Indianapolis is known as the Racing Capital of the World, and it’s also the site of the world’s largest B2B trade show for the powersports industry. And come Feb. 17 through 19, we’ll be there, along with 20,000 other powersports industry professionals for three days of conferences, networking and visiting hundreds of product booths. Practically every manufacturer in the power sports industry will be there, displaying the latest and greatest gear for 2012. This year is sure to be a year to remember.

And we’ll be there in the thick of it, answering questions and providing information about our continuously growing product line. We’ll be in Booth No. 1627 at the Indiana Convention Center, and on display we’ll have a pair of the baddest UTVs to roll through our doors. And, of course, they’ll be decked out from top to bottom with DragonFire gear.

Among the new items we’ll have on display are our camouflage colors for our sturdy UTV safety belts. In addition to these belts, which are ideal for hunters and recreational UTV riders, we’re also releasing an SFI-Certified racing restraint system for competition users. In fact, the same R&D and testing we put into developing our full race systems is also engineered into the restraints we make for the recreational user.

All of our safety belts work with DragonFire’s LockDown harness bar kits for late-model Can-Am Commanders, Kawasaki Teryxs and Polaris Rangers. Our belts are three inches wide and feature four-point restraints to secure riders and their passengers. The kits including mounting buckles and plush padding.

So if you’re a powersports industry professional and you qualify to attend Dealer Expo (i.e., you’re a franchised powersports dealer, parts or accessories retailer, manufacturer, warehouse distributor, specialty service or install operation, online retailer, etc.), drop by the DragonFire Racing booth (No. 1627) and chat us up. We’d love to see you.

ATV World, the United Kingdom’s top ATV and quad dealership, became a distributor for DragonFire Racing late last year and has been promoting our equipment like gangbusters ever since. Most recently, ATV World featured a new 2012 Polaris Ranger RZR XP 9000 racecar at the Autosport International Show that was staged within the National Exhibition Centre (NEC), the UK’s largest exhibition center and one of Europe’s busiest.

Since its launch in 1989, Autosport International has grown to become one of the largest motorsport events in Europe, attracting exhibitors from across the full spectrum of motorsport.

Our good friends over at ATV World are pushing the sport to new heights from their facilities in West Yorkshire, and the brand-new RZR XP 900 they had on display at NEC was a real crowd-pleaser. Especially since it was decked out in a bunch of DragonFire Racing equipment, from doors to harnesses and everything in between.

ATV World is now distributing DFR’s leading parts and accessories for side by sides, including light bars, seatbelts, windshields, long travel suspension systems, exhaust systems and wheels. The ATV World staff is also very active in promoting racing outside the United States, including a new race series specifically for RZR vehicles. In fact, two such events have already been staged in the UK, becoming an instant attraction at the MX tracks already in existence.

So, congratulations again to ATV World for putting together one heck of a display, and we look forward to seeing that beautiful RZR XP 900 on the race track soon. In the meantime, see below for additional photos from the show.

DragonShield UTV Cover

When it comes to protecting your UTV, we’ve got you covered, and yes, we’re speaking quite literally here. DragonFire Racing has long been known as the leading provider of parts and accessories for UTVs and that goes for protective coverings, too.

Our DragonShield UTV covers keep your ride free of dust and debris during the off season and provides protection from the sun’s harmful rays — and windblown sand — when you’re parked under the dunes during those long weekends in the desert.

You can also protect your off-road investment using our cover when it’s parked in the garage or at an event when there’s a weather-related delay.

And because we make them, they look as good as they work. DragonShield covers are lightweight, can be stored in an attached stuff sack storage bag, and feature a nice and stretchy fabric design so they fit your UTV like a downhill skier’s gloves.

And they’re durable. Did we mention durable? Just about the only thing that can destroy these covers is a playful pit bull puppy. Because they’re sturdy, they’re more dependable when it comes to protecting your valuable paint job, seats, gauges and accessories.

DragonShield covers are designed for medium-sized Teryx, Arctic Cat, RZR XP and 4 UTVs, as well as large four-seat UTVs and sand rails.

For more information, visit http://www.dragonfireracing.com/dragonshield-utv-covers.aspx

And in order to make sure you get your goodies in time for the holiday, we’re keeping our doors open up until the very last minute. We’ve got UTV equipment and accessories in more than two-dozen categories, and they’re stacked to the ceilings in our Mesa, Ariz., warehouse. So there’s no excuse for saying you can’t find the perfect gift for you or the UTV rider in your family.

We’re going to be open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Mountain Time) Monday through Friday this week and next. We will be closed on Monday, Dec. 26, 2011, and Monday, Jan 2, 2012, so we can spend time with our family and friends during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

In the meantime, we’ll be busy shipping UTV parts and accessories all the way up until 4 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 23, and again — after the holiday break — until the same time on Friday, Dec. 30.

If you’ve found yourself running late on your holiday shopping, check out the UTV parts and accessories we have on clearance or call (800-708-9803) or fax (480-834-4597) us to place your order. Make it snappy, because we just got a load of coal delivered!

Happy Holidays!

The 5-point DragonFire H-Style Race Harness

When it comes to belting up for safety — even if your idea of a Sunday drive involves dirt, dunes and offroad racing in extreme conditions — DragonFire Racing has a five-point harness system that would make even the strictest high school hall monitor nod with approval.

In fact, we just learned that our latest racing restraint systems — the DragonFire H-Style Race Harness — has received SFI Foundation certification, which in the world of offroad racing products is tantamount to receiving the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. In other words, it’s a big deal.

It means our H-style race harness systems have been deemed safe for racing, enabling riders to concentrate more on their driving skills, leaving safety concerns in the hands of the experts — us.

The SFI Foundation is a Calif.-based nonprofit that issues and administers standards for racing equipment. By adhering to SFI standards, manufacturers like DragonFire Racing adopt safety standards that are part of the rules of some of racing’s largest and most respected sanctioning organizations, including WORCS and SCORE. By seeking this prestigious certification, we allowed SFI to inspect our records and equipment in order to determine that our gear meets the organization’s strict safety certifying standards.

We think SFI’s certification is an excellent program that ultimately benefits racers and consumers alike.

All DragonFire belts start out at least three inches wide to better disperse impact, while our latest five-point restraint keeps racers firmly in place. In fact, the most basic belts we offer are so far superior to OEM baseline models that our customers keep telling us that swapping out restraint systems is one of the first items on their upgrade checklist.

The SFI-certified H-Style Race Harness is engineered to run around the headrest in order to remain firmly in place on your shoulders, secured with our sturdy sternum strap. If you race, our SFI Certified DragonFire H-Style Race Harness is definitely worth a look.

William Yokley does it again! (Check out the video at the end of this blog post!)

It was a bicoastal thing, with DragonFire Racing’s William Yokley and his Ranger RZR XP 900 becoming the best of the best on both coasts last week, picking up his second championship in the open modified UTV series for 2011 — this time in the WORCS series.

In late October, Yokley rolled off the racetrack as the Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) series champion in the East, picking up the accolades and the No. 1 plates following a successful finish to the season in Crawfordsville, Ind.

He and his DragonFire-equipped RZR followed up that title last week by winning the championship trophy for the World Off Road Championship Series (WORCS) out West (see video footage at the end of this post).

Chalking up numerous individual event wins across the country this season and the overall UTV Class Championships in both the GNCC series and the WORCS title, Yokley and DragonFire Racing pretty much dominated twenty-ought-eleven on both the left and right sides of the continent.

The bicoastal winner was assisted in both series by a UTV featuring a number of DragonFire racing components. In fact, all three top winners in the GNCC season finale were decked out with DragonFire’s Yokley Woods Edition RZR XP suspension kits for starters. And that included Scott Kiger, who finished third in that series.

That particular modification narrowed the UTV bodies by three inches on each side, making it easier for the racers to maneuver through the tight tree sections that are a standard feature of the Eastern racetracks.

In addition to being a major sponsor for William Yokley’s National Guard Polaris Coastal DragonFire team, DragonFire’s equipment proved to be successful all season in both venues.

And that includes Out West, where Yokley finished in the top 10 in all nine WORCS races he entered during the 2011 season. DragonFire contributed heavily in the parts department, providing Yokley’s ride with its dual exhaust, Racing Woods cam, Low Boy doors, DragonBack seats, competition harness and quick-detach steering wheel.

In last week’s championship bid, the team arrived in Arizona for the final WORCS race with a heady feeling off the GNCC win. Yokley and his RZR needed to hold off a couple of other drivers — including Mark Holz and Phillip Martin – in order to clinch the championship. But things seldom go as planned, and after a great start, Yokley experienced problems with his clutch and was sidelined. Teammate Scott Kiger towed Yokley back to the pit area where repairs were made in minutes by the National Guard Polaris Coastal DragonFire crew. But by the time both racers were back on the track, they were down by more than a lap and Yokley finished ninth. While disappointing on the day, Yokley accumulated enough points to walk away with the WORCS championship.

For more than three decades, off-road enthusiasts have been making annual treks to the legendary Glamis Sand Dunes in California. And why wouldn’t they? Riding at this sandy destination must be like what it felt to those buggy-riding astronauts on the moon. Only this is much closer and you don’t have to fiddle with that pesky lack-of-gravity thing.

This infamous ATV/UTV sand dune destination is the largest in California, extending for more than 40 miles along the eastern edge of the Imperial Valley’s agricultural region. And what Glamis offers is endless riding for all skill sets. Just getting started at this UTV thing? There’s plenty of beginning trails and hills. Been around the sand box a few times? Let us introduce you to our best friend — China Wall.

We brought out some of our finest cars, with an 840 Teryx sporting our Factory Long Travel Kit and a RZR 800 decked out top to bottom with DragonFire products. Our racing team members ditched the knobby tires for paddles and set out with us, making for a flotilla of seven cars.

After a full two days of riding, camping and good times, we got some great photos and video — all of which will end up being our 2012 Dune video, a sequel to last year’s hit.

One of the biggest kicks we get out of these trips is meeting new people and showing off our gear. So hit us up next time you’re heading to Glamis. We’d love to join you!

Dustin Mayer, Lead Fabrication Builder, DragonFire Racing

Here’s the perfect opportunity to introduce you to Dustin Mayer, who is DragonFire Racing’s lead fabrication guy, having joined us about a year ago.

Dustin’s pretty much the reason we have such unbelievable quality in the fabrication parts we put out there. Come by our shop most any day and you’ll find Dustin in the back, cutting, welding and grinding all our products to perfection. It goes without saying that we’re stoked to have him on the team.

Meet Dustin:

DragonFire Racing: What is the best part of your job?

Dustin Mayer: Building and creating new products for all of the new cool cars that are coming out. It’s fun to be in on the beginning of an idea and see it through to the end.

DFR: What did you do prior to coming to work for DragonFire Racing?

DM: Production welding and fabrication — mostly on commercial products. It was very tedious and not really an interest of mine.

DFR: Do you drive a UTV/ATV? If so, what do you drive?

DM: I drive whatever the company will let me drive. I also build and ride custom choppers. I have a new chopper in the works that should be ready for springtime.

DFR: What is your favorite DragonFire product?

DM: That would be the RZR Front “Smash” bumper. It was the first product I designed from start to finish. The whole Race Pace line is really cool, but the front bumper set the standard for the quality we wanted in this line.

DFR: What are you reading and watching these days?

DM: Sons of Anarchy and Sand Sports Magazine. I also have been watching VS with the DragonFire Project X Build on Destination Polaris.

DFR: If you could take a week off from work and ride ATVs and UTVs anywhere in the world, where would you go and who would you take with you?

DM: I would go back to Glamis because it is by far one of the coolest places I have ever been off-roading. I would bring my friends and family and I’d also invite Adam Sandler, Dane Cook and Kat Williams — just to ramp up the comedy factor.

One of our drivers, of course, is William Yokley who’s currently in first place in points in the Side By Side Class I standings, and from where we’re sitting, he’s showing no signs of letting up. In fact, this race is the only thing standing between him and another No. 1 plate.

Driver Kyle Melville will be out there as well, showing everyone he is a force with which to be reckoned. Kyle has been on fire this season and can’t wait to get in there and trade some paint with the fiercely competitive UTV race scene here is Arizona.

Ken Benson will be making his WORCS debut, and after some mixed racing this year, he’s quickly become one of the faster drivers on the track. With the improvement we’ve seen in each race, Ken might end up sending some of the season vets home empty handed.

You say you haven’t been out to see WORCS racing first hand? Do something about that because you’re missing out big time! With a hybrid mix of motocross track and tight trails, this form of competition is quickly becoming the premier UTV racing in the country.

What makes the upcoming race at Speed World MX Park especially exciting for those of us who work here at DragonFire is the fact that it’s somewhat of a hometown event for us, and we can’t wait to see our guys battle it out for the win. Come on out and catch some of this high-flying intensity this style of racing presents. And while you’re nearby, stop by and see us. We’ve got all the parts you need for a UTV.

And to get you in the mood for race day, take a gander at this video:

Slip-on exhaust system for the Polaris RZR XP 900

Used to be that you’d purchase a factory-built UTV and start replacing stock parts with better parts right out of the gate. But the industry has changed a hundredfold since cars like the old Yamaha Rhino was introduced. And these new UTVs are more reliable and capable today than ever before, equipped with standard gear that is superior to products of yore.

Of course, we here at DragonFire Racing continually keep our fingers on the pulse of this industry and when we saw this trend emerging, we began developing products that compliment stock machines rather than change them completely.

Slip-on exhaust for the Can-Am Commander

As an example, we’ve taken what we already know about off-road racing and developed a new line of slip-on exhaust systems for the Polaris RZR XP 900 and Can-Am Commander. Not only do these exhaust systems boast the highest-quality materials, they also pack enough punch for you to notice the power increase. Best yet, they’re super easy to install. Ergo, the name slip-on.

We also know that most people want to get rid of that annoying “lawnmower” sound you get from the stock exhaust. With our new system, we utilize the same canister design, packing and expansion chamber that comes with our full systems, giving it that nice throaty — but not loud — sound that we have all grown to admire and love. Stylish looks, great sound, and more power — all at a better price point. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah, easy installation!

Here are some of the key features of our slip-on exhaust system:

• More power throughout the power band
• Better sound
• Better price point over our full systems
• Stylish looks
• Lighter weight
• Easy to install

For more information, see the RZR XP 900 exhaust system page or the Can-Am Slip-on Exhaust system page on our website.