UTV ADDICTION – RIDING THE WAVE OF A NEW SPORT

RENO, NV (March 4, 2019) – In the world of off road racing and off-roading UTV’s are exploding in numbers. These fast, agile machines are changing the sport and local shop UTV Addiction is riding this wave.

UTV Addiction owner Robert Gott stands with his sales manager Otto Bartel in the showroom of the business.

For owner Robert Gott off-roading has been a life long interest.

“I grew up in the Sierra Nevadas in a Jeep family,” he said. “Started out when everybody had CJ’s and things like that. When I got older and my license I started to build crawlers and as those progressed I wanted to go a bit faster. So when the Razors came out in the UTV market I started taking a pretty good interest in those.”

The big change came during a Jeep function in Utah.

“My wife and I were in Moab for Jeep Safari and we’re like 20-miles back on Old Spike, which is like an all day event in a Jeep. We got passed by a family in Razors like eight of them, we watched them zoom out into the sunset, and turn around at a point we’re trying to get to all day. They stopped, had a drink, came back and we’re still on our way out,” he said. “My wife looked at me after bouncing all day in the Jeep, she’s like ‘why don’t we get one of those.’ That’s what started it.”

Gott explained when UTV’s started appearing they weren’t always received well in the off-roading community.

“Everybody used to call these golf karts, glorified golf karts and I was one of them. ‘Who wants a freaking golf kart with a gas motor,’ then I drove one and my whole world was flipped upside down. I was a quad guy, a dirt bike guy, you know if I was going off road and didn’t have a Jeep I want to go fast,” he said.

Gott admitted having a family and getting older has changed things. “With age comes a cage type of situation.” New to the sport he faced a steep learning curve in an area new to everyone.

He studied and read everything available then when visiting a shop would find they knew less than he did about UTVs. This obsession turned into a business idea for renting units to visitors so they could enjoy what Northern Nevada has to offer.

“I started out with a couple of units and my idea was simple; one rental a month would make a payment on a car, two rentals I get a couple of extra bucks in my pocket for my problem and I was able to buy parts.

“My wife Klya kind of teased me about it, ‘you know you have an addiction, you have a problem.’ With Jeep parts it’s like you know I’ll run to Summit, get a couple of things but with UTV parts, it was such a new sport, I literally read every forum, all the stuff, going to all the shows,” he said.

At that time he worked with AT&T corporate as head of their marketing department. This meant he could work at home and after that was completed, between 10 or 11 o’clock, he could dedicate hours to his touring business.

Soon he was building his own cars then began to get requests for work or modifications they wanted done.

Front door of UTV Addiction located at the northwest corner of Mill Street and Terminal Way.

“So fast forward to 2015 and I had left my full time job at AT&T after almost 10 years and opened up UTV Addiction,” he said. “UTV stands for Ultimate Terrain Vehicle or Utility Type Vehicle, depends on who you ask and what time frame they came into the port.”

Another term used is “Side-by-Side,” or they might be called a Razor or Rino. He added most people refer to UTV’s as Razors since they were the first high performance vehicles right out of the box.

“My idea originally was to offer one of each manufacturer nice major vehicles as a rental. So people could come and rent them before they buy them,” he said.

He mentioned getting away from that because not all the vehicles suit beginners, which is the down side of the sport. As Gott explained some people that buy good off-road vehicles really shouldn’t be doing off road as some UTV’s are so fast they can be dangerous in the hands of an inexperience driver.

Robert Gott offers some advice to Yuriy Kovolov, who is workig on his UTV.

He still offers a midrange of 800 to 1,000cc models however the custom side of the business has taken off and led him into another area.

“So we support racers in Best in the Desert, which we’re heading for the Mint this week, as well racers in VORRA and now Lucas and the Norcal Rock Racing, which is Ultra4,” he said. “We got back from King of the Hammers as we assisted down there and we’re looking forward to the spring series with Norcal as it’s right here at home.”

Since he opened UTV Addiction the business and technology has continued to change, which has led to things that must be overcome.

“The major challenge is that the sport is so young. The product innovation is changing everyday so I have customers that come in and, ‘hey have you seen the new ABC from XYZ,’ and you’re like ‘no I haven’t’ and I’m slammed working 70 hours a week. You miss product releases even when I go to all the shows I miss all the stuff. That’s probably one of the biggest hurdles is trying to stay up with everything that’s available.”

Another part of the business is how its changed from when there were only five or ten shops like his in the country but now everybody wants a piece of the market. Not to mention the impact UTV’s have had on the market as a whole.

One example cited was the Sandsport Super Show where five years ago he explained it was 90% Sand Rails or Quads and about 2% UTV’s. That show has now expanded two to three times larger but these days it’s 99% UTV’s.

“It’s so hard to stay up and keep up with the technology of the sport because the manufacturers are really pushing innovation. Polaris in the beginning, and that’s why everybody kept calling them Razors were pushing for the performance side of it. They had the long travel Walker Evans shocks but you had no turbos until 2016, now every car is Turbo.”

Looking around he said that Baja is about the only racing event still as large as it used to be. That event continues to have Trophy Trucks, Class 10 Buggies and other classes as well but every other off-road sport has been taken over by UTV’s like the Vegas to Reno race staged by Best in the Desert.

“Four years ago they had 25 UTV’s but now they cap it at 250 entries for all classes. It’s pretty crazy as in 2014 you’d just show up and in the UTV Class you prayed to God you’d finish and didn’t run out of time,” he said. “We finished 19th in 2018 and had a finish time around 13 hours but we did have a roll over at about 100 miles”

Now with so many entries everyone is going to have to qualify and be sure they can get through tech as this is becoming a big deal.

He added that while the sport continues to grow what’s happening is that the UTV classes are drawing guys that were in the heyday back in the 80’s and 90’s. While there are still corporations wanting to sponsor the younger guys in Gott’s opinion is anybody’s game now.

“The reason why this sport is so appealing to others because back in the day everybody wanted a V-8 Sandrail, or a long travel sort of class buggy but you had to build them. You either had to be super rich or that was your only hobby and the only thing you could afford,” he said. “Well now you can virtually get that same power to weight ratio like a 700 or 800 horsepower Sandrail in a UTV, you’re financed, making payments in 30 minutes and out the door in an hour. Anybody can buy one.”

Currently his time is taken up getting ready to leave Wednesday for the Mint 400. This will allow him to get set up Thursday and ready for tech on Friday, which is also when the traditional parade of racers on the Strip happens. After they everyone moves to Primm but this year the event has expanded to Saturday and Sunday, when the UTV’s race.

Racing on Sunday then getting back home will be a bit of a challenge but the shop is closed on Monday’s.

Looking at the sport Gott doesn’t see it slowing down anytime soon. And with the focus on innovation, improvements as well as increased capabilities of the machines costs are going up so what used to cost say $15,000 just a few years ago now goes for $20,000 and higher.

UTV Addiction is a family owned business with Gott the only partner but is very thankful for the support from his wife Kyla and family. Both his brother Ryan, the vice president, and his father Mark have helped with the growth of the shop and work with him every week as does Sales Manager Otto Bartel.

Asked about the future he said, “I’m incredibility optimistic. When I had a business plan written down I wanted to be in a newer building in five years and this busy in seven. We’re in our fourth year of actual shop business and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon.”

For Robert Gott the future looks bright as he rides the wave of increasing popularity UTV’s have created. For further information please check the shop’s website at www.utv-addiction.com or you can give them a call at 775-813-8882.

OTHER RACING NEWS:

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Our first sponsor is Reno Motorsports. Not only do they have about anything a rider might want or need and the store also has a full service shop.

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If you are in to karting or want the most cost effective way to start racing please check out Nevada Kart Sport, the only full service kart shop in this region. Owner Rodney Rivera will maintain, build or store your kart.

The shop is located at 894 Deming Way, off East Glendale, in Sparks, Nevada. The shop’s website is www.nevadakartsport.com, and the phone number is 775-219-4184.

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