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TexPlex UTV Race Series

tribal4krawler

DKA Motorsports
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Member Number
1745
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484
The TexPlex UTV Series kicks off this weekend in Midlothian TX just south of Fort Worth. I know we have a few Irate folks that will be racing. My wife and daughter will be racing, and if you’re anywhere in the area you should come out and see what it’s all about on Saturday from I believe 9am to 5pm. Should be a lot of racers and action all day. We just rattlecanned the wife’s car today so we should be looking pretty good. We’ll see if the Irate stickers make it here before we head up to DFW.

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Good meeting you Runningquarters and SLOWPOKE693. Was a good event with nearly 200 entries total I believe, and our girls both placed 3rd overall in their classes (women’s expert and 250 Production/mod) Alex cut a lot of time off and she’s only going to get faster. She’s got about 10-20 more seconds to cut off per lap and she’ll be a force to be reckoned with. What’s cool is that the other very fast girls are all young who’ve spent their childhoods racing where Alex has only done 4 races so far and has cut 20-30 seconds a lap off nearly every time she’s raced. Lorelei finally got the courage to lay on the throttle and let that BenchMark 204 sing and made a great pass on a kid with a very similar car to hers for 3rd place and held him off through the finish line. The top 2 were in another stratosphere with CarrOne big motors and 10-20 MPH on the 204. More pics to come later and I got some good footage on the gopros and we’ll have a race recap on the DirtStyle YouTube channel.

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well Round 2 didn't go so super for us this weekend. We got out there feeling pretty confident, but during Friday practice Alex felt like the brakes were getting pretty bad, so the decision was made to change out the pads and bleed the brakes before the race Saturday morning. In retrospect I should have sent her out for saturday AM practice but we chose not to. As soon as she took off from the start and braked for the first turn she yelled over the comms that she had barely any pedal feel. The track was also still pretty slick being the first race of the day, with people sliding and spinning out almost right from the getgo. She got about halfway through the first lap, and went off a jump and came down a little sideways and went into the berm and flopped over. She did good turning the car off and getting herself out, and looked at the car after it was righted. Seeing there was no damage she decided to finish the heat just in case anybody broke or DNF'd but had to go pretty slow due to no brakes.

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After her race Lorelei was up in the RZR 250 Production class. I changed her sprocket gearing substantially based on suggestions from my buddy Jariel up in the East coast and right away she had way more acceleration and speed in the turns. She made a good pass for 3rd place and kept that all the way to the finish line with no drama.

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We called my buddies at 3P Offroad about Alex's brakes and they suggested we gravity bleed her brakes, so we did that and swapped out the mud tires for her Hoosiers as the track appeared to be drying out nicely. She went out, checked the brakes in the field and said they were much better. At the start line for heat 2 the marshals warned the girls that the track had been watered and was very slippery, which i knew would mess with Alex's head. She went slow off the start and I knew it'd be a battle to pass the 2 slower girls in front of her. Once she was able to pass them, I noticed that she was catching up to the 3rd place girl, who is pretty legitimately fast in a honda talon like SLOWPOKE693 . We lost comms on lap 4, but i'd mentioned her lap time was a little over a second faster and if she pushed harder she might just catch 3rd before the finish. Lap 5 Alex was on a mission and driving faster than I've ever seen her go, and was quickly reeling 3rd place in.

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A few turns before the finish line, her talent tank (shout out to Wyatt) ran dry and over she went on a tricky off camber right turn.

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I don't think I've ever seen her so disappointed before because she knew she was on a legit lap (my guess is somewhere around 3:28-3:30) but luckily the car was undamaged and that was the end of the race. After making sure all was good with Alex, I had to haul ass back to the start to get Lorelei ready for heat 2. She took off on her race, and ran a great race until the last lap where her chain came off the sprockets (it's my fault, i should have adjusted the chain just a little tighter) but luckily someone else had already broken so she still finished 3rd overall and is in 2nd in points for the season in 250 Production.

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Alex is sitting in 3rd in points for the season in Womens Expert, and now she's determined to get more practice and get better at her launches and turns before the next race April 17th.
 
Awesome to see the recaps !

I am NOT a SxS guy by any means (I see far too many annoying trail nats when riding) but short coursing in them seems legit AF !!!!!!


I don't need another toy, but you guys make me want one, something bad :flipoff2:

You guys keep killing it and maybe we'll see each other at KOH or something !
 
Thanks!! I don’t really have any interest in racing short course as I prefer to race out in the desert or rocks but from a crew chiefin perspective short course is Wayyy easier for me to manage 2 cars. We have 3 other kids who are also interested in racing now. I might get rid of my old Ultra4 Yamaha and buy an rs1 for my 13 yr old and a Hisun Strike 250 for the 6 & 8 year old boys. It’ll probably be another year before I do that as I’d have to figure out how to transport all this crap up there. There’s a lot of ego and prima donnas as many are ex motoX racers that bring that attitude to utv short course racing which I can’t stand but we just stay out of the drama. It’s an awesome venue and I feel lucky that we have it. We also want to try out the new MidAmerica track at some point this year.
 
Mid Americas is like 11h from me (East TN). About same distance as Crandon which I want to go see this year.

Desert riding seems awesome, I was able to borrow a SSV at KOH one year and had a mega-blast. It's very far from my usual riding though, unfortunately cause it I'd love it.
 
here's the video recap of the weekend. I also finally got my Cricut in so we can start getting some stickers made for the car, i specifically didn't want a bunch of multi-colored normal sponsor stickers on her car so i bought a bunch of gold and black vinyl and have already started cranking out some of the sponsor stickers for the car.
 
Welp, for those of you that follow us on Instagram www.Instagram.com/dka.motorsports
you might have seen that the motor in Alex’s Turbo RZR is hurt. We went out to practice last weekend, and while she was getting faster and faster in the turns, she seemed to be losing MpH in the straights and was struggling to clear the big 90 ft tabletop. I was pretty sure it was just clutching, but when we pulled it into the shop to start working on it, the head gasket completely let go. We’d been dealing with mystery disappearing coolant for a while, and pretty excessive oil blowby (car has 2400 miles of hard racing miles and a lot of boost) so the decision was made to just do it right and do a complete motor overhaul. We’re going to head stud it, throw new rings and bearings in it, etc. I think it’ll be a completely different car when it’s done, hopefully before Round 4 which is May 8th. We will be up there anyway this weekend, as I’m going to let my 8 year old son take a swing at racing the rzr170, and I’m picking up an RS1 to build for my daughter and to be a backup car. I might also start hopping in the rs1 and/or Turbo car and running some rounds.

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Um do other people see the mountain bike too? I don’t know where that came from, I uploaded a picture of the RzR not that bike lol
 
Um do other people see the mountain bike too? I don’t know where that came from, I uploaded a picture of the RzR not that bike lol
I see it.

Site is scrambled right now but Austin is working on it. A bunch of pics in different threads are messed up, not just this one.

Bummer about the motor. You think the 12hr race is where the initial problem started or sometime before? That race was hard on alot of engines from what I heard. One turbo Talon owner I know from Ohio ended up with 2 broken pistons after the race. Ran fine the entire race and drove it in the trailer but it was locked up when he went to pull it out to clean the car. Apparently when the factory pistons cooled the skirts broke off. :frown:

Looks like it's going to be a muddy weekend at the track.
 
No I don’t think so. There’s not really any one thing, other than possibly the tune wasn’t as good for the 93 octane. When we turned it down to the stage 3 tune so we could take it out to KOH and prerun, it just never seemed as happy/smooth as it did on the stage 6 E85 tune. When we get the motor back together it’ll be going back to the stage 6/e85 tune. I’m hoping it’s done by May 8th but we’ll see.
 
Good luck to you all. It is going to be a muddy bitch out there watch out for the bob wire. I won't make it out today, I am coaching out in Terrel. Looking forward to seeing some trophies from from the Irates.
 
Good luck to you all. It is going to be a muddy bitch out there watch out for the bob wire. I won't make it out today, I am coaching out in Terrel. Looking forward to seeing some trophies from from the Irates.
They postponed the race until tomorrow due to the mud. Stop on by if you are free.
 
Just got back to the house. The youngest and I will run out the for the morning to watch. Can't stay all day cause its momma's birthday. See you all out there.
 
Tribal I didn't get there to watch your boy run but Chris told me he went out there and showed them how it's done. Tell the young man I said congrats!! But winning your first out is kinda of like shooting a 10 point buck the first time to ever sit in a stand. He has set a high bar. Good for him.
 
Well Round 3 was definitely an interesting go, we actually showed up Thursday evening as I'd found a project RS1 and wanted to make sure we ended up with it. Got it for a heck of a deal, and needs some minor repairs and typical race car stuff (nerf bars, cage, seat, harness etc). My 13 year old daughter Charli wants to have a go at racing, so as long as she keeps her grades up and does all the typical things expected of a 13 year old she'll be hopping in the driver seat before long. (yes i have all the plastics and stuff for it)

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After that we went to Texplex and discovered an insanely muddy mess, and we quickly got stuck just like everybody else so we were in for the long haul until conditions dried up. Sunday we hopped in the RS1 to show Logan the track before he went out - He had never driven this RZR204 before, but he had some limited experience trail riding with a stock rzr170. This was his first ever race and experience on the TexPlex track. We'd spraybombed the car Black as Pink with rainbow zebra stripes just wouldn't do. In the first heat he went out strong, and the kid that completely DOMINATES the 250 production class had issues with his car, so Logan made a good pass and stayed out front all race. He had no idea he'd finished first, but was pretty excited about that. The 2nd heat the other kid had his car fixed, and quickly checked out but Logan improved his lap times by a good 10-15 seconds from heat 1 so that was great. Logan ended up 2nd (we only had 2 250 production cars this time instead of the usual 4 or 5)

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Looking ahead Round 4 is Mother's Day weekend, and we're hoping to have the Polaris Turbo car back up and running by then, but we'll see. I'm also hoping that we can get the RS1 up and ready by then to where Alex could race the RS1 if the Turbo isn't done. Landon, our youngest at 7 years old will be getting a Go in the RZR204 for his first race of the year, but he does have some practice time and THOUSANDS of hours of driving racing games on the pc - out of all of the kids he's definitely the most talented pure driver, but we'll see if that translates to real world. After that, we'll be heading to Mid America Outdoors in Jay OK for Memorial Day weekend racing which should be fun!
 
Made some progress on the RS1 - I was able to find a race cage, tree kickers, and front bumper for a great deal. I added some more tube, and had a ton of fun straightening out the RS1 frame enough for this cage to fit, but it's all on there now. also made a roof for it. I've still got to add a window net on the passenger side, and change out some ball joints and a rear driver axle shaft and it'll be pretty much good to go racing next weekend. there's been some delays at the machine shop, so we're not sure when the Turbo car will be done. Worst case scenario, Alex will just race the RS1 next weekend, and then we'll take both cars (turbo and RS1) up to MAO for the Memorial Day race.
 

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Damn just found this. We are kind of sitting this year out, just set my sons carr one 204 down to the north Dallas area. I am south of Kansas City and much closer to mid America. I sold my race car three years ago to get him that 170 and now that he has outgrown it there is a proper 570 for sale but I am struggling making myself spend that cash on one of those. He has an RS one that we ride recreationally and are having as much fun doing that as we did racing.
 
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finished repainting the 170, cleaned the clutches and put a new Gates belt on that thing, also did the same for the RS1. pretty much good to go, i've still gotta reinstall the skid plate but i'm going to go ahead and change the fluids (BLUD Lubricants) first. oh and i still have to do the passenger side window net on the RS1, but that'll be pretty quick. We're gonna head up to TexPlex early Friday AM so Landon (Our youngest at 7 years old) can get some seat time and practice, out of all of the kiddos he is by far the most natural driver so it'll be interesting to see how he does this weekend. Also reallllly hoping Alex doesn't mess up the RS1 any, i'm ready for a break on tinkering with UTV's for a couple of weeks - i need to get some steering stuff replaced on the Comanche and the trans swapped out before Ultra4 Teardown in TN next month.

How old is your son Blacksheep10 ? There's now a factory stock 12+ 1000 class and it's a pretty cool class. Do NOT get a 570. huge waste of money. If he's close to 12 yall could share the RS1 and both race it. just an idea.
 
How old is your son Blacksheep10 ? There's now a factory stock 12+ 1000 class and it's a pretty cool class. Do NOT get a 570. huge waste of money. If he's close to 12 yall could share the RS1 and both race it. just an idea.

I agree, the factory stock 1000 class is a better overall value if his son is 12ish. It will give him a ton of seat time in the car and will be a HUGE benefit as he moves up in classes as his skills progress, and still be able to drive the same car he is used to driving. Adding horsepower and suspension mods is peanuts compared to buying/building a new to you car every time he outgrows the old one.
 
well, we had some pluses and also some minuses this weekend at Round 4 in the Texplex UTV Series. I ended up working on the RS1 a TON before race day, and also really want to thank the several people who helped us out with parts that we were missing or broke. Starting with Alex, she didn't arrive until late Friday so she didn't get a chance to practice in the RS1 at all, which she'd never gotten a chance to drive on track. She went out Saturday morning to feel out the car, but was on the track with a bunch of very aggressive amateur and pro drivers and got pretty rattled by that. When she came back in, i realized she'd smoked a passenger rear axleshaft, but upon further inspection I think this is a casualty of the wreck before we got the car, as it twisted off in the shaft instead of the CV which isn't common (especially for driving slow). Our GoPro Max and mount also went for a ride during practice, and we didn't get it back until the intermission session in the middle of the day, so we didn't get any gopro footage of either Landon or Alex's morning race. Landon's race was first in the 250 Production class, and is the youngest of our 4 children, having just turned 7 last month. His first race went off without a hitch, passing a car to get into 2nd place and came back in with no problems. Alex went out, still feeling rattled from practice and uncomfortable in the RS1, and it took her several laps to start feeling good in the RS1 which feels completely different from our 2 seater Polaris RZR turbo. Once she got the hang of it, her lap times quickly dropped and she moved from 7th to 4th place by the end of the heat. We looked over her car, and all looked good and she said she felt a lot more confident that she'd be able to push and get a good finish in the 2nd heat. Landon went out for his 2nd race with the intent of pushing for a win, as the 3rd place car was broken so it would just be him and the kid that finished first. As usual, the car sucked off the line, but Landon was quickly reeling 1st place in until he went off a jump and landed in a rut that kicked him sideways and sent him on a barrel roll off the track and landing back on all 4 tires. Huge thanks to the track crew kid that ran over and made sure he was okay and gave him some words of encouragement. Landon got back on track and went right back to racing, but unfortunately had way too big of a gap to overcome so he ended up finishing 2nd.

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Alex got set for her 2nd race, and looked determined to have a good showing. She got off the line pretty decently, and was hanging with the pack all the way to the back of the race course where there were some very large tractor tires in an S turn. She tried to shave some of the rubber off the last tractor tire and hit it square instead, breaking the lower control arm and axle shaft and rolling her on her side. This was her second race in a row ending her 2nd heat on her lid, which she was pretty disappointed about, but that's racing.

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She limped the car back to the pit, where I immediately started working on replacing the axle shaft and lower control arm so that my 13 yr old daughter could practice after the racing was over. I'll do another post on how that practice went.
 
Round 5 is tomorrow 6/19, we are already here at TexPlex and waiting for practice to get kicked off at 10am. Hoping Charli (the 13 yr old) has a good and productive practice in the RS1 and also will be playing with gearing in the rzr204 with Logan. Alex will be here late this evening, but the track changes aren’t really tricky at all so she’ll be fine with just a hot lap or two before racing tomorrow morning.
 
Well, didn't go super great - I thought i'd left the sprocket for the 170 at the house, so we didn't change the gearing in Logan's car, and got slaughtered. Just didn't have the mph needed to run with the class, which sucked because for once it was a good showing. Then the next day i found the sprocket in the trailer :facepalm

Alex did better with her holeshots but still ended up in the back both in the heat and main, but in the heat was able to pass for 3rd place, and was hunting down 2nd when she way overshot the largest banked turn at Texplex (a 30ft talledega banked turn) and went sideways off the embankment. luckily she didn't roll but she hurt her neck and broke the rear driver billet hub/bearing carrier, rotor and caliper. My buddy who's wife also races a turbo polaris came in clutch again with all the parts i needed to fix her car for the main. The main was pretty uneventful, the girl she passed in the heat got her can am turned up some more so Alex no longer had the HP advantage, and ended up finishing the race in 4th (not that it would have mattered since she DNF'd the heat)

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Charli's first race was going amazingly well, she had a great holeshot and worked her way up past 3 or 4 cars into 2nd place, and held that until the last lap where she was passed by Tori (my buddy's wife) and they were battling all the way to the finish until my janky battery strap failed and the battery flipped and broke off the terminal wire :doublefacepalm She was so upset, and so was I (at myself) but she gathered herself quickly and she was resolved to get a better finish in the main. She took off, taking 2nd place in the holeshot and held that all the way through the first lap until right before the finish line she spun out and got high centered on a tire. After that she realized her harness had come loose, and that was pretty much the end of the race.

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All in all, it was a bummer not to have any of the DKA Motorsports crew on the box but hey, all the cars drove on the trailer, and really don't require any repairs other than general race maintenance. Everybody got some more racing experience, and we all had a blast as usual.
 
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