Crawlin Column 17

By Rich Walker

OK, I know this is a 4x4 and off-road magazine, but I need just a minute of your time to brag! On Friday, November 1, my wife Kelly and I welcomed our beautiful twin girls into this world. Hailey and Kaitlyn Walker were born at 6:01 and 6:04 pm and we couldn’t be happier with the new additions to our family. Stay tuned to see them out on the trails as soon as Mom lets me! Now you all see why I bought my 4Runner. It seats four!

Now that the proud parent moment is over (thanks for that), let’s move on to the recent happenings in the competition and racing world.

I wrote last time about the Ultra4 National Championships in Vegas. We were getting all geared up to head out with three or four teams from Canada when we got an email a mere week before the event saying it was cancelled. At first we thought it must have been a joke, but after some research we found out that, alas, it was true. I will spare you all the details, but it came down to some land use permits not being secured in time, which gave the organizers no choice, but to cancel the event. If you want all the exact details, feel free to head over to the Ultra4 web site and look up the National Championships presented by Nitto Tire.

Not to be one to give up, however, Dave Cole pulled something out of his you know what and was able to put on a new event for the finals in Arizona. The owners of Thunder Rock Off-Road park were more than happy to work with the Ultra4 crew and whip together an event in record time. Big shout out to them for stepping up and giving everyone a place to race. Unfortunately the entire Canadian crew wasn’t able to make the journey, as the logistics with the venue change just didn’t work out. It did work out for Jason Scherer though. He fought hard through the entire race and took home the win, making him the first guy to have back-to-back national wins. Congrats to him and his crew.

With that event over, the Ultra4 season came to an end for 2013. As soon as all the points were calculated, the top three series winners were Shannon Campbell, Wayland Campbell (Shannon’s son) and Jason Blanton. Shannon was also voted (by his peers) as Sportsman of the year. There is a really cool video on YouTube about Shannon and his racing career. Search for Shannon Campbell “The Makings” by HeavyMetalConcepts.

Now that the Ultra4 2013 season is in the books, it’s time for a break, right? Wrong! Keep in mind that King of the Hammers 2014 is less than 3 months away. Registration is already available on the Ultra4 web site. So get over there and get signed up already!

I also want to mention that W.E. Rock will be doing a Dirt Riot event at the Crandon track in Wisconsin next year. For anybody who follows short course off-road racing like TORC or LOORS, you know exactly what Crandon is. This is a big deal for me as Crandon has been on my list of places to go for a long time. Take a quick minute and look up Crandon, its’ history in off-road racing and some of the stats about the track itself. It’s truly amazing. Might be the twin’s first big road trip to see a race. The Dirt Riot event will take place in August of 2014.

There’s something else that’s been on my mind lately. Scheduling. All the major race organizers and promoters are busy tweaking and posting their dates for the 2014 season. I have quite a few already, but I’m still waiting for a few to be finalized. Maybe I will chat with the editors of this fine magazine about printing a calendar or schedule of events to keep everyone in the loop. There are more than enough races and events to fill this column twice over!

The last thing I would like to mention is the Baja 1000. As I type this, there are literally 100’s of teams down in Mexico right now qualifying and getting ready for one of, if not the most grueling race through the desert. By the time my next column comes around I will have all the results and race highlights for you.  And with that being said, I am off to watch Dust to Glory… again!

Stay safe and see you on the trails (with car seats now)!