Presented by Maxxis

Photos by swap and Steve Emter

Video by Chase Curtis

With age comes a cage.

It’s an oft-used cliche in motorsports circles, and I believe it was first made popular when so many retired motocross racers and freestyle riders threw their har into the off-road truck racing arena. With extensive experience and knowledge about traction, line choice, and racecraft, short course truck racing is an easy transition for most two-wheeled veterans. Guys like Brian Deegan, Jeremy Stenberg, Ryan Beat, Ricky Johnson, and yes…Jeremy McGrath, have all quenched their thirst for racing competition on four wheels. McGrath, in fact, earned the Lucas Oil Off-Road Series championship in 2017 with four race wins and eight podiums.

Little known fact: the Swapmoto Live offices are nestled deep within the Jeremy McGrath Motorsports Race Shop in Lake Elsinore, California, in an upstairs loft that The King cleared out for us to have a home base in. Every Monday, I walk past MC’s championship-winning Pro 2 truck (which is for sale, by the way), his 1992 125 Supercross Championship-winning Pro Circuit Honda CR125R, a No Fear Jeremy McGrath pinball machine, a Jeremy McGrath soda vending machine, hundreds of trophies, a couple of modern Kawasaki KX450s, one badass KX500, and two or three Kawasaki Teryx KRX 1000 side-by-sides.  

These days, Jeremy doesn’t ride as much moto as he used to…mostly due to a knee replacement surgery last year that he is still recovering from, but he is still representing Kawasaki incredibly well with his newfound love of side-by-side driving and racing. Kawasaki is relatively new to the high-performance side-by-side game but the KRX 1000 Teryx is widely acclaimed as the best-handling side-by-side on the market, thanks to an amazing chassis and suspension. Walking past the Teryx in the office, it’s hard not to grow interested in driving one. I mean, when I was younger the Honda Odyssey was the bee’s knees: an air-cooled 250cc two-stroke off-road buggy with a rigid chassis! My, how far things have come!

The bunny slopes of Stoddard Wells.

My first opportunity to drive a Teryx came in early September when Jer invited Chase Curtis and me to join him in the Stoddard Wells off-road area near Barstow, as he had some tire testing to do with the Maxxis crew. Strapped into McGrath’s backup Teryx, Chase and I drove around the area and I could not believe the things we could climb in it! As we approached one particularly rocky ascent, I asked Chase if we should turn around, over the Lowrance radio system in our helmets. “No way man, this will go right up that no problem,” he replied. (Chase, apparently, has spent plenty of time in side-by-side vehicles before.) So I steered straight ahead and pinned it. Of course, it was no problem at all for the Teryx, and I smiled widely beneath my helmet. Later on, when I told Jeremy about my experience, he laughed and said that was like the bunny slope at a ski resort. Deep down, I was thinking we were pretty badass for driving up the rocky hill, but I quickly declined when he invited me to sit passenger during his next testing lap. With a freshly healed neck injury that had sidelined me for 12 weeks, I was scared to have my head flopping around as I held on for dear life. Haha!

Area BFE | Moab, UT.

A couple of weeks ago, Jeremy again invited Chase and me to join him on another side-by-side adventure, this time the destination was Moab, Utah, for the BFE Beatdown round of the Ultra 4 National Championship Series. Knowing that there was some pedaling time in the plans, I also invited my good buddy and SML contributor Steve Emter. Forgive my ignorance as I write this feature, as I am completely new – yet very interested – in this form of competition. As we drove to Utah. Jeremy was unsure if we would actually race, as he was mostly going to support Kawasaki’s Teryx KRX 1000 demo program at the event. I was excited to get to Moab for multiple reasons: to finally ride shotgun with Jeremy as he pre-ran the racecourse, to watch my first UTV race, and also to mountain bike Moab’s infamous slickrock trail.

The 2020 Kawasaki Teryx KRX 1000

When we arrived at Area BFE (aptly named, mind you), the first thing I checked out was a brand-new Kawasaki Teryx KRX 1000 that was on display. I’ve been drooling over Jeremy’s race cars for months in the shop, and I wanted to see what a stocker looked like in comparison. After a few laps around the Teryx, I surmised that a beefier roll cage, seats with harnesses, different shocks, and bigger Maxxis tires were the most notable mods on McGrath’s machines. That may sound like a lot, but it’s not when you think about the differences between a stock Kawasaki KX450 and the one Eli Tomac races! To my untrained eye, I decided that the 35″ Maxxis Roxxzilla tires were the most important mod at the BFE Beatdown, as there were tons (and I mean TONS) of rocks everywhere. In fact, as Chase, Steve, and I drove up the dirt road to the venue, I wondered aloud where the heck they could possibly have a racecourse laid out because the terrain was so treacherous and dense with rocks.

Demo Kawasakis for as far as the eye could see.

On day one in Area BFE, it was time to check out the course. I rode shotgun with Jeremy, while Kawasaki’s Derek Natvig (another old friend of mine from the CMC Goldenstate Series days) piloted the spare race car with Emter in the front seat. Chase got to ride shotgun in one of the demo Teryx with our Sales Manager Don WIlson at the wheel, and I secretly wondered if the stock car could keep up.

To be honest, the sighting lap I took with Jeremy at the controls was both thrilling and terrifying at the same time. (CLICK HERE to check out my vlog and hear my semi-scream a few times haha) It’s not that I didn’t trust Jeremy (I mean, how could you doubt him), it was that I had no idea of the full range of capabilities of the Teryx. “Bro we can’t go up that!” “Did you see that sign? It had a skull and crossbones on it and said danger!” and “Won’t we smash our engine on that rock?” were only a few of. the dumb things I blurted out over our radio system. When we finally did get high-centered for a moment and the car tipped towards my side, I might have peed a little in my shorts. 

Afterward, I shook my head when Jer told me that we were going at a snail’s pace, just to check out the course and obstacles, and that race pace would be five to six times quicker. And for the record, Wilson and Chase navigated all of the boulders, steps, and drop-offs with ease in the stock Teryx. Amazing.

Eyes of a racer.

Ultimately, Jeremy decided to race. After all, that’s what racers do, right? An abbreviated course was laid out for racers to qualify on during day two, and it included plenty of boulders to navigate. McGrath came home sixth-fastest and thrilled the crowd when he launched his Teryx off a five-foot drop off before anyone else in his class did. After qualifying, it was almost odd to watch Jeremy bust out some tools and work on his own car. “Hey, someone has to do it, right?” he joked, as he adjusted the preload on his rear shocks, for better ground clearance and a more-balanced handling character in the rocks.

On race day, racers were started in 30-second intervals in the order that they qualified. On the first lap, McGrath and co-pilot Natvig quickly raced up to fourth overall and were doing great on elapsed time. The announcer sure had a good time talking about “Showtime” and how cool it was to have a legend of motorcycle racing joining in on the fun. Alas, it all came to an end part way through the second lap when Jeremy hit a rock that he didn’t see and damaged the lower A-arm of his Teryx. Unable to continue at race pace, he and Natvig limped the car back to the pits and called it a day. “I think maybe I was racing too hard,” he said. “But all is not lost because I learned a lot.” This was, after all, only his second UTV race.

Showtime on Slickrock!

The upside to finishing the race early was that it left us time to hit the trails! The Slickrock trail in Moab, Utah, is famous for its petrified sand dunes that offer 100% traction and super-steep terrain. As you would expect, McGrath was badass on his Specialized Turbo Levo, too. He told us a story about leaving the Salt Lake City Supercross in the 90s, and riding mountain bikes all week in Moab before heading to the Las Vegas series finale, since he already had the championship wrapped up. As we negotiated the trails on our e-bikes, I couldn’t imagine tackling the pitchy terrain on a 90s MTB with 26″ wheels and primitive suspension, but I had little doubt that Jeremy had cleaned the entire trail frontward and backward without taking a foot off the pedals.

All in all, our time in Utah was amazing and I can’t wait for the next adventure with our office landlord, whether it’s on two wheels or four.

The thing I wanna know is, do they have a beginner class in these side-by-side races?