We hope that everyone had a nice long weekend and also hope that everyone took the time to remember those that fell defending the freedom that we all enjoy.

Now thanks to the long weekend, we have fewer days to wait until OCCRA 2017 Rd 7 Lone Tree Benefit Race. We had a huge crew out working the track over the weekend and we think that we’re in for a treat.

If you haven’t been to Lone Tree Ranch yet, the property is amazing, with ample camping and spectacular views. Even if you’re not racing, this is a great one to come to and enjoy the great outdoors. In addition to the racing, you can also bring your fishing gear and do some catch-and-release fishing.

The crew moved things around a little bit from previous years, and you’ll find the starting area and scoring chute closer to the front of the property after you climb up to the main camping area. Continue past the scoring area to take your pick of plenty of camping spots.

As for the track, we’re back to the woods for the most part, but you’ll find this track to be very diverse with wooded trail, plenty of elevation change, rocky terrain and some logs and other obstacles. The track mixes old and new trail, so you’ll see some stuff you recognize and some you don’t. The track is about 6 miles for the long course and 2 miles for the short course. The short course track is all new to the minis and mixes totally new stuff with some long course track from previous years.

As you probably know, Round 7 is the charity race for the 2017 season. All proceeds from this race benefit the Talley Bowman Foundation. This foundation funds the lodge and works with the Wounded Warrior regiments of the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps to provide hunting excursions for wounded veterans. So not only do you get to race, but you’ll be helping out a great cause.

Don’t forget, also, that we are having a special event UTV race after bike practice, so tell your buddies with side by sides that we have a race for them too!

Concession will be provided by Mona’s Rose of Sharon and Big Black’s BBQ, so you should have a nice selection of food choices!

This race will be back to a dead engine start.

There are a few rules, but nothing that isn’t common sense!  Please keep your motorized vehicles off of the paved walking paths and also don’t take your vehicles inside of the fenced lodged areas.  The military equipment is off limits – you can look and take photos but no climbing in or on the equipment!  Finally, please be extra vigilant about picking up your trash.  It doesn’t have to be yours to grab it – we all know that sometimes something blows away or we walk away and forget to take a bottle with us.  Let’s all help each other out and help the landowner out and pick up trash that you might see floating around.

We have a lot of people to thank – I hope I don’t miss anyone! Thanks to our round title sponsor – BluewaterOKC (Allen Aboujeib) – you all know you need a cool summer hobby! And here are our awesome track builders: Russell Doughty, Brad Spiva, Greg Shepherd, Greg Gordon, Ty Richardson, Cole Williams, Xander Cochran, Kent Cochran, Brock Schell, Billy Beer and JJ. Thanks to all of you for your hard work this weekend.

Short course riders – Cole made a video for you too!  There are a couple of missed turns in there, but you should still be able to get a pretty good idea of the track layout.  Check it out!