This past weekend at the Championship Off Road Turbo race at ERX, Polaris came away victorious. But the Polaris victory wasn’t the surprise story coming out of ERX. It was the fact that the victory didn’t go to Polaris favorites Ronnie Anderson or Andrew Carlson — or even Can-Am frontrunner Kyle Cheney.
Instead, it was everyman Robert Loire atop the podium: a full-time Polaris engineer who moonlights as a part-time off-road racer.
Not only did Loire outrace the Polaris favorites (Anderson and Carlson both suffered mechanical failures early in the race), but he also spent the entire race holding off a relentless attack from Can-Am driver Kyle Cheney, widely considered one of the best side-by-side drivers in the world. All this, en route to an incredible underdog victory and his first-ever pro race win.
That’s no small feat for a guy that had to report to the office first thing Monday morning.
Loire’s victory underscores the intensive passion and personal participation that powers Polaris’ entire product development and engineering team every day they come to work with a mindset on making the best off-road vehicles in the world, making it a company that truly practices what it preaches.
