This past weekend, The Best in the Desert Racing Association held the Jagged X Racing Cup at Glen Helen Motorsports Park. This was a change of venue for the series as the original race was to be held in Laughlin, NV. Due to the venue change, local 14 year old racer and Polaris RZR RS1 pilot Mikey Kelly decided to join in on the fun. His dad said “Given the shorter distance of the course and knowing how well MIkey knows the track, I decided to let him run with the big dogs. Mikey has been chomping at the bit for a chance like this and I was happy to oblige.”
Mikey drew 18th starting position out of over 20 race entries and started in the third row of this event. It was his first dead engine start. Mikey had this to say before the race “Well I just hope I can do this quickly and get the car moving in the right direction faster than everyone else”. Kelly was able to do just that and got the hole shot for his row! He quickly gained ground on the cars that had started 30 seconds ahead of him in row two and started picking them off one and two at a time. He continued to gain ground on the first row that had started a minute ahead of him. He made his way through most of them by lap three and was physically in second place! He continued to gain ground and was running first on corrected time on lap 4. Heading into lap five,the leader James “No Big Deal ” Hill with co-driver Erica Sacks had to pull into the pit and Mikey was able to get around them then and there. This was two moto race with one moto being Saturday and another on Sunday with combined times for scoring.
The team took the car back to the pit to prepare it for day two. Crew Chief Anthony Martinez stated “I’m sure glad Mikey drives a Polaris and runs Cognito Motorsports A-arms with Walker Evans Shocks. The course was brutal and we just had to retorque a few bolts, change some brake pads and top off fluids to be able to prep the car for day two. Oh! We also made Mikey wash the car even though he said drivers that come in first don’t have to”.
Sunday morning Kelly headed to the line for a 9:30 start. This time, staging on the pole due to his first place finish from the previous day. He was carrying a 2:07 second time advantage into this race due to his lead over the field yesterday. The green flag dropped, he started the car quickly and off he went into turn one at Glen Helen Motorsports Park! It was another holeshot and he was on the skinny pedal like it owed him money! Mikey led this entire race from the green flag to the checkered flag with Hill and Sacks in second position. They continued to gain on Kelly as the race went on, but they never did make the pass nor make up the 2:07 lead he had acquired from the day before. The Hill-Sacks team blew a belt heading into the last lap but were still able to take home a third place finish. This put Brian Willison into the number two spot for the weekend as he had taken the number 4 spot in Saturday’s race and the number two spot in Sunday’s race.
Mikey is headed off to the UTV World Championships in a few weeks to try and defend his title in the 700/800 class and to also race his Polaris RZR Rs1!