The inaugural Ultra4 Australia off-road event, the Radius Fabrication Ultra 460 held at Queensland’s Landcruiser Mountain Park on the weekend, has been hailed a success with competitors and spectators thoroughly enjoying themselves despite some wet weather.
The Ultra4 Australia concept is based on the American Ultra4 series, which is highlighted by the iconic King of the Hammers race held in California’s Johnson Valley each February.
The buggy-style Ultra4 vehicles are divided into two distinct classes, as Ultra4 Australia organiser Ben English explained.
“There’s the restricted class, where the engine capacity is restricted to 3.9 Litre vee configuration or 4.0 Litre in-line configuration and there’s the unlimited class, where engine capacity is not restricted,” English said.
“We have positioned the restricted class as a starting point for people to learn how to drive the Ultra4 vehicles and as they become more skilled and confident, they move up to the unlimited class.”
The race format sees competitors participating in one-hour races, in which they aim to complete as many laps as possible. The tricky off-road terrain includes a mixture of undulations, steep inclines and other obstacles, presenting tough challenges for competitors and entertainment for spectators.
“Everyone in the Ultra460 found the weekend’s wet conditions quite tricky, but they also had a lot of fun,” English said.
“We aim to make the events as family-friendly as possible and we find a lot of our competitors are family teams.”
Two more Ultra4 Australia events are pencilled in for September and November.
“At this stage, we’re only running in Queensland but the aim is to run some more events in different states as we build up the series,” English said.
Ultra4 Australia is just one example of an increasing number of off-road series sanctioned by the AASA. English said the AASA’s consultative approach made them an appealing sanctioning partner.
“We chose the AASA because they listened,” English said.
“Ever since we started talking to the AASA, everyone has been accommodating of our requests and supportive of our community. Having the AASA as our sanctioning partner makes it very easy and safe for us to run Ultra4 events.”
English said Ultra4 Australia is open to interest from new competitors.
“We’ve found there is a strong group of enthusiasts who are looking at ways to become involved in off-road categories such as Ultra4, so we would encourage them to contact us through our Facebook page,” he said.
More information on Ultra4 Australia can be accessed at http://www.aust4racing.com.au/
