With The MRT Challenge At Dirty Turtle Off-Road
Words and Photos: Dylan Patton
Travel just 50 miles northeast out of Louisville, Kentucky, and you’ll run across the sleepy little town of Bedford. With just a few gas stations and convenience stores, it may not seem like anywhere special, but it’s the place to call home for our destination, Dirty Turtle Off-Road. A 286-acre off-road park complete with a professionally built UTV short course and dozens of trails for the mild to wild off-roader or side by side rider to enjoy—with great amenities, RV hookups, and even an on-site camp store. The park also provides great spectator viewing areas for all styles of racing, making it an ideal choice for the Pro Rock Racing series to host their first race of the 2020 season.
What started as a chilly frozen morning, would eventually turn into a sloppy muddy mess. With snow on the ground, and still fluttering through the air intermittently, it wasn’t easy to stay warm in the car as drivers waited eagerly in staging. They sat five cars wide on the starting line based on their qualifying times from the previous day, and from a cold dead start they would bring this race to a roar battling towards the first set of jumps, with the next five leaving thirty seconds after them. Racers were to embark on a brutal five-mile, closed-circuit course, with drivers in the Pro and Pro AM UTV classes fighting it out for a full hour. The winner would be determined as the racer with the fastest elapsed time, and the most laps completed in the time frame.
At the drop of the green flag, racers would scramble around a short course track that included several table tops and big bermed corners. But as they neared the final turn of the track, a detour sent them off into the woods where the true racing, and test of driving skill began. Navigating through narrow winding trails with trees that nearly jumped out in front of you, the snow-covered dirt was quickly developing into a wet slime, turning some obstacles into what you could call a race car treadmill. Traction was becoming almost nonexistent. With momentum being the only guarantee of survival, racers getting stuck in bottlenecks at the bottom of a very steep hill climb could easily cost a podium finish, or much worse, a totalled UTV.
A DNF at the first race of the season could severely impact the points chase for the year, and unfortunately, some racers would not escape that fate. The attrition rate of this event was one of the highest it’s ever been for the series, with half of the field not completing the race. Throughout the hour there was an above-average amount of rollovers due to the slick ground beneath the cars. At one point one of the youngest racers of the day, Cash Lecroy, had rolled over and caught fire. After receiving immediate assistance from course workers and recovery, he was back on his wheels and back to the attack! Some obstacles became virtually impossible to pass, so course marshals had to quickly create bypasses to prevent the race from coming to a complete halt… But that wouldn’t keep six racers from being taken out on the first lap, and it was just the start of troubles on course. As each remaining car made its way around the track, the terrain only broke down further and further as time progressed.
The leaders, however, seemed unscathed by the environment, setting absolutely blistering speeds through the woods. Tearing up steep rocky hill climbs, zipping through creek beds, and traversing technical rock sections as if guided by wire. The leader had reached lapped traffic by only his second lap with the quick pace he was setting, creating over a six-minute gap between himself and second place. Without any mistakes or surprises to get in his way, the race was in the bag for the fastest qualifier, Jay Shaw, racing out of Alabama. Not only did he win the race, but he also held the fastest lap of the day at 9 minutes 38 seconds. It was an absolutely perfect day for Jay and his team. Second place was Devin Smith who made the trip out from Indiana, and pushed his Can-Am to its limits to keep up with Jay in his first-ever Pro Rock Race. Coming across the line only 12 seconds behind second place after 6 laps, and rounding out the Pro UTV podium was Can-Am factory racer, Jamie McCoy. It may have been the longest hour of their lives, but the race day was now over for some of these gentlemen, with a satisfying ending to a hard fought battle in the woods.
After a busy morning of Survival racing, the entertainment was still far from over with the Pro Rock Racing Series. The next show on the agenda would be the Hill Killin races. Starting around two o’clock in the afternoon, and with an excellent viewing area for spectators to be able to watch both hill climb courses, full-size high-horsepower rock bouncers and UTVs would battle it out well into the night. It was just the icing on the cake when it comes to a full day of off-road racing entertainment! Joey Beck and his awesome team of volunteers work extremely hard to put together an excellent program for not only the racers, but the spectators as well.
The Pro Rock Racing Series is currently one of the highest paying UTV endurance racing series in the country. With a $2,000 payout for 1st place, $1250 for 2nd, $750 for 3rd, $600 for 4th, and $400 for 5th, all paid out every race. The season points winner will also receive $2,000 at the end of the year. With a total of five events scheduled for 2020 at various off-road parks in the midwest to southeast region, you can find their full event schedule online at prorockracing.com, as well as safety and technical information to compete yourself. Be sure to follow on Facebook and Instagram to stay up to date. The next scheduled event is the RCV Anniversary Bash, June 11th-14th, located in Rush, Kentucky at Rush Off-Road Park. It is one of the largest and most anticipated events of the year, a must attend event for the off-road racing enthusiast.
