TRR 2017 Blackwell, TX 5/18/17-5/21/17

Headed to Blackwell for Texas Raptor Run 2017. This is the first year non Raptor owners have been able to register. 40 mile fast course and a 20 mile slow course, and a night run. I'm taking my '99 Taco with 406k on the clock.
We left on Friday morning due to travel delays, and as it turns out the course was closed Thursday anyways due to rain. The run was held on Texana Ranch outside of Blackwell. The property itself is several thousand acres and has close to 100 miles of driveable roads and off road trails. The Ranch has a huge staff that maintains the land and it has a variety of terrain and lots of elevation changes.

This working ranch had cows and other traditional livestock, as well as exotic animals. We saw camels, kangaroos, wildebeest and ibex. The property owners have a private airport and are huge offroad motorsports enthusiasts, there are more than a dozen organized events held here every year. The Ross Trailriders Association holds enduro motorcycle events out there all year had a food truck if you didn't bring your own food, or want to go 15 miles to town.

The entry fee was $275 and included a drivers bag with a ton of swag, all you can eat BBQ on Saturday afternoon, and a campsite with hookups for an RV or tent camping. There were lots of big name offroad vendors there with trucks and tents in the pit area and most of them ran an exhibition vehicle or two. Everyone from regular truck owners to purpose built Trophy Truck owners were willing to give free rides during the entire event. The vendors gave away tons of free stuff and there was a charity raffle for 5$ per ticket with some very high dollar prizes. Everyone was super nice and helpful and folks were always willing to help out someone else. There were more than a few axle/leafspring/driveshaft repairs being done at any given time. Plenty of folks there welding onsite and tuning/charging/rebuilding shocks as well.

There were two courses laid out for us, one a 39 mile track that was a mix between technical slow driving and high speed straights; the second course was a high speed 3 mile course with some banked sections, fast two track, and some big jumps. The long course was full of ledges and rocks and was super punishing to run in a small tire/small displacement rig. Guys with aired down beadlocked 37's and larger tires were definitely having an easier time on the long course, which shredded a lot of tires. The short course was well groomed and fast and was in use constantly, we ran it as many times as we could during the last day.

This place was very nice, and the event itself was VERY well run. I recommend this to anyone who wants to go and has a truck properly modified to do this, it is probably better suited to LT/MT guys running reservoir shocks and a bood bump setup. If you don't have a truck I recommend going anyway, you can always jump in with someone else. There were lots on Non-Raptor trucks out there and everyone seemed stoked to see a Tacoma out there. We are going to Baja Raptor Run later this year and will definitely be back to TRR next year.