Well... I'm tired & sore, over 550 mile round trip, to Mt. Pleasant IA. to the hare scramble... took my buddy Dan down with his pretty much stock 650 Prairie, testing the new oil cooler system, & our tired, worn out 300 Prairie, with the newly installed Warn 424 on it ( T-Rex is still at the Stealership after they screwed me by giving away my recall kit ) I was admittedly just racing for fun, we left just before 4:00 am, & got their about 8:30 am, & took my new, but no where nearly completed trailer... met LURKER, & "bench racer KTM" down there... LURKER, DAN, & I raced, KTM watched... the system I'm putting together & testing is easily available from other sources, so I'm not adversising here, the sandwich adaptor is from Permacool, but requires some machining to clear the starter... the cooling coil I bought is for a car, it's a 2 pass 1/2" tube, tube & fin cooler, that, & a few aluminum blocks I made to house the sending units for the oil pressure & oil temp gauges, bumps the oil capacity from 1.8 quarts, to 2.5 quarts ( a 28% increase in capacity )... IMO, adding an oil cooler of your choice should be the best mod for these awesome engines...

I was told it would be a one hour race, but since the numbers were down on the quads, they bumped it up to a 90 minute race... glad LURKER talked me into bringing my hydration pack, I was going to run the 60 minute race without one... but was really glad I had it for the last 30 minutes... the weather & the course were perfect

the course consisted of lots of open WOT spaces, which really hampered the 300, that only goes about 35 mph in low range, which was required to accelerate the way it was needed to in the woods ( Dan said he looked down & saw well over 60 mph several times in these open areas ), between very tight, & at times VERY VERY technical woods sections, again, this hampered the 300, which has a much wider than stock aluminum front rack system ( which BTW... I was able to run through the race without touching on anything ) & also consisted of 5-6 hill sections, one longer up hill that was claiming lots of quads, as they begain chewing out lots of big rocks out of the soft black dirt, & one VERY steep, but only 10 - 12 ft high short climb ( it was litterally as steep as you could go up without flipping over backwards even for an expirienced rider... there was a long bypass to that one though ), & 2 different creek crossings... I did get the holeshot on the C class & utility's that started at the same time... the 300 starts instantly, & in gear, & under throttle, & with no brake required... so I was off at the shot, & held my lead for all of 10' - 15'... hey... I never said the lil "P" was fast ... & was quickly overcome by the rest of the line, before entering the woods...as I had already decided I was running the race for fun, when I got to the 1st steep hill, & found LURKER there helping out a stranded quad or 2, I climbed the hill, then went back to help as well... after we got the clog cleared, we were back on our way... when I got to the short steep hill climb, I just gave it the nut in 2 WD ( as I was resolved to run the race with the new found sportyness of the 2WD... my front wheels were nearly 2ft off the ground when I cleared the crest, & I was doing my best to hold on, & keep my weight forward... all the spotters & croud there cheered ( I found out later, over half the riders were running the bypass )... I decided from the scairly incedent on the 1st climb, that I'd use 4 X 4 for the rest of my laps on that hill, & the 424 worked flawlessly at switching in & out at slow speeds... there were 2 creek crossings, one only a few inches deep, & one 6-8" deep... there were some good splash shots taken here... on my second lap, I found LURKER on the long hill slid off to the side, & into the loose black dirt, big rocks & brush... after climbing the hill again, I went back down, & helped him get up the hill... the V Force, was hooking up, mid hill too strongly with the Vamps on the rear, & he just needed a big guy like me to help hold the front end down... after we finally got him up the hill, he said he was going to stay there, & help some others up... ( they didn't have any spotters or helpers there, & the hill was getting loose & churning out some big rocks making the climb challenging... I said I came to ride, & was off to finish my second lap... the short steep hill was much less exciting, in 4 X 4, & after slowly just rolling through the doubles section of the MX part of the course, I started my 3rd lap... about 1/2 way through my 3rd lap, Dan came up behind me... I let him past, & thought it was interesting, as I had only been lapped by a handfull of quads so far by that point... no blockages at the long hill, meant that my 3rd lap was my fastest, & last... I ended up placing 3rd in the utility class, not too bad for the oldest racer there, on one of the smallest quads, & having driven the farthest... turns out LURKER got 3rd in the C Class, & Dan took 1st in the utility, & had been flying so fast, that after a look at the boards, he placed 4th or 5th over all... not to bad... beating nearly all of the A class riders, & nearly the entire B class, & all but one of the C class riders... the course, & weather IMO, was perfect, not muddy... Dan was extremely impressed with how the new set of Badlands radials performed, & the oil cooler performed flawlssly...