Argubright, Shirey Untouchable
At Vegas-to-Reno
T
he 25th running of the lon-
gest single-day off-road race
in the U.S. saw former winner
Jacob Argubright team up for the
third time with Dalton Shirey on
Shirey's 3 Bros./Hatch Racing
Husqvarna.
And the third time was the
charm at the Maxxis Tires "Casey
Folks" Vegas-to-Reno (V2R),
Presented by Fox, round four (for
the bikes) of Best in the Desert's
(BITD's) American Off-Road Rac-
ing Series. Denied victory in 2017
when two tire failures allowed
Ricky Brabec to collect one of
his three V2R wins, it all came
together this time.
Shirey made his intentions
known from the outset with the
fastest time in qualifying on an
abbreviated five-mile course
on Wednesday, so he was first
off the line when the green flag
waved at 5:45 A.M. on Friday at
Bonnie Claire.
Relying on his ever-improving
moto and GP speed, Shirey saw
qualifying as a vital component to
the entire race: "It was kind of a
big deal because [the race itself
is] mostly on [dirt] roads and it's
hard to pass on roads when it's
that dusty.
"I put a pretty good sprint in on
Wednesday to make sure we had
a good Friday."
Running in clean air the entire
485 miles to the finish Argubright
and Shirey avoided trouble all
day, finishing in seven hours, 44
minutes and 10.4 seconds, unof-
ficially, finally bagging that long-
sought win at the storied event.
"Our average speed was 63
[miles per hour]," Shirey stated.
That gave them just under
10 minutes over three-time and
defending race champion Ricky
Brabec, the Monster Energy
Honda Team rally star claiming
IN
THE
WIND
P44
After setting fast time in qualifying, Dalton
Shirey had nothing but clean air during
the race as he and teammate Jacob
Argubright sailed away with the win.
PHOTOS: MARK KARIYA
