I went out the District 38 race which was held in Plaster City/Superstition near Ocotillo. It was hot out!
A friend was planning on going to and bringing his El Jefe down as he was wanting to break in a new belt before his first desert trip with the family. So we planned to meet up.
I got down there first and while cruising the pit area I saw another Speed that looked to be racing. So I stopped and met John the owner of the Speed car. He and his crew are from Redlands CA. He has been racing his Bandit in D38 and recently got a Diablo. The plan is to eventually race the Diablo, but he’s still in the process of do some updates on it. The Bandit is a 100% stock. He did have the Speed Eibach springs and Wilwoods on it. Only thing he added was a different tire, and the addition of a Garmin & Starlink.
My friend Jimmy found me and we talked to the guys racing the Speed, then we took
off to go find a spot to watch and Jimmy needed to log some miles on his new belt.
The start of the race was at 11:30am (Bikes raced earlier in the morning) and it was 94 degrees. By 3:30 it was 100 degrees. I tell you what it was nice being in the H3 as the air blows ice cold even in 100 degree weather, and it gets around really good, just at a slower pace.
Here are some photos of the Speed Bandit during the race.
We went back to the pit area to see how the Speed car was doing, and on the start of the 4th lap he pulled into the pit to take 5gal of fuel. When fueling the car I was looking over the front of the car and unfortunately I found the right upper rod end on the upper arm, the joint had popped out. I was ready to help change it out, but D38 rules are when the 1st overall car finishes the race, all other cars can only finish the lap they are on. The overall Pro R was 10 or so minutes out from finishing the race, so we could not get his rod end changed in time to get him back out, so they called it. They seemed pretty happy considering the disappointment with the upper rod end failing. I suspect they will be buying the HM rod end kit, and getting rid of the stock rod ends. Sucks too, as I think they were leading in their class.
The course was 25 miles per lap and they were doing 31-30 min laps, so thats 50mph in a pretty stock Bandit. Thats damn impressive! I think the overall Pro R was running 27-28 min laps and it was a full race built Pro R.
A few take aways, John said the CVT is bone stock and he’s not blowing belts for some crazy reason, when other Speed UTV’s are. Even in this 100 degree heat he did not blow a belt, but said his CVT temp sensor broke, and this race was the 3rd one to fail. He said the stock tires suck for racing, he’s had 3 sidewall failures on the Speed tires, so he switched to Tensor and has had zero flats since.
The next D38 UTV race is Nov 16, and John will be there racing the #57 Speed again.
A friend was planning on going to and bringing his El Jefe down as he was wanting to break in a new belt before his first desert trip with the family. So we planned to meet up.
I got down there first and while cruising the pit area I saw another Speed that looked to be racing. So I stopped and met John the owner of the Speed car. He and his crew are from Redlands CA. He has been racing his Bandit in D38 and recently got a Diablo. The plan is to eventually race the Diablo, but he’s still in the process of do some updates on it. The Bandit is a 100% stock. He did have the Speed Eibach springs and Wilwoods on it. Only thing he added was a different tire, and the addition of a Garmin & Starlink.
My friend Jimmy found me and we talked to the guys racing the Speed, then we took
off to go find a spot to watch and Jimmy needed to log some miles on his new belt.
The start of the race was at 11:30am (Bikes raced earlier in the morning) and it was 94 degrees. By 3:30 it was 100 degrees. I tell you what it was nice being in the H3 as the air blows ice cold even in 100 degree weather, and it gets around really good, just at a slower pace.
Here are some photos of the Speed Bandit during the race.
We went back to the pit area to see how the Speed car was doing, and on the start of the 4th lap he pulled into the pit to take 5gal of fuel. When fueling the car I was looking over the front of the car and unfortunately I found the right upper rod end on the upper arm, the joint had popped out. I was ready to help change it out, but D38 rules are when the 1st overall car finishes the race, all other cars can only finish the lap they are on. The overall Pro R was 10 or so minutes out from finishing the race, so we could not get his rod end changed in time to get him back out, so they called it. They seemed pretty happy considering the disappointment with the upper rod end failing. I suspect they will be buying the HM rod end kit, and getting rid of the stock rod ends. Sucks too, as I think they were leading in their class.
The course was 25 miles per lap and they were doing 31-30 min laps, so thats 50mph in a pretty stock Bandit. Thats damn impressive! I think the overall Pro R was running 27-28 min laps and it was a full race built Pro R.
A few take aways, John said the CVT is bone stock and he’s not blowing belts for some crazy reason, when other Speed UTV’s are. Even in this 100 degree heat he did not blow a belt, but said his CVT temp sensor broke, and this race was the 3rd one to fail. He said the stock tires suck for racing, he’s had 3 sidewall failures on the Speed tires, so he switched to Tensor and has had zero flats since.
The next D38 UTV race is Nov 16, and John will be there racing the #57 Speed again.
