1st Place! Pahrump Nugget 250

Ellstrom Racing’s first foray into high speed desert racing produced a result that had everyone from race organizers and fellow competitors to the announcer in the winner’s circle double checking to see if the order of finish was correct.

At the end of a long day of racing on the tough desert course outside of Pahrump, Nevada, 18 year old driver Sven Ellstrom and his classmate/co-driver Matt Rutz stood atop the podium in the UTV Unlimited Pro Class at the Pahrump Nugget “250” presented by Supercross.com.

The Ellstrom team finished the 250 miles with a substantial lead over the second place team and scored an impressive win in Ellstrom Off-Road’s second event. In February, the same two drivers made an impressive debut at the King of the Hammers event in California’s Johnson Valley.

The Nugget 250 UTV is not the same rig as the one used on the KOH course, which required rock climbing and negotiating much tougher terrain

Sven Ellstrom commented, “I can’t thank anyone more than Mark Holz (Holz Racing). He just finished this rig a couple of weeks ago. The car is just a rocket ship. I feel like it was one of the fastest cars out there. It can’t handle any better.”

The team encountered minimal setbacks along the way, changing one tire and a “couple of belts” on the way to victory.

Excited team owner Erick Ellstrom added, “We had a great team. Mark Holz came and helped us. My son did a great job. Matt did a great job. He’s got his brother and sister behind us. It was great fun.”

Ellstrom Racing will return to Seattle with plans to return to the 2017 King of the Hammers on Friday, February 10th and other races to be added to the 2017 schedule.