Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

The battle between solid and IFS axles gets a little more fire this weekend, fueled in large part by guys like current KING of the Hammers Erik Miller. He battled it out all day with Shannon Campbell, at times literally bumping his way toward first place. In the end, Shannon took top honors with his IFS powered Ultra4, with Erik Miller just behind him at the finish line, taking home a 2nd place spot. While this one went to IFS, the close matchup will keep this debate living on (for now anyway) :) .

EDIT: Dust must still be getting to us, this shot is of none other than Greg Lundeen, yet another solid axle player!

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

Last weekend marked the second ever American Rocksports Challenge (ARSC), an Ultra4 short course meets man made rocks endurance competition. This years ARSC absolutely delivered, following all of last years strengths while addressing any small issues that existed before. The short course action was top notch, and more importantly the rock section was incredibly challenging, with multiple lines and bypasses to chose from. In the end, when the dust settled, we’re confident everyone left Miller Motorsports Park pumped up and ready to race this venue again.

We have plenty of photos and stories to share, and as we have done in the past, we’ll be posting a few photos a day throughout the week so as to best retell the action. For now, we’ll kick things off with the official Ultra4 scores.

Top honors went to Shannon Campbell, but it was far from a landslide. The top four were essentially neck and neck the entire race, which made from an awesome spectator event. We lead today’s blog post off with a shot of Brad Lovell and his Spider 9 powered Ultra4, who finished with a 4th place spot. This position will likely cinch the Pro Series title (top honors for all three events in series) for him and his team. This is highly unofficial of course, but based on series points it’s looking pretty good.

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

Lots of Ultra4 action heading your way, with the American Rocksports Challenge up next. Here’s a few details to get you ready for this weekend’s big race:

1) Where is it? Miller Motorsports Park in Toole, UT.

2) Race day? September 22nd, with registration and practice the day before. Race day should go as follows:

9 AM: 1st Prelim race – Top 1/2 of drivers go to Main Event. Bottom 1/2 go to LCQ.
Starting order determined by Friday qualifying rounds.

10:15 AM: 2nd Prelim race – Top ½ of drivers go to Main Event. Bottom 1/2 go to LCQ.
Starting order determined by Friday qualifying rounds.

11:30 – 12:00: Lunch

12:15 PM: LCQ Race. Top 4 drivers continue on to main event.

1:30 PM: Stock/Mod/UTV Race

3 PM: Main Event – Top Ultra4 Drivers from Prelims and LCQ will compete for Ultra4 American Rock Sports Champion Title

3) Live coverage? For those that can’t make it in person, no worries. We’ll be helping out with the official Ultra4 live coverage over at http://ultra4racing.com/live/. In addition, we’ll be sure to grab a few photos to share after the dust settles, so keep an eye on our blog after the race as well.

That about does it. Best of luck to all teams this weekend, we’re looking forward to another great race!

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

W.E.Rock’s Dirt Riot National Championship heads to Bridgeport, TX next month, October 13th to be exact. With an already packed Ultra4 & TORC competition schedule, we’ve only been able to make one Dirt Riot race this year, namely Mountain #1 in Moab, UT. So, we’re going to make every effort to catch this last race of the year, in person, so as to come back with some stories and photos to share right here on the blog.

Again, the final Dirt Riot race will be held in Bridgeport, TX on October 13th. The schedule of events should go as follows:

Saturday October 13
Race Day
8 a.m. Mandatory Drivers Meeting
9:00 Qualifying for U4 buggies only (Drivers may skip qualifying, will start at end of cars if skipped)
9:30 – 10:30 Trail classes/UTV race – One hour endurance race
11:00 – 1:00 – 4500/4600 class race – Two hour endurance race
2:00 – 5:00 – Ultra4 cars – Three hour endurance race
All finishes Grand Prix finish

We’re expecting a big turnout at this last race, so it should be a blast.

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

Be sure to check out the latest Crawl Magazine, issue 36 to be exact, for the 8 page article on Loren Healy and his Spider 9 powered Ultra4. Article written and shot by ace photographer Tim Magee, so needless to say there’s plenty of pretty pictures in this issue.