This past weekend was the first race of the ATV Cross Country Series racing in Texas. This is a new series that has never existed in Texas before. Will be 4 races this year. Each race for the amateurs is 3-4 laps around a 5 mile cross country course.

Anyway, there was not a lot of people there to race overall (maybe 50) and in my class (utility 4wd) there was only a total of 3 quads. There was my P650, another P650 and a Sportsman 500. As you can see in my profile, mine has the Nyroc muffler mod, DG snorkle, twin-air filter, a carb rejet and the stock tires. The other P650 was all stock except for a shiny new set of ITP Mudlites and C-series rims. The Sportsman 500 was also stock.

At the start, I easily got the holeshot and led for a few minutes until I blew a corner and the Mudlite 650 got by me. After that, all I could do was watch him steadily increase his lead even though mine was faster. With the Mudlites, he could take corners and turns easier and faster than I and just kept pulling away. And to top it all off, I couldn't even pull away from the Sportsman.

I have to attribute this manily to the stock Dunflops and partially to the soft factory front springs. Never would have guessed that the tires would have made that big a difference. I will add this was the first race for all three riders, so I don't think riding ability had that big a factor in it.

I ended up taking second in my class and was about 3 minutes behind the Mudlite 650. I think if I wan't to compete, new tires is the first order of business.

 

That sounds like fun rty. Tires do make a world of difference don't they. I got bearclaws on mine and wow!! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]