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[Tech Inspection] [Day 1 Action] [Day 2 Action]

Day1 Scores Score Sheet #1 Score Sheet #2
Day 2 Scores: Score Sheet #1 Score Sheet #2
Final Standings

Update 9:00 PM PST

Can you believe it? We are here again at the UROC crawling competition series. It's a new year with a new season of drivers, spotters, courses, and what all us gear heads like, vehicles. If you think for one second that all drivers are just bringing out their same old rigs of yesteryear, then you are going to be surprised. We are set to see a whole new slew of vehicles this year that will push the bounds of the wheeling mind and that of the UROC building rules. We left last year with vehicles that were all over the map in construction. There were vehicles ranging from modified trail rigs to down right wacky custom tube low riders. So what is the trend for this year?

We arrived in Salt Lake City airport last night at about 11PM. With our mini van mobile command unit, we were back in the seat again ready to report the premiere pro UROC series. Lucie and I shoved off to our hotel in anticipation for the next morning where would awake to warm weather and tingles of anticipation to see what would be waiting for us to see at the Jordan’s Landing shopping center. Unfortunately, we missed the first day of Tech inspection, but there were plenty more rigs to be tech’d on Thursday.

We first arrived on the scene at 10AM to find only a handful of people and trailers hanging out. Our first vision was upon that Team Carnage Crew rig, #66, of Aaron Dusenbury and Jason Hensel with their new Lil’ Bastard. Beyond a complete makeover of the 2004 rig, they have gone above and beyond by fabricating their new MasterCraft sponsored rear engined buggy. With a twinkling of red painted sparkles in the paint, the machine glistened in its new fresh look. Powered by a not so typical Subaru power plant, this rig comes alive with its highly polished 300 horses generated thanks to many tweaks and a single turbo spinning up the air. A Powerglide tranny sits behind the motor and hides inside an unconventional 3000 stall TCI drag torque convertor. They claim it hooks up surprisingly well. One nice safety aspect we spotted was a net on the drivers side to keep Aaron’s arms inside the rig in case of a roll. It also doubles its effect to keep the rocks out. Taking a good blow to his shoulder last year from a rollover, this lightweight and barely obstructive net should help him out. They did fail tech however for no cover over the transfer case. A quick sheet of aluminum and some duct tape quickly put them back in the game. They then marked up the hacked together fix with a “UROC Approved” marking.

The newest bastard of the family, Lil Bastard is ready for the rocks

UROC events wouldn’t be the same without live announcing. None other than Big Sarge, “The Voice of Rock Crawling”, is back on the scene to bellow out his tone of gab to promote the events actions. Sarge is well known amongst the drivers as someone who gets right in there and asks the questions without pause. If you don’t see him out on the course chatting it up with drivers and spotters, then you can probably catch him on the top of the UROC trailer pacing back and forth perched high up getting a near bird’s eye view of the action. You can see and hear The Voice at all the Pro UROC events this season.

Big Sarge, the Voice of Rock Crawling, is flexing his Microphone muscles for the ladies

Brad Lovell bumped into us as we were baking in the warm sun of the day. He and brother Roger Lovell of the #232 rig were back with their Ford Ranger bodied rig. With a few tweaks from last season, they are back for more action and a desire to taste more of that victorious trophy. With four 1st place wins in the Extreme season and a 2nd place in the SuperCrawl III event, they are top dogs on the rock racing scene. Running their 37” BFG Krawlers and Alloy USA axle shafts and gears, they are not afraid of breaking anything when their new C4 tranny hooks up the power the motor puts out. Plagued by sluggish launches off the line with their old C6 tranny, their new C4 is shorter and has less mass to turn which gives them a little more on course. It also helped by allowing the motor to be lowered 2 inches which cascaded its effect onto the hood where it could be lowered 3 to 4 inches giving them a remarkably better visible scope. It is amazing how one thing can make so many things better all at the same time.

Brad and Roger Lovell back to dominate the Modified class

Who doesn’t know of Joel Randall at this point. Years on the rock crawling scene and he has always proved that he is a player in the world of high dollar rigs and tough competition. His rig stands out with his traditional paint job flowing from the Dodge Ram grille in white back through a checkered fade to his signature turquoise-ish paint. Joel seems to be a solo crawler out there running his BFG Wrangler MT/Rs. However, he has a unique cut to them that I haven’t seen anyone else try. He has put a fade in his tires on the lugs going from the front of the lug to the back in a 45 degree cut. So instead of the traditional scoop of the tire with a sharp leading edge, he is running it the reverse direction which may ultimately give him more surface area to grab the concrete course. Since this course is more concrete than ledges to grab onto, this interesting idea might just be his ticket to better motion. We will see tomorrow won’t we.

Tiny and Scrapper are back…. but wait, where are Jon Nelson and Jon Bundrant? These innovative rigs that have really pushed the buggy world to where it is today are now in the hands of new drivers. Tiny is now owned by famed Jason Scherer where Scrapper has joined the family of Bruce Zeller’s rigs. Bruce is also owner of the rig that Tracy Jordan is running this season. You will be surprised (or not if you have been following other series) that Tracy is now throttling around a rear engined moon buggy. A shocking reality to Tracy’s rig is that Bruce tells me his new buggy is pushing only 57 horses at the wheels. Sounds like a huge drop from what he was used to with the Matrix. However, one thing not left behind is the rear steer. That’s right, Tracy is still loyal to his rear steer fans and sporting incredible maneuverability while gaining a lower CG’d buggy. Lets see if he can repeat his victory from last year in his new ride. Bruce on the other hand is also sporting the infamous Scrapper, now labeled with the #181 and MAD graphics tag, and is ready to prove that it will take the trophy at the end of the day. With the new wheels and the muscle from his spotter, George “the Manimal” Poston, he is ready for the pack. To keep George in training, Bruce feeds him raw meat 10 days before the event to keep him wild and ready to pull like the Manimal that he is.

Is that the MAD paint job on Tiny? Yup, Bruce's signature paint scheme comes with ownership

A wonderful thing to see was Pete Mazonni and Nick Socha back after last years nearly fatal accident at this very site. When Nick was rolled upon, the rock crawling world stood still as the fate of Nick’s injuries were pondered. Several hours of surgery and months of rehab have brought Nick and Pete back together as a team to conquer what most would fear to ever look at again. These strong duos are back and are ready for action. Although Nick’s hand is still at roughly 50%, Nick is a fighter and is going to be spotting for Pete. Pete and Nick spoke long and hard about this sort of decision and they feel comfortable pursuing and beating down any negative energy in search of a victorious and fun run at the Salt Lake City man made courses. With that type of ambition and drive, the field of competitors have more to worry about than in the past. This team was already the hot ticket for the 2004 season. With the drive, they are going to be even harder to beat. Team #415 are back in the same rig this year with only minor safety changes. A relocated routing of the down tubes from the B-pillar give the rig a much strong stance in the event of a rollover. The only thing that couldn’t be put on this rig at this time was a much desired rear steer system. Lacking the funds to set it up, they are in the hunt for a fair priced set of C’s and knuckles along with all the hydraulics to make it all happen. So if you are looking for a team to sponsor, here is your chance to help out a proven winning team.

Jeff Downs of the #111 is here to represent SpiderTrax. Only driving for 2 years, he has shown that he can hang with the rest of the field. This new rig is fresh off the fabrication floor. With barely enough time to let the welds cool, the SpiderTrax team buttoned up the rig to get it here today for tech inspection. This years powerplant is a preferred 2.2 liter Ecotech petrol burner as found in Saturn Ions, Views, and other factory vehicles. The rear mounted motor pours its spin through a Powerglide tranny down to 60 axles with a 45 degree turn up front and nearly 35 degrees in the rear which is limited by suspension components. These high steer custom knuckles give an edge in maneuverability for this team.

I see Linda Adam’s rig but she isn’t driving it at this event. This rig was brought to tech for Craig Stumph in case he couldn’t finish his rig in time for the event. We didn’t stick around long enough to see if he showed, but the Maxxis team really sticks together to make sure they can stay in the game.

Ken Blume wasn’t on site to give him a ribbing, but his #192 rig spotted by Chris Carlson was there for tech. His rig has taken on a new look and some more functions. First thing you will see is that the P/T Cruiser grille is gone. In its place is a faux Jeep grille that blends into the standard yellow single seater buggy design. The rear hot rod look is gone also and in its place are more traditional buggy lines. Directly under that is a new rear steer C303 Volvo axle and mini ATV winch which he wasn’t running last year. The C303 was a non-steer version last year, but the trend and need for shorter turning circles has put the new steering version underneath. With the winch in place, they changed the suspension geometry slightly which allows them more variability in ride height. The 3.8 liter Buick motor is back again this year as well with 39” Krawlers giving him traction. 39” tires and portals, now that’s clearance.

Hey look its Jeff Mello back again but this time he is driving R.J. Brown’s rig. This rig was out only one other time before this and it wasn’t under Jeff’s control. When asked how much seat time he had on the rig he replied, “About 600 yards. I can pace it out for you want…” Jeff was working on the rig when we caught up to him and he was mid way swapping in a new set of 39” Krawlers. It seems to be the tire of choice for this field of competitors. Other than BFG, Power Tank and Beard Seats are other big sponsors for him to be here this weekend. Like many of the rigs out there, this one couldn’t go on without a unique name, so in steps R.J. with his suggestion of “Wife Beater”. That works perfectly for this rig as it was sporting an ad free white painted skin which looked like it was a wife beater t-shirt. Let’s see if Mello can take his Trailer park ride from the Trailer to the Trophy this weekend.

R.J. Brown and Jeff Mello changing out tires on the "Wife Beater" rig

Mike Shaffer is working on his new competition chassis, but unfortunately, perfection doesn’t come at an easy price. Time is expensive and he was not able to finish it in time for this event. In steps Kelly to lend Mike her rig for this weekend. The #55 rig was stripped of one of its fives and converted into the tradition #5 Diablo that Mike drives. Only a little different than his own rig, he should have no problem melting into the seat and taking it to the limits like he always does. A new sponsor for Mike this year is Toyo tires. Bolted up were some 37” Toyos that are slightly smaller than what he normally ran last year. Will the 37s be enough to get over the obstacles? He will be one that can prove it if anyone can.

S&N fab is one of the premiere chassis builders out there. Dave (aka DSI) is back this year with his newly fabbed Modified class rig. With paint still drying, Dave pulled his rig off the trailer and it was clean. The fabrication really matches the design of and function of his Super Mod rig he drove last year, but fitting within the UROC rules for this class. Dave is sponsored this year by S&N Fab, located in Arlington, WA, TeraFlex, PRP seats, Randy’s ring and pinion, and more. The nice part about the PRP seats is that they saw what happened to Dave at last years SuperCrawl which hurt his back severely when he rolled over. They then tracked Dave down and hooked him up with cushioned seats that will help minimize the blow to his joints.

The new DSI rig created by S&N Fab

Curt Hildebrand and Jeremy Thompson in the #26 buggy probably have the most unique rig out here today. This #26 rig is interesting with its single sided suspended design. The rear has a nearly traditional 4 link suspension, but it hits the chassis at the exact center of the vehicle. The front is where we take a turn for the different. Looking for a more race like control in the rig, he has mounted his front axle solidly to the front of the chassis. So there is literally no suspension on the front of the rig. The idea is interesting and his hopes for more crisp precise feel are something we will witness this weekend. So far, he is very pleased with the design. It has its quirks that he has to get used to, like when his front axle goes nearly sideways, so does he. One would thing also that with no front suspension, it would hop like mad; however, it doesn’t hop as much you would think it would. Unique for sure and this is what makes this sport so great right now. The best rock crawler design is still unknown which allows us to see some wild guesses at what it could be. I can’t wait to see this thing meet the rocks….. errr…. Cement.

Curts new rigid mounted front axle buggy is the most unique at this event this weekend.

I have not seen Troy Muse’s and Mike Gathman’s rig, #56, since CalROC’s Boulevard event. Since then, he has taken this machine to new levels mechanically and visually. A die hard Toyota fan, this machine is still powered by the never failing 22RE that so many drivers associate with. Coming off from a photo shoot called, “Materpiece n Metal”, soon to be seen in Dirt Sports magazine, this rig is freshly painted and super clean from top to bottom. The reason for the title is that yes, this rig still sports true Toyota body panels that are metal instead of fiberglass. The Toyota Tacoma body is painted in a slick metallic dark forest green that makes the lines of the body look slick. Other improvements to this rig have been a donning of the Toyota axles and mounting of beefy 60s front and rear. Can you say bye bye to silly axle breaks? They did and have created a sweet strong and capable rig in the process. Sporting small 37s, Troy had this to say, “Little tires. Little motor. We’re gonna GET IT.”. Knowing Troy’s driving style, you know he isn’t lying.

So lets see how these guys do tomorrow. The action should be amazing and with cold weather, rain and/or snow predicted, it should be interesting at the very least. See you tomorrow.