Starting the 15th season of Professional Rock Crawling, Trail-Gear W.E. Rock Western Series Round 1 begins at Thompson’s Ranch in Congress, Arizona for a one day spring event Saturday March 7th.  On Sunday March 8th, the Dirt Riot Endurance Racing series kicks off the 14 event series in the beautiful Arizona desert.  Jones Ford and Fly-N-Hi Offroad are sponsoring the weekend of off road action.  Both events are spectator and family friendly with vendors and food available, small cars will be fine on the 5-mile dirt road to the event entrance.  Vendor row will be busy with Artec Industries, JM Rigging, Jones Ford, the Sickline, Durable Metals and MetalCloak displaying alongside the W.E. Rock General Store.

“The rock terrain in Arizona gives us a perfect platform to build some of the hardest rock crawling courses in the US,” said Rich Klein, President and founder of W.E. Rock Events.  “Then on Sunday we are having the Dirt Riot race that will put speed on the track.  Of course we welcome local UTV’s and Trail Class drivers to come and race, everyone is welcome!”

The Trail-Gear Professional Rock Crawling Series presented by Maxxis will start at 9am on Saturday March 7th.  The Professional Unlimited Class will have many of the well-known names in the rock crawling world including Team Rock Hard Justin Hall, 360 Racing Justin Keilman, Unruh Racing Jerry Unruh, Rick Deremo, Trail-Gear Matt Messer and his daughter Team Trail-Gear Olivia Messer among others not yet pre-registered.

The Pro Modified Class will also be packed with stiff competition from across the western United States and welcomes new competitors Rushin’ Racing 76 Denis Volkov and 223 Rad Racing Kevin Reimer among others.  Also competing is Team Four Corners 4×4 Jason Kaminsky.

The Sportsman Class is open to any offroad enthusiast in the area that would like to compete.  There are minimal safety requirements to take on the courses.  You can join the already registered Chris Nazarewicz, Vincent Massi and 602 Racing Charlie Vacha among many others.

Dirt Riot Racing picks up the speed and puts race buggies, 4×4 trail jeeps, and UTVs on a track to complete as many laps as they can within their groups set amount of time on Sunday March 8th.  The course is 4.5 miles of rocks, technical and fast sections.  Pre-registered in the pro 4400 4×4 King of the Hammers class include Goodall Racing Kenneth Goodall, Fly-N-Hi Racing Jeremy Hammer, LetzRoll Offroad Racing Alan Johnson, ColeCar Motorsports Mike Klensin, 777 Rocking J Offroad Beau Mathews among others not already pre-registered.

Additional pre-registered Pro Drivers include 4500 Class BroadSword Racing Adam Arsenault, Funk-N-Fast Racing Mitch Funk, Simeone Racing Joey Simeone and Sparks Pro Racing Julie Sparks.  Pre-registered in the 4600 class is Team Four Corners 4×4 Jason Kaminsky.

UTV Drivers and Trail Class competitors are welcome to pre-register or register onsite.  They are more of a run-what-you-bring class with some safety requirements.  The newly named SuperMod Trail Class looks to have a large contingent including Short Bus Mafia Racing Carlos Gonzales, Kroger Racing Paul Kroger, 409 Racing Jayson Mitchell, Rolling Gnomes Paul Tyler, Heck of a Deal Offroad Racing Rick Heck, Money Pit Mafia Dom Vallejos and Modified Trail Class pre-registers A Little Off Racing Aaron Armstrong and Scrap Metal Racing John Garrison.  Or join the pre-registered Pro UTV racers Two Bar M Cross Racing Justin Meader and Undertakers Racing Frank Minice or Sportsman UTV racers Trevor Crane and Unruh Racing Nathan Unruh.

The events both days feature classes that are built to encourage local 4×4 or UTV participants to join in a day of fun competition and racing.  For registration information go to www.werocklive.com.   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 5 series of 3 races each that stretch across the country.

Spectators are encouraged to come and enjoy the day of entertainment on Saturday March 7th with Rock Crawling starting at 9am, and the final shootout expected to begin about 5pm.  On Sunday March 8th, qualifying for the 4400 professional group starts at 9am followed by racing all day. The professional 4400 4×4 is scheduled to start at 2pm for three hours with a grand prix finish at approximately 5pm.  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. 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 www.werocklive.com/events/w-e-rock-western-series-round-1.