Jul. 30—DARKWATER — 1,000-horsepower "fire breathing monsters," as one official put it, matched wits with ice age rock formations Sunday on a mountainside near Saint Clair.
About 100 Ultra4 Racing cars, piloted by drivers from across the U.S. and Canada, competed on a 10.75-mile course at the Famous Reading Outdoors complex.
The Famous Reading Rumble, characterized as "a rocky, wooded endurance challenge that's sure to test the limits of man and machine," was sponsored by Oklahoma-based Ultra4 USA Racing.
J.T. Taylor, race director, said the Famous Reading Outdoors course lived up to its name.
"This is a very challenging course, and one of the toughest courses in the Ultra4 series," he said. "There was a lot of carnage out there today."
In the main feature, which started around 3 p.m. Sunday, supercharged off-road race cars were competing for two hours on a mountainside that was once the domain of power shovels, bulldozers and dump trucks involved in strip mining.
Doc Dress, Famous Reading Outdoors general manager, said the cars encounter mud holes, ponds and rock formations with names like "Kool-Aid, Viking's Ridge and Hell's Half Acre."
Racing teams began arriving Wednesday, setting up a large area of tents and portable garages about a mile off Darkwarter Road.
Racing in several classes, based on horsepower and the size of the vehicles, was held on Friday and Saturday, and was continuing into Sunday.
The top time prior to the main event was just more than 21 minutes for one lap, and two hours for a total of five laps.
Famous Reading Outdoors has seven trail networks in Schuylkill and Northumberland counties.
About 650 miles of trails are available to ATVs, UTVs and dirt bikes.
For information, visit www.readingoutdoors.com.
Contact the writer: [email protected]; 570-628-6007
