Some time past the half way point, Gary Ferravanti Sr. switched driver’s seat with his son, Gary Jr. It was awesome to watch because unless you knew ahead of time, the father and son team had nearly the exact same driving style at Glen Helen. Gary Sr. started the race, Gary Jr. finished, and together they grabbed a 4th place position.

Here’s a shot we grabbed of Loren Healy, former King of the Hammer’s KING, and last year’s Glen Helen Grand Prix winner. Loren ran this race very much like last year, keeping pace just a few behind first so as to push it hard in the last 30-45 minutes. No doubt this is a winning strategy at Glen Helen, unfortunately a last-minute issue with his rig had Loren in the pits with less than an hour left of racing. While he didn’t walk away as this years winner, he still managed to grab an 11th place spot.

Seems like every race Jason goes to, he manages to qualify first. He’s fast, real fast in fact, with his new IFS Ultra4 Spider 9 powered racer. Luck has not been on his side so far this year though, with new vehicle gremlins popping up each race he hits. As for Glen Helen last Saturday, where we took this shot above as Jason was staged in the pole position, he was the one to beat. Lap after lap, he furthered his first place lead and appeared unstoppable. Then, as often happens with vehicles at Glen Helen, Jason’s transmission went. We have no doubt, once Jason get’s his new machine dialed in, it will be unstoppable.

There were 47 drivers who took the course last night at the Ultra4 4WP Glen Helen Grand Prix, marking one of the largest turnouts we have seen since this years King of the Hammers. The event was timed to run right after an adjacent Lucas short course race, and with that race running a bit behind, Ultra4s took the course about 30 minutes late. This meant starting at 7pm, and running till 9:30pm.

And, just like at the Badlands, Ultra4s took the lights out to race far after the sun set. There’s something special about night races, not sure exactly what it is, but the sounds of engines, sirens, and fast moving Ultra4s in pitch black certainly has its appeal. While the cameras don’t like it, drivers and spectators seem to agree it is indeed epic.

As was the case last year at Glen Helen, the early race leaders were taken out by what we call the last 45 minutes of fatigue. It is in the last 45 minutes of the race where the Ultra4s really seem to be pushed to the limits, with overheated engines and blown transmissions lining the pits. We saw both Jason Scherer and Bill Baird in the lead for the entire 2/3’rds of the race, but a failed transmission took Jason clear out. Just like that, after having the lead the entire time. Right after, Bill suffered a fairly hard roll and although he walked away safe, the rig was done for the night.

As we got closer to the finish, it became clear that Nick Nelson and his Jimmy’s 4×4 Ultra4 racer, were in the clear for the win. He ran a solid, and consistent, race all night which tends to be the secret sauce for Glen Helen. Last year Loren Healy won, coming back from about 5th position to take the win in the last 30 minutes. A similar playout happened this year as well with Nick. Congrats to Nick for a very well deserved victory.

Also worth mentioning the Ultra4s had the opportunity to run the Lucas short course race as well. For fear of damaging their rigs prior to the Grand Prix, only 4-5 drivers decided to run the short course race. One of those drivers, Gary Ferravanti who’s rig is pictured above, ended up winning that race. In addition, Gary and his son, who drove the latter part of the Grand Prix, scored a 4th place position at the end of the night for the big race. Gary is one of our original testers for our Ultimate Unit Bearings (run on his front axle), and as it happens his first test with them was at last year’s Glen Helen race. He is still running on that same set of Ultimate Unit Bearings. Pretty cool.

So, that wraps up another Ultra4 competition. Night time racing doesn’t play well with pictures, so we’re not sure how many we came home with. We’ll be sure to post the few that we have throughout the week though. For now, here’s the final scores from Glen Helen.

Modified Results

Our small photo set from the 2012 Badlands Ultra4 competition at the Badlands Off Road Park in Attica, IN is now live on Flickr. All vehicles in this set are happily powered by Spidertrax Spider 9 axles and components. All photos shot by Thom Kingston of Spidertrax, licensed under Creative Commons 3.0, so feel free to download and share. All we ask for is credit :-) .

As the title suggests, the action doesn’t stop there. Tonight, Ultra4s are at it again at the Glen Helen raceway in California. Live coverage should be alive and well at http://ultra4racing.com/live when the race goes live at 6:30 pm. We’ll be there for the Ultra4 race, helping out teams and capturing the action as it happens. We’ll also be providing photos for the live coverage, so be sure to check it out to get a look at the race as it happens. Today’s schedule of events for Glen Helen are as follows (courtesy of Ultra4Racing.com):

2012 4WP Glen Helen Grand Prix
Saturday, July 21^st

• 6:30AM – Gates Open
• 7:30AM – 9AM 4 Wheel Parts Glen Helen Grand Prix UTV & Stock Class Race 
• 9AM – MANDATORY Lucas Oil Regional Series Drivers Meeting
  
• 9:30AM – Currie Enterprises Ultra4 Heat Race (6 laps)
• 9:45AM – 11:30AM Lucas Oil additional races Practice/Qualifying (4 laps)
• 12PM – Currie Enterprises Ultra4 Main Event ($250 entry fee w/ $100 going towards purse.  20 truck maximum for payout up to $2000!!  1st-50%, 2nd-30%, 3rd-20%)
• 12:15PM – 2:15PM Lucas Oil Additional Heat Races (6 laps)
• 2:30PM – 5:45PM Lucas Oil Main Events
• 5:45PM – 6:15PM Lucas Oil Awards
• 6:30PM – 9PM**4 Wheel Parts Glen Helen Grand Prix Ultra 4 Race** no break 
• 9PM – ? Awards and celebration

As far as turnout, sounds like this is going to be one big race! According to a post by Ultra4 over on Pirate4x4, here’s a list of already registered drivers:1 Clint Ellett Mod
2 Larry McRae Mod
3 Mitch Funk Mod
4 Troy Stone Mod
5 Chris Marquart stock
6 Gerald Lee stock
7 Jeff Rector stock
8 Josiah Begay stock
9 Brian Rector UTV
10 Logan Gastel UTV
11 Dean Bulloch UTV
12 Todd Stephenson UTV
13 Alex Hardaway U4
14 Andy Brown U4
15 Bill Baird U4 qualified
16 Brandon Heyes U4
17 Brent Goegebuer U4
18 Brian Shirley U4 qualified
19 Chris Garrison U4
20 Chris Midkiff U4
21 Cody Addington U4 qualified
22 Cottin Rodd U4 qualified
23 Daren Runion U4
24 Darren Henke U4 qualified
25 David Ashman U4
26 Eric Anderson U4
27 Gary Ferravanti U4 qualified
28 Greg Lundeen U4
29 Hal Deschamp U4
30 Jason Scherer. U4 qualified
31 Jim Brown U4
32 Kevin Sacalas U4
33 Kevin Yoder U4
34 Levi Shirley U4 qualified
35 Loren Healy U4 qualified
36 Matt Messer U4 qualified
37 Michael Amaral U4
38 Nick Campbell U4
39 Paul Garner U4
40 Richie Carter U4
41 Rick Mooneyham U4 qualified
42 Scott Ward U4 qualified
43 Shannon Campbell U4 qualified
44 Shawn Rants U4
45 Todd McCullen U4
46 Tom Wayes U4
47 Warren Thomas U4
48 JT Stephens U4
49 Marcos Gomez U4
50 Jon Cagliero U4
51 Matt Nieman U4
52 TJ Flores U4
53 Nick Nelson U4 qualified
54 Kevin Gamble U4
55 Randy Avery  U4

No doubt this is going to be one EPIC race. Alright, that’s it for now, we’re off to Glen Helen. Hope to see you at the race, and if you can’t make it, hope to see you online at http://ultra4racing.com/live/ by 6:30 pm.