kyle_pc_75
New Member
My good off-road racing friends,
First off, thank you to all the racers, organizers, sponsors, and the BLM staff that has and continues to work with us. We've been quiet for a month or more, and I hope to use this opportunity to explain why and to communicate our plan moving forward.
THE PAST AND PRESENT SITUATION:
It is with great disappointment and much anguish that I announce that Bonneville Off-Road Racing (BOR) as an organization will not be sanctioning races on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) through the year 2015. Before I get into the details of how this has come to pass, please realize that BOR is not by any means dead, and will continue to thrive through 2015 and beyond.
I think it is important to start with a recent history of BOR, especially the events and circumstances leading up to and including to the Wendover 2014 Rewound Race, and what transpired following the race.
Throughout the years, BOR has established a philosophy to become a racing organization that preserves and protects the rights to hold sanctioned, small, low impact, everyman races on BLM land in Nevada, Utah and elsewhere, while doing restoration work on public roads in order to preserve those routes used by environmental researchers and activists, hunters, ranchers, and motorized and non-motorized recreators alike. Two major points of our overall philosophy have been to:
To be short, this philosophy backfired at the Wendover 2014 Rewound Race, as the major issue brought to BOR's attention was the off-course racing, something that BLM communicated to BOR post-race, and something BOR was unprepared for due to expectations established through many years of a harmonious and mutually beneficial relationship. Many spots were run wide, and a more than a few corners were cut short. Once BOR inspected the course post-race, we understood the position of BLM and their threat of a potential one year suspension from racing on BLM land.
We soon realized that the goals of BOR, the racers, and the BLM were all slightly out of alignment. It's not that we were of opposing views, but that those views and expectations were not clearly communicated. It seemed that the three major factors that led to an impending suspension from BLM were:
Given the threat of suspension, BOR spent two full weekends in the desert south of Wendover doing road restoration and revegetation work far beyond any we had ever needed to do in the past. Long story short, BLM was happy with the work that was done, but it became clear through unofficial channels that any permit we applied for, in any BLM district in the year 2015, would be denied. A permit denial would leave an official black mark on any future permits we would apply for and would not be good for the desert racing community in general.
It was felt by BOR that since a most certain permit denial would be damaging to our reputation and organization, we decided that a self-imposed one year suspension from racing on BLM land was the best and most sensible solution to keep public land racing in the United States alive, not only for BOR, but for others such as SCORE, SNORE, BITD, VORRA, USRA, and the many others who share our goals. It was not an easy conclusion to come to.
Having said all of that...2014 was our most successful in a long time, and BOR is still very much alive and well. The volunteers, racers, and organizers are still eager to make this organization thrive, so let me get into our plans for 2015 and beyond.
THE FUTURE:
BOR will not be organizing any races on BLM land this year, end of discussion. However, that does not leave us without options for maintaining ourselves as a group of off-road racing enthusiasts, holding get-togethers and meetings, or especially holding races on other lands. We came up with a short list of options. Without getting into specifics, I'd like to list them here:
We have several leads that we are actively pursuing for each of the non-BLM potential racing opportunities and are welcome to ideas. We are definitely holding three Meetings in the Desert on these dates, details to be forthcoming, but they will likely either be held on 93A south of Wendover or at Five Mile. These are close to our originally planned race dates to reduce conflicts with racing events and holidays:
Rest assured that we will be applying for three permitted races outside of Wendover in 2016 and have every reason to believe they will be approved.
As always, BOR thrives on the input, help, and participation of its racers and volunteers. Thank you so much for your patience and support. Just remember, this isn't the first time we've encountered hard times, and we came back from that with a vengeance. We strive to do the same once again.
Please PM me for contact info if you’d like to talk in private.
Sincerely,
Kyle MacArthur - Technical Director
Nate Srok - President and Race Director
Allen Gerber - Owner
First off, thank you to all the racers, organizers, sponsors, and the BLM staff that has and continues to work with us. We've been quiet for a month or more, and I hope to use this opportunity to explain why and to communicate our plan moving forward.
THE PAST AND PRESENT SITUATION:
It is with great disappointment and much anguish that I announce that Bonneville Off-Road Racing (BOR) as an organization will not be sanctioning races on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) through the year 2015. Before I get into the details of how this has come to pass, please realize that BOR is not by any means dead, and will continue to thrive through 2015 and beyond.
I think it is important to start with a recent history of BOR, especially the events and circumstances leading up to and including to the Wendover 2014 Rewound Race, and what transpired following the race.
Throughout the years, BOR has established a philosophy to become a racing organization that preserves and protects the rights to hold sanctioned, small, low impact, everyman races on BLM land in Nevada, Utah and elsewhere, while doing restoration work on public roads in order to preserve those routes used by environmental researchers and activists, hunters, ranchers, and motorized and non-motorized recreators alike. Two major points of our overall philosophy have been to:
- Mark race course as little as possible in order to minimize the impact on the surrounding environment ("Pack It In, Pack It Out") and workload on the organizers and volunteers, while at the same time challenging the racers to read the course.
- Restore recently unused roads so that future generations may continue to use them in ways that benefit the general public.
To be short, this philosophy backfired at the Wendover 2014 Rewound Race, as the major issue brought to BOR's attention was the off-course racing, something that BLM communicated to BOR post-race, and something BOR was unprepared for due to expectations established through many years of a harmonious and mutually beneficial relationship. Many spots were run wide, and a more than a few corners were cut short. Once BOR inspected the course post-race, we understood the position of BLM and their threat of a potential one year suspension from racing on BLM land.
We soon realized that the goals of BOR, the racers, and the BLM were all slightly out of alignment. It's not that we were of opposing views, but that those views and expectations were not clearly communicated. It seemed that the three major factors that led to an impending suspension from BLM were:
- Course not marked well enough by the organizers, especially along the long stretches of roads we were trying to restore to usable condition.
- Racers, using commonly accepted desert racing techniques to either stay out of another's dust, pass another vehicle, or look for a better line through silt, ran the course wide, in some spots as much as 50 yards.
- Unclear communication of expectations between BLM, BOR, and the racers as to what were acceptable racing and restoration practices.
Given the threat of suspension, BOR spent two full weekends in the desert south of Wendover doing road restoration and revegetation work far beyond any we had ever needed to do in the past. Long story short, BLM was happy with the work that was done, but it became clear through unofficial channels that any permit we applied for, in any BLM district in the year 2015, would be denied. A permit denial would leave an official black mark on any future permits we would apply for and would not be good for the desert racing community in general.
It was felt by BOR that since a most certain permit denial would be damaging to our reputation and organization, we decided that a self-imposed one year suspension from racing on BLM land was the best and most sensible solution to keep public land racing in the United States alive, not only for BOR, but for others such as SCORE, SNORE, BITD, VORRA, USRA, and the many others who share our goals. It was not an easy conclusion to come to.
Having said all of that...2014 was our most successful in a long time, and BOR is still very much alive and well. The volunteers, racers, and organizers are still eager to make this organization thrive, so let me get into our plans for 2015 and beyond.
THE FUTURE:
BOR will not be organizing any races on BLM land this year, end of discussion. However, that does not leave us without options for maintaining ourselves as a group of off-road racing enthusiasts, holding get-togethers and meetings, or especially holding races on other lands. We came up with a short list of options. Without getting into specifics, I'd like to list them here:
- Weekend long "Meetings in the Desert" instead of our regular Tuesday nights at Nate's shop
- Races on individually held private land
- Races on corporately held private land
- Races on public land (city/county/Native American owned)
We have several leads that we are actively pursuing for each of the non-BLM potential racing opportunities and are welcome to ideas. We are definitely holding three Meetings in the Desert on these dates, details to be forthcoming, but they will likely either be held on 93A south of Wendover or at Five Mile. These are close to our originally planned race dates to reduce conflicts with racing events and holidays:
- Weekend of May 2nd - Five Mile Poker Run
- Weekend of June 27th - Wendover Main Pit Desert Cleanup, BLM approved
- Weekend of September 12th - ???
Rest assured that we will be applying for three permitted races outside of Wendover in 2016 and have every reason to believe they will be approved.
As always, BOR thrives on the input, help, and participation of its racers and volunteers. Thank you so much for your patience and support. Just remember, this isn't the first time we've encountered hard times, and we came back from that with a vengeance. We strive to do the same once again.
Please PM me for contact info if you’d like to talk in private.
Sincerely,
Kyle MacArthur - Technical Director
Nate Srok - President and Race Director
Allen Gerber - Owner
