Despite rolling on his first run, Brad Lovell came back to win the XRRA season opener. He was the only driver to DNF on a course and still make the finals.

X treme Rock Racing Association's (XRRA) head honcho Mike Weaver is no dummy. When he launched his rock racing series four years ago, the first event of the season was held in conjunction with the Easter Jeep Safari (EJS) in Moab, Utah. EJS is one of the largest events in the Dirt Nation, drawing approximately 30,000 people to Moab each spring. These include manufacturers, competitors and a huge pool of people who love all things off-road–in other words, XRRA's target audience. While all those details remained the same this year, there were plenty of changes before the first tire ever touched the dirt. Traditionally the race has been held at "Area BFE," a privately owned parcel of land south of town, but a change in ownership led to higher fees for use of the off-road park, forcing Weaver to look at other options. When another sanctioning body announced a race at Area BFE on the same weekend–in direct competition with XRRA–the gloves came off.

COARSE COURSE

With no plans to return to Area BFE, Weaver struck a deal with Red Rock Dirt Riders president Jason Parriott, who just happens to be the brother of former Area BFE shareholder Jeremy Parriott. The Red Rock Dirt Riders are a motocross club that leases a plot of land on the South end of Moab from Grand County, although the land is actually located in San Juan County. That might seem like a trivial point, but land ownership became a huge concern just a week before this season's first event. After spending months preparing a rock-racing-specific course at the Red Rock Raceway, a land survey was performed, and it showed that part of the race course had been groomed on public trust land, 70 feet off the raceway property. "This left us with only four days to design an entirely new track," Weaver explained.

Brian Shirley put together several fast runs to make it into the finals, proving his strong finish as last years U.S. Champion was no fluke. Unfortunately, he went off course during his last run, a mistake that knocked Shirley out of contention for the win.

Upon arriving in Moab, competitors were not impressed with the new course. "It seems like a shame to come to such a beautiful place and then compete on flat, man-made courses," one driver commented. The courses had a tabletop jump followed by a banked right-hand turn that led into a rhythm section with two sets of closely placed doubles. This section gave many teams trouble and put more than one competitor out of commission. Drivers with past motocross experience, like Rick Deremo and Joachim Schwiesow, seemed more comfortable in the doubles. More cautious drivers chose to roll slowly over the berms instead of jumping them after seeing drivers like JT Taylor and Rob Bonney case the doubles and scatter drivetrain components.