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UROC St George 2004 - Day 1

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2004 UROC Extreme Rock Crawling National West Combined - St. George, UT
Brought to you by Drivetrain Direct & Superior Axle & Gear

Story by Sam Silveira
Photos by Chris Ondercin & Sam Silveira

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

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Update 05 Mar 2004 10:40 PM PST

Well, as you could probably tell, the live coverage came to an obscene halt midway through the competition. It becomes very hard to update the coverage when your Motosat conks out. We tried to reboot the system, but with no luck. However, there wasn't too much that was missed at that point.

To summarize the day, the courses looked nasty from the start. As the day progressed, peoples visions of these courses turned into reality as course after course became like a police crime scene shooting with dead vehicles on their backs with wheels kicked up in the air. It was a shock, to me anyway, to see such overly difficult courses this early in the season if at all. The course designers attempted to capture the best of two worlds. The idea was to have long courses as seen in RRCA mated to technical and almost impassable courses as commonly seen at UROC events. That was what the UROC officials stated at the end of the day when they pulled in an emergency drivers meeting. More on that in a minute. Where we left you off though, when the Motosat went down, was the point where the daylight was running out and some drivers still had only completed 2 courses. With 100+ vehicles and long technical courses, it wasn't a surprise to see the event turn out this way. I am not joking when I say this was the most difficult set of courses I had ever seen. The views on the courses were mixed however. Speaking with Bob Roggy, he liked the course obstacles, but felt there were too many cones. Many others felt that these courses were impassable by 75% or more of the vehicles that came to compete. Many times I heard, "It's too early in the season for these courses. These vehicles are all too new and the driver and spotters have had little to no practice time to possibly finish the courses." Their point was well taken, but I wondered how much seat time would be needed to change the brutal beatings these teams were taking today. I think it would make some difference, but how much? It would be neat to see this level of courses at the end of the season to test that theory.

As I looked down that list of scores where driver after driver had 40s across the board, it made me wonder day 2 would bring. Everyone knows the courses are difficult to plain nuts. what were the UROC staff going to do about the issues at hand with nobody completing their day's quota. The answer became clear when the officias pulled a drivers meeting together at the end of the day to discuss the situation. There were a lot of pissed off drivers this day and some were ready to pack up right then and there, but they all stayed for the meeting. Before the meeting could occur, drivers had to finish their courses they were on. It seemed crazy as the meeting drew near, more problems arose. One even involved Tracy Jordan gettin DQ'd from a course because his spotter was possibly obsererved in an unsafe spot. The retaliation by Tracy was sparked by confusion over the call and not understanding how the ref could have made such a call. This resulted in Tracy getting two penalties added for unsportsman-like conduct. The points were dropped after discussion and Tracy was given the option to complete his run. However, the whole lack of time made this impossible.

The final blow to the event came at the end of the day when Mike Shaffer was last man on course. He finished most of the course all the way up to the last huge waterfall. With Lance sternly on the "Get It" rope, Mike opened up the throttle spinning his water ballooned tires up the radically steep hill. A couple bad bounces and he was pitched sideways with his right front shooting high into the air. As soon as he got out of it, the truck immediately lurched sideways to the right spinning the truck upside down in the air bringing Mike to an alarming stop on the roof of his rig. The cage held up perfect and the truck suffered no severe damage. Mike on the other hand briefly remembers saying to himself, " That's not good" moments before impacting the ground. He took a good noggin knocker and has a bruise around his waist from the seatbelt. Talk about bringing the day to a dramatic close.

The officials rounded up everyone and pointed out the rules that states what to do when an event runs out of daylight. The rule was basically stating that if there was no time left in the day, they would take figure out which vehicle completed the least courses that day and they would pull the scores only from the first runs up to that point from everyone. So, today, there were people who only finished 3 courses (or so I heard when I left tonight), so they only pulled the scores from everyone's first two courses. The officials gave the option to go another route via a majority vote, but that was turned down as to stick with the original rules. This screwed some people as their first courses were more difficult than others. There wasn't a real good solution to the problem at hand, but it was a solution.

So, as a result of all that happened, UROC officials apologized to all the competitors. They learned a lot on this first day, but won't be changing the courses at this event. Instead, they will keep the same courses, but instead, they will just start earlier. 7AM earlier. Not many were happy with that decision, but they will all show up tomorrow to give it their final shot to run for the victory. With the most scores for everyone being 40, it should be a great battle tomorrow.

Some final quick pictures of the day. The first is of Skinny back on site after his visit to the hospital feeling reeeeeeeal good.

See you there tomorrow...

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Update 05 Mar 2004 2:27 PM PST

Not much activity is going on out there right now. Things are moving slow out there on the courses. However, some more pictures have been updated to the gallery. Check them out.

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Some preliminary scores show Ken Blume in first place on the Pro Nationals - Super Modified side with Tracy Jordan, Jon Bundrant, and Mike Shaffer close on his heals.

There is no distinct leader on the Pro Nationals - Modifed class since most if not all have 40s for their first courses.

Zak Szczech and We Rintelin are leading the Extreme Nationals - Super Modifed side. where the same story is told for the modified class where everyone has a 40 for their scores.

These courses are hard. They are breaking rigs. It looks like this is going to be a battle of those that can finesse. The courses aren't forgiving and are breaking rigs fast. Oh yeah.... we are only on day 1 also. Lets see who can make it through today to see tomorrow.

Word is back on Skinny and he appears to be doing well at the local hospital. They have been announcing that he just has a bruised tailbone and collar bone. That is great news to hear as we watch others attempt the same course just knowing what went on earlier. Some people even noticed that the huge rock he rolled off of is actually moving. Lets hope that doesn't come down the hill.

Speaking with Troy Muse, I asked him how he liked his rig despite getting 40s on both of his courses. "I need more seat time". Troy is a man of many words.

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Update 05 Mar 2004 12:50 PM PST

I spoke with Jason Scherer about his day: "I am impressed with all the new rigs out here. The designs are inspiational and innovative making this competition really challenging. We are having a good day. Although we have 40'd on two courses now, we are working very well together and having a great time. Nick Huber and I are enjoying ourselves and I think to get through the day, we have to keep our heads into and just hope to come out ahead."

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Speaking of keeping their heads into it, I asked him how Skinny's roll affected him. "We realize these courses are really difficult and we are out here rolling. Its part of the sport. I think there may be some improvements in safety requirements to come to help prevent these accidents in the future. Suspended seats are probably one of the next things that would help prevent such injuries. It may be a few extra pounds on the rig, but being able to walk away at the end of the day is more important."

Well, it seems like everyone out here are gettings 40s on the courses. Yes they are that hard. The climbs are steep, sandy, and covered with tricky undercut and off angle ledges.

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Update 05 Mar 2004 11:18 AM PST

Wow is the action ever hot out there! There are more rollovers than wheeling going on at this point. Kelly Clifford on her first course did a slow endo which knocked her air intake off. A few wraps of duct tape and she was back in action.

Walker Evans put down a great run on course A5 when he pulled off a zero score. He was only the second to complete that course up to that point. Following him was Jennifer Little who tried the same climb, but broke her portal gears on the left rear during a really bad hop.

Shockingly, A5 has been one of the scariest courses to watch as it is a steep long climb. Skinny was attempting a nasty climb on this course when he lost control and went over once then once again coming to rest just feet away from another major drop. When he came to a stop he was shaking and unconscious. The medical staff on site quicky came to him and extracted him by cutting his cage off and pulling him off on a stretcher. As of this time, he is on his way to the hospital. We will let you know more as we find out information.

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Update 05 Mar 2004 9:22 AM PST

The first round of pictures are back and the action is already on early in the game. Shannon Cambell, on his first run, already laid it on his side. That didn't stop him though as he and his spotter were able to right the vehicle and continue on.

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The courses look steep and tough from what I saw. I spoke with Kelly Clifford and she said, "The course I am starting on looks steep, sideways, and tough. However, I have trust in my spotter (U GET IT) to get me through it. So whatever the course, BRING IT ON!!" as she left with a grin from ear to ear.

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Update 05 Mar 2004 8:18 AM PST

We are up and running. Setup was a little difficult this morning, but we are up!!! The event has just started and we should see some images soon. Unfortunately the WebCam is still at Shaffers Off-Road, so we won't have live video feed this time around.

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

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