SCORE Journal - The Official Publication of SCORE Off-Road Racing
Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1537671
SCORE JOURNAL 43 FACTORY UTV WARS - CAN-AM whether he is testing or racing. "It's not only a financial connection with Can-Am, but they also love racing." This type of support is echoed by other factory racers, where racing helps refine consumer vehicles, and that's a big deal to manufacturers. The big picture for Can-Am's involvement with Blurton, is that they want him to continually push their UTVs to the limit, so they can take care of anything that needs addressing, and Baja is the place to do it. "We were driving the latest Maverick R's before they were released to the public," said Blurton. "We're always working on something at Can-Am." There's a benefit for all the SXS manufacturers jumping into SCORE racing, including Polaris and Honda. "It would be even better if Kawasaki and Yamaha took advantage of it too," says Blurton. "I love the challenge of racing against different manufacturers and the best thing about the new Can-Am Maverick R is the horsepower. We are always leading in the horsepower war. The latest car is a lot of fun to drive because of the 7-speed transmission. We're in year two now, and we're progressing." When asked if there are any future developments in the works, Blurton simply said, "It's too new now." What is known about Can-Am, however, is they don't have a lot of factory drivers in SCORE. "It's just me," he said. "We have guys that get factory support, but they do not have a factory-contract at the moment. Everything is on me with SCORE. It's me against the other huge factory teams and crews from Polaris. They may bring Dustin Jones to race the SCORE Baja 500 and the SCORE Baja 1000, but that's about it." "There is so much Can-Am learns in Mexico. In the U.S. the roads are much smoother, and we can't pre-run. But in Mexico we can pre-run these gnarly courses with SCORE." When he adds up the pre-run miles with the race miles, it gives Can-Am real-world data to further refine the platform. "You can't buy that kind of data on a UTV unless you race."SJ