WHO IS CAYDEN MACCACHREN?

WHO IS CAYDEN MACCACHREN?

In his third year of UTV racing, Cayden MacCachren won the 2021 World Off-Road Championship Series Pro Stock 1000 title in his rookie year, winning six rounds. Not only that, Cayden raced his normally aspirated RS1 to third in Pro Production Turbo points. Before that, Cayden raced to the 2019 WORCS Stock 1000 Championship and then the 2020 Stock 1000 and Production 1000 titles, winning all but six 2020 rounds. MacCachren was also an Impact Award honoree in the Off-Road Motorsports Hall of Fame for 2021. How did he get so fast so quickly in his racing career?

 

 

OFF-ROAD RACING ROOTS RUN DEEP

Cayden didn’t get into UTVs until 2016, but he grew up in an off-road racing family and is a third-generation enthusiast from Nevada. His dad is trophy truck legend Rob MacCachren, and 2022 marks Rob’s 40th year of desert and short-course racing. The son of a Las Vegas construction contractor, Rob first raced a buggy in 1982. “One building Dad owned had a speed shop that sold buggy parts, and Dad ended up buying the shop when I was 16. He asked me if I wanted to try off-road racing, so we raced a local event with 60-mile laps. He drove the first two laps, and I drove the last three. We ended up sixth, and all my lap times were faster than his,” Rob said. The teenager was hooked.

 

He learned how to read terrain and hone his speed, but he also learned how to make smart decisions and avoid mistakes. Rob raced SNORE in 1982 and also short-course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. At a Mickey Thompson Grand Prix in Houston, Al Unser didn’t make practice, so Anderson (RJ and Ronnie’s Dad) found Rob in the grandstands and told him he was driving. That turned into a Grand National Sport Truck ride for the next year and a half. Rob watched Rod Millen and learned his short-course cornering techniques, and he got Robby Gordon’s ride in 1991 for MTGP and SODA races. Later, he drove for the LeDucs and learned how to load the front end, rear end and sides by watching Jack Johnson.

 

Rob started his own team in 1996 and went on to win 23 championships and nine Baja 1000s. He won nine straight Pro 2 races at Crandon and added a 10th in a Pro 4, scoring his 200th BF Goodrich win. MacCachren set record after record, scoring three straight Borg Warner Cups (’99–’01), three straight TORC Pro 2 titles (’08-’10), and three consecutive Baja 1000 wins (’14–’16). His career win record is 310, with the latest victory coming at the 2021 Mint 400. He was inducted into the Off-Road Motor-sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

 

 

Cayden grew up riding mountain bikes with his dad and dirt bikes in the cooler months, but they didn’t get into UTVs until 2016 with a Polaris RZR. Cayden didn’t show much interest in trophy trucks and desert racing until then. They started looking around for a used racing UTV and hooked up with Mark Holz, who told them he was building a 2019 RZR RS1 and would give them a good deal on it. In his first year as a pro, Cayden was sponsored by Polaris, Fox, BFG, Vision Wheels and Impact, and he co-drove to the SCORE San Felipe 250 victory with Jagged X.

INSIDE CAYDEN’S WORCS-WINNING RS1

Much like Braden Chiaramonte’s GAS-winning RZR RS1 (December, 2021), Cayden’s ride starts with HRP’s Short-Course kit with stock-width suspension arms and Fox Factory RC2 Podium shocks with Dirt Bagz covers. Front wheels are stock with OMF beadlocks for lightness, and he runs Vision beadlocks in the back with BFG KM3 28×10-14 tires at most races, but he runs lighter radial T/As at Primm and the Orleans. He runs RCV axles in the rear, along with CMI carriers and hubs. “At Idaho, we broke a rear hub after contact in the Turbo class. They don’t like it when he’s in front of them,” Rob said.

 

Both Holz and Cayden’s grandmother said, “Keep it simple, stupid,” and the #102 RS1 reflects that advice. Rob also lives by “To finish first, first you must finish,” and he spots for Cayden in WORCS. The RS1 has a CMI exhaust and a DynoJet tuner with tunes by Benchmark Performance in Romona, California. Weddle Industries does the transmission and diffs, and Cayden runs Polaris military MRZR wheel bearings.

See more about the RZR RS1 here: 2022 POLARIS RZR RS1 – UTV Action Magazine