Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

We have a few photos to share from last weekends Ultra4s at Hot Springs Race @ blog.spidertrax.com ; as always please download and share. Congrats of course to Clay Gilstrap for winning the 4400 race TWO years in a row now. Just so happens to be three years in a row for his Spider 9 IFS powered Tribe 4×4 built Ultra4 racer, says a little something about driver and vehicle. Also congrats to Matt Howell of 4500 and Kent Fults of 4800 in winning their respective classes. Right to the point, Hot Springs is one of our favourite races. With a near 15% increase in drivers this year over last, it would seem the race at Hot Springs is only getting bigger & better. Congrats to the winning drivers and teams, and we GREATLY appreciate all the support everyone has for us here at Spidertrax. With that, back to work we go. Read more…

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

Found a few spiders in the forests of Hot Springs, felt best to share those findings here.

What a great race! For those Ultra4 drivers that haven’t yet made the trip out to Hot Springs, Arkansas, add it to your bucket list. The course has everything an Ultra4 racer desires, and the weather this year was just perfect (that’s new, but we’ll take it).

Congrats to Clay & Lindsay Gilstrap for grabbing their first ever Ultra4 win. Followed right behind the Gilstraps was Levi Shirely and Derek West, which *cough cough* secures another podium sweep for Spider 9 axles. Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Read more…

Spidertrax | Thom Kingston | CC BY 3.0

We have two Ultra4 series finales dropping this weekend, if only we could be at two places at one time! Vimioso Portugal is hosting the final Ultra4 European race of 2015, The King of Portugal (KOP), and we’re already seeing the influx of King Shock tuning on our Facebook feed. The best rocks outside of King of the Hammers, KOP promises an insane go fast meets technical rocks extravaganza. By Saturday UTC+00:00, we’ll have our 2015 Ultra4 European champion, and we can’t wait to see how things play out. Best of luck to all KOP racers, be fast and be safe!

Which leaves us here in the States, as we get ready to close out the 2015 Ultra4 eastern series with Ultra4s at Hot Springs AR. Ultra4s at Hot Springs is one of our favorite racing venues, delivering a perfect blend of tree dodging meets rock racing meets holy humidity racing. The eastern series title is a close one, too close to call and by no means guaranteed for any one driver, so this weekend’s Hot Springs results will be key for many.

Hard to pick which of two great events to attend, but it’s been awhile since we’ve seen our east coast Ultra4 family, so Hot Springs for us it is. We’ll be there in full force, and we’ll have some stories and photos to share when the mud settles. Here’s the published schedule of events for Hot Springs, courtesy of Ultra4Racing.com.

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Friday September 11th, 2015
9AM – 2PM Course Review and Registration
3PM – 5PM Qualifying for ULTRA4s
6PM Mandatory Drivers Meeting – all classes

Saturday September 12th, 2015
9AM – 10AM UTV Competition

11:00 AM – 4:00 PM 4400, 4500, 4600, 4800 Competition

4:30 PM – Awards Ceremony at Pavillion Immediately following ULTRA4 Races

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With that, two quick notes for you seasoned Hot Springs racers.

1. 11am – 4pm likely doesn’t translate to King of Hot Springs. We’d expect, after talking with Shannon Welch, this isn’t a full-on 5 hr straight endurance race, where drivers are left bringing their vehicles home in pieces. Rather drivers will have 5 hrs to complete a set number of laps. How many laps, that still hasn’t been decided as of this post. Last year we were near 5 laps, and hearing that this year’s course is a bit longer (roughly 1-2 miles longer) we may end up with a 4 lap race. That, or a 5 lap… or maybe a 6 lap race… all still up in the air. Guessing Friday’s qualifying will iron that out a bit more.
2. No SRRS Rock Bouncer vs Ultra4 Shootout. That’s a bummer, but understandable given that the SRRS guys have had a crazy tight schedule, with races the weekend before and after the Ultra4 race. It is what it is, hopefully we can see this come back together next year, the shootout has been part of the Ultra4 Hot Springs history and gave birth to the Ultra4 vs Rock Bouncer KOH shootout. Always a blast,rock bouncers are some of the coolest guys & gals to race with, so we’ll keep this one on the radar for a 2016 return.

We’ll wrap it up there. Looking forward to seeing all you east coast racers this weekend!