RACE REPORT – JOHN BARNES – MIDWEST CROSS COUNTRY RACING ROUND 2

Barnes put the testing time in for the comeback win after experiencing struggles in the early spring. Racing was cut short for Barnes in February and March. He was set back with belt failure in the last round of Midwest Racing. The round before that was the season opener of IXCR Racing which left Barnes overheated and engine failure from a radiator fan. The team put in 3 solid weeks of clutch and tune testing to change Barnes fate.

It wasn’t easy. Barnes found a few issues along the way in which the team was happy happened during local testing versus actual racing. Barnes commented, “The last couple weeks have been great from a development standpoint. We found a weak point in a

driveshaft that we were testing. We broke a couple shafts in the process of clutching development. We also discovered that the way we had the radiator mounted was problematic to rocks and debris hitting the radiator. We busted one the day before we were suppose to leave for the race. The same day we found a pinhole in the charge tube.” The list continued. A definite step in the right direction which showed.

Race day temperature was perfect at 65 degrees and partly cloudy. The dirt was slightly moist but not muddy. From the holeshot, Barnes was off to a 5th place start. Within a couple miles, he made a move to get into third by finding a line that required jumping a set of fallen trees passing two machines. He moved into second shortly after that by being faster when 2 trail options came back into one. Finally, he made his move to the lead when the leader tried to go in between trees and did not fit. There was a short battle back and forth for the lead until Barnes put the hammer down and put the 2021 Polaris RZR Pro XP to work.

Barnes focused on staying smooth with no mistakes. Everything was going perfect until 3⁄4 of the way to the finish when Barnes noticed a red light flashing. Low and behold, it was the belt temperature gauge at over 200 degrees. Barnes commented, “I was like, oh no, not this again! I immediately went into conservative mode in hopes to get to the finish. I knew I had a nice lead.”

Steady and Conservative brought Yokley Racing to the finish and to the center of the box.