Cody Rahders Looks to Build on Experience from Challenging Baja 1000

The Cody Rahders Racing Polars RZR charged from 6th to 2nd in the Baja 1000's opening miles.

K&N-sponsored driver Cody Rahders competed in his Polaris RZR XP 1000 in the 2016 Baja 1000

Few races match the brutal nature of the Baja 1000, which sends teams ripping down Mexico’s Baja Peninsula for more than 1,000 miles of bone-shaking terrain. K&N-sponsored driver Cody Rahders learned Baja’s treachery first-hand in his Polaris RZR XP 1000 during the 2016 Baja 1000, but the young mechanical engineering student is already forging the lessons from his Did Not Finish status into a stronger path through 2017.

Cody has driven in off-road races for years, primarily running short-track sprint races in the Lucas Oil Regional Off-Road Series with a variety of vehicles in the Superlites, Pro Lites, and the UTV classes. That included a pair of Production 1000-class championships in his RZR, but Cody and his dad, Doug (the only other full-time team member), decided to go big in 2015 with a first visit to the Baja 1000 run by SCORE International Off-Road Racing. They entered their RZR as a Class 19 UTV and while they didn’t finish their first Baja in 2015, the Rahders decided to run a full season of desert racing in 2016.

“We decided to change our game and step it up a little bit,” Cody said. “I love Mexico, love the people and love racing there...I went from racing 20 minutes to being in the car for maybe 15 hours. It’s nothing to take lightly.”

In 2017, Cody Rahders will return to short-track racing in the Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series.

2016 was Cody Rahders first full season of desert racing after winning 7 short-track off-road titles

Cody weathered that transition nicely. In 2016, that included a steady run at the famous Mint 400 near Las Vegas, where he competed for a podium position until an exhaust failure and, consequently, an oil-line failure knocked him from the race. He followed that Mint 400 run with three SCORE events: the Rosarito Beach Desert Challenge, the Baja 500, and the Baja 1000. Cody finished 9th place in the Baja 500 but managed his first desert-race podium at the Rosarito Beach Challenge with an impressive third place.

The 1,000-mile race, however, proved to be a greater challenge. The initial plan was to have co-driver James Hill drive the opening hours of the race with Cody taking over at around Mile 400. James left the starting line in sixth place but quickly picked up several positions to reach second place. Around Mile 80, however, he came across a bottleneck in the road and, in trying to go around it, the RZR ended up getting hit by a larger Class 10 Buggy that had caught up from the bottleneck. That hit broke the axle at the time, but it wasn’t apparent when James took fuel and service at Mile 90.

The RZR pressed on until the axle failed six miles later. The team’s chase truck found the Polaris and the team were able to fix the destroyed hub, though it took several hours. Wanting only to finish, they persevered, but a later service stop was soon required when James’ co-driver became ill from bad food or the brutal terrain (possibly both). Cody took over as co-driver with more than 900 miles remaining and nearly 300 until he was scheduled to take over as driver.

“I love Mexico, love the people and love racing there," K&N-sponsored driver Cody Rah

Cody Rahder's RZRs use K&N air filters, oil filters, clutch air filters, and fuel-cell vent filters

“I was so stressed out that the only way I was going to calm down was to get in,” Cody said. “So I got in the passenger seat and I was going to then get in the driver’s seat still at around Mile 400. It was a little crazy, but I was down for the challenge.”

Before Cody could drive, however, disaster struck. At around Mile 165, the vehicle they were following braked hard and James swerved to miss it. The road jogged at that point on an off-camber curve and with soft, loose dust to the outside of the corner, the Polaris dug in and rolled over. The crash bent the lower control arm and with no replacement on hand, the team did everything they could to reshape it with hammers, rocks, jacks, and even the chase truck by driving over it. Unable to fix their stricken Polaris, the team had to withdraw from the race. While heartbroken by the retirement, Cody knows the learning curve couldn’t be steeper than at Baja.

“I thought we were done after the first time we broke, but we were able to fix it,” Cody said. “It’s a definitely a bummer, but that’s Baja.”

“It’s a definitely a bummer," Cody Rahders said, "but that’s Baja."

Cody Rahders retired from the 2016 Baja 1000, but he gained valuable desert-racing experience

For 2017, Cody Rahders will be back in the Polaris RZR XP 1000 with which he won two of his seven career championships. With the 1000 cc UTV class now part of the national Lucas Oil Off-Road Racing Series, Cody has plans to return to short-track racing and go hammer-and-tongs with the Yamahas that have dominated UTV class in the regional series lately. With a solid track record of his own in the UTV classes, Cody said he’s ready to battle with the Yamahas, starting his season with a shakedown in mid-January.

With a full engineering course load at Cuyamaca College to balance with racing, Cody’s unsure about his plans for longer-distance races in 2017. However if he’s racing down the Baja Peninsula next November, expect to see a more measured, mature approach from him.

“I think the biggest thing we learned was just just taking your time. You don’t really have to press as hard as you’d think. People break and aren’t going as hard as you think they are,”

Cody said. “We did good with what we had, but we lacked in areas where experience would have really helped.”

clear

K&N PRODUCT SEARCH     WHERE TO BUY K&N