Corona, CA – Zip-Ty Husqvarna racers took to the Nevada desert over the weekend in the Best In The Desert Vegas to Reno, where Nick Burson and Ty Davis teamed up to take a podium finish in the Open Pro class.

Burson and Davis piloted their Zip-Ty Racing-prepared 2011 Husqvarna TXC511 to fifth overall in the longest off-road race in America, where they also finished third in class. The race was a first for Burson, who had never run the Vegas to Reno before, and he had a rather tough go of it after a crash early in the race.

“Everyone got lost on the dry lakebed,” Burson explained. “There was a 90-degree corner on a lakebed and everyone missed it except Esposito. I got across the lake and as soon as I turned around, I was looking up to see if I could see any dust trails and I hit a sand bush and went straight over the bars.”

Fortunately Burson wasn’t injured too badly, and the bike was still in running shape, though it carried some damage to the next pit stop.

“We were just going to do a gas stop,” Davis recalled, “and we saw a hand guard broken and he said, ‘You might have to ride. I just crashed.’ I looked at the bike and there was no rear fender, and I was like, ‘Yeah you did!’ That early in the race we weren’t ready to be switching everything over. But we had to swap out the front brakes and then I got on the bike and made it to pit ten.”

Following the crash, Davis ended up riding far more of the Vegas to Reno than he had originally planned. “I was just doing this to be a relief rider for Nick, and I ended up on the bike for over four hours. He was the one who’s supposed to be in shape, not me!” Davis said with a laugh.

Still, Burson was able to get back on the bike and take it to the finish. The durable and fuel-efficient Husqvarna TXC511 proved to be the ideal race weapon for over 500 miles of wide-open racing. Davis commented on putting Husky’s open-class off-roader through its paces at the Vegas to Reno.

“Casey [Folks – BITD race promoter] grates the courses now so it was really smooth and the speeds were extremely high. It was like an 8-hour dyno run on that thing; it was wide open! I guarantee you that bike has never been ridden that hard for that long.”

“It all goes to show that desert racing is not easy, and not for the weak, so it’s no surprise that Ty, Nick and the TXC511 endured to finish strong in the Vegas to Reno,” commented Husqvarna’s National Marketing Manager Corey Eastman. “It’s another proud finish for Husqvarna North America this year.”

Photo by Mark Kariya