Mitch Guthrie JR Dominates Parker 250

With the dust just settling from the 2016 season, and just one month off between 2017 it was game on for the 1st race of the season, The Parker 250. A lot of hard work went into stripping down the car to the chassis and fully rebuilding it within less than a month and going testing to make sure everything was perfect. We were excited for a fresh season, new sponsors, and what would be our 2nd season racing BITD.

We rolled into tech and contingency Friday morning in beautiful Parker AZ with 2 cars. One bone stock 2017 RZR for the new “GMZ UTV Winter Nationals” Short-course Race as well as our BITD Desert car. Walking through tech and contingency there were many new teams, drivers, and cars. And I knew we needed a solid showing on Saturday to show everyone we weren’t messing around this season. We rolled back to camp, put the final touches on the cars, and got some rest for what would be a busy day of racing in the morning.

We woke up to cloudy skies and perfect racing conditions to start off the new season. The first race of the day was the shourt-course race where I was looking to have some fun and possibly see some of the track. We had a land rush start with at least 20 plus cars all barreling into the first corner. I was was able to come out of the first corner in second and the race was on. Unfortunately this didn’t last to long, as a few miles in on a very fast section of the course I lost control and went for a wild ride. Thankfully I was okay, we pulled the car back to the pits, and it was time to focus on the big desert race coming up.

Starting the race side by side I was tenth off the line, which I was fine with, knowing there wouldn’t be to much dust to deal with. I got a good start and shortly after settled into a good pace. Not long after starting we came across a couple of cars which had succumbed to mechanical issues early on. We kept pushing on, gaining on the leaders in front of us. Coming into midway pit we got past a couple more cars and I knew we were settling into a great position. Past the first pits we were getting into a good groove and could see that we were gaining on the leaders just ahead of us. We got by one more car towards the end of lap one which put us 2nd on course coming into the pits to finish out our first lap. We came into the main pits just behind the leader and thanks to my awesome crew we were able to make the pass in the pits which made us the race leaders.

Going into Lap 2 it was game on, knowing we had a stacked field chasing us down it was time to hammer down. We pulled out of main pits and now that me and my co-driver Kurtis had the track down we knew we could form a cushion between us and the rest of the pack. Without having to deal with dust, or many lappers I focused on hitting our marks and getting a good gap. After a nearly flawless 80 mile lap we came into the pits once more to fuel up for our 3rd and final lap. After fuel and a quick look over we were out of the pits and on to the home stretch.

Our crew notified us that we had a few minute lead once we left the pits and I breathed a sigh of relief. After 60 plus cars had been on the course lap after lap the track was getting brutal. Knowing we had a large gap it was now time to keep the car together and bring it home. As we were nearing the end of the race night time was setting in and it was nice to finally get to use our Baja Designs lights. Those last 20 miles were almost surreal and I was just focused on making sure I got that car to the finish line. After a long but nearly flawless race we crossed the line to start off the 2017 season with an overall win by more than 5 Minutes!

 
Thanks to all my sponsors in 2016.

 

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