BLAIS RACING SERVICES RACE REPORT!
AVE Pure 151 Night Race
Round 6, California City, Ca.
8/31/19
By: Chris Blais & Jeremy Gray, UTV PRO Turbo, 1st Overall
This past weekend was Round 6 of the AVE Pure Series out in California City. We have been racing with Lou Peralta since the early 2000’s on bikes & quads.
I was extremely excited to get back out there for a full-blown night race and let my Baja Designs lights shine! My wife and I took off Friday afternoon to get out there early and do some night testing to make sure lights were aimed and the car was good. About 10 minutes into our ride, I noticed a loud noise coming from the transmission and the car did not want to shift gears anymore. We limped it back to the truck and the wife says, “Let’s pack up, go home and fix it!” Luckily, I had a spare transmission at the house thanks to Murray Racing. I called my dad who was already driving out to the race site and had him detour to my house. My gas-man Gilbert Davila and Mechanic, Kyle Carpenter also came over at 7am Saturday morning for the transmission swap. By 11:30am, we were done and headed back out to the race. I couldn’t have done this without my awesome family and friends that support me.
When we got there, I was a bit nervous but my co-driver Jeremy Gray and I went out for a quick sight lap of the course. The car was perfect and we were ready to race. We had our first ever DNF the race prior, so for this race we would have to start near the back in 10th position.
The wind was blowing all afternoon and right when we start staging, the wind had stopped. DOH! It was going to be a dusty race. 5 miles in, we caught 3 drivers all stacked up together. A couple of them moved over for us and let us by. We had a few battles and made up a couple more spots on the first lap. I had moved from 10th overall into 4th then finally we spread out a little but the dust was just lingering in the valleys and never really cleared. I was having some small issues and had to go into 2wd for most of the race. This made me have to be more precise with my throttle control and timing but we made it work. My Kenda Mastodon HT tires were hooking up great along with my UTVShocks.com suspension tuned by Tom Morris.
We just played a smart race and kept moving forward until we were in 2nd place Overall. Christine from Dynamic Racing was in the physical lead but I knew we just needed to finish within 2 minutes of her to win. We kept pulling in within 45 seconds then having to back off due to the heavy dust when changing directions. This was the case the entire last lap. We pulled in the finish line 1:30 seconds behind to take the Overall Win on adjusted time! After the final results were posted, we did not receive a single penalty while 2nd and 3rd overall received quite a few time penalties. Thanks to my Co-Driver Jeremy Gray for keeping us on the marked GPS course and keeping me on the gas all night.
Thanks to my family and crew for making this race happen and all the sacrifices you make for me! Thank you to all the companies that support us and make this all possible. I enjoy working with you all to help develop the best products and setups around. It’s definitely a pleasure. We have a few more races left this year and hoping to bring home another Championship!
Special thanks to all our sponsors who jumped back on board for our 2019 season. Thanks to everyone for believing in me!
Tom Morris/ UTVShocks.com (Best shock tuner I have ever had a chance to work with)
Eibach Springs (Best springs around that don’t sag!)
KWI Clutching (Kris Werth is the man! My car rips and not a single belt issue all year)
RJ Fabrication (For the best looking car & roll cage out there)
Kenda Tires (Mastodon HT’s kick butt)
Raceline Wheels (Not a single wheel problem all year)
Baja Designs (Best lighting around, my sponsor for almost 20 years)
Impact Safety (Best helmets a guy could ask for)
PWR Tune (Awesome performance and customer support)
EPowerSteering (HD power steering unit so I can easily drive one handed)
Safecraft (Auto fire suppression to keep me safe as it’s harder for me to get out of the car)
Zollinger Racing Products (Amazing quality knuckles & hubs to handle the abuse)
RokBlokz (Sweet mud flaps and trailing arm guards)
Sector Seven (Mirrors that you can actually see out of and lights that work amazing)
Teixeira Tech (The best radius rods around)
Blud Lubricants (Best oil around)
Pops Powders (All our powdercoating needs)
NecksGen (Most comfortable neck brace I have ever worn)
GSP XTV Axles/ GSP North America
Thank you again to everyone and I look forward to a great finish to our 2019 Race Season!
If your company is interested in working with us for 2020, let us know. With our race team, we are able to promote your products along with selling them in our on-line store and shop! We are also looking for a Title Sponsor to help represent our winning team for 2020! (714) 343-5263
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