Urie Takes First at Rocky Mountain Race Week

by Krista Norton | September 18, 2025

Rocky Mountain Race Weekend, held at Pueblo Motorsports Park September 5-7, is a weekend of squalling tires, roaring engines, and hanging out with friends and family.

Darrin, Kim, and children Ebben and Adalyn Urie travelled to Pueblo so the kids could compete, doing just that, squalling the tires and pushing the tachometer to the limit, in addition to traveling and hanging out with friends and family.

RMRW, a drive and drag event, is the ultimate test of drag racers, competing on a quarter mile track after driving a designated route during the day, hoping to get as close to their index time as possible.
The kids, each competing in their great grandfather’s 1949 GMC pickup, developed a love of racing at a young age. Darrin said, “Our family has always loved cars, and it is something we can do as a family.”

The first day of the event, Friday, they made three passes down the strip, while on Saturday making about six. “Between the two kids and the three days, that was twenty-nine burn outs, twenty-nine launches and twenty-nine red lines on the pickup,” said Darrin.

Saturday and Sunday during the day was the drive portion of the race. They received their instructions, or route, and off they went. Stopping at their check points along the way. Saturday, travelling to the Royal Gorge west of Canon City, then to The Bluff in Westcliffe before returning to the racetrack.
Since they were double entered in the pickup, Ebben in the Tailgate Class and Adalyn in Jr. Street, each had a turn behind the wheel.

Ebben admits he had fun terrorizing his sister driving through the mountains, Adalyn agreed saying, “It was scary, I was hanging on to the seat belt!” 

Adalyn was a little nervous driving across the Royal Gorge bridge, “The boards were making noise and looking out, I could see down to the river below through them.”

Sunday’s check points included Bishop’s Castle, southwest of Pueblo, returning to the Pueblo Medal of Honor Memorial then back to the racetrack.

“The kids were in the pickup on their own, if they broke down, they have to work on it where they are,” explained Kim, “We cannot help them.”  But mom and dad did follow along as spectators.
That is where their race family comes in, everyone pulling for you and there to help each other to finish the race. 

Winners were determined by the average of each day of racing. The lowest average estimated time wins each class. Adalyn finished 0.013 (thirteen thousandth of a second) off her time the evening before, for first place.

With index racing, the driver focuses on making the vehicle run the exact time each time down the strip, coming down to a thousandth of a second, “She was working to trim hundredths of a second off,” explained Kim, because one driver was beating her by three hundredths of a second.

Adalyn also came home with another first-place finish, in the Jr Steet Shootout. Ebben said, “She was having some trouble staging, so I took her out on the return road and showed her how to do it better. I think that helped her more than anything, getting her to consistently leave the start line.”

Staging, the process of positioning the car at the starting line by rolling forward until the front tire breaks two laser beams, which illuminates a set of yellow lights on the “Christmas Tree”.

Adalyn explains she then revs the engine, rolls a tiny bit forward, watching the light. “I am revved up and ready to go then the green light goes off!”  Ebben admits it takes good breaks and strong muscles to make this happen.

“Ebben explained with Index racing you do not have to worry about leaving the start line as fast as you can, focusing instead on the finish line time it doesn’t matter what time you leave.

It takes some practice to learn your reaction time, focusing on gauges and rpm’s, “If you leave before the green comes on then you red light and you’re out,” said Adalyn. 

The Urie’s are proud of their kids, driving over 300 miles for the event, and 550 miles getting there and back. Between the two events totaling over 4,000 miles on the pickup. 

Since turning 18, Ebben now competes with the “big boys” and had a fantastic seventh place finish in the Tailgate Class. He was pleased since this was the first year driving the truck. He explained, “The truck is middle of the range, his class had vehicles running anywhere from eight second to seventeen second in the quarter mile.”

After their burn out at the line, Adalyn was down the track running 73 miles per hour in the eighth mile while Ebben 0 to 96 in a quarter mile.
But this is not Ebben’s first trip in the truck this season. He and Darrin, after five years working to get it ready, participated in the drag and drive Mega Week event, May 31-June 7 for the third time, the past two years in Ebben’s Miata.

Mega Week is over seven days where they travelled and competed at dragstrips in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas.
Darrin was the co-pilot and the two encountered a lot of rain which made it challenging because the pickup did not have windshield wipers. Ebben said, “I kept telling him to look through the glass, not at the glass, out beyond!” 

The dad son duo finished 11th out of 48 entered in tailgate class. 

From spending time on the drag strip, tours on the Rocky Mountain Race Week to home in the garage, the  people they have met, raced against, worked alongside, have become the community of people who surround them anytime they head out of town with their cars. 

Two additions to their race family happen to be some hometown kids, Eric Grilliot and Trevor Deuel. Grilliot is a 1995 graduate and son of Dora and David and Deuel, son of Don and Terri (former Hamilton County Hospital Administrator) graduated in 1993. 

Grilliot attended University of Miami where he studied automotive within the mechanical engineering field and got a job in the automotive industry. 

He now lives in Hendersonville, NC and for the past 20 years has been involved in the motor sport group of MAHLE Motorsport North America. “All we do is race and high-performance components, pistons specifically,” said Grilliot. 

His first race was in 2020 when everyone was cancelling events. Race Week organizers, Matt and June Frost were able to pull together and hold an event in the Midwest. Grilliot did not know the Frosts but had heard of them and wanted to support them. 

“I wanted to get out to see what was the impetus to get out there and see what they were all about,” said Eric, “We had sponsored some similar races, but it’s good when we can get into the grass roots.”
Knowing sponsoring a professional race team is expensive, Grilliot said their business model is suited to events where they can get out and talk with racers, meet one on one, “This is a perfect event for that, so that’s a little bit of what keeps me coming back.” 

“Every one of the events is like a homecoming to me, coming back to the Midwest,” said Grilliot, “It’s my number one priority to make it if I can.”

Grilliot races his 1972 Chevy Nova, “The same car I drove in high school,” he said, “It looks a little different and has had several modifications.” 

He also has a truck he takes occasionally, “I acquired it, but it is reminiscent of the farm truck we had, and I ended up in the same class, side by side, with Ebben during Race Week.” 

Deuel worked for the Kansas Department of Transportation for 25 years and is now Director for Solid Waste for Rush County. He belongs to the Sunflower Rod and Custom Association Based, the non-profit organization that owns and operates the SRCA Dragstrip in Great Bend, Kansas. The dragstrip is the site of the first-ever NHRA Nationals drag racing event, which took place in 1955.

He remembers having an interest in cars at a young age. His first car was a 1966 Pontiac Bonneville convertible, left to him by his grandfather. He brought his 1989 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser to Race Week and Race Weekend.  

“Trevor was right there encouraging the kids, and we pitted together,” said Darrin. Deuel mimics the family camaraderie experienced by the Urie family, both stating if they were along the road, any one of the other racers would stop, help out, even loan some parts to get them going again.

 
Rumor has it Deuel is an excellent body man and Adalyn is excited Trever offered to paint ghost flames (type of custom paint effect where a flame design is airbrushed or stenciled onto a vehicle’s body, appearing and disappearing depending on the viewing angle) on her Mustang. “It is going to be hot pink!” she added. 

Ebben is studying Mechanical Engineering at Wichita State University while little sister keeps up with the business they started, detailing vehicles, on the weekends.  

Next, they are building a 1980 Camaro, “It could be a five-year project, FaceTime doesn’t work for working on cars,” said Darrin.  Adalyn added, “It doesn’t work for cleaning cars either!”