The radical track Travis Pastrana built on the hillsides at MidAmerica Outdoors in Jay, Okla., was painfully real to the 24 drivers who lined up for the Nitrocross season opener on June 17.
But the first time Hubert Rowland was introduced to the course design was years prior, when Pastrana scribbled an idea for his ultimate rallycross playground on a napkin and presented it to Rowland.
“He brings it to me on a napkin, and asks, ‘Can we do this?’” recalled Rowland, who has worked alongside Pastrana since 2004. “I’m always like, ‘Well, yeah. Just tell me when you need it done by.’”
As one of the original members of Nitro Circus — an action sports stunt show led by Pastrana — Rowland has helped the 13-time X Games award winner build a host of wild tracks and stages over the years.
The duo originally planned to use Pastrana’s design to build a track in Maryland, near his hometown of Annapolis, but the project never came to fruition. It wasn’t until this year, when Pastrana partnered with MidAmerica Outdoors owners Jason and Gayla Robinett, that Rowland brought the Talladega turns to life.
“I figured it would happen, I just didn’t know when,” Rowland said.
The track quickly progressed from a napkin to a CAD drawing, and by that stage, Rowland and his crew were moving dirt in Oklahoma at the end of March. They finished the project only days before Nitrocross teams arrived.
“There was a lot of dirt to move, both for the elevation changes and for the track surface itself,” Rowland explained. “The racing here has been amazing — there’s lots of passing and it’s really wide.”
The consensus among drivers seemed to be the course was one of the craziest designs they’d ever seen, much less raced on.
“The only way to describe it is like Supercross for cars,” Tom Williams said.
It wasn’t just the track that was new to the British driver during his week at MidAmerica Outdoors, but rather the entire Nitrocross world.
The 24-year-old was making his debut in the SXS class, due to a bit of prodding from Pastrana. Having never driven a side-by-side, Williams had also never raced alongside other cars — as his background was in staged rally racing.
Though the sweeping turns on course may look expansive to the naked eye, Williams can attest the track is much tighter from inside the cockpit when running door-to-door with competitors.
“It’s really tested the drivers, even the grid start. I’ve never seen a start like that,” Williams said, referring to the long start straight that turns from asphalt to dirt and drops down nearly 150 feet. “You just fall off the edge of the earth, down into the dustbowl and into the biggest 180 bowl I’ve ever seen.”
Meanwhile, Swedish native Oliver Eriksson gave the course his stamp of approval.
“He’s kind of combined every cool part of tracks in the U.S. and put it into one,” said Eriksson, who drives in the Group E category. “I would like some faster elements, the up-and-down parts are a little bit slow. But the foundation is there to be brilliant.
“I believe it’s the most challenging track for any driver in any discipline out there.”
Fraser McConnell (Group E), Lane Vacala (NEXT) and Kainan Baker (SXS) swept the season opener.