This is the new sweetness, the latest trend, the hot ticket, the game all the cool kids are playing. This is rock racing.
Take one part rockcrawling, two parts motocross, three parts desert racing, and four parts tough trucks, mix it all together on a closed course on private property, and drop the flag. It's a simple contest, two side-by-side tracks outlined by banners where two buggies or Jeeps face off, but each driver races the clock.
This is what it's all about in rock racing. Full-throttle assault resulting in tires off the ground and fans going wild.
Ryan Pierce and his copilot showed up with what we can only refer to as a tet******** shot waiting to happen. We've seen some pretty ratty rigs show up at trail rides, but it takes true guts to show up to a competition-where some buggies run in the over $50,000 range-with your battered old Jeep held together with pieces of chain, and take a run for the money. Big props, guys. Way to keep it real.
Yes, there are cones, but not the tight, narrow technical cones found in a rockcrawl. These cones are a good 15 to 20 feet apart because it's the fastest one to the end who wins.
We caught up with the finals of the X-treme Rock Racing Association (XRRA) outside of Colorado Springs last fall and found it to be one of the most exciting new motorsports happening. Of course we love old-school rockcrawling, but this is different. By adding the time/speed element the action is more visceral and the carnage more extreme.
It's not uncommon to see one or both buggies on their roof per run, and all this action quickly brings the crowd to their feet. We're sure the damage list and costs only increase as the speed does, so rock racing isn't for everyone, but it's currently the hottest young thing out there and we hope to see it stick around. Find out next year's XRRA schedule at
www.xrra.com.
Shannon Campbell makes his living building rock buggies and made his name driving them. From back in the day when he drove in the Four Wheeler Top truck Challenge with a pink Jeep up through the years of desert racing and rockcrawling, Shannon has always had a heavy right foot, so it's no surprise that he ended up in a rock racer and came home with both the weekend event title and the season championship points.
The other great thing about rock racing is that it's almost more applicable to a wider group of competitors. Almost any guy with a trail rig could come out and play. Of course not everyone would be competitive all the time, but having wide-open courses with big climbs, steep descents, and banked curves mixed in allows a variety of vehicles an opportunity to show off.
Taken from www.4wheeloffroad.com