Landuse Flag to Fly at Top Truck Challenge

Competitor Brian Whitford flies land-use flag at Four Wheeler's Top Truck Challenge Land-use activist hopes to use nationally televised event to help spread the word.

Hollister, CA (Jun 6, 2011): For nearly twenty years, four wheeling enthusiasts have entered their vehicles in to Four Wheeler's Top Truck Challenge to compete against other trucks, but rock crawling competitor Brian Whitford entered the competition with another mission in mind: to preach responsible recreation, trail awareness and volunteerism on the trail. With the mantra "Keep Public Lands Open to the Public" emblazoned on the side of his Any7Offroad buggy, along with several other stickers from various pro-access organizations, Brian hopes to use the popular event to spread this important message to a larger audience.

According to Brian, "Don't get me wrong, whenever I compete, I compete to win. I am in it to win it, but this event also gives us a chance to reach out to people and help them to understand that we need to be active in keeping our access to public lands."

Brian is no stranger to the land-use fight. As a graduate of Del Albright's Volunteer Leader and Land Stewardship class, he has not only helped to hold fund raiser's such a TDO's Cantina for the Con, he has also flown the land-use flag for many years while competing in Northern California rock crawling events. Brian can also be seen on the trail, oftentimes with his seven month old son strapped into his buggy, spreading the word about responsible recreation. "Off Roading is my life, and it is very important to me that my two young children will be able to follow our family tradition and be able to wheel on our public lands when they get older. Since this event is televised, we are going to make every effort to get our message out to the general public."

Selected as an alternate, Brian must still compete against all the other trucks in the event. Because of the difficulty of Top Truck Challenge, Brian's competition buggy has spent the past week at Any7Offroad in order to prep it. Along with a lot of help from Rage 4th, Brian is also partnered with JEReel drivelines, 10factory axles, FOA shocks, Heretic Fab, and 12volyguy.

The 19th annual Top Truck Challenge is held by Four Wheeler Magazine at Hollister Hills SVRA