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YOUTH UTV RACING | LET’S LEARN WITH CHASE MANKIN | CHUPACABRA OFFROAD

by Nick Olson
YOUTH UTV RACING | LET’S LEARN WITH CHASE MANKIN | CHUPACABRA OFFROAD

Ever considered getting your kids into youth UTV racing? After I show video at the 2019 UTV World Champs, I loved watching the kids do their thing. At that event we captured Chase win a championship, and later formed a relationship and sponsorship. He’s a great kid, and a great family, and he’s right in the middle of swapping paint with the fastest kids in the sport. I love watching Chase evolve and it will be exciting to see him become the future of the sport.

Here’s some race action, and a breakdown of the 3 different race cars he runs. At 12 years old, this is his last year in the smaller 170/250, but he has moved up to an RS1 in the Youth 1000 class. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be, to keep these race cars all in peak condition, so Chase can earn wins.

I’ve raced WORCS races for a while on bikes, and their series is also a great place to start UTV racing, especially for youth.

Transcription:

What’s happening everybody chupacabra off-road back in the desert here with chase mankind how old are you where are you from I’m 12 years old and I’m from Temecula California and the chase is here in my neighbourhood northern peoria we’re here at canyon mx raceway for works racing this weekend yeah I’m going to be racing here pretty soon so we ran into chase a couple of years ago 2019 utv world championships got an awesome video of chase winning the title since linked up chase is one of our premier drivers and athletes his first race of the day here Saturday is with his 250. so chase give us a little bit of a background obviously it started off as a Polaris razer 170. now we’re pumped up running more horsepower give us some of the ins and outs of this car what you really like about it is a 170 car modified into a 232 motor and this is a mod car it just has bigger motor 170s and shocks and everything except so chase we all know when you buy a 170 off the showroom floor it’s a two-seater yours obviously a one-seater and you’re sitting right in the middle of this car just like your rs1 that’s pretty cool huh yeah I like it way better just because it feels like you’re more balanced and I mean you’re not hitting the wood your head’s not hitting the window net so I think the set center seater is just better yeah so I’ve driven a ace that I’ve driven an rs1 the thing I like about sitting in the middle is I feel normally on a regular car I can slide one way and I feel comfortable but the other way I struggle so as you’re racing as you’re practicing breaking the back end loose is it easier to do that when you’re sitting in the middle of the car um yes especially this thing is two wheel drive so you can’t really throw it into a corner and you can’t really just drift into a corner hard like this four wheel drive and that helps a lot this one is also four-wheel drive but it’s not a center seater because you’ve got to be in you’ve got to have a stock seat mount looks like we have some beefed up suspension yeah elka shocks look really cool of course got a skid plate bumper and if we move to the back of the 250 here you’ve got some big disc brake here nice solid rear axle again some more elka shocks this thing’s tuned up you said running on race gas right um yes got the max’s tires sounds like in this class I was talking to your parents it’s all about maximizing the horsepower for the light weight right I mean that’s really what you need to be competitive it’s making it um strong and fast you’ve got to find that balance how fast can you go without breaking the or the motor or breaking something because these cars are very fragile okay so this is probably where you started off with and then from there you went into the 570. is that correct oh I start this is a 250s I started it on 170 and then I got this thing into the 570 and now I’ve got the rs1 that I just got let’s go take a look at the 570 real quick and then we’ll go to your rs1 okay all right so the 570 570s looking cool we are all wrapped up all matching cars here for the 2021 season love the colors um razer 570 first thing I noticed you were telling me about how you guys relocated the radiator I thought it was an interesting position I was curious is that for optimizing weight or cooling or all the above um we moved it there for a couple reasons we moved it there because every time I roll this car I roll it to the driver’s side so what we’re trying to do we’re trying to get our on the center of gravity lower and on a different side of the car so now we’ve got the gas tank the radiator which balances out my way and like kind of the steering wheel all that stuff keeps all the heaviest elements right in the middle of the car huh even on left and right it’s a pretty cool custom dash setup you got your radio and then you’ve got all of your um your speedo obviously what are you looking at are you looking at miles per hour are you looking at any of this data while you’re racing are you just focusing on hitting your marks not really I’m focused on putting my marks if I need to if something goes wrong I’ve got a power steering reset I’ve got my parker pumper I’ve got my pci radio yeah speaking of pci radio um your dad’s on listening to you is your dad talking to you and are you talking back are you just kind of listening to what he tells you how much do you guys chat during a race he tells me gaps distances for how far I have to the person behind me how close I am to the person in front of me he just tells me like distance wise he tells me off the start if I’m clear to move over to move over I think a radio is a huge help because you can kind of just guide you looks really safe I like how the chassis is all triangulated right right here in the center like you said all your weights low and center so you can hit those corners as fast as you can huh yes let’s head over here and you just started racing an rs1 this year right yeah this is my second race in this thing okay so you only raced it one time so far yeah that was at havasu and I broke an arm so and your dad was telling me that this is a stock motor full thousand ccs and I’ve driven an rs1 they’re squirty they’re fast little cars they’re lightweight so I mean how does this feel is this twice as fast as the 570 is it is it scary is it comfortable what are you what are your thoughts on it yeah it’s about twice not quite twice as fast but it takes off a lot faster it’s got a higher top speed it’s got better suspension it’s a really good car because you don’t have to do much to it to come out here and race like the 570 and the 250 part you’ve gotta do so much more to the actual car you’ve gotta get a super light car you’ve gotta get a motor you’ve gotta change your belts every race you’ve gotta just make it as best as you can where this thing you just come out here with stock and put some shocks on it put some tires on it and you’re basically ready to run yeah I was talking to your dad about what it takes to keep these cars running all weekend and from what I thought and heard these rs1s are really tough and pretty reliable I mean obviously you’re out there battling you’re probably touching tires with other racers you’re hitting jumps you guys are beating these things up pretty good but sounds like the rs1 is pretty tough and it can take a lot of abuse huh yeah it’s a pretty tough car we’re probably going to change the belt for the race to get it all ready and should be good we’ve got our um roof tires in the front our shave tires in the back to get us some more traction got a cool custom roll cage you got a cool steering wheel obviously you got your radio so you can talk with your dad yeah the rs1 is already set up for two feet driving so you got your safety taken care of of course with your window nuts you got your fresh air pumper and obviously an upgraded cooling fan just keep the sucker running cool when you’re racing when it’s hot this thing’s got two fans instead of one beefier suspension looks like you got your beefed up radius rods yeah I’ve got some shield savers on there to keep the shops clean nice little mud guards keep some rocks out of your back wheels have any issues with brakes or wheels yeah little bumper I got a couple little nicks on it huh yeah so is this the most fun to drive is it still learning for you what do you think I’m still learning in this car it’s really fun to drive I like the 570 better so yeah this is a great car to just come out here and drive so this is what I’ll be racing here all right chase so you race a lot of times throughout the year you race all over the southwest what are some of the races you look forward to the most what are your favorite one of my favorite tracks is mesquite because the jumps it’s a really flowy motocross section the desert section’s fast I love going fast is the track’s not that big uphill in the back section you race at that it’s got a big upper yes where we go this thing is go back out to the desert cool so we talked utv world championships you’ve won that race before what are the races you think are the biggest most important to win um races we’re looking forward to win we’re looking forward to win the worlds I’m going for three cards my 570 my 250 and my stock car which I think which worlds is the only reason it’s going to be racing this year to get it ready and just because we don’t really have time to put four cars together so so you’re 12 years old right yes I’m 12. and you’re turning 13 this year right yes November so you were talking to me yesterday at dinner about how some of the the different racing associations you’re going to be too old for some of the classes yeah for the mid-400 um in my 250 and 170 we’re not going to be able to race it because I’m going to be 13 and you’ve got to be 12 to race in the 250 or 170 plus that’s the age limit where these things or these I’m going to be racing and go for another win so chase you got a lot of sponsors to help you out a polaris razer four wool parts of course chupacabra off-road magic they do a lot of really nice rap sparco seats temecula motorsports amazing dealership there in southern california elka shocks pci radios anti-gravity batteries demon power sports roll design and benchmark performance so talk about some of your your um my sponsors obviously help me out a lot flair tracer gives us discounts on hard sell primary bells all that good stuff that you need to be able to erase one of these things worldwide parts is also huge they give us um discounts stuff ultrasound stuff like that that we need to also race super power offroad is a great promoter as you can see right now we’ve got magic which does these beautiful wraps I’ve got sparco which is my seat and we’re gonna put in some sparkle belts we’ve got temecula motorsports which gives us also just kind of belts and shirts and hearts gas liquids all that stuff pci radios helped us tune on radios um okay open suspension is just helping us with our um 250 car getting it all dialed before the race yeah your dad was saying elka shocks is out here at the races so it’s a big help when you’re trying to get your suspension tuned they can take a look at it and make sure you’re on the right track yeah they’re a big help with this suspension we’ve got roll design that’s who turns our shocks got anti-gravity batteries which runs our car demon power sports are axles performance another pretty big sponsor they do a two-year motor they we’ve got the massive ice wheels they’re light fast and strong oh yeah I use method wave space tools on my race car too they’re awesome yes so that’s all my sponsors which help a ton with this provide discounts stuff help support all the stuff that you need to make this sport affordable without all the sponsors it’s really expensive out there you’re preaching man racing is a very expensive sport and thanks to all the sponsors that help you out yes they help out all the racers in general because racers you guys are pushing your cars to the limit you’re you’re trying to get better and faster and be as competitive as you can be so you’ve got to have those right parts on your vehicle so you can be competitive right yeah you definitely need the right parts at the right time to get this call these cars running and get them out on the racetrack to be competitive to be number one to get podium all that good stuff so chase is getting ready for his first race of the weekend they got here Thursday night practice Friday dad worked on the vehicles all night last night missed us for dinner but as you guys can probably see it’s a tremendous amount of effort to keep all those cars running he’s gonna run the 250 class right now later on in the day he’s going to run the rs1 and the 1000 production and then he’s going to race the 570 Sunday before they head out and get all those cars prepped because he’s going to race next weekend with me and parker so a lot of effort really cool um pretty cool to see what goes into these little cars in particular um almost just like my desert car guys ton of work and effort and I can only imagine wrenching on all three for one weekend of racing and then trying to get them all prepped for another race following weekend and as many times as they race they do a lot of most all the works races some of the best in the deserts and utv world championships in the mid 400s so definitely a family affair mom and dad are working on the cars as we’re in between filming there coming all the way out of course and traveling all around the southwest to to make it happen so really cool to see we’re gonna get some action here of chase and we’ll follow to see how he does with those results I think welcome so um.

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