I know this was a day trip but it was especially noteworthy for me. I finally got an opportunity to see an Ultra4 race in person! For those not in the know Ultra4 racing is a fairly new form of off-road racing. It’s summarized as “the mixed martial arts of off-road racing” because racers and their vehicles must be able to tackle high speeds (often topping 100mph in the desert) and be able to drive over rocks the sizes of cars! The biggest race each year is the King of the Hammers in Johnson Valley California. The unlimited cars can be 800 horsepower tube buggies made of special steels, with $15k worth of shocks per corner, and 40+in tires, that can drive at highways speeds over the trails I crawl through in the Xterra!
While I’d love to one day make it to the race out west to spectate, or even better compete in one of the lower stock classes, my more reasonable near term goal was to make it to a race hosted closer to home. That opportunity finally arrived when I heard that an Ultra4 race this year would be held at Anthracite Outdoor Adventure Area (AOAA) in Shamokin, PA, an off-road park we frequent!
We rode up to the race with our buddy Mo in his Jeep LJ. We had packed a cooler of snacks and drinks and were set for the day! Arriving at AOAA we paid the entry fee, bought a shirt, and wandered the pits. It was neat to see the pit area up close. The difference between the unlimited class teams with 18 wheelers in tow was contrasted by the stock class teams that had a pickup and a trailer and that was it. We saw several east coast teams including 2 time king and nearby Maryland native Eric Miller’s pit and crew hanging out before the race.
We headed over to watch the stock classes head out onto the course. At 12:30 they began heading out in pairs under the Nitto Tire arch. It was neat to see these classes in person. The 4500, 4600, and 4800 classes have rules limiting what teams can modify on the vehicles. The most limited is the 4600 class which must be built on a stock OEM frame, powered by a factory engine and transmission, and are limited to one non-bypass shock per corner and 35in DOT tires.
Looking at the vehicles in this class I really appreciated that these vehicles really weren’t that unattainable. Many of the vehicles we wheel with would almost be ready to race in this class as they are when we hit the trail with them. To be fair some heartier skid plates and axle protection helps these vehicles a lot, but they are not high-budget builds by any stretch of the imagination. Seeing these in person really made me think one day I could maybe compete in a race or two at this class.
After the racers headed onto the course we followed suit. The organizers had designated an area of the course where spectators could watch the action. That area happened to be the largest rock crawl area in the northwestern corner of the park. We have wheeled through that area multiple times but I’d only ever seen big buggies wheeling in those rocks.
Only 20 feet from the racing action we popped out the camp chairs ready to spectate. The drivers in the stock classes did great and made the rock garden that I can’t imagine driving through in the Xterra look easy! A few got hung up but overall it was impressive to see drivers at this class handling the roughest terrain AOAA had to throw at them.
Next came the unlimited class! The unlimited class of vehicles was almost like another animal altogether. One noteworthy moment came when a racer in the stock class got hung up on a rock right in front of us. Their differential caught on a rock and it took then a minute or so to get off and then around it. An unlimited car hit the same rock with its differential and the rock (3 feet wide and a foot thick) cracked in half!
The pace that the unlimited cars were able to go through the boulder garden was also most impressive. They shot through the area almost like it wasn’t a challenge. By the third lap the drivers really had their lines down and just made the section look so easy!
After just shy of three hours on course Pennsylvania native Josh Blyler would take the checkered flag just 14 seconds in front of Maryland native Erik Miller.
I really was surprised to see the stock class vehicles in person. The experience was eye opening to say the least. It was pretty awesome to see these vehicles race though, and to do it in a park that I wheel as well gave it an even better perspective of what they were achieving. I can’t wait until I can attend another race, or even participate!
