About mid-way through the opening lap the course came upon a gnarly set of palmetto roots that would ultimately bring an end to their day. While powering through the rough section, the rear axle nut came down on one of the palmetto roots and loosened itself, which later caused the right rear wheel to disassemble from the machine.

"It was unknown to us at the time until the right rear wheel flew off in a wide-open section about 8 miles later," McGhee said. "The last resort of protection for the axle nut falling off is a carter pin which sheered off by the axle nut under the extreme whooped-out terrain." 

Despite the unlucky situation, Barnes and McGhee are confident in their factory-backed Polaris Team and the top of the line equipment used on the machine.

Barnes added, "This was the first race as part of the factory Polaris team and the Polaris RZR S 1000 was working really awesome! The Super ATV components were handling the abuse like we were in a stroll in the park and the CP Carrillo Pistons and Rods were providing a competitive advantage out there. The Trinity Racing Exhaust provided great power and exhaust flow. We spent hundreds of hours on this program getting it going since January when we inked the deal with Polaris. Unfortunately freak things happen in racing but we are doing a lot of research and development with testing in preparation for Round 2."