2005 WEROC Australian Finals
By Lance Clifford

[Saturday] [Sunday]

UPDATE - 10:46AM Aussie time
We're in the land down under for the Australian national WEROC finals. WEROC Australia invited some the top American teams to compete in this event. Tracy Jordan, Dustin and Becca Webster, Jody Everding, and Bruce Zellar are here to represent the USA in what is sure to be an epic battle. The action begins in about an hour.

Lil Rich Klein, flew out from the states to assist Sam Overton in setting up the courses for this event. From what I've seen so far, the courses look to be pretty tough. Jody Everding is still scrambling to get his rig finished, and will probably be turning wrenches till they call him to his first obstacle. I hope he gets it done!

UPDATE - 12:00PM
The courses haven't been nice to the Americans. Tracy Jordan is out for the weekend with a blown tranny. Bruce Zellar 40'd his first obstacle, and is in the pits doing some welding. I'm not certain what he broke, but he looks pretty frustrated. Jody Everding finished his first obstacle with his rig literally on fire. Becca Webster is the only American who has had a smooth first obstacle. She cleaned her first course and made it look easy.

Series leader Adrian Berthsen rolled on his first obstacle, but was in good spirits. Hopefully his day goes a little better after that. Pro Modified series leader Tony Robinson pounded his Toyota buggy through his first obstacle, and put on a hell of a show. Tony's truck has a 3.9
L Rover V8 with a 2F transmission, 5:1 "Maxi Drive" transfer case, with Toyota axles, BFG Krawlers, and Sway Away air shocks.

UPDATE - 12:30PM
Tracy "Never Say Die" Jordan isn't calling it quits. Not one to give up, he replaced the blown birfield in "homeless" and is going to run it for the rest of the competition. I got to drive "homeless" all day yesterday on the trail, and it's a great little rig. If he can keep the front end in one piece, he should do great.

UPDATE - 2:00PM

Tracy Jordan put on a show in "Homeless" on obstacle #1. He dropped a tire into the bottomless pit and popped a birfield. He called it quits for the day, but was all smiles nevertheless... Tony Robinson broke a rear axle shaft and is trying to get the broken pieces out of th carrier as I type this. He was having a pretty good day up until the axle failure, so hopefully he can get it fixed and be back in the game.

UPDATE - 4:00PM
The day is just about over, and it looks like team USA is in the lead. This is completely unofficial, but I believe that Jody Everding is in the lead, with Becca Webster only trailing by a few points. The Aussies had a rough day, but I'm sure they will be ready to make up some ground tomorrow. I talked with Adrian this afternoon about his plan for tomorrow, and he plans to do as many bonus lines as he can, to try and narrow the gap in points the Americans have.