PLACERVILLE, CA: This weekend will be two days of very different types of 4×4 off road racing at the Three Peaks Recreation area outside of Cedar City, Utah. Saturday will be Professional W.E. Rock Rock Crawling all day and Sunday will be fast paced Dirt Riot Racing, with the main race not starting until afternoon. Both events are spectator friendly and easily accessible by car at the county park. “This is one of the original rock crawling sites in the nation that offers some of the best rock formations and best spectator viewing in the nation,” said Rich Klein, President and founder of W.E. Rock Events. “For Dirt Riot on Sunday, I think I am fair in saying it will be the best course of the year so far with technical tree sections, moderate to easy rock sections, some high speed straight a ways and a spectacular road crossing jump!”
Both days events have classes that are built to encourage local 4×4 or UTV participants to join in a day of fun competition and racing. For fees and payouts go to http://www.werocklive.com/2013-fees-payout. W.E. Rock is a Professional Rock Crawling series composed of 2 series of 3 events each that crisscross the country. Dirt Riot is an Endurance Racing series that is composed of 4 series of 3 races each that stretch across the country. This weekends event will be the second round of the Western Pro Rock crawling series and the second round of the Southwest Series Dirt Riot.
Professional Rock Crawling is one of the most intricate sports in the motorsports arena. It is technical, mechanical and filled with action. The rock courses are setup on a wall where spectators can bring their chairs and be able to see multiple courses running at the same time. This will be a one-day rock crawling event, each competitor completing a total of 6 courses. The winner will be determined by the driver that has the least amount of points at the end of the day, similar to golf. There are over a dozen drivers already committed to coming to compete, some driving over 14 hours to be part of this professional series. Unlimited Drivers include Justin Hall and Matt Messer; Pro Mod Drivers include last years series winner Jason Feuilly, Grand National winner Aaron Sykes along with Jesse Haines and Jared Neff. Additional drivers that are scheduled to compete include Mike Stokes, Paul Tyler, and others coming out of California. The stock class is available for any local drivers to compete in.
Dirt Riot Racing picks up the speed and puts race buggies, 4×4 trail jeeps, and UTVs on a 6 mile track to complete as many laps as they can within their groups set amount of time on Sunday. Racers include Todd Seawell from Colorado, Andrew McLaughlin from Arizona, Jesse Haines from Reno, among many others. In the Stock Classes, we will see Alan Johnson from Arizona and Shawn Rantz from New Mexico and Jason Kaminsky from Colorado racing along with others. In the Trail Class, which is more of a run-what-you-bring class with some safety requirements, there looks to be a large contingent coming to race out of the local Arizona and Utah 4×4 Clubs. The UTV Class should also be very competitive with many of the D&P Performance Arctic Cats from the local area, Frank Minice from Arizona and we are expecting Bebe Thiesen to compete again after some breakage in Moab earlier in the year.
Spectators are encouraged to come and enjoy the day of entertainment on Saturday May 11th with Rock Crawling starting at 9am, and the final shootout expected to begin about 5pm. On Sunday May 12th, qualifying for the 4400 professional group starts at 9am. Wheel to wheel racing action starts at 10am when the trail class takes the course for a one hour grand prix finish race. Following at 11:30pm, the UTV Class will race for one hour, followed by the Stock, and Modified Stock who will race for a two hour grand prix finish starting at 1pm. The professional 4400 4×4 is scheduled to start at 3:15 for three hours with a grand prix finish at approximately 6:15pm. All times are subject to change. The winners of each class are determined by the most number of laps completed in the set amount of time. The awards ceremony immediately follows the final race. Admission is $25 for a two day pass, $15 for adults, $5 for ages 8-15, children 7 and under free and Military with ID get $5 off. At this particular event, there is also a Family Day pass for $30 that includes any two generations of immediate family. There are vendors, food and amenities on site, and we encourage you to bring chairs and shade structures. There is camping available onsite. For additional details go to http://www.werocklive.com/events/w-e-rock-west-round-2/.
After the event we will have the results, pictures and stories posted at http://www.werocklive.com/2013/dirt-riot-southwest-series-1-congress-az/ for the Dirt Riot Race and http://www.werocklive.com/2013/dirt-riot-southwest-2-cedar-city/ for the W.E. Rock Rock Crawl.