RWD Racing Kawasaki H2 Make Debut at the MINT 400

With a long heritage of off-road racing that includes countless wins and championships Kawasaki is looking to break new ground in 2025 with the announcement of RWD Racing Kawasaki which will compete in the UTV Open Class at select UTV races and kick-off its season at the historic Mint 400 in Primm, Nevada on March 6-7, 2025.

Russ Wernimont Designs (RWD) and Kawasaki began working together in 2021 and immediately put their Teryx KRX®1000 side x side on top of the podium with driver Carson Wernimont. Over the last four years, RWD and Kawasaki have continued to show the capabilities of their Kawasaki to capture race wins and championships in the naturally aspirated UTV Pro NA class. For 2025, RWD Racing Kawasaki is taking on the challenge of competing in UTV Pro Open class with a purpose-built supercharged Kawasaki side x side race machine.

Kawasaki has been developing supercharged engines in various powersports platforms over the last decade starting with the 300+ hp Kawasaki Ninja H2®R motorcycle in 2015. Through unprecedented collaboration between multiple divisions within the Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. including Powersports, Gas Turbine & Machinery, Aerospace Company, and Corporate Technology Divisions development now includes side x sides engines.

RWD Racing Kawasaki will be a part of Kawasaki’s continued supercharged engine development with a new 999cc in-line 4 supercharged side x side engine as part of Project H2. Carson Wernimont and co-driver Brady Kelly will line up for qualifying on Thursday, March 6^th in Primm, NV to debut their new UTV Pro Open race machine with their sights set on the podium of The Mint 400 on Friday, March 7^th.

“We’ve spent countless hours working on this new Kawasaki race car and are ready to line up at The Mint 400. This race has so much history and it would be awesome to stand on the podium here. We’ve tested in our development and now we are ready for the ultimate test of racing.”

            -Carson Wernimont, Driver

“Kawasaki has given us a great platform to build off of as we tackle the incredible challenge of competing in the UTV Pro Open Class. Our team has built this race car from the ground up and the support from Kawasaki has been amazing. We are really looking forward to helping Kawasaki with its engine development and have fun chasing race wins.”

            – Russ Wernimont, Team Owner

Editorial Notes:

So what, if anything new have we learned about the new Supercharged H2 KRX by looking at the Russ Wernimont Designs (RWD) / Kawasaki Project H2 race car?

1. Wheelbase looks to be that of a 4-seater. Coupled with the only images we’ve seen of the new vehicle leads us to believe Kawasaki will release a 4-seater first, which is contrary to every other sport release from all manufacturers including Kawasaki. But it also makes some sense because 4-seat sport UTVs are sometimes more popular is the 200+ HP market.
2. The Project H2 999cc in-line 4 supercharged side x side engine is definitely mated to a traditional CVT.
3. The RWD race car is in the Open Class at the Mint 400 which allows lots of customized (non-OEM) parts, including chassis. This car has highly customized, one-off shocks and custom arms which include a shock mounted to the front/lower arm.
4. Wheel bolt pattern is 5 lug
5. Basically look at this race car to be a coming out party for the engine and transmission – “Project H2”. In addition, the basic chassis dimensions and suspension mounting points may mimic a factory 4-seat chassis. But everything else should be considered highly customized race car stuff.