Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0
Action, suspense, nail-biting to the very end… last weekend’s Ultra4 MetalCloak Stampede packed in more thrilling plot twists than a Tom Clancy novel. It was a racer’s race, marked now as the largest of the entire Ultra4 season outside of King of the Hammers. While the race itself spanned two days, you didn’t have to wait to the end for the excitement to begin. No, this story grabbed you at page one. Read more…
It’s day one, and as often is the case for new uncharted racing venues, drivers and spectators have that big first day unanswered question “Where to I go?”. You have to follow your instincts, and GPS, so that first racing morning I ventured off to the “official” start line, which was a solid hike from the main pits and away from pretty much everything else. It was a gamble, but man did that gamble paid off.
With Scotland’s flag in hand, Maxxis girl Rachel Robertson counted down the times, waving on each racer in 2 minute progressions. Rachel is from Glasgow, and while I found most Scottish accents easy to understand during my trip, Rachel was the exception. She was the nicest and sweetest girl I encountered the entire time, but I couldn’t understand a single thing she was saying. It was awesome.
It gets better. American racers Levi Shirley & Terry Madden were at the very end of the line, so I waited, excited to see just how they handled the accent of Glasgow. I only had the one mic, so you can’t hear Levi & Terry, but the text overlays are taken straight from the cockpit. It was a great way to start the day.
Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0
Next up in the 2014 Ultra4 tour is the MetalCloak Stampede, kicking off this Friday and Saturday in Rancho Cordova, CA. There are, get this, over 95 drivers confirmed to take the field. Yes, NINETY FIVE, making the MetalCloak Stampede the single largest Ultra4 race outside of King of the Hammers. This tight (now wickedly tight) short course style field combines lap based endurance racing with strategically placed rock gardens to be raced, crawled, and jumped over. It has that nice balance Ultra4 balance of race and rocks, and when you couple that with thousands of cheering fans, it becomes a bit more clear why this race is becoming the next big thing. Read more…
Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0
When we set out to build the markets strongest off-road unit bearing, little did we know just how much impact our creation would have. We’ve seen our Ultimate Unit Bearings pop up in just about every application you could think of including one of our latest finds, a back-flipping Mini Cooper ( http://wp.me/pCSYo-Rp ). Time to add-in another unique installment, custom one-off Wide 5 edition Ultimate Unit Bearings. Complete with a massive Wide 5 bolt pattern and integrated rear mounted brake hat register, these in-house designed & manufactured Ultimate Unit Bearings will certainly grab anyones attention. Have a unique bolt pattern you’re after, send us an email and let us know. We’d love to help out!
Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0
We’re wrapping up our 2014 King of the Glens trip with 10 of our favorite shots. There’s plenty more to go through, and in typical fashion we’ll be posting more as time allows throughout the race season, but for now you can download and share our favorites in full resolution on Flickr ( https://flic.kr/s/aHsjXQrSzh ) .
Next up, the 2014 Metalcloak Stampede this weekend, June 6th – June 7th. The Metalcloak Stampede is currently shaping up to be the largest single Ultra4 race outside of King of the Hammers, with 90+ drivers already registered. It’s going to be big, literally. We’ll be there, stay tuned for updates.
