Parker 425: This year’s race

With an alternate course starting and finishing on Bureau of Land Management land, the BlueWater Parker 425 is going to be very different this year. Here’s some info from the Best in the Desert racing association on this year’s big race.

There are two race days: Friday, January 15th and Saturday, January 16th. The ‘trick truck’ class is scheduled to run on Saturday, along with the other fastest classes.

The new map for the 2021 race shows the start and finish lines, over 7 miles east of the town of Parker off Shea Road.

There are 3 spectator areas for the race. One is on Shea Road and two are in the town of Bouse at the ‘Y’ on the racecourse. No camping, parking, stopping or standing are permitted outside the designated spectator areas. All trash and personal equipment brought in should be packed out upon departure. No ATVs, motorcycles, bicycles or UTVs are allowed to be ridden in any spectator area.

There are several pit areas along the racecourse for race teams to service and repair vehicles. The areas are considered dangerous during the race and can get very busy, so spectators are no permitted in the pit areas during the race. There is a race speed limit in the Main Pit, so it tends not to be very good for spectating anyway.

KLPZ 1380am will have intermittent live updates from its studio in Parker, AZ on the Saturday race. Because of the new course, the station is unable to broadcast from the start line, but the crew in studio will try its best to give race information until the first finishers cross the line. Parker Live will carry the broadcast and follow up with official race results afterwards.

For more 2021 race information, please visit BITD.com.