Brian Shirley was one of our very first Ultimate Unit Bearing prototype testers. It was October of last year where he first put our new design to the test, during the 2011 Glen Helen Grand Prix. His maiden voyage was the day before the big race, where drivers had a chance to both test and qualify. About an hour or so after heading out, we see Brian Shirley’s rig coming back to pits, on a fork lift, with a missing wheel. We could see Brian riding in the lift, safe and sound, but clearly something went terribly wrong.

We live and breath engineering, from morning to night and beyond, so needless to say our heads were racing at this point. This prototype was over 3 years in the making, with countless hours of R&D to ensure everything was absolutely perfect. How, oh how, could Brian get this prototype to fail the first time out???

As the fork lift got closer, it became clear our engineering worries were soon to be eased. Brian had suffered a very hard high speed roll during qualifying, and to no surprise damage insued. His wheel was literally in pieces, rotor bent, housing tweaked, but from a visiual appearance the prototypte Ultimate Unit Bearing was intact and looking good. We removed it, inspected it for play, and wouldn’t you know his Ultimate Unit Bearing was as tight as new.

Brian not only raced Glen Helen the next day on that same Ultimate Unit Bearing, he has been racing every Ultra4 and W.E.Rock Dirt Riot race ever since on that same bearing. It’s still running strong, as tight as the day he first installed it.

Good times.