dirt-riot-coppermines-1--5-1-14PLACERVILLE, CA: The largest class of Dirt Riot UTV racers, to date, hit the course on Saturday April 13th at the Coppermines Offroad Park for the second round of the Dirt Riot Central Series.  There were 26 UTVs on course, but that certainly didn’t take away from the Pro 4400 class where the top 3 all completed 13 laps within seconds of each other for the entire race.

“The Coppermines Park always has so much to offer the racers and spectators that we love to come back here every year, ” said Rich Klein, President and founder of W.E. Rock Events.  “We were excited to see such a great turn out in the UTV class.  We have always had this class as an option, with an easy entry fee and safety requirements, and I am glad that it is really starting to take off.”

Twenty-six UTVs took the start; in the end, Wesley Gryner would come from starting 25th to taking the overall win, his second win in the Dirt Riot Central Series.  Only one minute separated him from Levi Shirley in second place and Brian Shirley in third place over the course of an hour.  Jason Baird started first off the line and managed to hold on to a fourth place finish, having never seen the leaders, only corrected time told the story.  Of the 26 who began the race, only five didn’t see the checker, a pretty remarkable task for a tough course.  See the full list of drivers results and split times at http://www.werocklive.com/2013/dirt-riot-central-2-coppermines-ok

In the 4400 class, the race was very exciting and wasn’t over until the three hour mark on the last and final lap, where Clay Gilstrap would take the overall win.  Spencer Murphy who started 7th after qualifying had made strides over the course of the day to be in contention for first by lap three.  Corrected time again played a factor, by lap 4, Spencer was leading – it was truly too close to call amongst the top four racers:  Levi Shirley, Brian Shirley, Clay Gilstrap and Spencer Murphy.  Each lap remained the same, only seconds separating the top four.  By lap 6, Levi was out of contention; the other three remained as close as before, changing leads by mere seconds.  At the start of the last lap, Clay Gilstrap was behind Spencer Murphy by 26 seconds.  As Clay emerged out of the dust first, having completed most of the seven mile horseshoe course, the crowd and teams held their breath, if Spencer came out of the dust within two and a half minutes, he was likely to win.  The seconds ticked by, two minutes, then three, Spencer didn’t emerge until almost six minutes after Clay, he had a mechanical issue in the waning minutes of the race that cost him the win.  The win went to Clay Gilstrap, his first, on the eve of his 30th birthday.  Spencer Murphy would hold on to second, followed by Brian Shirley, Doug Kahlstrom, Carl Langerhans, Tony Arledge, Shawn Inman and Todd Wooten.  Aaron Peters in his first outing with a new car wouldn’t take the checker this go round.

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The Modified Trail Class and Stock Trail Class ran together for two hours of pacing the 7.4 mile course that incorporated a variety of terrain including a modified motocross short course track, wash bottoms, rocky ledges, rally style dirt roads, rolling hills, goat trails and included a stadium jump, the telephone pole wall, concrete drainage pipes and tank traps around the Red Dawg Saloon.  The Stock Trail class winner was Doug McDowell with Mikey Longone not far behind in second.  Cody St Clair and Jason Davis didn’t take the checker flag, but got third and fourth respectively.  In the Mod Trail Class, Justin Lawson took first, with Shelby Gilstrap taking second and Emma Wilson taking third.  Brandon Cox and Darrell Gray would take fourth and fifth respectively with Duane Garretson not able to complete a lap taking a DNF for this race.

In Dirt Riot 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 the Pro Classes in a day of fun racing.  For registration information go to http://www.werocklive.com/2013-fees-payout.  Dirt Riot is an Endurance Racing series that is composed of 4 series of 3 races that stretch across the country.

There are more photos, results, videos and more posted at http://www.werocklive.com/2013/dirt-riot-central-2-coppermines-ok/.