our TMW bumper and bulkhead didn’t flinch. Besides the dent in the sheet metal, the bulkhead was perfect. Our Baja Designs lights kept us on course through the night and bad dust. Thank you to Motul USA for supplying us with the best oils on the market, Boxo Tools for having us dialed in with the best tool kit for our race car, Impact for having us equipped with the best safety equipment and Pro Eagle/AGM for supplying our team with the strongest pit jacks and easiest to use race jack.
By pit RM350 we had caught within 4 minutes of the leader and were charging hard. By RM420 we caught up to another race vehicle and visibility was horrible. We made a decision to back off rather than risk a dangerous pass this late in the race. We were tired and wanted to finish, so we kept a conservative pace and ended up finishing the grueling 489-mile race in 10:52:19, 17.85 minutes behind the leader.
We finished in 2nd place and had a blast competing. It was a bucket list adventure that will have lasting memories for us and our team. We would first like to thank @ulysses_munguia , @josh.martell86 , Jenni Humphries, @little_bobby, Deman Racing crew and the OCFF Motorsports crew for helping us pit as well as Billy Long for flying down from Alaska the day before the race to help us. And of course I would like to thank my dad, @todd_zuccone for everything he does for our team and bringing us to a podium finish. Without him none of this would have been possible.
We would like to congratulate Jack Olliges on taking first place in our class, Cowboy Cerrone for taking 3rd place and Brook Lynn for her fantastic finish while battling through many obstacles and adversities along the way. She will be sure gunning for #U970 next race in Laughlin.
