Brit Mansell’s Adventures at UTV Rally Raid

By Brit Mansell
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Updated: May 18, 2013

I’m not sure how I ended up garnishing the feared “Rain at All My Races” curse, but it is in full affect for 2012. Round 2 of the UTV Rally Raid would be no exception to this rule. The gang at Blue Torch Fab had the Polaris RZR-XP most of the week, freshening everything up and getting it ready for the race. When I rolled into Stoney Lonseome park on Saturday afternoon, the car was ready to race. The BTF guys did a great job of prepping it.

About 30 minutes prior to the race start, it started to rain. There’s not much I hate worse than racing in the mud. Always have, and probably always will. I kept telling myself that this little bit of rain would pass over and it was actually good for the track, settling the dust. Oh, how I was wrong.

Shortly after the race started, maybe around lap 2 or 3, the rain intensity increased, significantly. I had tried to preserve my tearoffs up until this point, but it was no use. The rain was coming down so hard that it was blowing in through the front window opening and had run behind my laminated tearoffs. I had to pull them all off at once and try to keep the shield clean with a hand towel. That worked great for about 3 minutes. At that point, I was left with no choice but to drive with the shield up. In the slower sections of the course, this was completely manageable, but during the fast sections, I had to slow down due to the magnitude of water and mud finding its way into my eyes.

After a couple of laps, I accepted the fact that this was going to be a very long race and I was settling into a pace, but not really the pace I had in mind for the night’s race.

All was going well, with no issues. The GBC Dirt Commander tires were handling the wet course very well and the HiPer wheels were allowing me to carry great speed over the rougher parts of the course without worrying about broken wheels and flat tires. At this point, everything was “acceptable”. However, vision was still very bad and the course was still very slick. At about that time, the slick course, reached up and bit me. During a slight talent lapse and low vision, I overshot one of the tight corners in a high speed section of the course. All was good, as I just drove to the side of the turn, which was a cleared off area. No harm done, but as I re-entered the course I drove over a pretty large drop off. It was bigger than I could tell due to the low light conditions. Upon landing on the track, the RZR-XP immediately jumped up onto the two driver’s side tires. I tried to drive out of it, but it was no luck. Onto the door it went. I was stuck, on my door, in the middle of the track. My first thought was to get out of the car and try to slow people down coming around the corner. The last thing I needed to be was a safety concern for other drivers. Luckily, Byron, from Busted Kunckle Films was there to mock me (deservedly so) and direct traffic. However, there was no way I was going to right this vehicle by myself. 5 to 10 minutes passed, and several drivers. I was literally watching my race slip away. Then, the Good Samaritan rolled through, pulling over and helping me roll the XP back over.

Without his help, I could have laid there all night and been a safety hazard for everyone in the field. I don’t know his name, but I am very grateful for his sacrifice. He not only helped me, but everyone else who came through that corner after me. At this point, the vehicle was perpendicular on the course and I was back in the driver’s seat. It took me about 5 minutes to wait for a clearing in the traffic, turn the XP around and get all buckled up. The best I can figure, this little mishap cost me around 15 minutes. I will know more when the lap times are posted.

The only damage to the car was mostly superficial, with the exception of my top light bar now pointing onto the hood of the car. This illuminated the red hood of the XP causing a pretty bad glare and provided almost no light at distance. It was fine in the slower sections of the course, but it made driving the high speed sections very sketchy. I had to substantially drop my speed on the roads.

I spent the rest of the rae in catch up mode. I caught and passed the rider, who would eventually take 2nd place overall, with two laps left to go. In my simple mind, this was a good thing. However, this didn’t pan out at the end of the day. Rally Raid only announces the top three at the awards ceremony, and I wasn’t in it. I’m not sure where I ended up, but I’m eager to see the lap times to learn how everything shook out.

All in all, the course changes from the first race to the second were brilliantly applied and the amount of work the Stoney Lonesome staff put into it was immediately evident. They did a great job and were definitely rewarded by their effort. Unfortunately, God had other plans and rained on our parade.

Rally Raid is the only place you can go, maybe across the country, where you can race a four hour SXS race and run over half of it at night. I’m already excited for the next race, which will be on April 28th.

My speed on the track was only possible to a big group of people and companies behind me. I would like to thank Octane Media, Polaris, ATVScene.com, Blue Torch Fab, DragonFire Racing, GBC Tires, HiPer wheels, DirtyDawg Performance, PRP Seats, and K4 Switches.