I am proud to announce the formation of a new Trials club, the High Plains Trials Association. Serving Eastern New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, western Oklahoma and south Kansas, the club was formed to offer Trials riders in these areas an opportunity to ride and compete somewhere closer than northern New Mexico, south-central Texas, or points further. The first two posts here will always be updated with club info, event results, and whatever fun we come up with. Visit us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/High-Plains-Trials-Association-1780722172184983/ And our website - http://hptrials.weebly.com/ We also have T-shirts available. Gots to financially jump-start the club somehow. See the Facebook site or visit DSquared Trials - http://www.dsquaredtrials.com/ 2018 schedule now out! Feb 18 Haystack Mtn. (near Roswell, NM) March 11 Haystack Mtn. (near Roswell, NM) March 30 - April 1 work weekend in prep for NATC (this is our local area, let's show up and help!) Haystack Mtn. (near Roswell, NM) April 21-22 NATC Haystack Mtn. (near Roswell, NM) May 27 Lake McClellan, TX (near Pampa, TX) Cool summer events in the Mountains with NMTA and MWVTA! Sept 30 Lake Mackenzie, TX Nov 10-11 Buffalo Dream Ranch, OK (note first 2 day HPTA event!)
Yeah like the Facebook-based club called TACO which I formed to cover roughly the same area If you are looking to also reinvent all the marking and scoring and club-support systems, well, I've done all that already...
Not here to step on anyone's toes, just a group of Eastern New Mexico/West and Panhandle of Texas Trials riders that wanted more riding time and less windshield time. TACO riders, as are all riders welcome. This club was formed to work in coordination with, not competition with the surrounding clubs. Reinvent systems? Hardly. We just want to ride, compete, and have fun.
Heck, if you're including NEOTT in HPTA you might as well add AVTA since we're about the same distance as Tulsa. Both our riding areas are loaded with good times (Douglass, KS & Sedan, KS). We're always up for a ride and host events every month, rain or shine. We've only cancelled once in 40+ years due to a severe ice storm.
I was kidding... sort of. On the one hand, it's nice to have state-based clubs. One big club like NMTA. On the other, the country is so big the smaller regional clubs make sense. TACO is too small to sustain itself. It was a bucket list thing for me. I put huge hours into it for Sooner Cup, and designed some excellent systems that are pretty easily relabelled for another new club. One of my problems has been no club wishes to 'own' my region. NEOTT is not an Oklahoma trials club. It's NE OK and AR trials club. The North and Central Texas college clubs are very much into their own regions with little thought for crossing a state line. Now the panhandle of Texas used to be Top of Texas club. TACO was an attempt to fill in the hole in central and Western OK out to Texas panhandle, but this effort may have failed to do much other that build up great systems. Folks all excited after Sooner Cup did not step up and embrace trials, so Sooner Cup at the ranch will probably end up as a one performance event. I simply can't justify doing 80% of everything. That run of 3 months just about killed me! So when I read about this new club effort High Plains, I just shook my head and thought how will trials survive if we can't coordinate things better? But maybe my problem was in not actively working together with the few of us in eastern NM, TX panhandle, and Western OK to make a club that could survive. The are is a big hole between larger clubs with no real interest in being a club there. So let's talk about bigger things.
We in the MWVTA can attest to how challenging it is to cover a three state area. I wish the new club all the best. Bene I started the MWVTA back in 2012 and know from experience just how much work is required.
I think there will always be some level of interest but until the windshield time equation can be solved it will always be a struggle to build it out further.
A work party is going out to the event site in Turkey this weekend to prepare for the inaugural event. Contact D Squared Trials for more info. http://www.dsquaredtrials.com/ Looking forward to our first event!
Flyer for the first event is on Post #2. I understand the work day at Turkey was a success. Thanks to the Murrys, M. Wright, and the Winkles for all their hard work!
January One for event one in Turkey, TX area. Well that's just west of me, and I have no schedule conflict for once. I will have been back from tropical Mexico a few days. Winter often starts in earnest here Christmas Eve, so we'll see what the weather gods do. One week later is the 37th NC/PC trial at Muenster, which is only 2 hours from me. January will be rich in trials events! May our bodies cooperate on those dates.
brewtus ..... nice T's ... good luck and lets hope this generates some riding opportunities for the folks in the highlands .... although, Jan 1 could be a bit on the chilly side ....