[shovel]

As a motoring enthusiast, and owner of a V8 powered Jeep.. I frickin' hate a lot of these motorsports.

Like the high speed rock buggies, there's intense $kill involved in building them but point-and-shoot driving is meaningless. Still, we all have dumb hobbies so for the most part I don't mind.

Where I do begin to mind is that drivers of 'go anywhere' buggies tend to do the most damage to trails, which in turn is the biggest reason unpaved routes get closed. Year after year I see the same cycle occur, a (legitimate) road through the wilderness becomes boring to side-by-side drivers, quad or rock buggy or other 'built' 4x4 drivers, so they start making new trails across anything that looks fun at the moment, it becomes a complete mess of cobweb trails, and the area gets closed permanently by the agency in charge of that land.
I actually attend the town hall meetings on these when they hold 'em in the evening or on a weekend, to advocate keeping roads open. It's almost always environmental concerns that close a trail, and almost always because of trail damage caused by overuse and by off-trail driving.

As I said, I own a Jeep. I drive out there too. But on the trails. The folks into rock buggy racing, whether they own a bona fide rock buggy or not, are more often than not the offenders who ultimately cause area closures and that is not cool. The 4x4 club I'm in stewards a trail near Phoenix, and it's open to registered parties only - managed by the Ranger District and locked with a gate/padlock. We clean the trail and attempt to block off bogus routes - the pitiful thing is, this is a closed route that the general public can't get to without first registering with the Ranger and obtaining a lock combination - and it's still littered and abused. Some mofos are their own worst enemy - and mine.