Danny Prather and Dave Scott take 1st overall Pro Quad at the 2012 Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno held last weekend. 10 Pro Quads joined the 300 plus motorcycles, cars, trucks and UTV’s to make the 534 mile journey to Reno. With riders like Josh Fredrick, Dylan Zimmerman, Josh Row and Brandon Brown, our team knew we had our work cut out for us to get on the podium and maintain the points lead.
Danny started the race 5th off the line and had a quick 30 mile ride to the first pit. Danny managed to pick through the dust and get by one quad and a hand full of motorcycles before handing the bike off to Dave at pit #1. Dave jumped on for 65 miles, riding hard to catch up to the leaders and handed the bike over to Danny at pit #3 in 4th place. Shortly into this section at race mile 130, Danny came upon a pack of motorcycles heading backwards on the course. The race course markers had been taken out by the lead motorcycles and almost everyone behind them got lost. About 30 riders were frantically searching for the course. Realizing that the 1st overall quad of Josh Row was not in this pack Danny decided to keep heading down the trail in hopes it was the right direction. About 2 miles later Danny realized this was in deed the wrong way when he came upon Josh Row and another motorcycle who had collided head on while going the wrong direction. Danny stopped to assist the riders and make sure they were alright. Josh had a minor concussion but was otherwise alright, the rider on the motorcycle had broken his wrist pretty badly and needed help. Danny made a splint out of two sticks and some zip ties so he could ride out to help.
With an onboard GPS, Brandon Brown’s team had taken over the lead when they avoided getting lost and had a 20 minute lead over Danny and Dave at Pit #4. 160 miles into the race, and in 9th place, Dave got on at Pit #4 on a mission to gain back the time, picking off three riders before handing the bike back to Danny at Pit #5 in Tonopah. With the pressure on, Danny stepped up the pace passing three more quads and got right behind the Can-Am team of Josh Fredricks and passing Brandon Brown’s team in the pits to put them into 2nd place. At Pit #6 Dave got on the bike to take it to Pit#8. Maintaining the pace of the Can-Am team, Dave came into pit #8 just outside their dust. Danny’s pit crew decided to go over the bike at this pit and look at the air filter. Everything checked out and Danny was back out in under a minute. With the race course going up in elevation and getting into the more technical fire roads Danny was able to close back in on Fredricks before handing it off to Dave at Pit #10. With Josh Fredricks starting 9th off the line the team knew they had to not only pass them, but gain four minutes on them to get the win. Dave rode clean and brought the bike into pit #11 right behind them.
The course from pit #11 to pit #14 was in a remote area and the chase trucks would not be able to catch the race bike until pit #14 race mile 458 where Dave was scheduled to take it to the finish. Danny was on the gas pulling up beside Fredricks multiple times but unable to secure a pass due to dust. Finally, at Pit #13 Rawhide, Danny radioed into the pit to get ready for a quick gas only stop and was able to make the pass on Fredricks in the pits. With a clear view of the course now, Danny rode as hard as he could to put time on the Can-Am team. Arriving at Pit#14 Danny got word that due to construction going on, Dave’s chase truck was unable to make it and Danny would have to ride another 30 miles to pit #15. Out of water Danny dug deep to hold the pace and managed to make it to pit #15 in 1st overall physically, but Brandon Brown’s team was ahead on adjusted time by one minute.
Dave jumped on the bike knowing he needed to gain one minute on them in the last 40 miles to win the race. Dave rode like a mad man through the rocky last few miles heading into Dayton and managed to make up the time and the team won 1st overall pro quad by 20 seconds over Brandon Brown. Josh Fredricks arrived 14 minutes later to get 3rd and shortly after that Nick Nelson came in to take 4th.
“We had a great race! Our CT Racing Honda ran strong the whole race with no flats at all, we went the entire race on one set of Maxxis Razr tires! Our Elka Suspension was set up perfect and we made it to the finish on the same K&N filter we started with. It was exciting towards the end with how close the competition was. Thank you so much to all of our sponsors who made it possible for us to pull off this win.” – said Danny after the race.
Thanks to our sponsors: CT Racing, Maxxis tires, Elka Suspension, DWT, K&N Air Filters, Fasst Company, Roll Design, Tsubaki Chains, IMS, Fluidyne, Ricky Stator, MCR, SPY, Escondido Cycle Center, RND Motorsports, Fineline Graffix, Christy Racing, Quad Locos, RPM Axles, and Tire Blocks
