RACE RECAP: GLAMIS SAND OUTLAWS FINALS PODIUM SWEEP
STOCK CLASS:
1st Place Stock Class Glamis Race (Hunter Law)
3rd Place Stock Class Series Champion (Gordo Gonzales)
DUNER CLASS:
1st Place Duner Class Glamis Race (Raphael Vargas
3rd Place Duner Class Series Champion (Brandon Ristau)
MOD CLASS:
1st Place Mod Class Series Champion (Dan Picht)
OUTLAW CLASS:
2nd Place Outlaw Class Glamis Race (Brandon Toole)
The final round of the 2022 Sand Outlaws series was a great ending to a great season. Many cars spread across four classes made the trip to Glamis, CA to compete. There is nothing like a race on Oldsmobile hill to finish out the series.
OUTLAW CLASS
Team EVP arrived at Glamis on Thursday prior to the race ready to rumble. The Outlaw Class EVP.MOde M8 car, fresh off of a new top speed world record for a SXS of 157 mph, was converted back to its Sand Outlaws setup fresh with a new engine/suspension package. The compound turbo Ski-Doo 1200cc engine-equipped drag car made the fastest test pass ever at the Glamis track with a 0-60 in 1.8 seconds and a 300’ time of 3.58 seconds UPHILL. The entire M8 package continues to get faster while being versatile enough to run both street and sand events.
Brandon worked his way through the rounds taking out one competitor at a time. A giant wheelie while racing against Scott Hughes resulted in the first loss of the day. After that, Brandon continued to pick off one racer after another until the finals against Jeremy Herron. Unfortunately, halfway up the track the belt let go and handed Jeremy the win. Jeremy’s car was wicked fast and the hard work he put in this year showed.
The EVP Mode M8 car continues to dazzle with its speed, flexibility, and reliability; a testament to the MOde crew and the hard work and dedication they poured into this car. Brandon spent many long nights and weekends refining the tuning to get the M8 car to perform reliably at the insane amount of boost this car makes. Tuning at this level is pros only, and the EVP.MOde Crew is among the best of the best.
MOD CLASS
The Mod Class Desert Storm car came into the finals as the series’ points leader. During Friday’s testing, the valvetrain kicked a shim which necessitated a last-minute engine change the Friday night before the race. Team EVP worked until all hours of the night to get the engine swapped so the car could race on Saturday. Unfortunately, the backup engine had some issues which couldn’t be resolved. Dan Picht and the team persevered to get the car to the race. Even running on two cylinders, Dan was able to take out a number of competitors and clinch enough points to win the championship. This is the second time the Desert Storm car won the series Championship. Congratulations to Dan and the EVP team for their hard work and dedication to make this happen. The Desert Storm car was driven and custom tuned by EVP shop manager Dan Picht.
DUNER CLASS
The Stock ECU Duner Class cars came back to the race freshened up with minor changes from the Sand Hollow race. Raphael Vargas from R&R Motorsports in Vernal, UT, fresh off his 1st Place finish at Sand Hollow, was determined to make Team EVP proud at Glamis, so he spent the time between races testing and refining the clutch/suspension package. Brandon Ristau and Glen Chubach came into the finals 4th and 5th in points looking to move up the ladder.
New to the Duner class team was EVP.MOde employee Kevin Burns with his stunning M5 car. Kevin spent the better part of a year hand building every aspect of the car. The attention to detail was second to none in the class. The engine/turbo package was our off-the-shelf Paragon 46mm Turbo with a custom-built 3-into-1 header designed and built by Kevin. The ECU package was an Emtron custom-tuned by EVP.MOde’s Brandon Toole.
As always., the Duner races were exciting. The incredible power of the Paragon Turbo/EVP-Tuned package caught Brandon Ristau by surprise when his tires hooked up and he almost flipped over backwards at the starting line. Glen, Raphael, Brandon and Kevin’s cars all competed at the top of the classes with wins based upon whoever’s reaction time was better.
As the races went on, the competition desperately tried to beat our cars and turned them up until they blew. Raphael fought tooth-and-nail and emerged on top for back-to-back first-place victories. Brandon Ristau, unfortunately, got knocked out before the semifinals due to his car wheelieing, but made it far enough along in points to finish the season in 3rd place overall. Raphael’s victory once again proves a well-tuned factory ECU is every bit as competitive as a standalone. The 3 EVP customer cars are the only factory ECU-tuned cars in the class. EVP Co-Owner Jim Zuccone has spent years refining the tuning and launch control strategy of the factory ECU cars, making them the fastest cars in the class. Todd and Jim Zuccone’s tuning expertise sets the bar for what is possible with the Bosch ME17 and MG1 platforms.
EVP Racers Gordo Gonzales and Hunter Law came into the finals ready to rumble. Gordo was sitting 3rd in points overall for the season and Hunter finished second at the Sand Hollow event looking to win at Glamis. Gordo has been steady all year; always finishing near the top of the class. Hunter spent time between races refining his clutching package and chassis setup. Jim custom tuned both Gordo and Hunter’s vehicles to be the best they could for race day. Gordo placed high enough to clinch a 3rd place victory for the series. Hunter managed to beat out every other competitor to take the first place for the Glamis race.
Thank you to the Sand Outlaw Series, Greg Biffle, Christina Biffle Scott Hughes, Marcus, Jake and all of the men and women who volunteer their time and resources, so we have a series to race. See you all in Glamis in 2023!
And special thanks to the companies Team EVP works with:
Spectrum Turbos
Shock Therapy
Tapp Clutch
Motul
Opus Precision
Injector Dynamics
Paul Yaw
STM Powersports
KBR
GBoost
Motec
Emtron
PWR intercoolers
Sand Tires Unlimited
Turbosmart
CP/Carrillo
ARP
VP Fuels
TiAL
Ignite Racing Fuel
EVP Brand Parts on these race vehicles:
EVP XR Series Engines
Paragon Turbos
Desert Storm Turbos
Torrent C Plenums
Torrent B Plenums
EVP.MOde Components
XR Series Engine Components
EVP Bad Ass Belts