Whiplash 2012 Schedule

[Oldtime racer]

A little birdie told me....

Yes WHIPLASH will have

A full year of REAL DESERT RACING.

Our schedule will include races at

"THE BOULDERS" and "VULTURE MINE"

BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP

It is not unusual for the BLM to move personnel around from district to district and State to State. As a result we have NEW Managers in the Phoenix District Offices. The New Managers can't decide whether they should allow COMPETITIVE EVENTS on THEIR LANDS (public lands=our lands), even though COMPETITIVE EVENTS have been part of PUBLIC LAND USE for DECADES.

THEY NEED TO HEAR YOUR OPINION

Please e mail a few lines with your opinion to

The EMAIL BELOW

emasters@blm.gov

Please be polite and please tell a friend to join with you and, do it NOW !! Please do not put this off.

Snooze and we all LOSE

<End Paste>

What I do know is I took a ride around what will probably be the first race of the season. Right now it's a ten mile, 10 foot wide race course that is tailored for quads. We should be able to have it up to 30 miles in length by then (we were told). Should also be able to have some nice single track in there for the bike guys.

We've been working very hard with the BLM for races on public lands. Take a minute of your time and send Mr. Masters an email and tell him how much you enjoy racing and riding on public lands. If you have little ones that race and you appreciate "everyone going the same way" on a marked course, now is the time to say so. But please be polite. These people have tough enough jobs dealing with folks like me and a few others who shake the bushes from time to time.

For anyone who hasn't raced true desert races, let me tell you they are worth fighting for. The boulders area will offer up twenty miles of rocks and sand with huge elevation changes.

You'll attempt to do four laps! At the end of this race you will feel as if you have accomplished something great.

The Vulture race is a tad bit smoother and about ten miles longer. The course has been raced on every year since the seventies till just a few years ago. It's well cut in and utilizes some sand washes and narrow jeep roads.

These two venues are worth commenting on. Be heard!

Thanks

[Wicked Al]

OK, I'm curious to see how much response a post like this gets. After all, it's our racing areas we're talking about. If you haven't sent in an e-mail yet, please do it! It doesn't have to be long, just a few lines saying how you enjoy the desert racing and would like the BLM to keep the areas open would be great. Numbers speak volumes! The more people that respond, the stronger the message to the BLM. Even if you don't race desert, just saying how you feel it's important that everyone enjoys public lands, including organized race events, is great. We all need to pull on things like this regardless if you actually race them or not, otherwise we'll find ourselves a sport without a venue as I think we're all starting to feel that way now.

Let's see a show of hands for everyone who sent in an e-mail! If you haven't, do it now and then post up!

Thanks!

Alex

PS. I sent in a long one, I am sure they will be happy to get some shorter ones

PPS. Try and stay positive!

[Wicked Al]

Sorry, didn't see Trent's post in another thread. He was kind enough to provide a cut and paste form for you!

Here it is!

The AZ BLM office has new management and they can't decide if they want to allow racing on public lands. Please copy this into email, add your name and hit send. Should take about 15 seconds. Thank you.


emasters@blm.gov

Dear Arizona BLM,
I am writing to show my support for off road racing on public lands. These areas are managed by the BLM for public use and I want to use these areas by riding and racing on them. Enjoying the public land with my family and friends is always a great time and we always pack out everything we pack in. In most cases we leave the lands better than we saw them in by participating in trash cleanups and when the racing organizations do trail maintenance by blading the race course from time to time. The small towns surrounding these races also see an increase in revenue with the racers stopping for gas, meals and entertainment.

Racing on existing trails has been a safe sport in Arizona for many years and the local racing organizations utilize a lot of safety precautions to help ensure spectator and racer safety.

Please approve all racing permits for 2012!

Thank you,
<insert name here>

[drtrider145]

Done , even left my personal contact information to let them know I'm a real person

[Trentk]

I emailed them last week and had about 20 friends do it too.

If we don't voice our opinions they will just listen to the people who do voice their opinions and those people are usually enviro nazi's which means our riding areas will all be shutdown in a few years.

[Jeeper0505]

Email sent.

[Wicked Al]

drtrider145 - cool!
Trentk - SUPER cool!
Jeeper0505 - cool!

Keep 'em coming!

Alex

[Prednizone]

did it a couple weeks ago...

[ElderGeek]

Done, with contact info.

[Oldtime racer]

You guys are great! We received a call from the phoenix office. They want to meet face to face. Don't ever think a nicely worded email doesn't have an effect.

Thank you Trent and Al. I know I use forums more as a play ground and get kind of a bad rep, so getting a response for me can be tough! LOL.
Everyone, always remember that while you're out riding and having fun there's someone , possibly an older bent and broken down ex-racer, that's spend his/her time in these meetings and writing these letters to help keep things going for the future.

This forum is very inportant to us. There is literally NO REPRESENTATION for the quads. The bike guys are being heard by the ATR, AMRA, and the AZOHVC. The jeep guys are well represented, the rock crawlers have a voice. One of the BLM people actually told me there is no voice for quads. I've stepped in to be the voice of quads and utv's and competitive events. Scary huh? Whiplash is now starting to speak up as well.

So, your emails worked!! Thank you very much. I hope to help the long course racing continue in this state. If I didn't think it was possible, I wouldn't even try. It is possible.

Thanks again.