Brett Dickey’s Rock-Crawling Rise: From Trail Breaker Winner to Unlimited Champion

At 17, Brett Dickey has already won a Trail Breaker title and become the youngest driver to win an Unlimited national championship. His fourth-place finish at Trail Hero 2026 adds a different measure of his progress: on a course no competitor completed, he kept finding a way forward.

Dickey returned to Trail Hero to defend the 2024 BFGoodrich Tires Trail Breaker title. He moved quickly through the first stage with a clear line choice, then adapted as the course grew tougher. In a rock crevice, a sudden 180-degree shift in the buggy’s position forced him to recover the vehicle. Later, he eased the tires free from a difficult angle without crossing a boundary line.

A fourth place earned on unfinished terrain

The third stage stopped all 12 competitors. Its two climbs approached 90 degrees, and rain left the rock slick. Dickey pushed farther into the second ascent than most of the field and came close to clearing a course that nobody finished that day. After four and a half hours of competition, he placed fourth.

The result followed an early breakthrough. In 2024, before he had a driver’s license, Dickey became the youngest person to enter Trail Breaker and won the event. He has built a reputation for preparation and quick decisions, qualities that matter when a crawler is balanced at a precarious angle and the next move has to be chosen with care.

His first defining drive came at Area BFE, an off-road site outside Moab, Utah. Dickey was nine and behind the wheel of a moon buggy. “I was hooked on the sport after that day,” he said. Since then, rock crawling has taken him beyond the terrain near home and across the country. As he put it, “Rock crawling allows me to travel the country and explore, it’s really opened my eyes to all of the cool stuff out there.”

Driver, spotter and purpose-built buggy

Dickey’s progress is closely tied to his father, Matt, who taught him to drive and serves as his spotter. In rock crawling, the spotter watches the terrain from outside the vehicle, guides tire placement and tracks clearances while the driver works the controls. The pair’s coordination is part of the team’s performance.

“My dad is the reason I get to do everything that I do, he taught me how to drive and everything I know,” Dickey said. “We have so much fun out there on the trails and competing.” Matt is an experienced driver, and the two have become familiar faces in W.E.ROCK events. During 2026, they won the Unlimited class at the Western Series opener in Bagdad, Arizona; East vs. West vs. Texas in Mason, Texas; and the Eastern Series opener at Good Evening Ranch in West Virginia.

The wider support crew includes veteran crawler and builder Ben Hanks, who has helped with pit work, strategy and driving support. That network complements a machine built around Dickey’s needs. His No. 17 buggy is a custom one-off designed for his driving style, rather than a borrowed platform adapted to fit him. In a sport where chassis response, steering, visibility, gearing and balance all shape a line, familiarity with the vehicle can help a driver judge how it will react.

Winning without losing the point

High-dollar builds, difficult courses and penalties can make competitive crawling look like a pursuit of points above all else. Dickey’s stated priority is simpler: “The core spirit for me is just to have fun.” He says he takes his ambitions day by day and hopes the sport leads to a full-time career.

There are results behind that ambition. Dickey and Matt have continued to win as they moved into Unlimited, and Dickey has become the youngest driver to win a national championship in that class. The title was earned recently in Farmington, New Mexico. At 17, he has time to build on that record while keeping the day-to-day appeal of driving and exploring in view.

That balance reflects how closely the sport fits his ordinary routine. “I’m lucky enough to live in the off-road capital of the world, so it honestly doesn’t change much,” he said. “If I’m not in school, I’m on the trail.” His experience also gives shape to 3W Auto-life’s “Fit For Your Wild” theme: for Dickey, it means adapting when the terrain changes without warning.

Trail protection in the mix

3W sponsored Trail Hero 2026 and brought its custom-fit floor liners to the event. The company says it uses 3D laser scanning and its VigorMold™ process to design vehicle-specific liners, made from its Thorex™ material. The stated aims are a close fit, secure placement, broad coverage, durability and easier cleanup after exposure to dirt, mud, sand, water and trail debris.

“I know no matter what terrain I get myself into, 3W Auto-life’s got my back and keeps me protected,” Dickey said. For drivers who spend time off pavement, interior protection is a practical part of the routine: a liner needs to stay put, cover the floor and clean up after the trip.

Dickey’s Trail Hero result captures more than a place on the leaderboard. A vehicle recovery, a line regained from a difficult angle and a determined run up rain-slick rock show the judgment that underpins his rapid rise. His next steps will come on the trail, where experience and composure will matter as much as another result.

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