TOOELE, Utah — The Utah West Desert is now home to an off-road racing school open to anyone — from first-timers to seasoned competitors eyeing anything from just wanting to work on skills for fun to top-level racing like the Baja 1000 or the Dakar Rally.
Wheelhouse Racing School West in Tooele offers a program built for all skill levels, with a 3-to-1 student-to-instructor ratio. Coaches ride alongside students, walk them through techniques and then send them out into the desert to practice.
Austin Robison, the school's general manager and an instructor, said the structure is designed to meet students wherever they are.
"The format's designed where we can take someone that has zero experience off-roading all the way up to someone who's currently off-road racing, and they'll be able to get a lot out of this program," Robison said.
Robison brings serious credentials to the classroom. He is a Baja 1000 champion, a Baja 2000 winner and has also claimed victories at Pikes Peak and Best in the Desert, among other competitions.
"This is what I love, this is what I've always done, between racing and coaching and trying to share my knowledge of what I've developed over the years with current racers or even just people that are trying to get into the sport. I love it," Robison said.
The school's roster has not always been open to the general public. Before expanding access, the program operated on an invitation-only basis and counted some high-profile names among its alumni.
"We've trained some NASCAR guys. I don't wanna mention any names," Robison said.
Students come from across the U.S. and Canada. Hunter Strathman, a Topeka, Kansas, native now living in Utah, attended the school with his father, who traveled from their hometown for the experience.
"The cool thing I think I've been picking up on is like how to shift the weight of the car and how that plays into giving you more control and turning and how you balance that with acceleration," Strathman said.
The school operates on 200 acres of closed-course terrain in Utah's west desert, with exercises purposely built and maintained for safety and skill development.
"It's just the open desert, but here we have 200 acres of closed course courses where we have all the different exercises, you know, purposely built and maintained. So one, it's a very safe environment since it is all closed course," Robison said.
"It's awesome, a lot of fun. Yeah, it's been a fun day." Strathman said.
Utah has produced champions across multiple disciplines of off-road racing and rally competition. Drivers credit the state's widely varying terrain and conditions for preparing them for whatever they encounter anywhere in the world.
More information on Wheelhouse Racing's programs is available at wheelhouseracing school.com.
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