Baja Racing In Texas?!

Baja Racing Texas (BRT) is Leitner’s and Boothe’s dream come to reality as they took the time to scout locations, mark tracks, and create a points series for off-road racing enthusiasts outside of the southwestern United States. BRT put on two races last year, and will finish three this year. May 4th’s Cinco de Baja BRT race in neighboring New Mexico will have already happened by the time you read this, but it’s not too late to make the Chupacabra 300 in Blackwell, Texas, on October 11 at the Texana Ranch.

We stopped by the Texana Ranch (home to the majority of BRT races), met the ranch foreman, Matt Parks, and Chris Leitner of BRT, and checked out the 5,000-acre venue during a big Raptor event put together by Trey Palreiro and BRT in mid April. While there weren’t any races going on that weekend, we were able to hit the entire truck track in a modified Raptor. What we can tell you is this: It’s not like racing in Baja. The 43-plus-mile Texana Ranch track is technical, and if race vehicles don’t have good approach and departure angles then there is going to be body damage. It’s rough and it will chew up tires, and four-wheel drives will definitely benefit (though we did the entire course in 2WD with Greg Foutz driving). There are only a few short stretches that racers can reach 80 or 90 mph on, but otherwise corners and climbs limit speeds to overall averages of 40 mph.

The Pure Racing Graphix buggy wanted to impress us with its extensive skidplating.

BRT is currently scouting and adding more racing venues including loops over 100 miles and hopefully a point-to-point race. It plans to run four or five races for 2013. While every course is different, we can guarantee that racing in Texas will make seasoned off-road racers learn a few new tricks, and it will definitely give more people a chance to race that could not have otherwise. Perhaps your race truck and team will make it out to Texas to see what the new go-fast tracks of the Lone Star State look like. We’ll see you at the races.