Class 1 automobiles are limitless open-wheel buggies with outstanding producers like Jimco, Alumicraft, and… Polaris?
Deciding to shake issues up a bit, Polaris Manufacturing unit Racing will enter their Polaris RZR Professional R Manufacturing unit in Class 1 on the Baja 400 with Max Eddy Jr. as driver. Will probably be the primary time a UTV competes within the class underneath SCORE Worldwide sanction.
Eddy and the RZR are usually within the SCORE Professional UTV Open class, the place he’s thirteenth in factors after ending fifth on the San Felipe 250 and retiring from the Baja 500. 2024 is his first season as a PFR manufacturing facility driver after being a co-driver for staff principal Craig Scanlon throughout their début marketing campaign the yr prior.
His colleagues Cayden MacCachren and Brock Heger, each of whom have spoken with The Checkered Flag this season, are respectively the present Professional UTV Open factors chief and reigning champion and can stay of their typical class. Eddy may even be Heger’s navigator on the Dakar Rally in 2025; he served the identical position at King of the Hammers in January, the place they received their class within the Can-Am UTV Hammers Championship earlier than Eddy completed second to Heger within the Toyo Tires Desert Problem.
The swap to Class 1 stems from PFR being far too profitable in their very own class, successful Professional UTV Open in any respect 4 SCORE races in 2023 in addition to each occasions up to now in 2024. Apart from being the quickest UTV outright in San Felipe and on the Baja 500, MacCachren additionally beat each Class 1 entry aside from the winner in every occasion. Moreover, a rally model of the RZR Professional R Manufacturing unit received the Dakar Rally’s SSV class in January.
“Our achievements up to now reveal that the RZR Professional R Manufacturing unit is undeniably the main UTV in desert racing. Nevertheless, venturing into Class 1 competitors permits us to evaluate its efficiency on a complete new degree, past the modified UTVs we’ve been up towards because the inception of this manufacturing facility programme,” mentioned staff common supervisor Ryan Thomas. “With Max’s experience and expertise, he’s well-prepared for this problem, and we’re eagerly anticipating how this car will fare towards powerful competitors. On the very least, it guarantees to be an thrilling alternative to witness what Max and the RZR Professional R Manufacturing unit can obtain on this class.”
Eddy will not be the primary UTV driver to compete in a non-UTV class, not to mention a Class 1. In 2022, Mitch Guthrie entered Finest In The Desert’s Silver State 300 in Class 1, which is a truck-based class, along with his Polaris RZR and completed second.
The Baja 400 is scheduled for 11–15 September. Cody Reid is atop the Class 1 standings in his Alumicraft AWD buggy.
