Dustin “Battle Axe” Jones has done it again, battling his way to second place in UTV Turbo at Best in the Desert’s Maxxis Vegas to Reno. Jones, who crossed the finish line in 8:52:49, was just three minutes behind the first-place driver, a close margin in any grueling Best in the Desert race. He started and finished the race on the same set of Maxxis RAZR XT tires, running the entire course without a single flat.
Also running RAZRs with no flats were Jeff Proctor and his Honda Factory Off-Road Team. Proctor drove his Honda Ridgeline to first place in the 7200 class in 9:06:06 and praised the performance of his team’s Maxxis tires: “What an incredible day of racing for this Honda Factory Off-Road Team. I can’t say enough about the toughness of these RAZR XT/MT race tires. Our navigators didn’t have to change a single flat all day on all three of our race cars. The performance of these tires is a game changer for our team,” said Proctor.
Jones said that the race was brutal for both riders and tires: “Vegas to Reno did not disappoint this year. It is the longest race in our Best in the Desert season and almost always proves to be the most difficult logistically and the hardest on parts. We were fortunate enough to put our Can-Am X3 on the podium after almost nine hours of racing. In a race this long and driving as hard as we do, you are bound to have some uh oh’s during the race. We bashed a few rocks making passes and blew a few corners in the dust, and I was certain we tore some things up, and every time we pulled into the pits, our guys let us know all four tires still looked great and were still holding air. After all the abuse and all the beating, we finished Vegas to Reno on the same set of tires we started with. This is my first full season as a factory Maxxis racer, and we have yet to have a flat on any Maxxis tire from the RAZR XT to the Roxxzilla to the SC-1. It’s such a relief to not worry about getting flats during a race.”
Honda Factory Off-Road Team’s Elias Hanna drove his Honda Talon to fourth place in the UTV Pro N/A class in 10:08:09, and teammate Zach Sizelove took 12th place in the class in 11:35:55.
The Maxxis Vegas to Reno, which was open to cars, trucks, motorcycles, quads and UTVs, was the second race in the 2021 Best in the Desert Maxxis Triple Crown.
The final event in the Best in the Desert Maxxis Triple Crown is the Bluewater Desert Challenge, with motorcycle, quad and UTV races scheduled for October 29-31 and car and truck races scheduled for November 4-7.
