May 07, 2015 | WRITTEN BY: TEAM DRAGONFIRE [0Comments]
Lady Luck Smiles On Lacrecia Beurrier
Photo courtesy of ITP
Last year at this time, Team DragonFire was crying in their beer, this year we were popping corks on the champagne bottles at the top of the podium! What a difference a year makes, especially in desert racing. Applying some hard lessons learned last year upgrading the race car changed DragonFire’s leading lady racer Lacrecia Beurrier’s luck in the Canidae/TapIt Silver State 300.
Last year, Team DragonFire/AZ West/Rockstar Racing’s Beurrier battled brake issues, a couple crashes and finally suffered a heart-breaking DNF stuck in the silt for hours. This year, the UTV Pro Unlimited points leader hit the jackpot instead of crapping out. A lightning fast Polaris XP 1000 courtesy of a big bore kit from our friends at CP-Carrillo, a well thought-out pit plan and plenty of pure talent saw Lacrecia get the gold at the 2015 Best In The Desert Silver State 300.
Lady Luck turned her fickle finger of fate Lacrecia’s way from the start. In fact even before the start, as she drew the #1 starting position. Good thing, too! Conditions were extremely dusty, making passing pretty sketchy! Taking off around 11:00 a.m. all of the UTV classes were facing some seriously nasty ruts left behind by the Trophy Trucks and half a dozen other classes. But Lady Luck continued to smile on our lady racer. Just before the green flag, the buggy right in front of Lacrecia had battery issues and had to be pushed off the starting line. This meant that Lacrecia had an extra gap between her and the last car of the previous class. Given this lucky break, Lacrecia seized the opportunity to get out front fast with minimal dust and stay there!
Although she set a blistering pace, Lacrecia still ran clean to avoid any damage to the car. At 304 miles long, the Silver State 300 has a well deserved reputation for destroying cars and crushing dreams. Remembering last year’s bad breaks (and bad brakes), Lacrecia showed her skills running flawlessly through the high speed sections as well as technical mountain pass at the beginning of the race. "It really makes it easier to race when you have some brakes when you need them," laughed Lacrecia at the finish line.
She blasted through the first 150 miles with no issues before handing the car off to teammate Brian Thomas at Pit 3. Brian was instructed to simply deliver a working car to Pit 6 for Lacrecia to belt in and take it home. Brian was able to maintain the pace until a drive belt began acting up. Co-driver Chris Moore was able to change out the bad belt in a matter of minutes and the team was back on the gas! Large silt beds and tricky sections through higher elevations required every ounce of Brian’s talent to cope with loss of horsepower. However he was able to stay in front of the thundering herd of Pro Unlimited UTVs thanks to the sizable lead left by Lacrecia.
At Pit 6 Lacrecia climbed back into her Polaris RZR knowing that the silt bed that ended her race last year was right around the corner. Luckily for Lacrecia, her experience winning the 2014 Baja 1000 and the 2015 Mint 400 gave her the confidence it took to shake off the bad memories. The silt bed looked like a war zone with so many lines going every which way picking the correct line was a crap shoot. “I don’t care what happens, don’t lift," co-driver Chris instructed her. Lacrecia clearly got the message as the duo flew through the extremely deep silt. Unlike last year, they managed to make it through the silt bed without having to rely on the hot pink TRED 4×4 recovery ramps that had been bolted on specifically to get though this section!
With their nemesis behind them, it looked like Team DragonFire was home free… NOT! The large number of Trophy Trucks and other racers passing through earlier in the day made for large silty ruts all the way to the finish line. Once again Lacrecia showed she is as tough as they came and wrestled the wheel without ever slowing down to take the win! This marks back-to-back wins for Lacrecia in her Unlimited Pro Polaris XP 1000 and her first win ever at the Silver State!
With wins at The Mint 400 and Silver State 300 and third at the inaugural UTV World Championships, Lacrecia is now in the points lead for the championship… however the next Best In The Desert Race is the toughest event on the schedule! The General Tire “Vegas to Reno” Presented By Fox race is the longest off-road race in the United States and at 600+ miles, twice as challenging as the Silver State 300 was! Mark your calendars for August 13-15, 2015 or get more details here:
If you cant’t wait until August to see Team DragonFire/AZ West/Rockstar Racing in action, check out the redemption win coverage of the Silver State 300 here:
Lacrecia would like to thank all the sponsors supporting her drive to strike it rich with the Best In The Desert Pro Unlimited championship this season, including DragonFire, AZ West, Polaris Industries, AO Coolers, Bell, BS Sand, Bulldog LED lights, CP-Carrillo, Dalton Industries, Factory UTV, Gates, ITP, Lonestar Racing, Monster Seal, Mothers, Muzzy’s, Queen Racing, Raceline Wheels, Radflo, Rockstar Customs, Royal Purple, Rugged Radios and TRED 4×4.
