This is the article:
Posted on Mon, Jul. 11, 2005
COASTAL CAROLINAS| Club hopes to grow sport in East
Funds raised for off-roading park
Founder plans Brunswick site
By Kelly Marshall
The Sun News
An off-road enthusiast raised about $1,600 this weekend to build a park dedicated to the sport in Brunswick County.
Dave Curry, who founded the Aggressive 4x4 Concepts Off-Road Club in Myrtle Beach, organized a fund-raising event that drew at least 12 vendors and attracted people from the Carolinas.
The first-time event helped raise money to lease land on N.C. 904, west of Calabash, to build a facility where off-roaders can drive Jeeps and four-wheel-drive vehicles in a supervised environment, he said.
The annual lease would be about $3,000, he said.
The park could be open to the public by 2007, Curry said.
"Between the construction and the approvals that we will have to get, it will take about two years," he said.
Off-roading is growing in popularity and already is a big hit on the West Coast, Curry said. He said he wants to duplicate off-road parks now running in Pennsylvania and western North Carolina.
There are no off-road parks in Brunswick or Columbus counties, Curry said. The closest off-road park is about three hours away, in another part of North Carolina. There are no such parks in South Carolina.
The sport involves climbing rocks, navigating hills and splashing through water. Most of the participants drive Jeeps, but other off-road vehicles can be used in the sport.
"We're trying to get more attention to the East Coast," Curry said. "When you get into the true sport of it, a lot of people who are involved are a lot older than what you would expect."
The Aggressive 4x4 Concepts Off-Road Club has members from Charlotte, N.C.; Columbia; and Andrews. The club has 16 members and is one of the smaller clubs on the East Coast, Curry said.
Vendors at Saturday's event displayed some equipment used in the sport.
About 100 off-road vehicles were on display at the fund-raising event, Curry said.
The idea is in its beginning stages, and the plan was not familiar to some Brunswick County commissioners.
An off-road park would need to be in an isolated area and would require special zoning, said Anthony Clemmons, a Calabash commissioner.
"It would have to be done in a rural area; you can't have it near residential areas for obvious reasons," he said.
"You always look at the impact on the state and local area. I think it would serve a lot of people and teach safety about four-wheeling. This would allow people to stop using areas that may not be their property and might be unsafe to use."
