2021 BITD Tensor Tire Parker 250
Words: Brandon Bunch
Photos: Brandon Bunch, HighRev Photo, Tommy Gun Images
UTV racing in the Best In The Desert championship series has finally begun with the running of the Tensor Tire Parker 250, and it looks like we’re in store for a year filled with intense competition and tight battles. 2021 brought us a shorter Parker race course with one additional lap, keeping the actual race distance at just under 250 miles. The course shifting from 80 miles down to 60 miles could have caused lapped traffic to become a bigger issue with the lead UTV Turbo cars, but the helpful although sometimes brutal winds worked diligently to clear dust from the cars ahead, when it wasn’t busy creating its own blinding dust.
One person who is definitely thanking the winds is Mitch Guthrie Jr, after being forced to take a dead last start in his hastily-built Polaris RZR Pro XP. A last minute registration in the UTV Turbo class made Mitch a bit of an underdog, but he put his head down and charged to pass all but 5 UTVs that started in front of him, taking the UTV Turbo and Overall win. That’s a hell of a statement to start off the new year with. Bruce Binnquist barely kept it on four wheels to find himself in second overall at the end of the race in his beautiful Geiser Performance built Can-Am Maverick X3, while Dustin Jones and the S3 Powersports crew wrapped up the UTV Turbo podium with third place and a strong start to his 2021 season.
Micheal Isom finished first in UTV Unlimited and 8th overall, just like he did in 2020, while Carson Wernimont took the win in UTV Pro N/A in his first race behind the wheel of the all new Russ Wernimont Designs-built Kawasaki Teryx KRX 1000, finishing an impressive eleventh place overall. Mitchell Alsup took the win in the newly created UTV Pro Open class and finished fourteenth overall… The class only had four entries this round, but with an interesting set of rules we’re looking forward to seeing how the class fills out throughout the year.
The Best In The Desert All Terrain Concepts UTV Legends Championship race is coming up fast, and we can’t wait to see how the season develops in Laughlin, NV with some of the most stacked classes of drivers we’ve ever seen in UTV racing. For now, check out the full race recap HERE or stick around and check out this gallery. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so enjoy this story in photos.
