Off-road buggy with large tires climbing over rocks

LOCAL MOTORSPORTS INSIDER Boyd event Will really to ck I Rock crawling's biggest and best are headed to Boyd for the W.E. ROCK Grand National Championships. By ANTHONY ANDRO STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER Drag racing fans can head to Ennis this weekend for the NHRA OReilly Fall Nationals. But motorsports fans, looking to see something a lit- tle different can head to Boyd, and it has nothing to do with dirttrack racing at Boyd Race way- The WE. ROCK 2006 Grand National Championships will be in Boyd on Saturday and Sunday. For those unfamiliar with the series, its the World Ex treme Rock Crawling Champi onship Series, where off-road vehicles try to climb boulders the size of houses and scale cliffs 30-feet tall by using a lot of force and a little nesse. Rock crawling is verticals and descents, said event di~ teetor Richard Klein of the 7 year-old sport. For this race, weve got a vertical thats 25- feet tall and is at an 88degree angle. These vehiclesare going to drive over cliffs and rock structures." WE. ROCK is in Boyd this week setting up the track for its biggest national event. Klein said the series is using a 120 acre tract of land, owned by former competitor Brian Gil- lespie, for the event. Work crews are building the track into the ground with dif- ferent obstacles for the trucks to try and maneuver over and through. There will be approximate- ly 80 trucks in four classes at the two-day event, and Klein said he is hoping to attract 20,000 spectators. The idea of coming to Boyd was that we wanted to do something in Texas, Klein said. ' Its centrally located. Tra ditionally our national cham pionship is either anEast Coast or West Coast event; But Texas is big and we gured we might as well hold our biggest event in Texas. The premier class for W.E. Rock is the Pro Modied Class, which Klein compares to NASCAR. Thats because on the out- side the vehicles look like the standard vehicles anyone could buy at a dealership. Thats where the similari- ties to a regular truck end, be- cause under the skin are pow- erful engines to go along with huge tires and souped-up sus pension systems. The objective will be to move through the course and score as few points as possible. Backing up, hitting cones and using a wench add points, and there are ways to earn bonuses to take points off your score. There's more than pride at stake for the, competitors, too. The topthree finishers in each class at Boyd qualify for the world . championships in Las Vegas in November. Theres al- so money to be won, with the purse possibly exceeding $60,000, according to Klein. ' SPECIAL T0 In rock crawling. Team Slowspeed and the rest of the competition experience plenty of ups and downs. Its not the kind of racing you see every day," Klein said. But its a lot of fun. This is a national championship, and its a pretty big deal. We still have our world championship, but we expect more vehicles, more spectators and more ac- _ tion here. For moreinformation, go to wwwwerock.cc. Tickets for the event are $15 a day for adults, $5 for children 8-15 and children 7-under get in free. As for nding the site, Klein said head to Boyd and look for the signs. The location is 413 Cemetery Road. Anthony Andre, 817-685-3868 unndm@star~telegmm.cam ILocal schedule. 13D