Brimstone SxS Roundup September 4th - 7th

Having been away from the Southeast for nearly 5 years, it was nice to see that the UTV crowd has grown leaps and bounds from when I left. I’d even venture to say that the slow economy hasn’t affected this market nearly as much as some might believe. And, this was definitely true at this year’s first SxS Round-Up hosted by Yamaha and held at the Brimstone Recreation Area in Huntsville, TN.

Our trip started late from Knoxville, TN, which is a short hour and half drive away from Huntsville, TN through the rolling hills that TN is so well known for. We got in to the registration booth and luckily a full service RV spot had opened up late that night, so I snagged it up and headed in to park the motor home and hit the sack. Setup was quick, and we were in bed by 1:30am and excited about the fun we anticipated having on Saturday.

We were up at 7am, and off to the races, or so I thought. I hopped in the trusty old RZR and for whatever reason it wouldn’t start. After trying for quite some time, I killed the battery and in the meantime realized I had forgotten to get fuel for the RZR when we headed up. So, after heading into town to fuel up (FYI first gas station to the north is cash only), I hooked the battery to my truck and after adjusting the fuel programmer, we were up and running.

We had planned to meet some friends Wayne and Jackie at the main entrance to the riding area around 8:30am, and luckily when we got there people were still rolling in.
And, to our surprise, we saw some old friends Reggie & Chris, as well, which was fun. Needless to say, I was surprised to see very few people staged for the organized rides, but our ride ended up heading out around 9:15am with 7-8 UTV’s and a couple of quads.

It ended up being a great ride, although a little slower paced than we would have liked. The trails were great, and the guide did a nice job taking us out on a moderate set of trails with good challenges, and good scenery mixed in as well.



From there, we headed down to the event area to try to catch some of the events. And, luckily for me, when pulling onto the pavement and having to make hard left turn, I snapped a rear axle.


But, after thinking our riding was done, I found Harold and Joey from Super ATV atv axles, long travel kits, atv axle, utv accessories, atv lift kit, atv bumper, travel kits, atv accessories - Super ATV and they just happened to have the exact axle I needed with them.

And, because I had a spare sitting so conveniently located in my trailer back at the house, he said just ship him back one when I got back home. Now, that’s customer service! So, after talking with Porkchop, I headed down to the local Huntsville Yamaha dealer (423) 663-2222 for a free install of the rear axle.

Yamaha has really stepped up in regards to events and either helped local dealers with providing free labor to the event participants or physically been at the event to support not only their Yamaha customers, but any UTV customers. That’s unreal and greatly appreciated at the UTV Rally, of course! So, it was off to the races, or so I thought. Probably luckily for my old RZR, I had a broken rear hub in addition to the axle, so the idea of racing the Pro Armor King of the Mountain Endurance Race the next day was out for me.

But, luckily I was nearly fixed up and back up to the event area to check out the mud races and the lady’s dash for cash. Talk about a hoot!













Here's Tony from Tony's Toys Tonys Toys: Side By Sides about to head into the mud pit backwards:


The crowds were out in droves watching the events on Saturday. Too bad the weather didn't cooperate as well on Sunday, because folks really missed out not watching the Pro Armor King of the Mountain Endurance races.






Everyone seems to love mud, that’s for sure, and even the ladies enjoyed taking a full head to toe mud bath not once, but a couple of times for the top girls. Needless to say, I don’t think they quite knew what was in that water, because if they had I don’t think some of them would have dove in. But, for us spectators, it made for some great laughs and the winning lady scored over $1,300 cash.







I'm not sure Randy from GBC Motorsports, the events sponsor, knew what he was about to get into!






Reggie's got him a good one here, don't you think! Way to go girlfriend!




She's one happy mud girl, that's for sure!


I'm not sure this young lady was having fun anymore!


She appears like she didn't get much sleep the night before...or something like that!


GBC Motorsports was out in full force, with their lead man Randy even gettin' dirty...not so sure by choice, though!


$1300+ later, I'm not so sure she cared about all the crawdads that were in that mud pit!


From there, they gave away a bunch of raffle prizes, but I think the big attraction was the John Anderson concert that night. We headed to dinner and made it back to catch the last half of the show, which was a cool relaxing ending to the day.

Sunday didn’t come as early as Saturday after waking initially to the sound of rain. So, we stayed in bed and enjoyed some extra sleep till the rain seemed to slow down a bit. The Pro Armor 4 Hour UTV Endurance ATV Accessories - Quad Accessories - ATV Parts and more from Pro Armor race started at 1pm, so we wanted to make sure to be down there for that.



And, boy do I have to say what a race this was. I’ve raced a number of races, and I have to say this was probably the toughest, most gruesome race I’ve seen for UTVs. After tackling the super rough woods section of the race, they entered the infield with a sweeping turn into some off-camber angled whoops, then through a long mud pit, then around another corner to 1.5’ high logs spaced about a UTV length apart, then over a 75’ section of tires, then through a mud trough, and if that wasn’t enough a rough rock garden, then up and over two cars to finish off over a large pile of logs. Whew! Here's all the racers at the beginning of the race:











These guys were the last to enter and the first to finish after 4 hours! Way to go...they were flying and put two laps on 2nd place.


These guys ended up in 2nd place overall. Great job in their sharp looking Side X Side Graphics - UTV Graphics Polaris RZR S.






In the words of these racers later in the race, “The course is all good till you get to this section!” And, they ended up podium'ing in 3rd place, as well. Way to go to this couple for enduring the full 4 hours.


Again, a huge thanks goes out to Randy and Kevin from GBC Motorsports for stepping up huge and supporting this 1st Annual SxS Roundup in Huntsville, TN. These events, as we know, can't exist without your help and support: GBC Motorsports




Here's some action shots from the in-field:






























































And, don't forget all the sponsors of the event either. Pat from ITP was out in full force providing free demo rides on their new Baja Cross 8 ply tire, which apparently has proven to be a big hit:


Tony from Tony's Toys was out in full force and an integral part of putting together the race track used for the 4 hour Endurance Race. Great job Tony...it was an awesome race.


In the end, it proved to be a gruesome race for everyone, and I was surprised to see as many finish as did. Overall, way to go to Brimstone Recreation, PGI Media and everyone else that helped for putting on a great event in Huntsville, TN. I look forward to attending this event again next year.

For more information about the event and the Brimstone Recreation area, visit: Brimstone Recreation. For more information about this particular event, visit: Side X Side Roundup or Side X Side Action Magazine | Side X Side Magazine | UTV Magazine and Offroad

Chris