Trip Reports

2016 Ultra4 MetalClock Stampede UTV Race

2016 Ultra4 Stampede

 

By Jon Crowley

The MetalCloak Stampede is held at Prairie City SVRA near Sacramento, CA. John Goodby of NorCal Rock Racing creates the course here which consisted of a 2 mile lap, filled with man-made rock obstacles, tight turns, jumps, whoops and go fast sections. This year Goodby switched up the track by reversing the course direction and adding a rock section at the very start of the course.

Team Ducky Racing
Practice – John Duckworth in his new RZR XP Turbo

Friday afternoon was open practice for the UTVs and racers got their first taste of the course. The two-mile track started downhill immediately in the rocks.  This rock section was one of the worst because rocks were freshly laid down with no dirt in between them. After the rocks, there was a long stretch of high speed with a few rollers and small jumps before hitting another rock section.

Phil Cagliero
Practice – Phil Cagliero in his RZR XP Turbo

Then the track made a u-turn and headed to the back area and another high speed jump, a short technical down hill section before coming back to the infield. One more downhill rock section, then boom back to another flat rock section.

Paul Hart
Practice – Paul Hart in his long travel RZR XP Turbo

The track would have been tough enough on its own, but then Mother Nature kicked into gear.  After practice and some prelims on Friday, it rained most of the night and all day during the racing on Saturday.

Rugged Radios
Rugged Radios was on had to help with radios and intercoms as well as tear-offs

Racers not only had to deal with a slippery track but also poor visibility. Racers flocked to Rugged Radios for tear-offs during the day so they could see after being splattered in mud. Beyond visibility issues, the mud caked onto vehicles weighing them down and clogged radiators.

Can-Am Maverick
Robert Camilleri in his Can-Am Maverick

UTVs hit the track at 8AM on Saturday for the prelim.  This race would determine starting order for the main later in the day. Prelims are incredibly important for the much larger and faster 4400 class, but for UTVs just keeping the car together would be much more important than starting order.

2016 Ultra4 Stampede
Cagliero about to lap Bersamini during prelim

Cagliero was smooth and fast during the prelim and qualified 1st.  Paul Hart qualified 2nd, but was having overheating issues.  Last season’s Ultra4 UTV champion John Duckwork had a collision with a rock that didn’t move and ripped off part of his passenger front tire/wheel.

John Duckworth
Team Ducky Racing having some bad luck in the prelim

For the UTV class, the rocks were a large enough challenge on their own, but after the rain, it created a track that was tougher than any short course track I have ever seen. There was absolutely no way to get any traction through the rock sections, so racers had to rely on momentum to get through. One wrong move can easily rip an arm off a UTV, and a few racers saw this firsthand.

The start of the UTV race was an incredible sight to witness. Cagliero (orange) and Hart (blue) were in the front row. Cagliero jumped into the rocks and skipped right across them. Hart was second through them and then all hell broke loose as several cars got stuck and ran into each other.  Duckworth would miss the traffic jam in the middle, but almost put his XP Turbo  into the k-rail.

Phil Cagliero
Phil Cagliero

Paul Hart
Paul Hart

2016 Ultra4 MetalCloak Stampede UTV Race
Rain, Mud and Rocks at the 2016 Stampede UTV Race

Cagliero stayed out front for a few laps but had a problem with his power steering that slowed him down.  Hart would make the pass and never look back. Cars were dropping like flies from all sorts of failures. Duckworth was gaining on Cagliero when his passenger front a-arm came out of the mounting tabs.  Most likely weakened from hitting the rock in the prelim.

Ultra4 Stampede
Burtal course taking another victim

John Duckworth
Duckworth out of the race

Ultra4 Stampede
Gomez chasing Cagliero


Bersamini kept his RZR together and claimed third

Phil Cagliero
Cagliero finished 2nd

Paul Hart
Paul Hart finished first

2016 Ultra4 Stampede Podium
Stampede UTV Race Podium: Hart – 1st, Cagliero 2nd, Bersamini 3rd

Paul Hart
Stampede UTV Race Winner – Paul Hart

2016 Ultra4 MetalCloak Stampede UTV Race Results:

POSITION Car # First Last Laps Time
1 1911 PAULY HART 7 25:25.3
2 21 PHILLIP CAGLIERO 7 25:54.9
3 1933 RYAN BERSAMINI 7 28:55.0
4 1 JOHN DUCKWORTH 4 15:30.4
5 63 NATHAN UNRUH 4 17:40.9
6 90 DARIAN GOMEZ 3 11:48.1
7 83 JONA VILLALOBOS GOMEZ 3 15:21.1
8 99 BRENT VANDERFORD 2 08:07.5
9 511 ROBERT CAMILLERI 1 04:01.7

More Ultra4 Stampede UTV Race Photos:

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Vision X
Our RZR XP4 Turbo at the Vision X Booth

Polaris RANGER XP 900
Our Polaris RANGER XP 900 was a huge help getting around the track in the rain

Ultra4 Racing:

The MetalCloak Stampede is the first race in the 2016 Trail Gear Western Regional ULTRA4 series. Ultra4 Racing is the sanctioning body behind King of The Hammers: The toughest one day off road race on the planet. Ultra4 cars are unlimited 4 wheel-drive endurance racing. Rocks, deserts, hillclimbs, whoops, trees, you name it, we race it.

To give these cars and their drivers a chance to showcase their unique capabilities, Hammerking has formed the ULTRA4 Racing series. The series challenges drivers to compete in a wide variety of terrain from endurance desert racing to competition-style rock crawls to short course racing.  Hammerking currently produces seven races in the series.  The races take place on both public lands and in private motorsports parks across the country.

More information on the race can be found atwww.ultra4racing.com

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