The Isenhouer’s Passion for the Dirt
Story By: Savannah Rose
Photos By: Jason Zindroski, Brandon Bunch & Provided By Chris Isenhouer
From dirtbikes to trucks, and now UTVs, the Isenhouers have been off-road nearly their entire lives. What began as a family affair with their parents putting them on motorcycles as young kids, started a lifelong addiction to driving in the dirt.
In October of 2007, the Isenhouer’s began to get serious and start racing. For starters, they built an F100 in the garage with their father. Since then, it has been passed from brother to brother and raced continuously since then.
Nick is 31, and his day job is what some might call a dream job, developing aftermarket suspension for 4 Wheel Parts, for trucks, SUVs and Jeeps. Younger brother Chris is 28, and he spends his days focused on trucks that are a little bigger, as he turns wrenches on diesels for Inland Kenworth.
Racing at a high level doesn’t just happen by luck. Hard work and a team surrounding you help you get to the highest level. Whether that team is hands on or financial supporters, any racer at a high level will tell you, every teammate is invaluable and the brothers have a lot of people in their corner. To this point in their racing careers, the brothers say they’ve been lucky enough to race nearly every event they’ve wanted to in the United States. 2021 is no different for them as they are making big plans to attend their favorite races, including most recently the King Of Hammers, where they drove their freshly built 6100 truck.
We sat down with the two brothers and asked them all about life, racing, trucks, and UTVs.
USM: What keeps you motivated? Racing is a ton of work and prep in the shop, and not necessarily a ton of seat time.
Chris: The competitiveness of racing is what keeps us going. The thrill of getting in the driver’s seat, lining up, banging doors, and having fun. I particularly like the two day races, where it’s a short sprint at 110%. It’s exhilarating.
USM: How is it getting some seat time in side-by-sides compared to racing trucks?
Nick: It is all about getting the best bang for your buck. UTVs Rip! UTV’s are turn-key. You can drive right off the showroom floor and push them really hard. Right now, we are racing in a bone-stock RZR, and it’s bitchin’.
Chris: We really are having fun driving them!
Nick: We have done a lot of rock crawling lately, which is something we’re not super familiar with. But the experience teaches us more and more about our skill level and what we can do with the machine.
USM: What are your thoughts on the growth of the UTV industry as a whole? What are your thoughts on how anyone, with no experience can go finance a car and head out to the desert?
Nick: It’s a double edged sword, really. The positive side is that it’s opening up more people to going out into the desert. It’s bringing more people into racing, which brings more money into racing, too. Money brings innovation, better cars, and better parts. This is the closest thing we’ve had to factory racing since back in the early 90’s when the OEMs got into it. It’s awesome to see the sport growing. As cool as it is that everyone can get out in the desert, the cars are fast and very capable, but new riders definitely need some wheel experience and courtesy out on the trails.
USM: What’s it like racing in the desert against the UTVs in your big trucks?
Nick: They’re surprisingly quick!
Chris: One time, we were doing 110 mph on a dry lake bed and struggling to pass a UTV. It was so embarrassing! Wait, don’t put that in the interview…
Nick: Through the rough parts, the trucks can over power them. But they can out do a truck in some places. It’s impressive that people like the Matlocks have those machines figured out. They beat all the class 10 cars down in Baja. You could do really well with one set up correctly.
The Isenhouer brothers are sure to keep racing hard, whether it’s in a truck or a UTV. They’re intent on hauling ass, having fun and racing hard.
Catch the Isenhouers over on Instagram at @isenhouer_brothers_racing and @nick_isenhouer & @chris_isenhouer
