Teardown in Tennessee: Ultra4 Racing at AOP July 24th/25th

We will be there! Will be a great time!

Anyone know if there will be food trucks set up?

Jduck said:

Anyone know if there will be food trucks set up?

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Hell I hope so.

As long as there is more than 1. Cause the line at crawling for Reid a couple years back was RIDICULOUS. About an hr for a bbq sammich.

dwa2469 said:

We have some folks going.

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Ditto. We also have 8-10 spectators going.

98TJ said:

Ditto. We also have 8-10 spectators going.

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So you are going as well?

I know the Emberton's will be selling funnel cakes and pork skins. Sounds like they're only allowing ONE actual food vendor... Probably gonna be some long lines

edit: so they're also going to have "Shane's chicken, fish and more" and a shaved ice truck.

MoparMan said:

If none of my buddies want to go riding locally, I thought about riding up there. Will there be much trail riding going on? Or just watching the qualifying and racing?

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MoparMan said:

Gotcha. I've never been to AOP. Is the area that's open good riding for a guy like me in a YJ on 35's?

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Honestly with the turnout of the racers registered (63 as of this post), I'd recommend going to AOP to watch the race and do some riding vs riding locally any day of the week. There is nothing quite like the sound, smell (race gas), and speed that some of the racers hit in the wide open flats or up in the woods.

The race course has not been released yet, but some of the park (middle section and possibly left side) should be open to ride/gain access to spectator viewing areas. The middle portion would have plenty of trails for a YJ on 35's to spend as much time as you wanted to.

Depending on work we should have a few rigs there

MoparMan said:

Gotcha. I've never been to AOP. Is the area that's open good riding for a guy like me in a YJ on 35's?

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It will totally depend on the race course. I spoke with Benji, he said the course will change depending on the number of racers they end up. That said, IF the middle of the park is open, you could go up there and ride for the weekend and hit as much or little as you wanted. I rode a ton of the park when my xj was on 33's and stock axles.

Shanes chicken tender have it going on.

Bjeep said:

So you are going as well?

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I am about 50/50 on going. Gonna be hot as ****.

98TJ said:

I am about 50/50 on going. Gonna be hot as ****.

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I am not looking forward to that part.

We were at Skinny Pedal. Shady and not too hot or dusty there.

https://www.ultra4racing.com/ultra4-racing-live

Was there Wednesday through Sunday. Helped several teams get their areas setup and helped AOP Staff with some of the checkin process. Still did a fair amount of trail riding Thursday and Friday evening/night.

Was a huge racer turnout and nearly all the racers I talked to enjoyed the race course as it was setup. Some of the wide IFS cars didn't enjoy some of the switchbacks and "narrow" course, but the course was way wider than it was Thursday night when we "preran" it.

Talking with Ultra4 staff, they plan to come back to AOP next year, but it will probably not be in July.

Many thanks to all of the racers, pit crew, race support, Ultra4 staff, media members, Livestream crew, and AOP staff (especially @Pumpkin) for all of their work coming out to race, marking the course, adjusting the course, recovery, and countless hours spent before and after the races.

Here is a link to the "official" results by class:

Here is a link to the Livestream for each class:

All things considered, it was a successful race/event despite the heat and the only thing I'd change (other than the temperature) was to have a couple of dedicated spectator areas in the grass infield and maybe a couple of more in the woods. I know logistically that is another thing to have to juggle, but just throwing that out there.

Will add pictures later.

ridered3 said:

All things considered, it was a successful race/event despite the heat and the only thing I'd change (other than the temperature) was to have a couple of dedicated spectator areas in the grass infield and maybe a couple of more in the woods. I know logistically that is another thing to have to juggle, but just throwing that out there.

Will add pictures later.

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If I had known no one was going to run 64 during any class, I would have set up spectators on the hill top above and between 64 and 65. Will look into that next year. Also going to figure out better area for the field and go fast (for the new rock garden). Possibly also making it longer and a lot tougher Joker line.

As a spectator - What we were able to see was awesome. We settled at the start line and a had decent view of cars starting and then coming out of the woods but, then they let the winners park their cars there in the front and we lost our view for the final race. I'm not bitching, I'm just making a statement, even if nothing changed I will most likely be there again next year but, it would be awesome to more obstacles if possible. I know the racers don't like it but, spectators want to see carnage.

An idea - where the Nitto tire semi was sitting there's already a hillside there. One could cut ledges into it and make it a natural seating area.

Trailabite said:

As a spectator - What we were able to see was awesome. We settled at the start line and a had decent view of cars starting and then coming out of the woods but, then they let the winners park their cars there in the front and we lost our view for the final race. I'm not bitching, I'm just making a statement, even if nothing changed I will most likely be there again next year but, it would be awesome to more obstacles if possible. I know the racers don't like it but, spectators want to see carnage.

An idea - where the Nitto tire semi was sitting there's already a hillside there. One could cut ledges into it and make it a natural seating area.

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We must have been approx 10 ft apart from each other... We were in the ez up tent right next to the start line. We thought we'd lost our view also whenever they started the race. But once all the racers took off, everyone moved their cars and we could see again.

Pumpkin said:

If I had known no one was going to run 64 during any class, I would have set up spectators on the hill top above and between 64 and 65. Will look into that next year. Also going to figure out better area for the field and go fast (for the new rock garden). Possibly also making it longer and a lot tougher Joker line.

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Sounds like a good plan all around!

The Luke said:

We must have been approx 10 ft apart from each other... We were in the ez up tent right next to the start line. We thought we'd lost our view also whenever they started the race. But once all the racers took off, everyone moved their cars and we could see again.

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Well crap, You all offered to let me and my wife get under your tent when the rain came lol.

we moved around a lot, it was a LOT cooler up in the woods than down in the field. Just the nature of woods racing that you're not going to see much.

Next time I'll pre-plan a little more, learn the course and park a bit, and hike through the woods to watch some of the harder rock sections.