“Racer X Motorsports’ Athlete Katie Vernola Pulls Double Duty At LORORS”
El Cajon, CA September 4, 2015- Racer X Motorsports athlete Katie Vernola pulled double duty in Round 6 of the Lucas Oil Regional’s Southern California, August 29, 2015 at Glen Helen Raceway walking away with a 4th place finish in the Walker Evans RZR 900 class. Southern California’s temperature hit an all time high reaching 110 degrees in Glen Helen, making it the hottest race day by far.
“My race weekend started a little bit early. On Wednesday I made a stop by Eibach in Corona California to pick up new dual rate spring and sway bar for this weekend’s race. I installed the product at my shop Thursday morning and did a shake down on my private track. I felt a night and day difference from the stock springs and sway bar. After doing a final inspection and prep on my Polaris RZR 900 & 1000 I felt confident coming into round 6 of Lucas oil Regional’s at Glen Helen.
I showed up to the track Friday morning to tech both UTV’s before practice. Both cars passed though tech no problems and now it was time to wait for the night practice. Lucas oil made a last minute decision to make it a night race, which was perfect due to the weather being 110 + during the day. I practiced twice in the RZR 1000 and once in the 900. The cars felt great and with a couple adjustments I knew we could compete with the front of the pack. Saturday morning I made sure to stay out of the heat and rest for qualifying that was at 2:30 for the 900 and 3:15 for the 1000. I qualified 6th in the 900 out of 7 other drivers and 20th out 21 drivers in the 1000. I made a couple driving errors and a flat tire, which lead to not my best qualifying times. I quickly washed and looked over the RZR’s to make sure they were all set for tonight’s main event. Starting in the back of both classes for the main I got in the zone and new I had to battle through the pack.
The Walker Evans RZR 900 class was up first; I made some great passes and got my best lap time which lead to a 4th place finish after 12 crazy laps. After the race in the 900, I saw the front right completely exploded! I had a broken axle, no wheel bearing, no breaks, and a bent rotor that luckily broke on the 2nd to last lap. The 4th place finish was a great confidence booster which had me super excited to hop in my RZR 1000 and tear through the 22 other driver in the production 1000 class.
I started second to last row battling through the carnage and by the 6th lap I was out of tear offs running about 17th. Being in the middle of the pack there was tons of door-to-door action going off the jumps inches from the other drivers. After a few laps I was able to make a couple passes and cross the KN Filters checkered flag getting 14th place.
While looking over the RZR 900 I saw a few broken parts and now the prep begins for round 7 in October. I am currently running in 6th in points in the Polaris RZR 900 class and 22 out of 40 other drivers in the Production 1000 class. I’m constantly getting faster every lap and every time I get out on the track. I can’t wait to keep progressing and getting faster which should lead to podiums finishes.
I am super excited to hop on a plane and head to Haydays September 12th and 13th for Terracross round 3 and 4 in North Branch, MN.
Thank you my team SuperATV, nFlow, Polaris, KN Filters, MTX Audio, UTV Underground, Walker Evans Racing, Racer X Motorsports, Eibach, PRP Seats, GMZ Race Products, Bell Helmets, SC Bail, Factory UTV, ProArmor, DynoJet, Awethentik, Cody Haggerty Digital Media, Empire Industries, Queen Racing and Molecule.
Last but not least a big thank you to Niko Skiparnias for helping me out with everything and getting me to perform at my best!” ~ Katie Vernola
