The 2021 All Terrain Concepts UTV Legends Championship had over 200 UTVs, Motorcycles, and Quads showed up to compete on the semi-short, super-tough 17-mile desert course set up near downtown Laughlin, Nevada along the scenic Colorado River. Despite hot days with temperatures over 115 degrees, racers, fans, and staff had a great time watching some of the best in the industry go head to head for double points to go toward the coveted season-long Best In The Desert Series Class Championship.
Action kicked off Thursday afternoon with Time Trials for the UTV Turbo Pro and UTV Pro Open Class. Red Bull’s Mitch Guthrie let everybody know he was ready to race with the fast time of 3:24:828 followed by Bruce Binnquist, Ryan Piplic, and Dustin Jones. Top Pro Open was Mitch Alsup, finishing in ninth place overall.
Race 2 would feature the ultra-competitive UTV Rally Class, UTV Pure Stock, and UTV Sportsman classes. They would go six laps around the 17-mile course, getting rougher by the minute. In the end, #U987 Mikey Kelly came home with the overall and Rally Class win in 1:50:52. Coming home second place, in yet another impressive race finish was Jack Olliges-led team which included Mike Bollig and Dustin Orth. The final step on the podium would be occupied by UFC Legend Donald Cerrone who came home third in the Rally Class. The “Cowboy” has been steadily improving, each race quickly becoming a threat for the overall win in his first full season of racing.
Race 3 featured the UTV Unlimited, UTV Pro NA, and UTV RS1 NA Classes, and they did not disappoint. Defending BITD UTV Unlimited Series Champion Michael Isom came out on top of a dogfight for the Unlimited Class win just ahead of Michael McFayden and Chris Blais with barely one minute separating the top three in class.
In Pro NA competition, Kawasaki’s Carson Wernimont, and Reid Nordin proved once again why they are the cream of the crop in Pro NA competition taking home the class win over Jimmy Rodriguez and Richard Sain in a time of 2:30:24. First in the RS1 NA class and first overall in Race 3, went to Brayden Baker in a time of 2:27:32. Brayden was on the gas all day finishing over seven minutes ahead of second place RS1 NA finisher Johnathan Mcvay and three minutes up on Isom in second overall position.
The final race of the day proved to be more than worth the wait. A talent-laden field of the fastest UTV Turbo Pro racers in the world lined up to claim bragging rights as UTV Legends Champion. Mitch Guthrie pulled the hole shot and led for the first four laps, but it didn’t come easy. Ryan Piplic, Dustin Jones, and a host of other Turbo Production racers were pressuring Mitch like a freight train. The Brett/Christian Sourapas team got caught up in a first-turn pile-up and had to work from a pretty big deficit, playing catch up all day. As the race entered the final laps, Guthrie unfortunately blew a shock causing him to fall back. From there, Ryan Piplic took over the lead with a very determined Dustin Jones hanging on to his tailpipe. This would go down to the final two laps until Jones lost his power steering, giving Piplic just enough of a cushion to sail home with the win. Sourapas, meanwhile, put in an impressive charge to come back to take third overall.
Piplic’s winning time for eight laps around the super-tough Legends course was 2:19:35, followed by Jones in 2:20:21, and Sourapas in 2:21:42. Bruce Binnquist put in a great race as well, coming home fourth in 2:22:40. Fifth place overall and first in the Open Pro UTV division went to Mitch Alsup finishing in 2:25:50.
The racing activities finished up with Sunday’s Short Course races which were won by Brayden Baker in a time of 46:18:928. Braden took home the UTV Production 1000 Class and the overall with Jeremiah Wagner taking the win in UTV Production Turbo and finishing second overall. “Cowboy” Donald Cerrone put in another great race taking second place in UTV Production Turbo and third overall, just three minutes off the overall winning time. The UTV Production 900 Class was won by Ryan Prosser.
