[Tech and Day 1 Action]
[Day 2 Action]
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Update
8:30 AM PST
Welcome back rock crawl fans and happy Friday the 13th. It's an interesting start date to the second installment of the 2005 UROC Pro rock crawling series. This leg of the stop brings us to sunny and warm Phoenix, AZ. With estimated temperatures in the mid 90s, we are up for some real hot action. I come from California where it is normally warm and sunny, but this year is a little different. We were barely drying off the rain water when hopping on the plane here to Arizona (or better name "Aridzona" as I have seen in some people's descriptors on the board. No joke either. It is hot out here. The warm weather is awesome, but will present a whole new challenge to these teams as they fight the dehydration dangers of over working themselves. Will safety be a concern and points given up for survival, or will we see the bravest going out there and risking it all to edge out the competition. This is what sports are all about, weighing out the challenges and going for it. Or is this really a challenge this weekend??
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| The sun sets against our desert backdrop |
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This weekend is a little different than events in the past. This is a two day event, but the rubber hits the rock at 5:00PM tonight and tomorrow. So these will be evening courses and the full force of the sun will not be as much of an issue as if this was a mid day event. So we will be racing from 5:00PM till the last vehicle finishes out all 4 courses planned. Who knows how long this will take, but with the wide open spaces, recoveries should be pretty easy to manage. Recoveries always seem to be a time killer.
What isn't different at this event. We are all aware now of the man made courses that UROC have used in the past. SuperCrawl III and the first Pro event this year were both run on a huge man made cement course. These free formed landscapes leave the challenges up to the imagination of the formation maker and the cone layer. There is no reason now to not have some really technical challenges. From what I saw, the challenge came in the form of getting the courses done in time for the big day. The obstacle areas are laid out in a few different piles in a pretty good sized area. Visisibility appears to be awesome as you can walk all around these courses. As we walked up to the courses though, we quickly found that they weren't finished. A whole section had nothing on it but dirt and some rebar. Of the courses that were finished looking, they too had rebar exposed at the base and they were still spraying on cement/colors as we looked on. The word I got was that they were only going to run the few course areas that were coated already. The others would be ready for the UROC west. So will these courses be ready for today's event? They were working hard into the night so you know it is going to be full on action today.
On another design note, we liked the courses as there appeared to be some real potential for high horsepower climbing action along with slow going technical driving which is my favorite to see. I love to watch driver and spotter working like yin and yang through extremely technical sections. It shows how a team can either rise or fall in the face of a communication challenge.
One other thing that looks like a points maker is the course material itself. In Salt Lake City, the rough texture was very secure and gave tons of traction. This stuff here is more like gravel on top of the cement and spins of really easy. So easy in fact that when I stepped on it, it would crumble like a brittle cookie. Joel Randall said it best when he said it looked like the cement dried before it even hit the ground. The traction is there though beneath all of this thin covering. So it looks like it will be an advantage to have a late running order. Expect scores to get better as the day and weekend goes on. The first people out will have to burn off this stuff which will pave the way for everyone after them.
Starting at 10:00AM we will have tech inspections and show & shine. The competition will start promptly at 5:00PM so we will see you then.
Update
3:44 PM PST
We are a few hours away from the start of the event and things look good. I mean REALLY good out here today. The sun is hot beating down on everyone, so we are pretty thankful that the event will be held in the coolness of the evening.
All the drivers are out here in swarms once again to see who will be king of the rocks and I can tell you, everyone wants that title. Walker Evans is of course back again in his light baby blue Campbell Enterprises moon buggy. This buggy is now equipped with some new shoes from GoodYear. What were once class range E truck type tires, these red label tires are softer and stickier than ever with more pliable walls to really wrap around the terrain. These tires were the talk of the morning as they are so sticky that you can practically stick your finger into the tire. I am curious how they will work this weekend.
Parker Garrett in the #252 steel colored buggy are back again for some action on the man made courses. Parker hails from Colorado and is running his 2 year old buggy. It’s a little heavier than most, but I believe seat time and knowledge of what the buggy can and can’t do, keeps him competitive in the pack. Another helpful trick to his arsenal is his Toyo tires that he has been running for a while. These are a narrower set than were available last year which are much better on the terrain. There is talk amongst the pits of a new tire to come out geared even more towards traction on the terrain from Toyo. Not seen out here today, but maybe we might see it at the next event. Parker’s normal spotter isn’t available this weekend, so he called upon family member, “Uncle Scott” to be his rope man. Though Scott hasn’t had much vehicle rope time, he does have a background in water skiing, so maybe that type of rope knowledge will be the ace in his pocket out here today.
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| Uncle Scott, Lance, and Parker Garrett walking the courses. Parker laughs at Lance's suggestion for a line. |
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Ken Blume is always a crowd favorite at these events. When he isn’t taking wins or posting in the top 5 spots, he is out doing tricks for the crowd. At the Salt Lake City event, he pulled off an amazing trick normally performed by motorcycles. He went up on one of the steep faces and wound up tilting sideways. Instead of just taking the roll, he slapped the steering around and throttled as hard as possible. Amazingly, he beat gravity and stayed on all fours when he hit the ground. Rumblings and legendary tales are still in the air from this feat. Ken is normally spotted by Chuck Carlson, but he had his business to attend to and couldn’t be with us this weekend. So Brett Epperly is stepping up to the plate to help Ken take a win. Chuck knows his game well and will be hard to match when spotting, but Brett is an experience driver and spotter who should be able to get things done. Sponsored by Premier Performance Products, a distributor of diesel truck parts, Ken is able to get out here weekend after weekend to put on a great show in his yellow portal axled buggy.
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| Ken Blume smiles as he gets ready to be scrutinized by the tech judges |
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Troy “Gonna Go Slower” Muse is also one to watch at these events. Troy runs a true steel Tacoma fendered/hooded body on his buggy. In a slick metallic green speckled paint scheme, Troy plans to dazzle the crowd with pure Toyota proven power and years of Rubicon driving experience. Part of the Pirates of the Rubicon club of California, obviously he is one of our favorites to watch this weekend because you know the Pirates are always one to put on a good show. He showed us how much fun he has out here when in Salt Lake City, he took on a hill and blew out his whole front suspension setup early on. He was then given the talking to, to slow down a bit. Troy will hear it said, but will he listen? With the newly swapped out JimmyJoints for some true heim joints, the added strength may give him a reason to go even harder than before. This #56 rig is sponsored by R.P. Films and will look great in the next series of videos from Pat and the gang. So good in fact because of the freshly painted body. I swear the paint was still wet when I was looking at it.
Skinny, aka Adam Lunn, is here again but this time in a rig built by John Hall. The #50 rig is functional looking and different than most as it sports a truck pickup body instead of a Jeep, Suzuki, or other type of trail rig body. Just passing out of Tech inspection, he is ready to take on the new man made courses even with his balding Krawlers.
Who can forget Dustin Webster. The man, the myth, the legend, the hat. Dustin has a unique style of letting you know he is there. Laughing and joking all the time, he is back again with his newly fabbed crawler first seen at Salt Lake City. Sitting higher than most, Dustin is really getting a handle on this crawler. Practicing at every moment he can, he has worked hard to become comfortable in this new ride. So much time was spent practicing, that the boys at the shop never got to tear it down and paint it. While scrolling through the rules, they nearly got Dustin for having “extensive rust” on his chassis. A rarely called upon rule, but one that made everyone laugh when brought up. They will be breaking out the brillo pads tonight to make it all “purdy” for the cameras this evening.
Another switched up team is Mike and Lance who are borrowing the Spidertrax built rig. This rear engined buggy will be different for them and has a whole different feel than their previous rigs. They wouldn’t know though since they have never really driven it yet. That’s right. This will be their first try at it. Good luck.
Kelly Clifford on the other hand is here in the Pros and ready to whip everyone into female submission. Celebrating her 40th birthday this weekend is more than enough excitement to really pump her up for a win. Kelly will be running the reliable Diablo 2 chassis built by Shaffer’s off-road.
The courses are looking good out here. It is hard to tell when there is nothing around how good the courses will be. However, the cones have been laid down and they are looking AWESOME. They have actually squeezed in the courses on what terrain they have been able to build. Actually, from what I heard, there is actually more cement laid out here than at the Salt Lake City site. The extra courses that haven’t been built yet will make this place huge and full of many options.
The drivers are excited to get this thing going and so are we. We will be back in a bit to get it started live from the Pirate4x4.com tent.
Update
8:30 PM PST
Hey out there in Pirate land, we are coming to you from Phoenix for at the newest rock courses. The action started a little bit ago and we are now able to get some info out on the web for you to drool over. The courses have been a lot easier on drivers than I expected. There is far more traction than anticipated. The loose cement slugs on the course surfaces have proven to be less of a problem than originally thought. More of that in a little bit.
Mark Berger in the #777 rig on course #6 is making it look easy so far. The course winds you up a hill into an off camber near the top, then you have to spin the front end down the hill. This spin is a little tricky since you are sitting up high on the hill risking a nasty tumble to the bottom. Mark was super clean in his execution of the maneuver and exited the course quick and possibly the smoothest of anyone thus far.
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| Mark Berger twists his rig through one of the finger crack climbs |
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Becca and Rich stopped by the tent tonight to hang for a few moments. They are running the infamous RockHer rig and are having a great time out here tonight. This is actually their first run together. They said, “I think we are working good as a team. Rich is an amazing spotter. Lots’ of good techniques getting through these courses. In the long run, we need to get ourselves on the same wave length and timing of things. It’s the little things that can make us a ½ second to 2 seconds faster. Every second counts.
The courses are really technical. We have had to take a lot of cones to get through the courses. Also, the courses are really tight, so you have to exit through other course to get out. Besides the little things, it is a great event. It looks like the dark is going to be fun.
Our first course really hurt us because we lost all gears. We had no gears for 5 of the 7 minutes on course. It took us that much time to figure out that the tranny line got pinched and fix it. So we had to haul ass through the last part of the course. In the process we took out several cones along the way. We finished with like 5 seconds on that course.”.
They finished the course which is really important because nobody can benefit from a 40 on their card. Despite the time and cones along the way, they were able to get only 24 points on this course.
On their second course, course #3, they were very close to the boundary line at one point along the way. This would have instantly DQ’d them if they hit the line. Their tire was rolled over bulging over close to the line, but the tread was still within bounds. Taking it easy, they were able to pull around the edge and keep it going. “ The fold of the tire was close to taking us out, but we got it back in.” Thanks to some quick thinking and excellent driving, they were able to keep themselves alive and pull off an awesome -10 points on the course.
“Course #4 is next and we have a plan. We are going to try Rich’s technical strategy that no one else has tried yet.” The years of experience in course design has given him the eye to find little things that maybe nobody else has thought of to get through a course cleaner and faster. “Course #4 is a make or break course. Common scores are high 20s low 30s. We plan to get into the teens. We are planning to take 2 cones on the course where most others are taking 3. Prior to this event, we spent a week tweaking the vehicle. We lifted the belly a 1 3/4” and took out 6 inches on the width.”. All of this and some practice are giving them a great time out here this weekend.
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| Becca and Lil' Rich working their way through course #4 |
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Troy Muse is well known for his Toyota loyalty and his skills at putting his vehicle in any position and not worrying a bit. If there is one to follow with a camera, Troy will put on a show for you. He was told before the event to not use so much throttle, but sometimes you can’t always listen. Troy was on course # 6 when he was trying to listen to advice. Amidst it all, he got caught in a off-camber situation and rolled it over onto his side. Not being one to let it get the best of him, he punched on the throttle and tried to walk his way out of it. So on the throttle he went and spun the vehicle down out of the pit. There wasn’t enough to get him back on his wheels, so the both of them got under the rig and muscled it back over to the cheer of the crowd. With a cloud of smoke billowing out from his rig when he fired it up, he raced back onto the course and tried at it again. Troy laid it over again and was forced to call it quits, but the show was worth the admission.
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| Troy twisting up through course #6 |
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| Troy caught in a pillow of smoke. What kind of smoke… only Troy can tell you. |
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Update
8:51 PM PST
Every UROC course seems to have one climb that is bigger, nastier, steeper, and more intimidating than all the courses combined. Course #5 was to be a course similar to the Matterhorn in Salt Lake City, but it definitely doesn’t have the same “Get It” as the Mattherhorn has. It’s a pretty tall climb and is intimidating to several of the drivers. Some drivers actually had a little bit of trouble on it, but for most, it was a cake walk. High throttle and lots of momentum got most of them over quick. There was one rig though that literally stalled out mid way up. They then just puttered the rest of the way up slowly crawling and made it up and over without any problems.
Ken Blume in the #192 rig had a rough run on course #1 which is the really technical trench crossing course. The trenches are so deep that they will swallow a 40” tire without a problem. He was smoking the first half of the course and was eyeing the finish when his rig got bound up in the crack. His motor was torqueing him over in such a way that wouldn’t let him pass. He wound up timing out, but still was able to get some progression points. Onto the next course his luck continued. Course #2 is a big hill and it has you twist up and down the course to get through it all. He was up on top at one point and I caught a glimpse just in time to see him barrel roll down off the top. He came to rest at the bottom on the soft dirt below. The nicest part is that he missed every cone on the way down. With the truck still running smooth, Ken popped it back in gear and finished the course out. You gotta love a finish like that.
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| Ken gets eaten by the monster crack run on course #1 |
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Jason Scherer in the #13 rig (Tiny) was only the second or third Super Mod rig out on course #1 so he didn’t have much to watch. However, they had their lines picked and went through in a very quick and clean way. Excellent spotting was the key here to keep the tires lined up on top of the walls so that they didn’t fall into the deep trenches. They walked through and dropped the front tire across the final plane of the final gate and finished with only -4 points. Quite possibly the best you will see out here all weekend. Their first course wasn’t so perfect though. They rolled on course #4 trying to go through the second gate. This got them to where they couldn’t recover and took a 40. With the courses so “easy” out here, the points differences will be very little and a 40 will most likely take out a team from the running. This doesn’t phase them though because they are out having a great time.
Update
9:29 PM PST
Tracy Jordan and Brian Murray in the #112 rig are working well together this weekend as they pilot the new single seater moon buggy. This 4 wheel steered low CG creation is new for Tracy compared to his old Matrix that he mastered through last years season. The step over has actually been pretty good thus far. However, they were out on course #2 when Brian took a hard fall. It appears that while he was coming down the hill, his knee popped loud enough for the crowd to hear and he took the fall to the earth. Time was called as the paramedics were called in to help out. While he was taken away off course, his girlfriend Heather stepped up and took the rope on. While the team and officials were working out the issues, Ben Hanks was in the background flopped on his side after a roll. He kept the vehicle in gear and the throttle pinned. With smoke billowing out the pipe, he did laps thanks to the lugs of the Maxxis tires digging into the dirt. He spun around giving the crowd a great show. Unfortunately he couldn’t pop it back up on its wheels, but the people loved the show. Eventually the pits emptied and helped him over onto his wheels.
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| Tracy's fiancee, Heather, steps up to the plate when Brian's knee went out on course. |
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Mike and Lance were out borrowing Jake Hallenbeck’s rig this weekend. However, while the RX-7 rotary motor was being tuned for the altitude by Jake, the motor blew. So in a last minute call out to Shannon Campbell, they were able to borrow his old rig, Spanky, for the weekend. So with no practice nor ever having such power available to them, Mike and Lance were up for an interesting challenge. Shannon gave them a warning that the LS-1 makes so much power that it could literally flip itself over backwards real easy. So they were forced to use the power sparingly at some points until they could get used to it. Despite not being used to things, they were able to walk over to course #6 and get a huge score help by grabbing the lowest points of the day so far. However, they were up next on course #7 and had no time to look it over. Lance wound up spotting Mike on the wrong line and they took the LS-1 racer over onto its lid. When asking Lance about these courses out here, he said, “These courses are pretty easy. With the courses so easy, one cone will take you out of the points race easy” Lance felt that the scores will be tight this weekend and that getting a team with perfect scores aren’t that far from reach.
Update
9:47 PM PST
In case you haven't seen, some scores have been posted and are visible to view at the top of the page.
We will have photos loading up tonight. We have a ton of wheeling action that we can't wait to show you.
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| Amy Bulloch spins on the front end to get off the hill. The Modified drivers push these courses harder than the Supermods at times |
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The night is winding down and yet another victim falls to course #6 as I type this. Earlier Terry Howe in the #8 moon buggy was getting ready to run course #6 and high hopes to run it clean. He stopped by and gave me the aftermath story. “We were on course #6 and were trying to climb a ridiculous hill sideways. It was a big climb and my shocks weren’t dialed in yet.” They wound up rolling over and weren’t able to flip it back over onto it’s wheels. They took 40 for not finishing, but were able to get a few progress points for the effort. They finished with 38 points. The rest of the courses we did really well. “We could have saved maybe one backup out there and maxed out our scores to the best they could be.” They finished the day with 22 points and appear to be in 22nd place for the first day. That is how tight it is out here today where you can’t make any mistakes.
Update
10:30 PM PST
It is now 10:30 and it appears we have reached the end of our day. Well… almost anyway. Shannon Campbell appears to be still out on #6 which has eaten more rigs than any other course out here this weekend. He is walking it smooth so far though.
As we wait for him to finish it up, lets post up some scores. Take a look as you see Brian and Joachim once again leading the modified side of things. Craig Stumph follows him closely behind though one score appears to be missing. In third we have Dave Schneider rounding it out.
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| Brian and Joachim lead out day 1 |
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On the SuperMod side, Adam Lunn and Joel Randall shoot it out in first with Jason Bunch, Randy Torbett and Don Robbins wrestling close behind. They are all nearly tied with only a difference of 2 points amongst them all. Looking at the trend, it would appear that the second half of the courses are easier since the majority of top scorers are over there. Tomorrow should be interesting to see how everything finishes out.
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| Team #333 edge out the field in this close competition |
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And so, Shannon Campbell finishes the course with a dwindled down crowd cheering him on. It was a fast and clean run for him which puts one of the toughest courses behind him now. His day is finished and so is ours for now as we wrap it up here on the course. We will head back to the hotel and upload all the pics from today’s event.
