Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

In our first race recap earlier this week, we touched a bit on the camaraderie that makes Ultra4 so unique. Enter the spotters of The Wall, a Badlands tradition that found it’s way to this race since inception. On a drivers 1st lap, when they make their initial attempt at the Wall, they often leave their co-drivers/spotters behind. It’s a bit of strategy, no doubt, time spent getting in and out of the vehicle is costly and co-drivers are most needed at The Wall anyway. Since this is a lap based race, spotters can wait at The Wall and be immediately on call when their team returns on their next lap.

So, one may expect these spotters to just sit back and wait for their respective Ultra4 to make a return trip before getting back to work. No such deal. This year, we had Scott Decker (Mike Colville’s co-driver) & Casey Trujillio (Loren Healy’s co-driver), both of which just so happened to be the first two spotters at The Wall. For the next 2+ hours, these guys would work their asses off… winching, recovering, and just making sure every racer was at his or her best.

Pictured here is Scott Decker, running a winch line not for his own driver but for Erik Miller. These guys pushed themselves as if every vehicle was part of their own team. It’s an awesome tradition, the one at Badlands I most look forward to every year.