Spanning everything from legendary hill climb events to weekend-long ragers celebrating all things fast, the PRI Road Tour showcases the wide range of cultural and competitive reference points that motorsports has become home to. 

In our third installment of this four-part, behind-the-scenes look at iconic racing events across the country, we’re checking out the high-flying action at one of the biggest off-road events anywhere in the world; hitting a festival that’s equal parts music, drifting, and record-setting lap times; bearing witness to the performance crucible of Hot Rod Drag Week; and getting back to our roots with some street racing-style competition. 

For all the latest news, photos, footage, and other sundry delights from the Tour, head on over to
performanceracing.com/roadtour. 

Crandon World Championships & Crandon World Cup

For most folks, the phrase “wild off-road racing” conjures up mental images of Baja, Dakar, or vast expanses of Nevada desert. But over Labor Day weekend, Crandon International Off-Road Raceway in Crandon, Wisconsin, was the epicenter of short-course off-road action, playing host to the 52nd Polaris Crandon World Championship as well as the sixth annual Red Bull Crandon World Cup.

Encompassing everything from stock-style UTVs to untethered Pro 2-class trucks, the event brought competitors from the Ultra4 and AMSOIL Championship Off-Road series together in one place and attracted more than 50,000 spectators from around the world—along with sponsors like Polaris, Lucas Oil, Yokohama, and MAVTV.

Although the facility boasts hundreds of miles of ATV/UTV trails, endless acres of forest and grasslands, and more than 2,300 designated camping sites, the focal point of Crandon International Off-Road Raceway is its 1.75-mile dirt track circuit. Known as the longest and fastest off-road racing short-course around, top-tier classes saw speeds of over 100 mph when they weren’t negotiating technical corners or catching air off of massive jumps.

GRIDLIFE

There’s no shortage of motorsports events that seek to combine racing and popular culture, but few do so with the scale and contemporary authenticity of GRIDLIFE. Born out of the drifting scene in 2013, GRIDLIFE hosts automotive festivals with on-site camping and an array of underground hip-hop, EDM, and alternative artists and DJs to encourage attendees to make it a multi-day, Coachella-style affair. 

Often held at facilities like Road America and Pikes Peak, this particular shindig went down at West Michigan’s GingerMan Raceway, and the racing action was largely focused around three disciplines: Time Attack, drifting, and wheel-to-wheel racing in the GRIDLIFE Touring Cup. 

Although many participants are SCCA and NASA regional competitors, and GRIDLIFE’s demographics skew toward young enthusiasts, the class structures invite participation at every experience level. The Touring Cup attracted a 50-plus-car grid for four sprint races and an additional qualifying shootout, while sponsor support from the likes of Falken Tire, Valvoline, and Hawk Performance illustrate how quickly these events have grown in size and visibility in just a few short years. 

Hot Rod Drag Week

First held in 2004, Hot Rod Magazine’s competition to crown “America’s Fastest Street Car” has become an annual pilgrimage for drag racers from around the world. The math behind the event format is simple: Competitors race at five tracks, and their quickest of five runs at each track is recorded, then averaged. The lowest average quarter-mile ET across the five tracks wins. 

But simply finishing Drag Week is an accomplishment in and of itself. This year’s competition, for instance, included five days of back-to-back racing at five different tracks—US 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Michigan; Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio; Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Indiana; Byron Dragway in Byron, Illinois; and then back to US 131—as well as 1,125 miles of driving on public roads through the Midwest between them. The sold-out event saw 341 cars in the pits as racing initially got underway, but just 292 were still in the running at the start of Day 5. 

Despite their declining ranks, no fewer than eight competitors were posting ETs of 7.99 or quicker on the final day of competition. The title would ultimately go to Dave Schroeder and his Pro Mod-based 2019 Corvette with an average ET of 6.793 at 198.8 mph over five days, while runner up Mikeal Borggren and his 1987 Volvo 240 station wagon finished with a 7.259 at 192.44 mph average. Borggren capped off the event with an amazing 6.93 run at 203.34 mph, which we can only assume is the highest velocity that a Volvo 240 has ever achieved…which wasn’t shot out of a cannon. 

Street Car Takeover

Established in 2013 and held at race tracks across the country throughout the year, Street Car Takeover offers affordable, family-friendly events that combine show n’ shines, drifting, burnout competitions, traditional drag racing, and roll races—the latter of which takes inspiration from impromptu competitions out on the street. 

While the racing aspects generally cater to the small-tire doorslammer crowd, ETs in the 7-second range and trap speeds exceeding 200 mph aren’t uncommon in top classes. This is serious racing presented with a street racing community vibe.

“Racing kept me out of trouble as a kid,” said cofounder Justin Keith. “We wanted a platform for that kid that’s 17 to 18 years old, maybe just getting into racing, and he may only run 12s. We have a class for him, and the payouts are good. That kid could leave with two grand in his pocket. That will last in his mind forever, and every time Street Car Takeover comes around, he’ll be there.” 

It’s a formula that appears to be working: With over $15,000 up for grabs in St. Louis, there was a sizable crowd on hand for the proceedings, and Keith noted that participation and attendance is actually up in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. 

“Racing is essential,” he explained. We couldn’t agree more.