The Unlimited Off-Road Racing Series will run a three-race calendar in 2024 beginning with the Parker 400 on 10–14 January, followed by the Mint 400 on 6–10 March and California 300 on 2–6 October. The rounds were originally announced with the creation of the series in March, though the specific dates were revealed last Friday.
The series builds upon the Unlimited Off-Road Racing Triple Crown Championship introduced for 2023. The Triple Crown began with King of the Hammers in February, though it has been replaced by the Parker 400 after series organiser Martelli Brothers acquired the rights to the race in March.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to be launching this new league and championship points series,” Matt Martelli stated. “This is the culmination of two decades of work in the off-road industry, on both the marketing and production side, and more than a decade of work promoting off-road events. We want to thank our racers, teams, sponsors, partners, volunteers, fans and our staff for their support and help over the years. We have so many exciting plans in store for next year and we’re proud to be hosting and promoting three of the most iconic and challenging races on the planet.”
The Arizona-based Parker 400 has been held since 1971 and was under the Best In The Desert sanction from 2003 to 2022. It was cancelled for 2023 after BITD was unable to secure permits from the Bureau of Land Management.
The Mint 400 was also a BITD date before becoming part of the Martelli portfolio, while the brothers founded the California 300 in 2022. Held in Nevada, the 400 is the largest desert race in the United States.
“The launch of this new season and series is the byproduct of years’ worth of hard work, building our events to be the best possible for our racers, sponsors and fans,” offered Josh Martelli. “It takes an army of co-workers, friends, volunteers and support from folks like the BLM, state and county officials, our professional safety and security teams, and event partners to pull this off. But we do it because we love it. And because we love it we don’t cut corners. Unlimited Off-Road Racing has been in the works since 2020, and we’ve been very vocal about building the preeminent desert off-road race league in North America.”
For 2024, championships will be available for trucks, motorcycles, cars, and youth classes. The UTV World Championship, also a Martelli property, will be expanded to count points for all three races.
Adam Householder currently leads the Unlimited Truck Triple Crown standings with 305 points, a 1.5-point edge over Eric Hardin, while Bruce Binnquist leads Joe Terrana by the same in UTV Pro Turbo and Zach Quiroz has 4.5 on Dan Fisher in UTV Pro Unlimited. Unlimited Truck SPEC has the largest gap with Dustin Grabowski holding 312.5 points to Terry Householder‘s 293.
At King of the Hammers, Adam Householder won the Desert Challenge Unlimited class to lead the Unlimited Truck standings right out of the gate while Grabowski finished behind him. Hardin won the overall at the Mint 400, while Grabowski claimed the UT SPEC class and Terrana won the overall for the Limited Race over Binnquist.
The 2023 California 300 on 4–8 October will issue double points.