Phoenix, AZ – The Polaris RZR Jagged X race team arrived at the Alliante Resort & Casino in North Las Vegas, NV on Thursday August 13th ready to take on the longest off-road race in the United States. As expected, the temperatures had already risen past the century mark as tech & contingency got underway. The team, while trying to stay hydrated, diligently completed all of the standard contingency and tech duties, something all teams must do prior to competing.

The #1919 Polaris RZR XP 1000 of Brandon Schueler and the #1931 RZR XP 1000 of Craig Scanlon were very well prepped and ready to take the green light on Friday morning. The 545 mile course that Best In The Desert (BITD) had laid out would see more than 330 entries of cars, trucks, bikes quads and of course UTVs.

Check out Off-Road.com’s Vegas to Reno UTV Recap

For the first time in many years the UTV class was set to start the race with the cars & trucks rather than with the crack of dawn motorcycle and quad classes. The advantage of starting a little later is that teams wouldn’t have to leave the hotel at 2:00AM to get to the start. The disadvantage is that they knew they would be facing a race course that had been punished by nearly 200 race vehicles who start in front of the UTVs. Jagged X would be forced to contend with deep ruts, blinding dust and have to pass much larger vehicles as they made their way towards Reno, NV.

After arriving to the start line in Beatty, NV, the Jagged X team unloaded the race cars and took their position in the staging-line among one of the most impressive group of UTVs the race had ever seen. As the starting time approached, the temperature continued to climb and it was clear that this race was going to be one of the warmest V2R races competitors had ever seen. Looking at the course as the race cars left the start line, it was clear that the recent rains in the area were to have little affect, if any, on the Nevada Dust. But, this is desert racing so you could do nothing more than drop your visor and suck it up!

The Jagged X RZRs did not have favorable starting positions for this years race. Craig Scanlon in the #1931 started 23rd while Brandon Schueler in the #1919 had the luck of starting way back in the pack at 38. As their RZRs inched there way to the starting line the chase crews made their way up the course and took their positions at their respective pits.

51 pro UTVs took the green flag and the race was on. It took very little time for the Nevada desert to take her toll on much of the competition. Unfortunately, a fair number of competitors would never see the finish line in Dayton, NV. By pit 3 the class would begin to reveal some of the front runners. Both the #1931 and the #1919 were able to make their way up in the field running on pace with all the top cars while gaining track position as well. Craig Scanlon made an early charge working his way into the top 3 both on time and physically by race mile 100. Schueler would also start to chip his way through the field, battling dust and forcing his way towards the front.

From the chase end of things the team was able to obtain some valuable information from teammates tracking the race back home and of course UTVUnderground.com was posting real time updates whenever possible which really helped keep track of things when service permitted.

The race which started as a game of hop scotch, quickly turned into a 545 mile drag race. In spite of having some unusual mechanical issues with both of the teams RZRs, the Jagged X drivers and their crews did an outstanding job of keeping both the the teams Polaris RZRs up front all day and into the night. Both Jagged X RZRs would at one point during the race, lead on corrected time.

When the clock stopped the #1919 Jagged X RZR piloted by Brandon Schueler and Blake Van de Loo would find themselves on the podium in third place while the #1931 of Craig Scanlon and Keith Redstrom finished a very respectable sixth place.

This finish helped Schueler and the #1919 RZR remain in the hunt for the 2015 championship chase. After this race, a mere 20 points now separate the top five racers and with only two races remaining in this seasons BITD series all racers are starting to feel the heat!

Jagged X would like to thank Polaris RZR for the opportunity to represent such a great product! They would also like to thank all of their sponsors, without them none of this would be possible: Polaris RZR, Walker Evans Racing, BFGoodrich Tires, Jackson Motorsports Group, Varta Powersports Batteries, Polaris Racing Lubricants, Muzzys Performance, Factory UTV, CR Designs, Vision X, UTVUnderground.com.