SNAPSHOT: Ultra 4 National Championships 2018

The 2018 Ultra 4 National Championships was my first time witnessing Ultra 4 Racing in person. A ride along in an Ultra 4 vehicle during the BFG KM3 Terrain Takeover event got me hooked on these go fast off road monsters.

I wrote an in-depth article for Gear Junkie that explains a bit about what this Ultra 4 Racing thing is all about. You can read it here: Welcome to the Insane World of Off-Road ‘Ultra 4 Racing’.

I thought I’d give you a little deeper look at all the action from the race, with some select photos from my experience. It was an action packed race weekend!

The grandstands were near capacity with excited fans from all over the country.

Lots of Jeeps, in all forms, in the race.

BIG suspension travel on these off road beasts.

Hot pits tire change action. LOTS of flats and broken wheels.

Most vehicles landed heavy on the nose off the jumps. My guess is that it was because most weren’t carrying spare tires, like they would for endurance races.

Getting these vehicles to hook up and rotate in the corners looked like quite the challenge. More than one rolled navigating this flat loose corner.

This massive steep S bend hill was quite the challenge for the 4400 class.

Half way up the S bend on the first lap of the finals. Yes, that one car is on top of another, and required a fork lift to remedy . A restart was required.

There is a long, straight, steep and loose downhill that took out more than one competitor. This crash had to hurt!

A unique part of this venue is that spectators in the grand stands can see over 90% of the course.

A steep rocky descent was one of the challenges on the course for everyone.

SO crazy that these vehicles can go this fast over this terrain!

Big equipment assistance was needed for many recoveries.

The big pile of rocks on the start/finish strait, right in front of the grand stands, was the most abusive single obstacle on vehicles.

The top competitors made their vehicles dance atop the boulders.

Digging in for the final push to the finish.

The off road racing community is a tight knit group, especially in the lower classes.

LOTS of repairs needed throughout the weekend.

This might give you some perspective on size of these vehicles. No need to jack it up, just sit under it and get the work done.

Sadly both people and vehicles got carted off by emergency equipment. These guys & gals race HARD!

Shoutout to Ultra 4 Racing and Hammerking Productions for providing me access to take these images. Hopefully I can do it again, and for sure join in the insanity that is King of The Hammers on of these years.

PS: If you ever wondered where some of the top whitewater kayakers disappeared, now you know. They are the video crew that work all the Ultra 4 races. It was good catching up with Steve Fisher and Dan Campbell-Lloyd, and meeting a number of other boaters.