The first round of the 2023 Sand Outlaws series was a great start to not only a new season, but also new series management with veterans Marc Pomeroy and Jake Jain as the new owners. Many cars spread across 5 classes made the trip to Waynoka, Oklahoma to compete at a brand-new track located in the heart of the dunes.
Making the trip up from Phoenix to the dunes representing Team EVP and EVP.MOde were Brandon Toole and Kevin Burns with the M8 X3 build running in the Outlaw Class. Brandon and Kevin also worked with EVP customers in other classes to help get their cars ready to race. Mike Reid and the “Batcar” (43mm class), who was fresh off victories at the SXSUSA Spring Hoedown last weekend, needed only minor prep. Hunter Law from R&R motorsports had his 43mm car built at EVP’s Wisconsin HQ the week prior and had zero time on the car prior to arriving at the track. Reed Goering and Rapahel Vargas were both entered in the 46mm class. Raphael’s car came to the track with minor revisions from the last race, however, this was Reed’s first Sand Outlaws race. All Team EVP cars were running TAPP primary clutches that received some last-minute fine-tuning and adjustments before pounding the Oklahoma sand.
Race Day: Outlaw Class
Brandon worked his way through the rounds taking out one competitor at a time. In the semifinals against Jason Wolf, Brandon blew a belt down track which cost him the race. In round 5, Brandon drew Jason Wolf again and this time took the win.
The finals came down to Brandon Toole vs Scott Hughes. Scott came into the finals with no losses so for Brandon to win, he would have to beat Scott twice in a row. In the first race, Brandon cut an amazing light and barely edged out Scott for the win. After a cool down and a clutching change, the two lined up with Brandon beating Scott to give Brandon and the M8 car their first Outlaw Class victory!
This hard-earned win came almost one year to the day when the M8 car was first driven on sand. Many lessons were learned over the year about how to make the car consistently faster and more reliable. As icing on the cake, Brandon also tied Scott Hughes’ AA/UTV AA/PRO UTV world record for fastest MPH in 300’ at 94.43 MPH with a backup run 96.03 MPH. The M8 car now holds 3 speed records: 158 mph top speed as the fastest SXS on the planet, fastest quarter-mile on asphalt running a 9.87 at 145.91, and the 94.43 MPH in the sand.
Of all the fast cars competing in the Sand Outlaws Series, the M8 is the only car that has proven itself in the sand and on the street. And its not done yet….the 1200 SkiDoo, compound turbo has more to give….stay tuned! The EVP M8 car was designed and built by the EVP Mode crew out of our Arizona facility and tuned by Brandon Toole.
50mm Mod Class
The EVP Desert Storm car was not ready for the Oklahoma race. Congratulations to James Servy for his win.
46mm Duner Class
Racers Raphael Vargas from R&R Motorsports and newcomer Reed Goering came to party. Raphael has won numerous Sand Outlaws victories and was definitely a favorite coming into this race. Reed bought Brandon Ristau’s Baby Yoda car and rebranded it Baby Yoda 2.0, coming back to the race freshened up with minor changes from last season’s Glamis Finals race.
Raphael got off to a bad start and missed the first heat due to a clutch calibration issue. Reed and Raphael battled competitors back and forth until the semifinals where Raphael got knocked out. Raphael took 4thplace for the day. Reed made it all the way to the finals and lost to the DW Performance car, notching a hard-earned 2nd place at his first ever Sand Outlaws race. Congratulations to the DW Crew for the win. Raphael and Reed are running EVP Paragon 46mm Race Turbo Systems on the factory ME17 ECU tuned by EVP Co-Founder Jim Zuccone.
Pro Stock 43mm Class
Michael Reid and Hunter Law both came to the Oklahoma races with identical Paragon P43 Race Turbo systems. Hunter and Michael battled and defeated all other competitors throughout the rounds, and the finals came down to the two of them. In a very close race, Hunter edged out Michael for the win putting both Team EVP racers 1-2 on the podium. Both vehicles are tuned on the factory ME17 ECU by Jim Zuccone.
Stock Class
Local favorite Derek Wolfe won the stock class driving Dustin Couch’s Can Am X3. Dustin is running a stock turbo EVP Stage 5-X85 tuned by Jim Zuccone, and this off-the-shelf tune had the Couch X3 dialed all weekend long in the Stock Class. Taking second on the Stock Class podium was another EVP customer, Tucker Cales, who battled hard with Wolfe and the rest of the cars throughout the day. Rounding out the Stock Class podium was Daniel Moritz with a third place finish in his EVP-tuned Briney Motorsports X3.
Thank you to the Sand Outlaw Series, Marc Pomeroy, Jake Jain, and all of the men and women who volunteer their time and resources so we have a series to race. Special thanks to America’s Oasis and Ben Davis for the awesome new facility and racetrack. See you all in Utah this fall!
Special thanks to Stephanie Reid for capturing another action-packed weekend behind the lens!
EVP Brand Parts on these race vehicles:
EVP XR Series Engines
Paragon Turbos
Desert Storm Turbos
Torrent C Plenums
Torrent B Plenums
EVP Mode
XR Series engine components
EVP Badass Belts
Special thanks to the companies EVP works with:
Spectrum Turbos
Shock Therapy
Tapp Clutch
Motul
Opus Precision
Injector Dynamics
Paul Yaw
STM Powersports
KBR
GBoost
Motec
Emtron
PWR intercoolers
Sand Tires Unlimited
Turbosmart
CP/Carrillo
ARP
VP Fuels
