The Rooster
October 2021
THE ROOSTER A monthly update from the Inland Empire Offroad Association
What’s New
Sand Sports Super Show 2021
The sand season is here! Check out the sights from this year’s Sand Sports Super Show, which marks the start of the season and returned after moving to Phoenix last year.
First Trip: Dumont We will be at Dumont the weekend of October 8-11th.
Yellow Trailer We are looking for help with the storage costs for the yellow trailer this season. See more on page 5.
Coral Pink Dates for 2022! We have reserved the campsite at Coral Pink for the 2022 trip! Mark your calendars now, since we will be there in the park from July 13-22, 2022.
The Sand Sports Super Show was once again held at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa this past weekend, and was still a very large and well attended event after being moved to Phoenix for an event that was adversely affected by COVID last year. We were glad to see that it returned to much of its former glory, with an overall footprint of exhibitors that was almost as big as in years past, and large crowds of attendees who were clearly ready for the season to start. One particularly neat thing was that when they played the National Anthem at noon, the entire crowd stopped, removed their hats, and went silent. It was neat to see, and shows that the sand
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October 2021 community is still as patriotic as ever.
Upcoming Events • Columbus Day Weekend at Dumont: October 8-11th. Let’s start the season off with some nice fast riding and big smooth dunes. • Anza Weekend: October 21-25. Join Mike for some nice riding • Veterans Day Weekend at Glamis: November 11-14. • Thanksgiving Week at Glamis: November 19-29th.
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One exciting aspect of this year's show was the reveal of Speed UTV's pre-production cars at the show on Friday night. For those of you not familiar with Speed UTV, it is a company started by Robby Gordon to produce a better UTV. Since March of 2020 Robby has been hosting weekly online design reviews to share his plans for the ultimate UTV. He also began accepting deposits for vehicles, ensuring better pricing and a locked in spot in line for buyers willing to place their deposits early. Some members of the group have joined in and signed up for their "master numbers" and are excitedly awaiting delivery of their production cars. This year's show was a step closer in that direction, and now everyone was able to see full size pre-production prototype cars. They have some neat features including massive shocks, long travel suspension, and an integrated front differential case and bulkhead that serves as the center mount for the front AArms. They will use many of their own unique components, including the engines, turbos, and even tires which are all made special for Speed UTV. These vehicles should be quite impressive as they move from being "unicorns" into being production vehicles in the dunes.
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October 2021 Another comment about the show in recent years is that it has become the Side-by-side show, which pretty much follows the types of vehicles in the dunes as well. We were actually happy that we were able to count at least 10 sandrails at the show this year, which is a very low number compared to the early years of the show, but isn't a whole lot less than recent years. One sandrail that we did see was from Racer Engineering, and despite being tucked back in the corner of the Hangar building it was one of the more impressive cars we have seen at any show. From a distance it looked like a nice big V8 rear engine car with lots of body work and nice paint and graphics.
Upon closer inspection, it actually had a front mounted twin turbo engine, with traditional automatic transmission and a drive shaft running to the independent rear suspension. The entire car was covered in nice aluminum body work, so it was actually dif cult to gure out what impressive magic was going on "under the hood" but it was a neat looking car that we do all hope to see in the dunes.
Back on the subject of side by sides, Honda had an impressive demonstration where a Talon with their i-4WD system would climb a 45 degree ramp with one wheel, while all three other wheels were on rollers so that they spun freely with no traction. This electronic traction control system creates the effect of a locking differential electronically, and was obviously quite effective. It was also impressive that this particular car was
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The Rooster
October 2021
capable of sitting there and doing this demonstration repeatedly, all day long.
The rest of the show was enjoyable and similar to years past, which was great to see. There were plenty of accessories available for everyone's sand toys, and lots to walk around and look at. We didn't see it all in our 6 hours there on Saturday. We are all looking forward to another great season in the dunes, and from the turnout at the show, it will be another busy season out there.
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The Rooster
October 2021
The Yellow Trailer Hello everyone, With the start of the season approaching , we once again are making our plans for storing the yellow trailer for the season. Unfortunately, the number of us who commit to fund the trailer for the season has decreased, and we are left with very few of us to cover the increasing storage cost. Over 10 years ago we made the transition to run the "club" without monetary contribution. We did away with dues and memberships to avoid owing our time at the dunes to anyone. While this has worked well and the group has remained in place and had many successful events every season, these trips have relied on the presence of the yellow trailer for storage of the cones that help mark off camp; the tables we use for group events; propane, pots, and burners for the omelet breakfasts; the camp locator beacons (and the unique landmark of the trailer itself to locate camp); and even rewood storage between trips. The yellow trailer was originally set up independently as a mobile workshop and storage location for a few of us who were transitioning to toyhaulers and wanted to have garage space at the dunes. It still serves that purpose for those of us who suffer an occasional car breakdown at the dunes and the trailer has always been available for anyone to use, at no cost. Some have made contributions that have helped offset the costs, but last season there were no contributions. That meant that ve families paid all of the expenses, the largest of which was $500 in storage at Glamis Dunes Storage. With that group now down to four, we considered taking it home, but due to the impact that might have we decided to fund it ourselves this year and request help this year that will allow us to continue in the future. No contribution is mandatory, and we understand if you feel you don't need to contribute because you don't use the trailer, but it would help keep it there for everyone if people can chip in to help out. If we don't receive enough contributions, we will go ahead and haul the trailer home at the end of this season, and we will all need to adjust our plans to get used to not having it there next year. Let's have a great sand season, and we'll see you in the dunes soon. Jim, John, P.J., Ray and Janice
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The Rooster
October 2021
Coming Soon: Anza Weekend: October 21-25
We are not planning to have the actual poker run this year, just too many things going on to get it all organized, however we will be having the Hot Dog Wheenie Roast on Saturday October 23rd. We will show up at the Salton City Golf Course on Thursday, October 21st and stay through Monday, October 25th. We will have rides all weekend, and the Hot Dog Roast Potluck on Saturday evening. Everyone please bring your favorite dish for the potluck. Thanks! Mike Bacon
This month we’d like to thank Mike Bacon for sending in content about the upcoming Anza trip, and encourage everyone else to share what they have been up to. The newsletter is what you make it, so send your contributions for future newsletters to me at pkastle@msn.com and we will publish them along with a calendar of events each month. -Paul, Melissa, Allie, and Marshall.
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