Have a very happy 4th of July. We have the day off today, but we’ll be back in action tomorrow, July 5th.

It’s been a long time coming, and we’re happy to say the search for a new shop is over. Yesterday afternoon, we closed on a new building for Spidertrax. Two and a half times the size of our current shop, the extra space is a welcome, and highly needed, change. It will be a few months before we settle in, so you can still find us at our Longmont location. We’ll be sure to post updates as we get closer though.

Thanks to all of our clients, employees, and fans for helping make this happen. We couldn’t have done it without you.

It was a busy weekend, but we’re now wrapping up the first set of prototype Pro Series Rotors. Next up, double disc grinding, then they’ll be ready for Glen Helen. Be sure to check out yesterday’s blog post for more rotor details.

We’re hard at work this weekend, continuing to dive into prototyping our next generation Ultra4 rotor. This all started back with Brad Lovell’s Pro Light, where we prototyped a heat-treated, stainless steel, double disc ground 1/4″ thick rotor. Essentially, an over the top performance rotor that to date, has helped power Brad to two TORC 1st place finishes this year alone, most recently at Crandon. As exciting as this rotor design was, we skipped calculating the costs as in the end, it would likely not make financial sense for an Ultra4. Sure, it works well, but that doesn’t mean another version couldn’t performance just as well at a fraction of the cost.

And now we enter this weekend. Above, you’re getting a glimpse at what we envision our upcoming Ultra4 Pro Series Rotor to be. Steel construction just like our current large diameter brake rotors, but with a new less aggressive, but arguably more effective, combination hole and partial depth slot pattern, finished off with true double disc grinding just as we had done with Brad. In the end, the extra manufacturing will add some cost to our traditional rotor, but it should be reasonable and affordable, especially considering the added advantages for the now blended mix of Ultra4 terrains.

The set we’re finishing up now will go under Jason Scherer’s IFS racer for testing at Glen Helen on July 21st. We’re confident they will performance as well as expected, but in the end Jason’s racer will be the evidence of that.

More Ultra4 action heading your way, as teams soon hit the road for Badlands Off Road Park. We’ve received the following schedule of events yesterday, and yes the times are correct. This will be a dusk / night event for Ultra4s, mixing up the usual daytime action. We’ll be there in typical fashion, providing photos for the official Ultra4 live coverage and hopefully coming back with a few more photos to share here. More details to follow.

Thursday, July 11th
5:00PM – Badlands Off Road Park closes to the public
5:00PM – 9:00PM – Drivers may practice. Please note drivers must fill out Badlands paperwork before any driving in the park. Gate will remain open throughout the night for teams to camp. Any practice/pre-running after 10PM or without paperwork filled out will result in disqualification.

Friday, July 12th
9:00AM – Badlands Park Open – Park is open to the public. Children, motorcycles, quads and UTVs will all be using the park. Absolutely NO pre-running allowed. Any racers found pre-running will be disqualified.
5:00PM – Drivers wishing to participate in the Attica, IN Parade and festival should contact Lisa at lisa@badlandsoffroad.com Teams wishing to have Easy Ups to promote their teams/sponsors at the festival in town OR have their car used for fans to take pictures beside should also contact Lisa at lisa@badlandsoffroad.com
5:30PM – Driver Parade through Attica, IN – All Ultra4 drivers encouraged to attend be ready at 5 to leave from the park. Drivers must be registered for the parade. that can be done by lisa if you want to take part in the parade please email lisa @badlandsoffroad.com. If they want to be part of the downtown festival. Contact Lisa.
7:00PM – Badlands Park closes to the public
7:00-10:00PM – Badlands is allowing drivers to camp on site at the park. Gate will remain open throughout the night for teams to camp. Any practice/pre-running after 10PM or without paperwork filled out will result in disqualification.

Saturday, July 13th
9:00AM – Badlands Off Road Park open to public
10:00AM – 12:00PM – Ultra4 and Mod qualifying – Badlands Rock Quarry
5:00PM – Badlands Off Road Park Closes
5:15PM – Start of 4600 and TREK A, B and C class race
6:45PM – End of 4600 and TREC A, B and C class race
7:15PM – Start of 4400 and 4500 Ultra4 race – 2 hour race, anticipate 20 minutes a lap with fast whoop sections, technical rock sections, narrow wooded areas (like Rausch Creek).
7:30 PM – Band and Bar open on site for fans while watching racing.
9:15PM – End of 4400 and 4500 race