A new year, and a new race season is finally underway! The John Holtger Racing Team kicked off the 1st race of the year in the surprisingly mild winter conditions at the World Championship Derby Complex in Eagle River, WI last weekend!
John went into Saturday’s heat race in a good spot. He had the fastest practice time from the previous day and was ready to see what the day would bring. Lined up against 9 other drivers in heat 2, John had a great start! By turn 3, he had already taken the lead, and by the end of the first lap he had checked out with an almost 10 second lead over the rest of the competition! John ended up taking 1st place in the heat race, and his Yamaha YXZ was on rails!
Registered to compete in the Pro Stock SXS class, the weekend events started off with practice on Friday afternoon. This allowed John to get a good feel for the track and determine what would be needed for the deteriorating conditions due to the unusually warm temperatures!
Having had the fastest time in both heats, John got to draw the invert number for the feature, which put him starting P3 out of a 20-car lineup. John had a good start and had an opening to make a pass when he took a hit from another racer. Recovering, and keeping his line he was able to maintain holding 3rd place going into the mandatory halfway caution. The 2nd half of the race did not go well with an unfortunate on track incident crippling the fast Yamaha John had, and ended his chances for a podium finish.
Overall it was a good weekend, and has John excited for the race season to get underway! Not only will John be competing in the Pro Stock SXS class moving forward, but we are proud to announce that he will also be competing in the Pro Mod SXS class! John will be debuting our Team Race Driven Polaris XP Pro Mod in the TexPlex SXS Series this upcoming weekend in Midlothian, TX!
Stay tuned as we continue to provide updates on the schedules of all of the series John in participating in this year, and some additional partnership announcements we have in the works!
