VIEW FROM THE RIDGE - Bryan Folks

Photo by Jason Zindroski, HighRev Photography

Check out all or part of the incredible Method Race Wheels V2R Time Trials broadcast.

At the 2018 Vegas to Reno time trials, I was sitting in my truck monitoring the event and checking on our social media and a certain comment caught my eye. It came from a prominent racer and it read, “When will Best In The Desert start livestreaming these events?”. That opened up a discussion between Best In The Desert’s marketing manager, Scot Harden and me. In short order, we determined something would have to be done, but it was more than likely going to be expensive and time consuming with a large commitment. Since that day, we did a ton of research and determined what we wanted a Best In The Desert livestream show to look like. Three years later we produced our very fi rst livestream at the very same event. It was everything that we thought, expensive, time consuming, a huge commitment and something that I didn’t forecast, stressful. However, we pulled it off and we are proud of what we produced and accomplished. Not bad for a fi rst go around and I can honestly say that I personally learned more about the livestream and television broadcast world than I ever wanted to know. That said, where do we go from here? Well, it is pretty obvious that we opened up a box that may be impossible to close. We are well aware that if we are going to play our part in advancing the sport for our racers, race teams, sponsors, advertisers and Best In The Desert alike, we must push forward and continue to make our livestream presence unmistakable. Immediately following the Vegas to Reno event, we went to work mapping out our plans for 2022. I am happy to report that we are hard at it, and once again I am learning more than I ever wanted to know. However, I have also been enlightened at the opportunities that exist and how these opportunities have the potential to truly impact the future of off-road racing in a most positive way. We are still early in the process, but things are looking very good. The one thing I am certain about is that livestream is here to stay and Best In The Desert is working hard with our partners to make sure our events are being covered at the highest level. Please stay tuned for an updated race schedule that will specify which events will be covered by television and livestream. In the meantime, keep the wheels right side down.