Quad Magazine Wins The Polaris Editor’s Cup!
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- December 12 2008
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Story by: Nick Nelson
Photos by: Jason Hooper, Conner Russell, Dan Guetter
You’re probably asking yourself, “what the heck is an Editor’s Cup?” Well, simply put, the Polaris Editors Cup is a competition between ATV magazine editors that is put together by Polaris’s External Relations Specialist Donna Beadle. In 2007 it the challenge consisted of racing an Outlaw IRS 525 in two GNCC races and one WORCS race. In ‘07 I didn’t realize it was taking place until sometime in August and I was forced to jump in with both feet to try and complete the three races in the remainder of the season!
For my first ever cross-country event I chose the event in Unadilla, New York. As I sat on the line waiting for the start of the race it began to dump rain. Starting in the sixth row of the morning race, I quickly moved through the pack, passing many of the classes ahead of me. As I was just about to complete lap one, with my goggles smeared with mud, I decided to hold on the throttle way too long off of what is known as “Gravity Cavity”…
From watching the MX Nationals on TV I was very familiar with Gravity Cavity, only in this vision impaired event, I forgot that the jump was being run backwards. Imagine a ten-foot long table top that drops steeply on the backside for about 45 feet into a valley. I flat landed so hard that my IMS tank split at the seams. I quickly pulled off the track to nurse my broken heel and foot.
Per the rules I was able to substitute a rider for the remaining races, so I pawned it off on my good friend and Quad Magazine test rider, Jason Greenhaw. After a few adventurous races of his own, Quad Magazine was able to pull off a win for the first annual Editors cup.
Fast-forward to 2008 and I was determined to try to win this thing on my own this year. For ‘08 the Editors Cup was to include a GNCC cross-country race, a WORCS race, and a GNC MX race. For 2008 we were to race each the 450MX, the 525 S, and the 525 IRS. Due to conflicting schedules I chose to race the 450 MX at the Loretta Lynns MX Finals. Loretta’s is known to be the most physically demanding MX track of the entire GNC series, and being that it’s in Tennessee in August it usually has the worst heat and humidity. I used the same suspension set up for both my MX 450 and the 525 S WORCs bike (Rath Racing MX A-arms, Fox DSC Evol shocks, a Precision Stabilizer and Rath Racing pro peg style nerf bars. I also ran a CT exhaust and jetting on the 450.
Loretta’s had the largest turnout for an ATV race that I have ever seen. With over 60 entries in the class I chose it was a challenge just to make it to the main. I qualified for the main with a mediocre gate pick, and felt happy just to get into the top twenty. After some minor tweaking on the shock air pressure up front I had the Polaris handling pretty well. I got a great start and ran in the top three for a lap or so then faded miserably losing about a position every lap to an eventual 8th place finish [editors note: time to work on that conditioning Nick!]
Choosing to race the IRS machine at the Snowshoe cross-country was a no-brainer. The independent rear end provided a great deal of extra ground clearance that really helped in the rocks and deep ruts. The Snowshoe X-country takes place at a ski resort and is always guaranteed to be a lot of fun. It is also guaranteed to rain every time that I travel across the country to race a GNCC…
I started off on the right foot by blowing through the first turn on the wet pavement and I nearly took out a handful of hardcore GNCC fans (sorry guys!). From there things started going smoother for about a lap or two. I worked my way up through the pack as I hoped, only to have a very strange clutch problem knock me right back down. The hydraulic clutch was having some sort of air leak issue causing the clutch to be completely gone at the end of every straight away. I dealt with this by rapidly pumping the clutch lever 20-30 times before every corner or slow spot so that it would build up enough pressure to activate. You can’t even imagine the kind of arm pump this creates.
After dealing with the clutch issue for awhile I broke the rear sprocket bolts and was taken out of the race completely with just one lap to go. Oh well…you win some, you lose some.
The final race was the Honey Lake WORCS race. I had Yoshimura build my 525 S engine (my buddy George ported the head and we went with a larger bore). They also installed the cleanest fix for the Polaris airbox that I have seen yet. The engine pulled harder in the midrange than anything I have ever ridden. It was completely night and day different from a stock 525 motor. With no excuses on the start I should have been guaranteed a holeshot. Instead I found myself completely asleep at the gate… Thankfully the engine was fast enough to salvage my bad start and get me closer to the front by the time we reached the top of the first turn uphill.
I was able to run in a podium position in the Open Pro class for the majority of the race before nailing a rock and bending the tie rod and upper A-arm. Riding conservatively for another lap earned me a 4th place finish, which was good enough for me to take the overall win for the Editor’s Cup. I was able to beat my peers at all the other ATV mags. Speaking of which… Brad, if you are reading this I’m still waiting for my hundred bucks. Also keep tuned in to www.quadmagazine.com as we will be giving away the Polaris Outlaw 450MXR that I won in an upcoming online contest. Yeah, that’s right – we like to give back at Quad!
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