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We are here on day 2 of the UROC Jellico coverage. Today's event covers the Extreme East, Super Modified class. The courses have been changed up some compared to yesterday's Modified courses. Today they are longer, more off camber, steeper, and several of them are longer overall. They really put the challenge into these courses. If that wasn't bad enough, last night the rain fell and moistened up the ground some. I was informed the other day that when it rains, the grounds becomes super slick. I never envisioned that the mud could become as slippery as driving on oil. The mud this morning was amazingly traction free. The rain stopped though and as the day lingered on, the ground dried up making the courses easier for competitors later in the day.

The weather is a little cooler compared to yesterday as well. The wind hasn't kicked up at all and the crowds are packed in. The parking lot is packed with spectators making UROC's crowd control job really tough. A lot of these courses are set on hill sides which gives vehicles potential for good fast rolls. Overall the crowd looks to be having a great time as you can hear them cheering on their favorte drivers as they make or break their way to the top of the courses.

Now onto the details of some of the things we have seen today. Ron Maximoff, driving #428, may or may not sound familiar right now to you, and if he isn't, keep an ear out. He put on a great show for the crowd. While on course #2, Crow's Nest (which is the same as course #1 was yesterday but tweaked some for difficulty), he laid it over on its side while making the hill climb. The climb is very torn up with holes that will push a vehicle all over the place if the vehicle has enough momentum to get that far. While powering up the hill, Ron ran into a little bit of trouble and laid it over on its side. The spotter and was able to push the vehicle down the hill to put the vehicle back on its wheels. Tired and worn out, the spotter had nothing left. Ron was forced to race up the hill without a spot and facing timing out. Despite a great charge up the hill, Ron couldn' do it and wound up driving out of bounds giving him an instant 40 points ending his show on that run. It was a good effort though.

Ron laid over with his spotter pushed hard to get him back over

Today my favorite two courses have to be 3 and 4 because of the variety of the challenges throughout each course. Scott Schlapman, in rig #2, was on course 4 when we caught up to him about to make his second run of the day. He had already rolled on the previous course and didn't want to have a repeat. He knew that they were already playing catchup to the leaders. As he entered the course, the course takes him up a hill which was very wet at this point into a sharp right turn. On top of that turn is a boulder to pivot around just before dropping back down the hill which provides the driver and spotter a nice off camber turn down. Scott did well here lifting a tire, but promptly dropping it back down to earth to make that section fast. The next portion of course 4 is a gully crossing that has boulders right before the climb out and cones at the top. While trying to put one tire up on top of the wet rocks, a little too much twist and lift of the front passenger tire put him on his lid down in the gully. Both Scott and Dan gave it their best to push it back over, but had no luck. They had to bow out because they had no way to get it back over. Talking to Scott, he said, "Not every day do you try and push 2700 lbs over. We are 2 for 2 on rolling over on courses." They hope not to repeat that and gave the old Pirate salut to everyone out there.

Scott and Dan grunting hard to get it back on its wheels

Course #3 was my other favorite course. It starts off by giving you the option to take the bonus line into the course or the regular line in. When you take the bonus line in, you still have to come down around and take the regular line in as well. That means you have the same time limit to do more course. The regular line in was no cake walk either. By the time we waked up on the course, several vehicles had already grenaded parts either trying the bonus or attempting the regular line. Rig #145 was on course when we started taking pictures. This rig is driven by Jason Panozzo and spotted by Casey Seay. They elected to not even try the bonus line at this point because things were so wet. The first climb on the regular entrance is filled with boulders about 4 to 5 feet in diameter. Jason spent most of his time in this spot trying to get his wheels to climb. Taking several backs, he burned most of his allowable points off. After a certain point, the RPMs were not spared and the tires began to spin. Mud was flung everywhere in attempts to get it up. Eventually he made it up but very little time left and he still had 3/4 of the course to go. With 20 seconds left to go, he hit a gate and pointed out.

Jason roasting his tires on the slick Tennessee mud

Back on course #4, Brad Stylesand and Charlie Center in the # 27rig walked the first half of the slimy trail like it was dry. Without hesitations he was through the first half in no time giving him some time to spare on the hill climb. He had a healthy motor to get him up the hill, but the traction wasn't there. He slid back a few too many times and woud up breaking off a rear suspension link ending his run on this course.

Dropping into the hill holding on just in case.

I have never had the opportunity to meet or see Randy Torbett until this event. He runs a single seater buggy with NewHolland axles that put the CG really low. Randy was very polite and nice to talk to before he took his run up course #4. Randy, spotted by Eric Nixon, entered the course and easil swung around the hill climb u-turn. Watching how Brad made the course easier, he followed the same lines. On the way down from the u-turn, they both avoided the rock pile head on. Instead, they side hilled and got a diagonal approach to the rocks which allows them to avoid most of the rocks that everyone else had a hard time on. This allowed both of them to go quick through there. The hill climb was still to come. Randy danced the smiley faced axles up the hill with ease, but got stopped quick by the rock wall at the top. Roasting the tires for some time didn't get him very far, so he had to realign, stack a rock, and punch it up. He made the front tires over the wall, but spun sideways and took out a gate. He still made the course though and racked up a -16 score. After talking to him after the run, he confirmed his initial thoughts and said to me, "Oh yeah, that was a fun ride up."

Randy at the top of course #4 trying to get over the rock wall

Course #6 is a wild ride through the forests of Jellico. This twisty and criss crossed course drives you between tight trees and over slippery rocks. We watched rig #929, Robby Middleton and Alan Rich in their Kreative Customs crawler race through the course. They were making awesome time zipping up and over stuff until they had to get off the top of "Table Top". Table Top is a large boulder which has you drive up on it only to exit off the other side putting you into a small crack. The cones are positioned just right in order to make it very difficult to let you through. After at least 6 backups and multiple high throttled attempts, he opted to take the cone because time was almost up. With 1 minute remaining, he made one attempt at the bonus line and couldn't touch it. Risking pointing out, he quickly backed up, spun the front end around, and went through the standard closing gate with 30 seconds left on the clock. He put 18 points down on his scorecard. Robby said, "We made great time until the table top. We tok 6 backups comng off of the table top then realized that we should have just taken the cone earlier." Asking if the mud is presenting him any new challenges, Robby said, "No. We are from North Carolina so we are used to this kind of mud."

Robby roasting the tires trying to get off of the Table Top

There were many teams out there today that had names and logos for their vehicles that were nice and all, but rig #131 had the most fitting. With a name like "Full Throttle" in bold print across the side of the rig, that is a definite signal to have the camera ready. The course we discovered Tom Diviak and Brad Ott on was course #4 where they were following the tails of Randy Torbett. Tom saw the success of Randy and took his same lines. However, upon trying to leave the gully and bypassing some of the rocks, he mistakingly hit the drivers side cone. As fast as that, he had 10 penalty points. Up to the hill he went where it was test time to see if the Full Throttle name was true. He made several attempts at it with not much roll into the hill. This only resulted in him digging into the hillside. It wasn't until he got a good rolling run at the hill where he made the full charge to the top. At the top, he hit the top rock wall and wound up bouncing to the right. This took out another cone giving him more penalties. His final score for that course wound up being 24. We spoke to him to find out his take on that course. "It was pretty nasty. We were 3rd to make it today and it was really dug out. In the past, this hill climb was an optional bonus line where today its the actual course." This just goes to show that rigs and drivers are still getting a lot better at this and the bar keeps raising.

Tom rounding the corner at the top of course#4

Matt Deas was the first we got to see run course #5. Matt is in the #4 rig with his spotter Mike Wike. Course #5 starts at the bottom of a huge hill then has you climb up it at an angle. This puts you in danger of flipping down the hill as you try racing across it at a slight off camber tilt. Once at the top you have to turn back down the hill which puts you down the Chute. The Chute is a long steep hill once again that gets the drivers sliding out of control. Most of the drivers wound up backing down this section because the weight of the motor on the high side of the hill helped keep the wheel down. Matt did just that. He ran the course clean, backed down, and took a -8 score. When asked what he thought of the course and if they thought it was hard. He said that they just followed the groove that others had made in the hill. Although it was loose mud they were on, there was enough to keep him on the hill.

Matt roasting the tires to get up to the top of course 5

We ventured on over to course #7 where new trails were made for the SuperModified rigs. Course #7 starts out at the top of a fire road and has the drivers make this perilous slide down a hill into a grove of trees. Along the way are boulders to screw up the descent. Roy Purcell in the #110 rig fell victim to one of those boulders only 10 feet into the course. He chose to back into the course with the assist of the spotters rope. On his way down, one of the rocks on course was high enough to catch his axle. They couldn't push through it, so they had to try and drive back up the hill to reposition. That couldn't happen either because there wasn't enough traction. They even tried to do front burns to get the front end to swing around, but it was not happening. So there they sat for the time of the course, stuck. It was a good effort, but disappointing to see happen so soon on the course.

With the rear diff stuck on a rock and no traction, they are going nowhere

The next team learned from what they did and adjusted accordingly. Kevin Anthony and spotter Billy Dills, rig #122, dropped in backwards as well, but avoided that rock. Once down the hill, the teams have to make a right turn (left if they go down backwards) to drop into a set of big slippery side hill rocks while avoiding trees at the same time. Kevin and Billy turned down into that area and started their crawl through. A mishap, however, sent Kevin tumbling down the hill side not once but twice over only to land on his side shaking his head. The roll was so violent that he knocked the winch off the front of his rig in the process. Kevin was ok, but he had this to say, "...and that's why I wear a helmet." The crowd got a good laugh and cheered him on for being a trooper through the roll. When asked how the roll was, he said, "That was a rough ride. That is my first multi rollover that was that bad." I can't imagine it getting much worse. The vehicle wasn't a total loss as he was able to extract it from between the boulders and get it going for other runs that day.

The crowd cheers as Kevin shows he had a good time rolling

Next to course #7 is course #8 which was a lot harder than it appeared. It is built into a slight hill side, but nothing steep at all. The problem here was the mud. The ground was so wet that getting on top of the small rock ledges was a chore. Rig #7, driven by Jeff Rowland and spotted by wife Yo Yo (Yolanda) Rowland had a hard time getting up the first obstacle just inside the gate. Most of their time was burned their trying to get up a 3 foot snotty mud covered rock. Slipping and sliding left and right, they just couldn't get the bite to get up on top. Finally after hitting one of the cones, Jeff hammered the throttle and bounced up onto the ledge. While on the ledge he nearly rolled over a few times having Yo Yo save him by pulling hard on the rope. With time down to nearly nothing, Jeff kicked on the turbo and raced through the course. The crowd cheered as he bounced, bumped, grinded, and slammed his way up and over obstacles. He was on his way to finishing the course in a record time (excluding the time to get up on the ledge that is) when he got into trouble. On his way back around, Jeff fell off into one very big hole. This sent him rolling over until he came to rest on his side. So close to the end, but nothing he could do. Both were disappointed, but in good spirits. They unfortunately drove away with 40 points.

The mud gives very little traction when trying to bite up rocks

There has to be something said about how useful rear steer can be. The Freak rig, #67, driven by Steve Hudlow and spotted by Matt Martin had a sweet run going on course #3 until time started to disappear. They started by running the bonus gate at first. With a near roll over exiting the drop off of the bonus, they managed to pull it back down onto its wheels to continue the course. Once back on the main course, they burned a lot of time. A crack line really did not want to let them go. So they were forced to take several reverses. On one reverse, they wound up hitting a gate. Bam... 10 points. With adrenaline flowing and Matt yelling at Steve to go, Matt mashed the throttle down and blasted over the trouble rocks. The rear steer was still cranked to the left and Matt had the front also cranked to the left. In all the violence of bouncing, Matt literally crab walked over the last section of rocks towards the finish. He corrected it and crossed the finish line with a jaw dropping 8 seconds left on the clock. The spotter wasn't able to help him through the end because he twisted his ankle on course. Despite the 10 point penalty, he scored decently with 15 points.

The Freak coming off of the bonus line of course #3

If you thought that close calls are in frequent, think again. On the same course, rig #25, Bryan Kolman and James Hojnacki had a similar experience. They too bumped through the bonus line to gain that extra edge. This hurt their time though as they spent much of it trying to get the cage around the sharp rock wall. Once they were off the bonus field, it was back up into the course where so many had troubles. With the rocks dry now, it was a lot easier task. They simply crawled right on up getting a little light cresting the ridge forcing them to back up to save it from a roll. Upon repositioning they settled down into the halfway marker of the course. That's when the judge called out 50 seconds. The judge started the countdown and Bryan gave it his all to get through. He knew he had little time especially with his spotter yelling at him to go. Just feet from the gate, he raced across the gate for a 2 point finish. When talking to Bryan, I asked him about what he was thinking when the judge called out 50 seconds left and he was only half way through the course. He looked at me with shock and said, "I didn't even know we had such little time left. That is ok though, when I started the course, they told me that I was tied for first place. I had to tell them don't ever tell me we're tied. It just makes me even more nervous".

Bryan getting light on the front passenger tire on course #3 climb

We ran into a cop out at the competition site who was cooler than you could imagine. Rob Steffey, a member of the police force in Pennsylvania, was out with his own rig competing instead of writing tickets. He was spotted by crazy man C.J. Hines and they were out and about giving the crowd something to cheer for. Once again, course #3 was a clock challenging course. The two made progress around the bonus line dropping in and setting up for the regular gate into the main part of the course. They ran into a little bit of trouble here where they got stuck. Spinning up the tires, Rob smoked up the place as he heated up his tires giving the crowd some awesome horse power visuals. Over revving the motor, they eventually broke free and made it up and over the top. They used up most of their time there which left them little to no time to complete the course. They put the rig in overdrive and sped through the course to finish with just 21 seconds left on the clock. When he they were told that they had 21 seconds left, they laughed and said, "oh we had 21 seconds left, we didn't have to rush so fast." Though they didn't place in the top ten, they said they had a great time out here competing.

Check out Rob smoking the rubber on his police cruiser

Did we mention at all that there was mud all over the event site? Teammates Michael Robert Colville and Nicholas Brian Rudolph were able to find a good size hole of it. On course #7, as they were finishing the course, they just had to slide down the last big chute. As they came down, Michael flipped the rig over and stuffed the top of his cage into the mud resulting in a face full of country goo.

Say Cheeeese

Completing our tour of the JROCC competition site, we strolled over to course #1 where we came upon Jeff Rowland in trouble again. This time he really did it in for himself. Wife, Yo Yo, was holding onto the right rear tire away from the rig. 4 feet away from the rig. The wheel got a really good hit and broke right off. Not only did the axle shaft break, but the disc brake as well snapped a good portion out of it. So if you can picture a disc brake for a moment with me, imagine the caliper taking a bite out of the disc and that is what she was holding. It turns out he was attempting the first wall climb, which is about 4 feet longer than the wheelbase, and they got into a little bit of trouble while bouncing. Talking to Yo Yo, she said, "Our ego is a little hurt, but we are probably the toughest man and wife team running. We always make it back matter how much we break." Yo Yo was a pleasure to talk to because in the face of an early defeat and expensive repair, she had jokes slinging off the tongue and pride in her husband's creative ways of breaking things.

Yo Yo holding up her husbands latest carnage

Course #1, as it is laid out, is more of a steep moderately sized hill arangement. Nothing technical other than testing if you can go up and down hills in one piece. The bonus gate was easy for these guys as they would back into it, spin forward, enter the regular course and head straight up the climb. The climb offers a bit of a challenge that can easily be screwed up. If you wind up drifting too far left, you could be in for a sweet rollover surprise. Once past that, you come down another steep ledge drop and on to either the finish gate or another bonus gate. The bonus gate was just a steeper and higher climb. Everyone we saw run bypassed it. Rusty Bray and Ken Shupe, in rig #254, were back in our cameras scope as they were the last to take a run through course #1. They mirrored everything everyone else did on the course, but cleaner. Dropping in backwards seems to be par for these guys now. A little bounce bounce and he was settled. Over to the hill climb, he made two attempts at it. The first wasn't high enough, but the second he had enough and then some to get over the wall. The last part is so easy with a simple drop in and cross the finish line. However, when they dropped in, the engine cut out and they had no power to pull out of a potential roll if one showed its face. Rusty brought it to a stop on the hill attempting to fire it back up again. Multiple failed attempts at bringing the truck to life is a little frustrating so close to the finish. So, he tried to use momentum to get him to the finish by dropping it into neutral and coasting to the line. He came to rest just over a foot from the finish line. While sitting there, they spent severa minutes trying to start up the rig again. The fear was either a map sensor came off or they were out of fuel. Since it was an automatic, they couldn't just put it in gear and go. Instead, they popped it in neutral and with all their strength, they muscled the rig across the finish line with the crowd roaring to life in the background. The judge took his stern place staring down the finish line to see the rig make an official finish. With sweat dripping off of them, they eventually got it over. With two man power at the end, they finished with -8 points and a completition to the days events.

Push..... Push.... Push.....

That had to be one of the coolest closes to a wheeling day that I had ever seen. It was also probably a memorable experience for the owners of the property who are real big fans of Ken Shupe when he is rock racing. We had a great opportunity to speak with the owner and familty members that allowed us to help grow our sport in their backyard. You see, Robert Cox is the land owner up there. When wheelers came looking for a good place to compete and have wheeling trails, Robert opened up his property for all to come. Robert is father to Theresa who has married Pat Burns. The two of them were shocked to hear how we made the trip from California just to play in their backyard. Their children were also there to enjoy the top drivers from around the country. Robert, a 2 year old boy, and Patton, a 4 year old boy, both had coures named after them. On the first day, course #5 was named Patton's revenge. On the second day, course #7 was named Robert's Revenge. A nice tribute to their children who follow the wheeling world closely even at such a young age.

Owner of the land up here, Robert Cox, is holding his two grand kids as they watch the excitement

So once the day was over and the dust settled..... actually, that should be "mud" settled, the top Eastern Rock Crawlers were in place. Randy Torbett, one of the nicest guys you will ever meet, took home top honors and cool little trophy with a total of 10 points on the day. Second place was Richard Schmaus with 27 points followed closely by Justin Smith with 31 points.

To see more Scores, CLICK HERE.

I have to tell you that this was my first experience with the east's version of rock crawling. With the mix of mud and rain, it reminds me a whole lot of the wheeling in Washington and Oregon. Lots of mud over rocks and wheel speed to get over it all. I enjoyed watching the eastern guys get it today and I can see several of them with their eyes on spots in the Pro class. After this experience, it will be neat to see the east Vs. west battle later this year. Who will take it? Of course being a western boy myself, I would like to sound biased, but these guys have what it takes to show a trick or two to the dryrock crawlers.

Thanks for staying tuned and we will see you tomorrow for the final day of competition where we see the Pro Super Modified taking on the new courses.