SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/555623
THERE'S A BIG DIFFERENCE IN UTVS FROM VARIOUS MANUFACTURERS. THIS ARTIC CAT DRIVEN BY JAMIE ROMERO FROM ARLINGTON, TN, IS SLIGHTLY SMALLER IN SIZE, BUT CAN BE JUST AS FAST. re-built it from scratch," says Matt Loiodice at Jimco. "Right now the rules say we need to maintain the stock lower a-arm pickup points, engine mount points and so on. So this means teams need to go out and buy a brand new UTV, only to tear it completely apart." Although most race teams don't seem to have a problem with this, and still find it afford- able, Jimco, decided to test the waters in SCORE's UTV class by working with long-time friend Wayne Matlock, who won the 47th Bud Light SCORE Baja 500 in a Jimco prepared car. "When Wayne approached us in the beginning, we told him we wouldn't build the car. But we've known Wayne for many years so when we did decide to build it, our first priority was to make it safer. We used some of the same design elements from our Class 10 vehicles and with some input from Wayne on where he wanted the controls and other things to make him comfortable driving it, we feel we came up with a good car." The result of winning the SCORE Baja 500 in the vehicle has Jimco thinking of building Matlock a second one. In addi- tion, with the popularity of UTVs growing in SCORE's Class 19, Loiodice says that the company may expand into manufactur- ing aftermarket components for these vehicles. "We definitely see these vehicles getting lighter and faster. But that also means the parts need to get stronger. Right now there are many limiting factors to the rules. If they don't change with the growth of the class, it can peak, and then sim- ply become too expensive." 083 SCORE JOURNAL