200 photos
Photo: Polaris/HighRev Photography
Imagine your average sports prototype endurance race. You know the kind, a circuit track race spread over hundreds of laps across 12 hours or more. A race like this, even on the tarmac, can reduce even a competent driver to cinders. Now take that same race, replace the circuit with a nearly 550-mile sprint across Nevada, and you have the Casey Folks Las Vegas to Reno race by Best in the Desert.
At this year’s event, autoevolution was pleased to be a media attachment to the Polaris Factory Racing team as they first entered a race that sports big names from race teams and OEMs across the 4×4 spectrum. From Honda, Kawasaki, Red Bull, and Monster to Polaris and their perennial rivals at Can-Am, the longest and most prestigious point-to-point off-road endurance race in North America might not have the media pull of Dakar or Baja, but trust us when we say it’s far more accessible and just as intense.
But none of it would’ve been possible if not for an extraordinarily skilled dirt bike racer and general racing enthusiast by the name of Casey Folks. Born in 1944, there wasn’t a single major off-road racing event in the Western United States that Folks didn’t conquer in his day. Additionally, Folks was among the first Americans to make expeditions abroad to race in now prestigious races in Baja and Tunisia. After founding the sanctioning body Best in the Desert in 1984 with a slant towards dirt bike racing, it was Folk’s idea to add four-wheel vehicles of all sizes to an already-existing Las Vegas to Reno bike race in 1996 that created the modern phenomenon as we know it today.
Though Folks sadly passed away in 2017, the spirit and essence of the innovations he made to Vegas to Reno are still at the heart of the race in 2024. Classes of vehicles at the event range from small form-factor UTVs to dirt bikes, V8 rock-crawling buggies, and even trophy trucks, making for an eclectic variety of racers that nearly match more widely popular off-road races like the Mint 400. But this time around, it was clear that Polaris’ Factory Racing Team was the new kids on the block the competition should look out for.
From top to bottom, the Polaris Factory Racing team was stacked with talent. A team flanked by 150-plus podiums of experience by Brock Heger in the yellow racer, five Baja 1000 wins by Maxy Eddy Jr racing in blue, decades of experience by team leader Craig Scanlon in red, and the DNA of a true 4×4 racing legend within 22-year-old Cayden MacCachren, son of American off-road racing royalty and multi-discipline world champion Rob MacCachren, running in the purple racer. With matching LED front fang lights in accordance with their respective racing colors, Polaris Factory Team RZR side-by-sides were among the most gorgeous racers at this year’s race.
Photo: Polaris/HighRev Photography
Our job that afternoon was simple in theory yet endlessly complicated in practice, follow the Polaris Factory team from the race’s starting point roughly 50 miles north of Las Vegas to its finishing point 50 miles south of Reno in Carson City, Nevada, taking photos at each pit stop along the way. For the media and chase cars involved, the whole affair is nearly as taxing on the mind and body as the race itself. Especially for me, a person who had never had a racing driver’s physique or even a slim one in any respect. If anything, this made the day’s menu of gas station hot dogs, pizza, and chicken tenders feel even more familiar.
At each point along the way to 13 bespoke pit locations, groups of Polaris Racing Team personnel dedicated to each stop gathered with gas pumps, welding gear, and all the spare parts and equipment the vehicle needs to maintain pace in a sprint across the Nevada desert. No sooner is the car fueled up and checked over by the pit crew than the driver sets off for the next pit. At this point, the finished pit crew packs up and heads back to either California or Mexico, depending on which side of the Polaris Racing operation is on-site at any given point in the race. Unlike the barely controlled chaos of Baja, crews are compelled to pick up all their trash, including busted tires that must be carried with the vehicle to the finish.
But amongst all the fervor of the work being done at each pit, one consistent attaché was Cayden MacCachren’s father, Rob. As part of Cayden’s personal chase team, Rob consistently talked with his son over racing communications hardware bolstered for the first time via SpaceX’s Starlink. He was also in the pits every step of the way, a sports bottle full of ice-cold water at the ready each time Cayden stopped for fuel and maintenance. If that’s not the most wholesome thing we’ve ever seen covering motorsports, we don’t know what is.
While racers of all stripes ripped across the sand, kicking up 500-plus-foot walls of dust behind them, our route alongside them brought us through a handful of towns that showcase peak Nevada weirdness. Places like Goldfield, Tonopah, and the ghost town of Coaldale, sprawling with abandoned classic cars, abandoned mining equipment, and a world-famous haunted clown motel, would have been phenomenally good fun in itself. Sadly, that’ll have to wait. While the media in our chase SUV were stuffing ourselves with greasy fast food, the setting sun heralded the most grueling portion of the race for its participants.
Photo: Polaris/HighRev Photography
Polaris Factory racers Brock Heger and leading man Craig Scanlon raced valiantly through the afternoon, powering through their fair share of mechanical problems. Though both undoubtedly fought like lions, both exited the race, avoiding further damage to their already battered rigs. With well north of 425 miles of boulders, crater-like dips, and endless rampaging sand behind them, racers of any less quality would’ve caved in far before. Had fate gone even slightly differently, either man could’ve easily reached the podium. Meanwhile, teammates Cayden MacCachren and Max Eddy Jr soldiered on.
Braving the last portions of the race in just about complete pitch darkness apart from the front headlights makes finishing all the more debilitating. But with a little bit of luck and more talent in one finger than most have in their whole bodies, the two remaining Polaris Factory Racing drivers crossed the finish line in Carson City with pride and distinction. Cayden MacCachren and his co-driver Hailey Hein finished eighth in the UTV Open class and 11th place overall, while Max Eddy Jr and his co-driver Austin Eddy finished second in class with an overall placement of third.
It may not have been an outright win for the Polaris Factory Team, but with such an impressive performance on their first entry into the Vegas to Reno race, chances are good the rivalry between Polaris and Can-Am will keep fans coming back for years to come. Besides, the Polaris Factory Racing team had won their previous eight races leading up to this race. You can’t win them all, especially when you have a winning streak of that caliber to your credit. For us in the media chase vehicle, it was an experience unlike any race we’ve covered thus far. It was such a blast that we’re ready to bring on the Baja 1000 in November. Stay tuned for that real soon.
Source link : http://www.bing.com/news/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&aid=&tid=66cb62b729b24aba890357f36d1e75ca&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.autoevolution.com%2Fnews%2Ffrom-vegas-to-reno-the-story-of-america-s-longest-most-grueling-off-road-race-238892.html&c=15817115681210452118&mkt=en-us
Author :
Publish date : 2024-08-24 17:00:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
