Reigning Side-by-Side Champion Cody Crocker said that he is thrilled with the upgraded Polaris he’s racing in this year, but also wary that the step up in performance on his side will only spur on arch rival Michael Guest and Can-Am on their side.
“The weekend in Western Australia was just awesome, probably the most fun I’ve had in the Side-by-Side’s since we started racing them a couple of years ago,” said Cody.
Crocker debuted the new Polaris RZR 1000 XP at the Quit Forest Rally, bringing his car inline with the 1000cc power output of Guest’s Can-Am Maverick 1000 X RS.
Cody Crocker (right) and arch rival, Michael Guest.Besides a power increase the Polaris featured a far more aggressive stance, featuring a wider track, upsized wheels and tyres and a more off-road focused suspension package.
And it immediately showed, with Guest commenting that Cody was on average a second per kilometre faster than his Can-Am.
“At the start of the weekend I had a plan to take it a bit easy, to ease my way into things with the new car, to feel it out and see what it was capable of,” Crocker explained.
“But I had such a blast on the opening stage I ended up just going flat out all weekend, even when I kept reminding myself to take it easy on the tricky stages I still kept my foot flat to the floor.”
By the end of Saturday’s forest stages Crocker had built a lead of over two and a half minutes to second placed Guest, while on Sunday the damage was well over three minutes in Cody’s favour.
“The car, even though it was new, ran faultlessly all weekend which is such a pleasure as a driver because you’re always a bit wary of new machinery when you run it in competition for the first time.”
“Our concern is now that a fired up Guesty is always dangerous. He’s going to be hurting after the weekend, plus he’s indicated there are a number of upgrades for the Can-Am which should have him back on a level pegging up our Polaris,” explained Cody.
“I’m always wary of Guesty anyway, he’s such a fierce competitor, and just like me he hates losing. Plus we’ve got a long gap between now and the next Round in South Australia, so he’s going to be pulling out all the stops to make sure when we get to the next rally we’ll be back fighting for tenths of a second!”
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