Derek West: King of Wales 2017

2017 King of Wales

Thursday July 13-Sunday July 16, 2017

What an amazing opportunity Derek West received from Ultra 4 & Nitto Tire to drive Bailey Cole’s Ultra 4 car at the King of Wales race in Neath, Wales!

“It was a super cool experience to meet people from all over the world and to race in another country. It was a lot like Rausch Creek, Pennsylvania.” stated Derek. Derek raced with co-driver, Stijin Vekeman and his brother/crew chief, Wouter Vekeman. The Vekeman’s are based out of Belgium and maintain the former spec car as well as bring it to the races.

Proloque or “Qualifying” took place on Friday afternoon. Derek ended up taking the pole position with a solid and steady run. The weather was typical Wales weather (so we were told) with light rain, fog and cool temps, which made for some rough racing conditions. Derek is quite skilled racing in the trees and wet rocks and they did pretty well Saturday morning the first day of the race. They had a couple mechanical issues during the race that left them sitting in 5th place at the end of the day. The final day, Sunday was a little tougher, they didn’t get very far into the course when the engine seized up, so they called it quits. In all it was a great race with some talented racers.

Derek and his family are very grateful for the experience and look forward to many more adventures in racing. Derek stated “It was the most memorable experience in my 15 years of professional off-road racing!”

Up next on the 2017 schedule for Derek West and the #20 team:

KMC Ultra 4 Battle at the Bluegrass Race in Kentucky – August 11 & 12
Outlaw Off Road Racing Finals in Alabama – September 8 & 9
Race to Riches in Tennessee – September 14-16
Ultra 4 Nationals Reno, NV – October 19-21

 

Big Thanks to our partners that make all of this possible!

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