OK, we've all been discussing the tragedy and the controversy for a week now. Every once in awhile something nice is said and I've been on both sides of the coin throwing some kudos out as well as throwing some WTF's? out...still, I haven't said enough. I've waited until now because I was waiting to have news from Red Bull to add...I visited them Friday to do our season wrap-up.

First things first here...YES, there were negatives and they've been discussed in other threads but let's all look at the big picture which is the fact that we ALL know what UROC was up against taking on SuperCrawl with man-made courses in the time-frame they did. I don't think people realize the immense risk UROC was taking with this but I'd be willing to bet that if this project would have failed, UROC would be nothing more than a memory by now. The financial, marketing, strategic, and manpower commitment made by UROC was one most of us will never know. In scale, something that will probably never be seen again. They literally put it all on the line. Along the way, they were not only fighting the known obstacles, but were also fighting the naysayers as well. If I went back through the threads, I could pull out many comments from people that would flat out embarrass people...knowing what UROC was up against, and still having the balls to cry out in public about something they had no clues about...yet UROC pushed on. That takes dedication, determination, and GUTS. You think the MatterHorn was tough and dangerous??? That obstacle was NOTHING compared to the ones UROC was facing at every turn of this project.

My thoughts on the event. For their first try at man-made courses, they eclipsed my expectations.
The courses were a good balance of technical and tough and considering this was a world championship, anyone complaining that it was too tough or there was too many 40’s hasn’t looked at the leader-board. This event was for those guys and that is the way a world championship should be. If you don’t like tough, stay at the regional level.
I know the space issue was a big one but that is something that stalled the event terribly on all three days. One course waiting on another just doesn’t work. Again, I know it was a space issue, but this MUST be addressed more carefully in the future. Darrell and the crew, you did a bitchin job working with the resources and space you had, so this is not a complaint, just a point I am sure you realized in the first moment.
Safety had its issues but we’ve been lucky as a sport that this type of record hasn’t happened before. There are many factors involved but the key is to look at why this stuff happened, take a true study into solutions and to integrate PRACTICAL measures to reduce the chances of a repeat. Please don’t make any snap decisions, this event had its bad moments but it doesn’t mean the event was bad as a whole. In fact, it was an immense success.
Course 1 and 3 were tough. Hands down, the most difficulty I’ve seen yet. My feeling though is that they were acceptable difficulty. #3 was crawled…CRAWLED without rear-steer or tire slip by many vehicles. Anyone saying you had to get a run and jump it, didn’t watch the many drivers that took the time to figure that obstacle out. Some cars couldn’t have crawled it, but welcome to the sport…each obstacle favors one kind of car over another…you never know when you’ll be put at a disadvantage by a course but you can have faith that you’ll be at the advantage on the next one. Course 1…was a tough climb but very doable with speed, not torque. Kevin McGlothlin took a smart approach…he winched both ends down tight and carried speed up to it and coasted up…took him a few runs but that car never lifted a tire or got out of control. Strategy again prevailed and the teams that understood that torque kills on a big climb, handled that hill smoothly and safely. It is a learning curve that caught many people off-guard. I agree with many that I would have liked to see more of a transition on the sides of the hill, but still, it was not too bad if you look at the angles. I think the obstacle had its place in a world championship event. It wouldn’t be right in a regional one, but again, there is a time and place and SuperCrawl was a perfect place for its debut. In my opinion, #1 and #3 had their place and were a good balance to the other 6 technical obstacles we saw. More than 2 out of 6 wouldn’t be good at this point, but for SuperCrawl, I felt it was just right.
The media was awesome. Some of them were disappointed they couldn’t be closer to the action but I feel they were close enough. With the way things were, the UROC officials kept them within range for good shooting and good safety…looking through a lens, you can’t always see what’s coming and there was so much media there, there would have been an accident if they were not kept in check. On the other hand, that UROC related ASS that was yelling and cussing on the first couple of days was deserving of being told to get lost. I was glad to hear that Mark Patey had told him to leave, as he was so unbelievably offensive. I am sure much of the media had a bad taste in their mouth from the way he had treated them. A bad thing to happen at our biggest media event ever. Mark, if he’s not been fired yet, he damn well better be as the media is the friend we all need right now.
Pits, were the pits. The RMR owner said he’d put us in the asphalt lot next time…a godsend that will be not having to wrench in the dirt and sticker bushes.
Judges…good and bad. I felt I was treated very fairly the whole event though I didn’t understand some of the calls made. At least they were consistent with everybody, but still much was not consistent with the rules. A cone is a cone, no matter what color it is. OB was defined differently from course to course. The leak issue needs to be enforced across the board without exception. All points and warnings need to be addressed out loud. All teams should be treated EXACTLY the same, whether a judge has an issue with them or not. This is a professional sport and the way I saw a few things handled just blew me away. Again, I was treated top notch and appreciate that immensely…however, I did see a couple of incidents that were downright undeserving and disrespectful. For the first time, I didn’t see ANY disrespect from ANY competitor. That was awesome! I know there might have been cases I didn’t see, but all-in-all, the teams acted very professionally when it came to addressing the officials, judges, and marshals.
Recovery was good but far from efficient enough for that kind of event. A pettibone or large front loader would have made many recoveries a snap and kept the action going for the crowds simply by lifting the rigs out of their predicament. Otherwise, the recovery teams did a good job with the resources that they had and I know we all appreciate them being there to get us on our wheels again.
Medical…was EVERYWHERE…thanks so much for having that large of a medical staff. Becca addressed the fact that some plans and procedures need to be developed specifically for our sport and recovering an upside-down but unconscious driver and Darrell explained that porta-bandsaws must be plentiful and accessible on course, but if those and a few other minor things are addressed, medically, I feel this event was very well handled.
RMR was awesome and I know we all appreciate them taking this risk along with us. The crowds will only grow from here.
The band, wrong place, wrong time and interfered terribly with course #8 and the spectators that didn’t want to stand there with music blaring and spotters / drivers / officials unable to communicate over the noise.
The vendors were all set up nicely and professionally. No more vendor trailers blocking the crowd though. That was not in our best interest.
Bleachers were nice but we all know were not enough…taller would be better but I also understand that this is a cost issue and a resource issue.
Dave and Sarge…were great as always. We do need to start developing more of a story around the teams. I know this takes more research and participation on everyone’s part, especially the teams. Stories and heroes MUST start to appear to make things more interesting. Truly, the teams need to start providing the announcers with the material as they cannot read minds and don’t know everyone’s stories…teams, you need to get to know the announcers better and give them bios that go beyond your sponsors and parts on your rigs. In turn, the announcers need to get a better understanding that a team is TWO people. I know that many spotter’s have changed over the season but they are NOT getting the recognition they deserve. Also, Tim worked hard to bring us electronic scoring…that should be utilized better to create more drama. I know it was done from time to time, but that asset is there, lets use it more. Mark Patey, nice job on helping out on the mic during the finals. Also, I have to say that three days is tough on an announcer’s voice. I have to give huge kudos to Dave and Sarge for pulling that off…approaching 20 hours on the mic for each of you…WOW!!!
Registration and tech, for as hectic as it was and with the small area we had to do it in, I’d say that it went pretty smoothly.

There are other things that I’m sure I’ll remember as time goes by but those are the comments fresh in my mind. As I said above, I just got back from a wrap-up meeting with Red Bull. Most people don’t relate Red Bull with this fact, but they are one of the leading event promoters in the world…they truly know their stuff when it comes to hosting and promoting events, especially niche event’s like SuperCrawl. They were so interested in seeing how SuperCrawl would turn out that they sent a few of their promotion and event people over to get their opinions. Here is what they said:
RockCrawling is a sport that has its roots outside of the stadium. Though it can be well placed and marketed inside stadium type environments, it would be detrimental to the sport to think it should migrate there permanently. Nature has a strong place in the sport and to lose sight of that would turn many enthusiasts off. They discussed different formulas to help ensure the success of the sport and told me that they felt that no more than 1/3 of a season’s events should be in the stadium at this point. They did go on to say that they thought that number could go up in a few years but that right now, the magic is still in the “Man versus Mother Nature” story. Magic wears off and hopefully, by that point the sport will be mainstream enough to go to the stadium for the majority of events. They just warned of getting stars (and dollars) in our eyes and missing the fact that a sport’s roots are important in ensuring its success. Also, they have seen regular events (attending 4 separate ones this year alone) and they immediately noticed obstacle 1 and 3 as being a different style. Like I mentioned above, they cautioned against making this a freestyle jumping event but felt that if there was a good balance with 1 or 2 of these types of obstacles at a big attendance event, it would fit a formula of appealing to a wider audience. More than a couple of obstacles like that and the whole sport would change. Again their feeling is that the change would have a negative impact at this point. They saw Nick get hurt and simply said they have never liked the idea of the straps anyway and were surprised that this didn’t happen more often. Still, they noted that every extreme sport has its tragic moments and that this was just one in a long line to come. They just said they hoped the promoters and teams would take this incident seriously enough to discover better methods to protect its participants. One comment that caught me off-guard was that they felt the officials were often in the wrong spots at the wrong time. We all have known this to be an issue, but they are outsiders to our sport and commented on this being an issue. They said they saw judges with clipboards, pens, and stopwatches, all trying to navigate uneven surfaces, watch for penalties, and make the event as fair as possible, yet were often not watching out for their own safety as well as they should be. They were surprised when I told them I knew of no major injuries to an official…they said matter-of-factly that there will be if things don’t change. After about an hour’s discussion on the event, the feeling overall from Red Bull was that SuperCrawl was a success and a turning point for the sport. They were stoked to see it come off so well after the time-frame situation I had brought to their attention over the weeks before the event. For Red Bull to say an event was a success on almost every part is something good to hear. I’ve been to their events, they are hand’s down the best organized, biggest show, biggest challenge, biggest fun type of promoter out there and they know what it takes to make a modern competition work…if they’re saying SuperCrawl was this good, UROC can take pride in that.

In closing to this post, I would like to thank Ranch for his YEARS and YEARS of dedication to our sport. I know that often you take some hits (some deserved, most not) but for you to remain as dedicated to RockCrawling as you have, taking the risks that you have, shows more about your character than most people will ever notice. Our team appreciates you. Mark Patey, some of the things I have heard from you in our private conversations tells me you are a crazy man…you could have walked away from this sport so easily and gone off to make more money with less risk somewhere else but you have stuck it through, even when the times are as tough as it gets. You have been so integral to the boom we are seeing in rockcrawling. Our whole team appreciates you. Darrell…Big D…you’re the shit! Keep being headstrong but keep your ears open as well…I have seen you change in the last year from someone with big heart and a narrow view, to someone with a big heart and a wide-open drive to learn more, dedicating yourself to make this sport something more than it already is. You earned my respect when I thought I would never even like you. Wow, you have my respect and now, I even like you too! D, our whole team appreciates you. I can comment on these three people the most as I have had amazing relationships with them beyond just seeing them a few times a year at events. I am not simply leaving out comment on others in and around UROC…I just don’t have the room or time to thank all of those that are truly deserving of all of our praise for their dedication to our sport. To those that have worked so hard to make this UROC season so spectacular, our team appreciates you more than you know…Thank you.

Finally, if people want to post on this thread, please don't post argumentatively. Suggestions and comments are great, but not argument...There are other places for that. Overall, this season was amazing and SuperCrawl was the icing on the cake...let's let UROC know that.

Oh and before anyone else says it, I too would like to see some rules soon...but not before UROC has taken the time to address some of the most recent issues that are clearly issues that need addressing.

interesting that they commented on the judges safety. i mentioned the issue in a thread after my injury(as a spotter going back to the judge for the scorecard). they should be wearing helmets,a simple slip and fall could be tragic. remember when nascar pit guys didn't wear helmets? and a simple bump and tumble ended with some major head injuries.

Any driver that wants to give Dave and I information about the team, I'll be more than happy to use it! DAvwe remembers that stuff alot better than I do, but he's been around the Block alot more than me!

My ass was really dragging by the finals, all said and done, Dave and I did well over 30 hours each out there, my boss and co workers thought I looked like Crap on monday. And I wouldn't have changed it for the world. Working with you competitors, judges, Staff, Vendors, BLM, medical and most important to me, Dave, has been the greatest time I have ever had in my life!

You Guys and Gals did a great job out and hope to see more events like the ones we did together this year!

God Bless you all and I hope you all have a great HOLIDAY season and I hope to see all of you and then some next year!

And please don't put me in a helmet! LOL

well said Dustin.

I didn't like the speed at SC but I'm not blaming Uroc. This is a learning thing. I thank them for taking it to the next level and hope we can slow the cars down. I know they'll get it done.

Thanks to Ranch, Mark, Natalie and the rest. See ya next year.

The band, wrong place, wrong time and interfered terribly with course #8 and the spectators that didn’t want to stand there with music blaring and spotters / drivers / officials unable to communicate over the noise.
The vendors were all set up nicely and professionally. No more vendor trailers blocking the crowd though. That was not in our best interest.
Bleachers were nice but we all know were not enough…taller would be better but I also understand that this is a cost issue and a resource issue.



As a spectator who was there on saturday I agree with these commets. A few other things I noticed was there werent enough trash cans around. They were hard to find and by the afternoon the few i found were starting to overfill. The 2 pro rock events i have been to at couger buttes were the same. Cal rocs seems to be good about having alot of trash cans at the events I have attended.
If you werent right in front of the stage you couldnt really hear what was being anonced.
The lines to buy food when I went to get a hotdog took almost 20 minutes and there were only 3 people in front of me. The other lines at the same booth seemed to be moving about as slow. I also would have liked to have been able to bring outside food and drinks with me inside but I understand why it probably wont be happening at many stadium style events.
One thing I did really like was that while the vechicles were staging on the back side that spectators were still allowed to walk up and check out each one pretty close. If you got lucky and a driver or spotter was close by all the ones I talked to were great and answered any questions I had (superranger and spaceghoast from the top of my head) I know I saw a few cool ideas on a few of the buggies. I hope this continues to stay a part of the event and doest turn into an extra pit pass option

This was my first UROC event I had been to and was glad I made the 400 mile detour in my trip from boise to cali so I could see the event

My hat is off to the Pateys and Uroc. Supercrawl as an amazing event.
Congratulations to all competitors, sponsors, vendors, and those who worked their tales off behind the scenes to make this event happen. We will return
to future events!

we as teams all took many risks this season.... but so did UROC... they did this all while being ear beaten for numerous issues.... in the end its been known for years, the one that takes an educated risk are the ones that succeed... in my eys UROC has made history in Rock Crawling, along with every Team that hasput there very heart and sole and $ in Rock Crawling...... congrats to every single person involved in this years series, everyone of you made it a great season.....

Couldn't agree with you more in what you said, Dustin. They did a fantastic job, and I was very impressed without how everything came off. I have to admit, I had my doubts.

As a media guy, UROC did the right thing pushing us back to the wall. I almost got ran over by Becca's first shot at #1 (got some good video of it though!) where she backed down off the side. As I was trying to back up, I ran into someone else behind me...making it tougher for me to get out of the way. Still had plenty of room, but, I might not have.

UROC was very professional in pulling all the media aside to let us know the situation and explain why we were being asked to stay behind the banners. The fire marshalls were very nice as well. The way the marshall put it (paraphrased) was, "If I had it my way, I wouldn't have anyone within 100 feet of these rigs. But, we're new to this sport and understand it's pretty crucial."

There were obviously some other media personel that got preferential treatment (even after the changes), but, what do you expect? It's ESPN for crying out loud. <laugh> Some folks were complaining, and they did get in front of pretty much every shot...but... <shrug> Until I'm publicity at that level, I don't think I have room to complain much. <smile>

I would recommend that future events have an encrypted electronic tether installed on all the vehicles, where the judge can cut the engine at any time by pressing a button. If a driver rolls and goes unconscious with his foot mashed to the pedal, who knows where that rig is going. As well, even a conscious upside-down driver doesn't always know exactly where he is and will hastily try to get it back on it's rubber.

Regardless, I had a blast. Mark and crew did a phenominal job despite the odds. My hat's off.

This may not be popular with every Media person but this was Supercrawl. Not just any driver could pull up and drive, but anyone with a camera was allowed on the course. There were so many media that many of the photos and video we were taking were ruined due to interference from other media.

The entrance problems for media was horrible. I suggest that media passes be created in advance. Professional media will know well in advance that they will be at the event. I would like to see issuing of media passes to qualified personnel in advance via mail, just like the drivers.

I think a good idea would be for UROC to charge a fee for media passes. Each pass costs you $X. This would cover UROC's fees to print/mail as well as help assure that folks are going to show up (and UROC doesn't waste their time). Would also help UROC to get more accurate of a media head-count.

The media lines were pretty bad, but Mark did give out temporary passes so we could at least get on the course and pick up our real badges when the lines were shorter.

The media lines were pretty bad, but Mark did give out temporary passes so we could at least get on the course and pick up our real badges when the lines were shorter.

It took me 5 trips back to the table before I got my pass.

Most people don’t relate Red Bull with this fact, but they are one of the leading event promoters in the world…they truly know their stuff when it comes to hosting and promoting events.

Pssst, sanctioning body here seeking quality promoter :D

Nice read Dustin :)


TEX

Some media was charged. Some weren't. Some Press DID register ahead of times but the computer with the information for those that did preregister was not at the competition site (or so we were told when we had to go through the whole process again). I know that some "Press", myself included, have a problem of PAYING to cover the event AND being required to give UROC all of our pics. So my suggestion is, one or the other, but NOT both. I would gladly pay a FARE media fee, but surrendering MY photos is surrenderring MY livelyhood.

I would like to see the press pack come back like they had at SC II. Randy and I printed out the running order/teams from home as well as at the hotel and ended up doing so for a great many of our Press buddy's who had nothing to go on while we were at the event.

UROC made right by the Anti-media Nazi problem on Saturday. The meeting they called was GREAT. Too bad not all the media was there to here it. As I stated in another thread, I think that allowing supposed media/photographers on the courses wearing inappropriate attire (i.e. flip flops) is ludicrous (no not the rapper!). Don't know if it feesable to have some sort of "attire rule" for us shutter bugs, but it definately was not safe for the two ladies I saw out there, ESPECIALLY in some of the places they stood for their disposable camera shots. Getting away from a rig that is about to, or is rolling, is hazardous enough with good footware!!! :eek: Let alone if it's Dustin behind the wheel!!!!!!!!!!!!! :flipoff2:

I would also suggest a limit to how many "Team photographers" can be signed up, let alone out there on the courses. Another idea is to make sure those "Team photographers" have a set of rules to follow ahead of time that is different than what "Press" does. "Press" should also have written rules to them ahead of time and and the two passes should be of distinctly different coloring so that the judges can tell readily who's who.

All in all, I too think SC III was a GREAT event. I too don't want the Mother Nature courses to go away. But for man's first attempt at trying to emulate her, it was pretty darn saweet! I know my Non-flip flips got a lot better traction on that gunite!

Kimber

Dustin, good recap of the event but if I could offer a writing suggestion:

White space or black space in this situation ... learn to use it. :D

Breaking up those big paragraphs with a blank line would make it alot easier to read ...

Dustin, add a few pics and this post and it would make a great wrap up of the event. You nearly have a publishable article right here!