Check out this gripping race report by Antigravity-sponsored rider Ryan Piplic, Pro SXS Champion! He recently raced with success at the Polaris RZR Silver State 150, a new event for the BITD (Best in the Desert). The race started and ended in Caliente Nevada, a town full of rich mining and ranching history. Where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads once fought to meet… Motorcycles, Quads and UTVs now compete on a 150-mile loop. “The American adventure continues…”
“At the Silver State 150 last weekend I feel we as a team were the most prepared to race we have ever been. We tested and tested some more and all week before the race we continued testing and set the clutch and suspension.
For the draw position we drew 10th. With the Change on starting a BITD race they chose to start 4 cars wide dead-engine 1 min apart. I chose to let the others go off the start – I knew I could make passes later and not have to worry about a tangle up on the first few turns and ending our race because of something I could have avoided.
For the first 30 miles it was tight and fun reminded me of a being back in Washington going through trees and tight canyons. Soon we were picking racers off one by one and after coming through the first pit we were sitting around 5-6 position. About 50 into the race we got a check engine code and instantly lost turbo boost. Not sure what happened – we back off and started to cruise trying to clear codes on my dash; nothing would work. Motor sounded good so we decided to go to the 2nd pit only on motor with no boost… was a struggle, top speed was about 55-60 mph and going up hills was about 40mph. I was sure people were going to pass us quickly. But never saw anyone as we pulled into the 2nd pit.
My crew was surprised to see us so early after hearing our problems. We arrived in the 2nd pit physically 4th. My team tried to find a problem but after a few minutes we choose to continue to try and finish the race not knowing what the cause was. We fired up and took off in the 6th position. For a few miles everything acted like nothing had happened but shortly the problem came back. I would clear the codes from my dash and I would get boost for a few more miles after 4-5 cycles of that the code would no longer erase. For the last 50 miles it was all motor. We made it to pit 3 when our crew told us we were in 3rd place physically. We put our heads down and really tried to keep momentum going we fought out way behind second place but the dust and hills would keep us from being able to make the pass. Considering how the race turned out we couldn’t have been more pleased with the outcome.
We ended up 3rd overall and only 35 seconds behind second. Proud of our team and being our first year in BITD to land on the podium we could end be happier! Thanks to you for make this possible! Next up Final race of the season at WORCS!”
Antigravity Batteries is proud to sponsor Ryan. Connect with Piplic on Facebook for more race pics and videos!
