Gone, but still Balling
Meet Blue Ball
Blue Ball began with a familiar piece of Racer Math: buy the cheap one, modify it and somehow spend less.
That is not what happened.
I found a deeply discounted 2021 Can-Am Maverick X3 X RS on Facebook in stock form with the small factory wheels. I had recently driven a side-by-side at an Eagles Canyon Raceway off-road open house and was immediately hooked. It was fast, loose, physical and completely different from a road-course car.
I wanted more of that feeling without spending a fortune.
Blue Ball eventually taught me two things. Dirt driving can make you a better road-course driver. A discounted race car is often just the deposit on the expensive race car.
It also accidentally named nearly every vehicle that came after it.
Blue Ball introduced me to off-road driving, started the Ball naming system and proved that a discounted race car is rarely the cheap option.
The Day Dirt Made Sense
My first taste of short-course driving came at an ECR off-road open house. Most of my performance-driving education had happened on pavement, where consistency, reference points and repeatable grip matter.
Dirt changed the rules. The surface moved. Grip changed from one lap to the next. The vehicle leaned, pitched and used far more suspension travel than anything I had driven on a road course. The fastest way through a corner was not always the tidiest one.
It felt chaotic—and I loved it.
I began thinking about how dirt could improve my road-course driving. If I could learn to read grip by feel and become comfortable with a vehicle moving underneath me, I would be better prepared when a track car stepped outside its normal window.
The X3 looked like an affordable way to learn.
One off-road open house was enough to turn curiosity into another completely reasonable motorsports purchase.
The Name That Started the Ball Pit
I already owned Golf Ball, and the new side-by-side was blue.
While joking with a friend about naming every vehicle after a different kind of ball, he offered the obvious—and slightly inappropriate—answer: Blue Ball.
The name was funny enough to stick. More importantly, it established the pattern.
The First Ball and Snow Ball had not carried Ball names originally. The Jeep never received one. Ball Caddy existed before Blue Ball but was named afterward. Once Blue Ball joined Golf Ball, the idea stopped being a one-off joke and became the organizing system for the fleet.
There was no brand strategy meeting. There was a blue side-by-side, a joke between friends and a decision that became increasingly difficult to reverse.
The First Drive and the First Roll
Nine days after buying Blue Ball, on the opening lap of the first day I drove it, I rolled it.
I entered a corner too quickly and treated the X3 too much like a road-course car. I carried familiar pavement technique into a vehicle with far more suspension travel and a higher center of gravity. Trail braking set the nose and allowed the rear to rise. Once the weight transfer and momentum took over, I could not stop the roll.
The incident was not catastrophic, and I finished the day. My ego sustained most of the damage.
It was still an immediate lesson: experience in one discipline does not make you experienced in another. I had skipped directly to confidence.
Blue Ball rolled on the opening lap of my first drive—an efficient way to learn that road-course technique does not transfer directly to a side-by-side.
The Cheap Build Became a $13,000 Build
After the first rollover, I decided the answer was more safety, more control and a proper short-course setup.
The first round of repairs and upgrades added roughly $13,000. Blue Ball received an S3 cage, driver door frame, Sparco seats with custom brackets, six-point harnesses, a window net and fire extinguisher. The build also included Raceline wheels, Maxxis Liberty tires, short-course shock work, steering changes, an AIM display with belt-temperature monitoring, cooling improvements, brake service and fresh fluids.
The work made the car safer and more capable. It also destroyed the theory that starting with a discounted X3 would create a cheap race vehicle.
Detailed build-cost worksheet: X3 Build
A wider brake pedal became one of the best inexpensive changes because it made left-foot braking easier. I am still not good at left-foot braking, but Blue Ball forced me to practice it. Later, the Wilwood master cylinder gave the pedal the firmer response I wanted.
Seats, harnesses, a proper cage and short-course upgrades made Blue Ball more capable—but definitely not cheaper.
Training, Jumping and Learning to Fly
Before attempting a race, I put time into learning the rebuilt car.
I rented another X3 and trained with R&R Off-Road. The coaching helped me understand jumping, rotation and how to work with long-travel suspension rather than asking it to behave like a sports car.
The first jump was equal parts excitement and disbelief. I had never intentionally put anything with wheels into the air.
Jumping eventually became one of my favorite parts of owning Blue Ball. One of the best memories was sharing it with my son. The vehicle that had humbled me also created a completely new way for us to have fun together.
R&R Off-Road helped me learn to jump and rotate an X3 before I tried taking it racing.
The Second Roll Was the Serious One
Training improved my confidence. It did not make every dirt surface predictable.
Before my first race, the course had been freshly watered. I went out for a practice lap without experience on that surface and carried confidence built in drier conditions into a corner with completely different grip.
I sent it too hard.
Blue Ball barrel-rolled off the course and landed back on its wheels. This rollover was much more violent than the first and genuinely frightening.
The mistake was not simply driving too fast. It was failing to reset for the conditions. On dirt, usable grip can change every lap. I knew that principle from wet road courses and still let confidence outrun observation.
The second repair added roughly another $8,000, including another S3 cage, radiator work, a Wilwood master cylinder and a full wrap to cover the bruises.
I repaired the car and drove it again, but the equation had changed. Blue Ball was fast and exciting. It was also easy to roll, expensive to fix and no longer the platform I wanted for casual dirt-driving practice.
I never finished a race.
The second rollover clarified that Blue Ball was too expensive and risky for the kind of dirt driving I wanted to do.
What Blue Ball Taught Me
Blue Ball delivered the car-control education I wanted, although the tuition was higher than planned.
It taught me to read grip through the steering wheel, seat and pedals instead of relying only on pavement markers. It made slides feel normal, forced me to practice left-foot braking and showed me that a different vehicle can require completely different corner-entry technique.
Most importantly, it reminded me to enter every unfamiliar discipline as a beginner.
The dirt work helped my road-course driving. I became more comfortable when a car moved around, better at feeling grip change and less likely to overreact to a slide.
I just needed a cheaper and lower-risk way to keep learning.
From Blue Ball to Low Ball
The answer arrived after I drove a GR Corolla on the ECR rally course.
It delivered the sliding and car-control practice I enjoyed in Blue Ball, but in a conventional car that felt more relevant to my road-course goals. I stopped looking for another serious side-by-side platform and started looking for almost any inexpensive running car that could become an affordable rally build.
That search landed on a 2008 Mazdaspeed3: Low Ball.
Low Ball preserved the best part of the experiment—dirt, sliding, wrenching, learning and laughing with friends—without pretending I needed to become a professional off-road racer.
Blue Ball was sold to my garage neighbor at ECR, so I still get to see it. That feels like the right ending. Blue Ball did not disappear. It simply stopped being my tuition payment.
Blue Ball at a Glance
Year and model: 2021 Can-Am Maverick X3 X RS Turbo RR
Engine: 900cc turbocharged Rotax ACE three-cylinder
Output: Approximately 195 horsepower
Transmission: QRS-X CVT with high, low and reverse
Drivetrain: Selectable two- and four-wheel drive with Smart-Lok front differential
Final role: Short-course learning platform
Major safety equipment: S3 cage, Sparco seats, six-point harnesses, window net and fire extinguisher
First build and repair round: Approximately $13,000
Second rollover repair: Approximately $8,000
Competition result: No finish; rolled during practice before the first race
Best result: Better car control, unforgettable jumps and the idea for Low Ball
Current status: Sold, but still living at ECR
Keep Exploring
Meet Low Ball — The inexpensive rally-car experiment that grew out of Blue Ball’s lessons.
Meet Golf Ball — The road-course car that existed before the Ball Pit had a naming strategy.
Meet The First Ball — The car that began the track journey before receiving a Ball name.
Meet the Balls — Explore the full fleet, including the vehicles that are gone but still balling.
Keep the lesson, change the platform
Dirt stayed. The expensive side-by-side did not.
Blue Ball taught car control, created unforgettable stories and pointed directly toward a simpler rally experiment.