This past Sunday, your favorite magazine got to head out to the beach for a day of racing on the streets of Long Beach, California. But we weren’t there for the Indy cars or the drifting! Instead, for first time ever off-road trucks took over the race course as multi-talented racer Robby Gordon and 11 other Stadium Super Trucks (SST) series drivers assaulted the pavement for round two Robby’s new Speed Energy stadium racing series. Modeled after the world famous Mickey Thompson stadium series of yesteryear (the championship trophy is going to be named after Thompson), the SST series consists of twelve events at top-notch venues around the country. But these days the trucks are 600 horsepower, LS-powered machines with 20 inches of travel!

The 2012 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORRS) season closed at Firebird Raceway in Chandler, Arizona, with dirt and shattered body panels flying. There was high-speed action and fierce competition for the final round of the championship season for Karts to Pro trucks on Saturday. Then there was the Challenge Cup on Sunday with over $100,000 in prize money to the top finishers in each class.

As the saying goes, “With age comes a ’cage.” but that’s not always true. Many off-roaders start off with dirt bikes and eventually end up behind the wheel. Those competitive and dedicated enough end up surrounded by inspected-and-approved rollcage tubing and other hardcore competition hardware. Greg Gilbert of Desolate Motorsports, on the other hand, swam upstream and bucked the trend. For the 2012 Best in the Desert Vegas to Reno desert race, Greg decided the best place to be was not inside a truck but behind the handlebars of a Honda XR650r.

All German Motorsports (AGM) has run a desert race team for a number of years, campaigning several Class 1 buggies in Southwestern U.S. and Mexico desert races. For the 2012 season, the team set out to design and race a trophy truck class entry. However, in doing so, they chose to deviate from some of the present design philosophies and create a truck different from most in the current field.

Check out Day 1 coverage (with more coming soon!) of an off road adventure on Southern California's Mojave Road. The Mojave Road is truly a fun and adventurous route. Its diverse terrain - including washes, river crossings, rocks, silt, lake beds, dirt roads, sand, whoops, and more - combined with fascinating historic sites, should put this trail on your yearly to-do list.

EVENT: 2011 SEMA Show
DATE: November 1-4, 2011
LOCATION: Las Vegas, Nevada

Over the years I have attended several stampedes for different clubs. My first ever club event was in the mid ‘80s, with the Phoenix Four Wheelers. At that time I did not have a four-wheel-drive vehicle and I hooked up with some friends to go on the trip while taking photographs. Few years later I bought an old Jeep Wagoneer. Later on it made a better bed and vehicle to get back and forth to the event, than it did on the trail.

They came, they launched, and they landed. That’s right, it happened. While there were a number of small battles to fight to make it go off, Huckfest became an official event in the Oceano Dunes State Vehicle Recreation Area (AKA Pismo Dunes), and did in fact go on with a great turnout this year.

Picture an outdoor playground where you could drive at high speeds for hours, yet only see a few other trucks—and maybe a couple camels—while covering more than 5,000 acres of fresh park.

Walking around fairgrounds at off road events are always great in our book. There's lots of cool stuff to check out as well as plenty of great deals to be had from vendors who are out to meet the customer one on one or they may simply not want to load up all the awesome parts they hauled to the show. With gnarly race trucks, super clean Toy Haulers and RVs of all kinds and smoking deals on tons of go fast parts as well as lots of delicious food that could satisfy even a hungry Sasquatch, what's not to like?

Every year we go to Moab for the annual Easter Jeep Safari (or EJS, as we like to call it). Despite the name, the “Jeep” Safari has been a gathering of wheelers of every shape and size for decades.

Sure it is mostly Jeeps, but we have found feature trucks in Moab like Mopar’s Ram Runner (on the cover of our August ‘10 issue) and Rob Knoell’s Ram Charger (on the cover of our December ’11 issue). In the last few years, we have noticed a marked decline in fullsize vehicles attending EJS. In fact, we have noticed less Jeeps too…unless those Jeeps are new four door JKs. For better or worse, the JK has taken over Easter Jeep Safari. We can see why they are so popular: They are almost as long and wide as a fullsize truck (and as heavy)! But if you are going to wheel something that big, shouldn’t it have a V-8 under the hood and some heavy-duty running gear?

As populations grow and urban sprawl increases, the threat to open lands able to be used for multiple types of recreation, including off-road racing, grows larger every day. The famous Johnson Valley OHV area, home to the King of the Hammers race, is currently under the threat of closure right now. And if some authorities in the off-road and environmental communities are accurate in their predictions, eventually all off-road racing may end up on privately-owned lands.

It’s fun to watch the big dogs run, but if you can’t run with them, is the alternative always to stay under the porch?

In past iterations of King of the Hammers, the answer was yes. If you weren’t a big dog, you weren’t going to run with the premier Unlimited Class. You weren’t even going to pass the qualifiers to get your chance to run with Unlimited racers.

That was then. For the 2012 round, Smittybilt teamed with Hammerking Productions to create the Smittybilt Everyman Challenge. The course was a 77-mile torture fest that contained many of the same trails that the Unlimited rigs would run later in the week. “Torture fest” means miles of wide open desert terrain interspersed with trips up and down some of the gnarliest rockcrawling trails this side of anywhere: the Hammers.

EVENT: 2012 LOORRS (Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series) Rounds 3 and 4
DATE: April 21-22, 2012
LOCATION: Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park in Lake Elsinore, CA
CLASS: Pro Lite

Round 3 - Saturday, April 21, 2012
1 #38 BRIAN DEEGAN
2 #37 RJ ANDERSON
3 #82 CHRIS BRANDT
4 #55 MATT COOK
5 #88 AUSTIN KIMBRELL
6 #52 NOAH FOUCH
7 #51 RYAN BEAT
8 #24 BRADLEY MORRIS
9 #25 KYLE LUCAS
10 #77 JERETT BROOKS
11 #92 JACOB PERSON
12 #33 JIMMY STEPHENSEN
13 #5 SHANNON CAMPBELL
14 #23 AARON DAUGHERTY
15 #34 CURT GEER
16 #44 RON DUNCOMBE
17 #22 BUBBA GRAY
18 #2 CASEY CURRIE
19 #81 DOUG MITTAG
20 #6 TODD CUNNINGHAM
21 #74 SHELDON CREED
22 #19 JUSTIN SMITH
23 #11 ADAM WIK
24 #42 CHAD GEORGE

Round 4 - Sunday, April 22, 2012
1 #37 RJ ANDERSON
2 #82 CHRIS BRANDT
3 #24 BRADLEY MORRIS
4 #81 DOUG MITTAG
5 #52 NOAH FOUCH
6 #92 JACOB PERSON
7 #51 RYAN BEAT
8 #33 JIMMY STEPHENSEN
9 #77 JERETT BROOKS
10 #23 AARON DAUGHERTY
11 #34 CURT GEER
12 #88 AUSTIN KIMBRELL
13 #5 SHANNON CAMPBELL
14 #44 RON DUNCOMBE
15 #38 BRIAN DEEGAN
16 #2 CASEY CURRIE
17 #25 KYLE LUCAS
18 #19 JUSTIN SMITH
19 #55 MATT COOK
20 #22 BUBBA GRAY
21 #42 CHAD GEORGE
22 #6 TODD CUNNINGHAM

EVENT: 2012 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series, Rounds 3 and 4
DATE: April 21-22, 2012
LOCATION: Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park in Lake Elsinore, CA
CLASS: Pro 4

Round 3 - Saturday, April 21, 2012
1 #99 KYLE LEDUC
2 #10 GREG ADLER
3 #22 JOSH MERRELL
4 #18 CORRY WELLER
5 #7 TODD LEDUC
6 #23 JERRY DAUGHERTY
7 #46C CAREY HART
8 #5 TRAVIS COYNE
9 #1 CARL RENEZEDER
10 #32 ERIC BARRON
11 #43 CURT LEDUC

Round 4 - Sunday, April 22, 2012
1 #99 KYLE LEDUC
2 #7 TODD LEDUC
3 #22 JOSH MERRELL
4 #43 CURT LEDUC
5 #10 GREG ADLER
6 #5 TRAVIS COYNE
7 #18 CORRY WELLER
8 #23 JERRY DAUGHERTY
9 #32 ERIC BARRON
10 #46C CAREY HART
11 #1 CARL RENEZEDER

EVENT: 2012 LOORRS (Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series) Rounds 3 and 4
DATE: April 21-22, 2012
LOCATION: Lake Elsinore Motorsports Park in Lake Elsinore, CA
CLASS: Pro 2

Round 3 - Saturday, April 21, 2012
1 #38 BRIAN DEEGAN
2 #15 MARTY HART
3 #17 CARL RENEZEDER
4 #36 RODRIGO AMPUDIA
5 #2 JEREMY MCGRATH
6 #21 ROB MACCACHREN
7 #44 JEFF GEISER
8 #8 JEREMY STENBERG
9 #52 PATRICK CLARK
10 #99 ROBBY WOODS
11 #95 JEFF SEIFERT
12 #12 MYAN SPACCARELLI
13 #91 NICK TYREE
14 #5 EVAN EVANS
15 #10 GREG ADLER
16 #54 ROB NAUGHTON
17 #6 RYAN HANCOCK
18 #85 JUSTIN DAVIS

Round 4 - Sunday, April 22, 2012
1 #21 ROB MACCACHREN
2 #15 MARTY HART
3 #36 RODRIGO AMPUDIA
4 #10 GREG ADLER
5 #38 BRIAN DEEGAN
6 32 JEREMY MCGRATH
7 399 ROBBY WOODS
8 344 JEFF GEISER
9 38 JEREMY STENBERG
10 #17 CARL RENEZEDER
11 395 JEFF SEIFERT
12 #5 EVAN EVANS
13 36 RYAN HANCOCK
14 385 JUSTIN DAVIS
15 #12 MYAN SPACCARELLI
16 #54 ROB NAUGHTON
17 #91 NICK TYREE

We jump at the opportunity to hit the dirt any chance we get at OFF-ROAD, so when Shane Casad of Bilstein invited us to join his rolling party through the Mojave Road from Victoville to Primm, we immediately jumped on board.

We worked feverishly the night before the trip, prepping our project Cherokee for the 200 miles of scenic desert through the Mojave. We literally finished installing the front suspension and Bilstein hydraulic bumpstops at 3 a.m. before taking off from S.M.P. Fab to catch a few hours of sleep before heading out to Victorville, California, to meet up with the rest of the group.

In years past, we’ve teamed up with www.Clean-Dezert.org to show you the annual Barstow clean-up they put on every year. But this year the crew at Clean-Dezert had a lot of other things come up, and just couldn’t find all the time necessary to devote to a project such as this. When two brothers—Brandon and Travis from BTF Fabrication—found out that the 2011 clean-up wasn’t going to happen, they picked up the ball and in mid November presented the 2011 Barstow OCD Clean-Up.

It all came down to the second weekend of December in Chandler, Arizona, to finish up an exciting 2011 season for the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORS). Saturday saw the final series race in this third year of LOORS competition. Then on Sunday, the racers pulled out all stops to compete fiercely in the Challenge Cup offering over $100,000 in prize money.

SERIES: 2011 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORRS)
ROUNDS: 13 and 14
DATE: November 5-6, 2011
LOCATION: Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, NV

PRO 2 UNLIMITED - SATURDAY
1 ##2 JEREMY MCGRATH
2 1 ROB MACCACHREN
3 #38 BRIAN DEEGAN
4 #17 CARL RENEZEDER
5 #54 ROB NAUGHTON
6 #4 JEFF KINCAID
7 #99 ROBBY WOODS
8 #95 JEFF SEIFERT
9 #30 ROBBIE PIERCE
10 #10 GREG ADLER
11 #25 GREG NUNLEY
12 #91 NICK TYREE
13 #52 PATRICK CLARK
14 #65
15 #12 MYAN SPACCARELLI
16 #36 RODRIGO AMPUDIA
17 #44 JEFF GIESER

SERIES: 2011 Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series (LOORRS)
ROUNDS: 13 and 14
DATE: November 5-6, 2011
LOCATION: Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, NV

PRO 4 UNLIMITED - SATURDAY
1 #99 KYLE LEDUC
2 #17 CARL RENEZEDER
3 #22 JOSH MERRELL
4 #5 GREG ADLER
5 #47 MIKE JENKINS
6 #25 MARK JENKINS
7 #4 TODD LEDUC
8 #43 CURT LEDUC
9 #8 KENT BRASCHO
10 #23 JERRY DAUGHERTY

The SEMA show in Las Vegas is one of the largest gatherings of the automotive industry and features some of the latest and greatest innovations, as well as cool cars and trucks built by some of the best fabricators and builders in the world. The show is so large you can literally get lost inside one of the halls and spend a whole day there before you find your way out. As you can imagine, it’s a gearhead’s dream with more than 26 miles of red carpet.

This year featured some of the coolest rides, from classics to luxury prerunners, as well as some really cool products worth taking a look at. You can’t do the SEMA show in one day; you need at least a week to see most of it, but we did our best to get you coverage of some of the baddest products about to hit the market.

We normally don’t cover dyno events in OFF-ROAD magazine, but when we heard that the Colorado Diesel Truck Club was organizing a charity dyno event to raise funds for 10-year-old Morgan Wildman, who is battling brain cancer, we wanted to go out and show our support. Dyno events are usually about power and bragging rights, but this event was different. This event was about diesel-truck enthusiasts uniting to help a family during their time of need.

Morgan was first diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor when she was 8. After a brief period of remission, the cancer returned. As you can imagine, her family and friends have been doing everything they can to help her battle the cancer. It’s no surprise then that Shay Black of the Colorado Diesel Truck Club made some calls and organized a dyno event in Loveland, Colorado, to help pay for Morgan’s medical needs.

The green flag drops and we are off in a flash, the LS3 engine pushing me back in my seat. "Man, this thing really moves!" I think to myself as Sam Cothrun and I hurtle through the desert at triple-digit speeds in our attempt to win the VORRA Yerington 300. The race took place last Memorial Day weekend, but the story starts further back—a year Earlier, my friend Sam asked me to co-drive for him at the Valley Off Road Racing Association (VORRA) USA 500 in his 7200 truck.