Updated 10-09-2003 11:42 P.M. PST

Sam's Club Parking Lot, Tech Inspection

Sam's Club had the somewhat dubious honor of hosting the Tech Inspection for the ARCA Finals in Farmington, New Mexico. I hitched a ride with Jeff Nello and Kevin Carey for an 18 hour non-stop cannonball run from Danville, California straight through to Farmington with three stops for diesel, four more for pee and smoke breaks, one stop to check the trailer tires, and another to videotape the sunrise from somewhere in the middle of Arizona.

The locals at Sam's Club were curious, mostly fretting at the sudden influx of funny looking vehicles on trailers being pulled by huge F350 Ford Turbo-Diesels that were clogging up their parking lot. Several were enthusiasts and spent the day chatting with participants and others asking when and where the competition is.

"Where's your overflow bottle?"

Tech day is the best day for checking out the rigs and grilling the drivers and spotters for tips and tricks. No one is in any particular hurry; the inspection consists of one poor kid ensuring that all vehicles were stickered with all the appropriate logos from ARCA Series Sponsors (Quote: "My job sucks. I look at stickers.") He may not have liked his assignment, but he did do it thoroughly.

After a rig is deemed to be properly adorned, it's off to tech. There was no trouble with the rigs in this regard; nearly every rig here today has been running all season.

The above mentioned overflow bottle was cleverly tucked up behind a front shock. "OK" and a mark on the checklist, and this competitor was off to the scales to check for weight requirements. Then a quick stop at the paperwork booth to make sure everyone has their ducks in a row; entry fees paid, liability forms signed.

The Competitors

Since Jeff Mello and Kevin Carey were kind enough to give me a ride out to Farmington, I will be posting an in depth interview with them before the weekend is over. Here are some highlights:

Tom: How long have you guys been weeling?
JM: I was in the womb my first trip. Quite literally.

Tom: And ever since then?
JM: And every since then yeah. Just about every weekend it feels like.
KC: Jeff's got 7 Jeeps at his house if that says anything. I've been wheeling about 8 yrs. I'm a member of the Pirates of the Rubicon so we get a lot of practice.

Tom: So tell me what you think of your spotter while he's not listening.
JM: I think he's fantastic. You add up the competitions that he's done and divide by the total of finsh places and it comes out to first-point-seven-th place (Ed. - We think that's good.) How can I go wrong there? Kevin's got a great communication ability; that we picked up by the second obstacle that we worked together. Quite litterally the first time when Lance set us up, Kevin and I may have met one other time before that, but neither of us can really pinpoint it. If we would have walked by each other in the parking lot we wouldn't have recognized each other. Lance hooked us up, and when I first laid eyes on him, I went "Oh boy Lance, you handed me a buck-twenty if he's wearing a wet towel around his head" and I'm thinking "Is this guy going to be able to pull on a rope?"
KC: 150 for the record!
JM: Yeah.. Soaking wet. Anyway he's a strong guy but more importantly he's strong between the ears. He's smart, he's competent, and he works it through. He's got excellent communication, he works us through the hardest stuff.

I also had a chance to meet up with Team Rock Runner Racing's Joachim Schwiesow and Brian Errea. These guys really do work as a team. They both answered the questions at the same time and finished each others sentances. It was impossible to tell who was talking, so I gave up and combined their responses, just seperating what sounds like a voice change with a new line.

Tom: Tell me about your spotter..
TRR: We trade off.
He's my spotter and I'm his spotter.
We team drive events.
I drove the first event, he spotted, second event he drove, third event I drove,
And then this event we're going to switch off between obstacles,
Maybe.. He's driving most of it.
Well, we'll see. If it's to our advantage, we have different skills and different abilities for different courses.
And if it looks to our advantage to have someone else drive and someone else spot,
We'll work our strengths and weaknesses together for the weekend.

See what I mean? It will be interesting to see if this seem less teamwork can carry them to a win.

"Hope you do well, just not as well as us!"

Tech day mostly consisted of lots of hanging around and getting in the way of shoppers, meeting up with old friends not seen since the last event, swapping lies and starting rumors. Rockcrawling is still very much a friendly sport; gentlemanly competition certainly exists but the total lack of any animosity is a refreshing change from fully professional sports where millions of dollars hang in the balance.

There was constant talk about what the merging of ARCA and UROC will mean to the professional future of rock crawling. Much buzz about who is getting funded by what sponsors next year. (I can't print unfounded rumors, but rest assured, you will hear about it first on the PBB.)

And of course a lot of good-natured ribbing about who will be the season champion.

Then off to a good night's sleep.

Updated 10-09-2003 12:04A.M. PST

Team Pirate just returned from Farmington's one and only gentlemen's club. We found a few competitors (who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent) relaxing and having a good time. Let's just leave it at that...

Updated 10-08-2003 9:00P.M. PST

We spent the day out at Brown Springs today practicing with Mike Shaffer, Shannon Campbell, and Kevin Hawkins.

These three teams showed their dedication to the sport by spending the entire day testing and getting familiar with the terrain.

"Coming out and running the rocks and getting familiar with the terrain is definitely helpful" says Shannon Campbell.

"The traction in Farmington is insane. My tires were brand new on Monday, and they are already shot!" says Mike Shaffer.

Later this evening I chatted with Phil Collard, RCAA course designer.

"I love building these courses. It's like a chess game - me versus 70 competitors. I love doing this - even more than competing. I just want to make the best courses anyone has ever run. I have built some very technical and difficult courses for this weekend. I hope everyone enjoys them!" says Collard.

After looking at the courses Phil Collard has set up, I would have to agree that the competitors are in for a heck of a weekend. Tomorrow we will chat with some of the competitors and see how they are feeling going into the event.

Updated 10-07-2003 11:30P.M. PST

The Goodyear/Skyjacker Rock Crawling Nationals promises to be the event of the year! The top contenders are mere points from each other, which means that the series title is up for grabs. One wrong move can mean the difference between taking home the gold, or going home a looser.

I had a chance to chat with Ranch Pratt, President of RCAA this afternoon. "I'm really excited about this event. Most people familiar with the Brown Springs area here in Farmington think of it as a point-and-shoot area. Well we believe we have built some very technical, all-new obstacles. Of course there are a couple of point-and-shoot obstacles, but the majority are technical," says Pratt.

One unusual thing about this event is the fact that not only will the RCAA finals be taking place at this event, but the CalROCS/NARCCA regional finals will also be taking place at the same time (side by side with the RCAA event).

Rich Klein, president of CalROCS/NARCAA/VORRA said "We are encouraging everyone to come out to this event and 'run-what-ya-brung'! We have some great technical courses which are much tamer than the more advanced RCAA courses. Our courses are more targeted towards the average wheeler rather than the full-blown competitor rock buggies."

We would have to agree that Rich has some great courses for this weekend, since we were able to go out and pre run some of the CalROCS courses. They provided great technical challenges while not crossing the line into craziness. If you're thinking about coming out and participating in the action, I encourage you to show up on Thursday at tech inspection at Sam's Club in Downtown Farmington and signup. For more information, check out www.calrocs.com.

With so much on the line going into the last RCAA event, the competition is sure to be fierce. Competitors are slowly showing up in Farmington several days early so they can get some practice time in before the event.

Will current points leader Jon Bundrant be able to hold on to his 8 point lead going into the event and become the new RCAA champion, or will Tracy Jordan or Mike Shaffer be able to steal the championship from Bundrant?

"We went into the finals last year in first place, and we really had to screw up to loose the series (because of our previous wins in the season). We played it conservatively at the finals and wheeled smart. So while the pressure was there, I think this year the pressure to perform has been kicked up a few notches. Going into the finals in third place, the heat is on to perform flawlessly and hope that Bundrant and Jordan make mistakes," says Mike Shaffer.

Let's take a look at the current point standings of the top 5 in each class:

* Each place is worth two points. Example, If Jon Bundrant places 5th in the finals and Tracy Jordan wins the event, Tracy Jordan would win the series.

* Each place is worth two points. Example, If Garret Sisson places 5th in the finals and Errea wins the event, Errea would win the series.

The scores in the stock modified class are very similar to those in the Unlimited class. While the current points leaders, the Sisson brothers, enjoy a 8 point lead, guaranteed victory is far from a sure thing. One goof-up could very easily cost these Farmington residents the series.

Stay tuned for our next update on Wednesday evening where we will post some pictures of some of the teams practicing!

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