North Salem, IN (July 15, 2023) John Barnes and his team are excited to put the Polaris RZR Pro XP back on the podium. This time, it was at Hunt Creek Madness at Round 6 of the Mid West Cross Country (MWXC). There’s a back story to this weekend which makes it even more special. Back in May at the Red Bull Beach Scramble in New Jersey, the new and just built RZR experienced an exhaust explosion that melted the wiring harness. It’s been one electrical problem after another causing several breakdowns.
The challenge is finally behind the team with the showing of the results this weekend, and the group of men working on it spanning over several states could not be happier. Saturday was not a terribly hot day with temperatures in the 80’s. It rained in the early morning holding most of the dust off. The start time was 5:00PM EST. Barnes got off the stacked line to a 5th place into the woods. Within the first 2 miles, a bottleneck occurred when the 2nd place man hit a tree blocking the track. Barnes took advantage of the 25 feet allowed passing area in the woods to mow down trees setting a trail around the bottleneck placing himself into 2nd .
He held that position until the end of the first lap when he got stuck between two trees. Barnes commented, “I knew the trail was getting tight there, but I thought I could fit. I was wrong and got sandwiched and got passed putting me in third.”
The fight was on for position, but mid-way through the race, a front end component began to fail putting Barnes off pace. Barnes added, “It was all we could do to maintain third place at the finish, but we were successful. I certainly was counting down the laps and time with the end of the one hour feeling like it would never come.” Cross country racing is an endurance race all the way to the finish.
The team is enjoying this podium and looking forward to the next. Look for the RZR team to be back on the podium at the next event at Whiskey River on August 5th in Milton, KY at IXCR. The team would like to thank the 2023 sponsors: Polaris RZR, Yokley Racing, Super ATV, Big Country Powersports, Highlifter Tire & Wheel, Elka Suspension, Millennium Technologies, Epowersteering.com, VP Racing Fuels, Double E Racing, Trinity Racing, SSI Decals, CP Carrillo, MTNTK Performance, IMS, PPEI, Coffman Custom Machine, Longhorn Fab Shop, PRP Seats, Razorback Technology, Mid TN Off-Road, STM, RZR Extreme, Alba Racing, Hess Motorsports, Tire Balls East, Barnes Off-Road Marketing, LLC