A new Walker Evans shock package that some of the top Pro teams have been testing for the past couple of seasons will now be stock equipment on all 2015 Polaris IQ Race Sleds for the coming winter, Polaris announced recently.
The IQ Race Sled is back in the same IQ chassis that Polaris has used for more than a decade on the race track, and it features the same carbureted 599cc engine that was updated last year and 15- by 128- by 1.75-inch Sno-XT track. That combination has made the Polaris race machine rather omnipresent on the race track, as the brand has been the dominant color on the podium in most national snocross races, though admittedly the top spot on the box is generally ruled by a Monster Energy-drinking/Arctic Cat driving Tucker Hibbert.
For 2015, the machine will feature new, highly adjustable Walker Evans Aluminum IFP 16 Position Compression Adjustable Remote Reservoir Shocks above both skis and on the skid’s rear arm, each with 22 clicker positions for high-speed compression adjustment, 28 clicks for low speed compression and 16 for rebound. The front shock in the skid is another Walker Evans Piggyback, with the same high and low speed compression adjustment options but no external rebound control.
“Our shocks in recent seasons have been really good, but we spent the better part of two years developing this new sled in conjunction with Walker Evans Racing,” said Tom Rager Jr., the Polaris racing manager. “The big benefit is adjustability. These are high-low rebound-adjustable shocks that have a different kind of rebound than most shocks, and the design keeps the clickers separate from each other so they don’t affect each other when you make adjustments to one of them.”
He said the Leighton Motorsports and Canadian-based Rockstar Energy teams have been using these shocks for two years, and that other top Polaris racers like Ross Martin, Kody Kamm and Justin Broberg tested them last spring.
Other than some behind-the-scenes refinement and calibrations, the only other notable year-over-year change is new race graphics. In snocross, the Polaris race team will again be led by Martin, Kamm, Broberg, Jake Scott and Kyle Pallin, along with Corin Todd and Andy Lieders, who are both moving up to the Pro Open class after much success in Pro Lite.