Class Winners: Pro 4400 – Bill Baird ; Mod Trail – Tim Carter ; Stock Trail – Travis Wilson
PLACERVILLE, CA MAY 7, 2013: The second Dirt Riot Southeast Series race was hosted at Gray Rock ORV outside of Birmingham, Alabama in a lush green and brown environment where the safety orange color of Bill Baird’s Ultra4 car stood out not only in color, but in speed, taking the win by a full lap. Earlier in the day Mod Trail winner Tim Carter and Stock Trail winner Travis Wilson raced against a field of over a dozen. “We had a great time here at Gray Rock! Everyone was very helpful and the spectators were a lot of fun. We were happy to run all the races earlier in the day to be able to have open wheeling in the afternoon,” said Rich Klein, President and founder of W.E. Rock Events. “Dirt Riot’s Pro 4×4 class is continuing to expand and grabbing the attention of the highest level racers that are looking for more seat time, practice and just plain fun!”
The course at Gray Rock ORV park had some great high speed sections at the beginning and end of each lap; in between saw a lot of elevation changes and tight, twisty tree sections. “The rain had come on Wednesday and created some mud puddles that no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t get to dry up,” explained Klein. “By the end of the race, the mud puddles had expanded to at least 5 times their original size and we were glad that we didn’t use some sections that we had considered.”
In the 4400 class, eight cars took the green flag; after the first six laps, only half the field was still running and at a very fast pace. Bill Baird in the safety orange 5252 was the fastest qualifier, fastest lap and leader for all of 23 laps on this 3.5 mile course. He was smokin’ fast and consistent through the entire race for the win; Brian Shirley held the 2nd place position, keeping pace with Bill through the entire race. The third and fourth place cars of Jeff McCullough and Kevin Crews battled through all of their 15 laps. Kevin had to pit every lap to add water to keep his radiator cooled, and luckily Jeff was running quite a ways behind him on every lap. The drama increased when the white flag waved and Kevin took a hard roll taking over 30 minutes to complete his last lap! Jeff appeared to be able to beat him to the finish line, but ran in to some trouble of his own, as the checkered flag was dropped, Jeff eased over the finish line just ten seconds ahead of Kevin on the same lap. With corrected time, Jeff would secure the 3rd place finish. Tony Arledge would complete 6 laps for fifth, Jason Carner completed 5 laps for sixth, Adam Carter took seventh and Bobby Potts would take eighth.
The Trail Class race in Birmingham came with a lot of heart. Most of these drivers are good friends and had good times around the campfire on Friday night. In the Stock Trail Class, Travis Wilson and Scott Lang battled it out lap after lap in the two-hour race. At lap 9, Scott finally overtook Travis as first on course, although he had been first on corrected time for several laps leading up to lap 9. Lap 10, Scott still held the lead; at lap 11, Travis came in first and then we waited….the next time we saw Scott, he was walking up to the start/finish line, he had broken the spring eye bolt and was done. This was a farewell race for Scott Lang as he hangs up the stock Cherokee to spend more time with his family. Not that we won’t see the Cherokee again, rumor has it Robby Bobby has already picked it up. Scott Prince took third, Brian Gray took fourth, Roger King took fifth and unfortunately Lew Childres took a DNF at this race.
In the Mod Stock Trail Class Tim Carter took the win with Sam Gillis just five minutes behind him. Kevin Hite took third, Todd Klueger took fourth and Kenn Hite took fifth while VJ Perrin took a DNS.
This was the second Southeast Regional Dirt Riot race of three. The third and final race of that series will be August 24th at Durhamtown Plantation in Union Point, GA. The next Dirt Riot race will be this weekend in Cedar City at the Three Peaks Recreation Area. The series points are posted athttp://www.werocklive.com/
There are 3 Professional 4×4 classes, a Trail/Sportsman 4×4 class and a UTV class. The classes are built to encourage local 4×4 or UTV participants to join in a day of fun racing. For fees and payout information go to http://www.werocklive.com/
The full results and additional pictures are posted at http://www.werocklive.com/
Past Event Coverage: http://www.werocklive.com
Event Sponsors: Maxxis Tires, Spider Trax, Trail Gear, Tom Woods Custom Driveshafts, Branik Motorsports, ADS Off-Road Racing Shocks, Artec Industries, ASR Offroad, Nitro Gear & Axle, Raceline Wheels, Crawl Magazine, PCI Race Radios, The SickLine.com, Race Team Store
About W.E.ROCK Events, LLC.
W.E.ROCK Events, LLC. A Placerville, CA based company, sanctions, promotes, and hosts specialty off road events, including the W.E.ROCK Rockcrawling US Pro-National series, Dirt Riot Endurance Racing Series and 13 international and sub-sanctions. Attracting thousands of spectators to each event, W.E.ROCK reaches a broad demographic of off-road enthusiasts and casual motorsports fans. The sport of rockcrawling has grown by giant leaps in the last decade and is now host to over 300 registered national-level competition teams. Major competition supporters and partners include Red Bull Energy Drink, Monster Energy, NOS Energy Drink, Home Depot, MAXXIS Tires, Cooper Tires, and Crown Royal. With the off road industry exceeding 4 billion in sales annually, the sport of rockcrawling leads the way in print media and advertising for the sport’s 12 major publications. For more information, visit www.werocklive.com