Preview Contingency Friday Saturday

Triple Digits in Dixie as hot meets hot!

Superior Axle Late Evening Update

St. George, Utah (June 15, 2005) The Outback Steakhouse was the scene of the flying Chicken Bone! It seems with the magical powers of one King Pirate, Chicken Bones were mysteriously flying in a westerly direction, as the big beef was being served to our table of famished media geeks and rockcrawlers. Smiling and walking by our table like he had a big Chicken Bone stuffed in his mouth...the way too serious waiter stared at the one King Pirate and turned to our table asking, "Is this a UROC event?" The table busted up laughing and replied, "No, it's a WE Rock event."

Speaking of W.E. Rock...Lil' Rich is obviously in the house of St. George and his ongoing practical jokes are in progress. All we can say is, "Got Summer?"

Superior Axle Evening Update

St. George, Utah (June 15, 2005) UROC's contingency and technical inspection continued to be slow all afternoon as UROC reported that 22 teams had completed tech by 3:30 p.m. The Southern Utah sunshine baked the teams sitting at the Dixie Convention Center as temperatures hovered in the low 100's according to readings in the parking lot. Johnny G rolled into the event with his Karnivore crew who spent the afternoon water skiing at Quail Lake, about a fifteen minute drive from downtown St. George. Johnny G was sporting the latest fashion trend wear from Durango, Colorado, as he wore bright red sandals to match his Karnivore Rock Racing apparel.

Spectactors were scarce at contingency and technical inspection all day long.

The driver's meeting went off just after 7:00 p.m. local time as UROC CEO - Ranch Pratt, discussed some changes regarding gate cones. So this is what was discussed. In past UROC events, if a competitor struck a gate cone on an approach run, the competitor received a ten point penalty for striking the cone. UROC judges then would reset the cone if that same gate was used later in the obstacle. If the competitor then struck that same cone while returning through the same gate, but in a different direction, and while the gate was now a "new gate," the competitor received an additional ten point penalty.

UROC has decided that once you strike a cone, it is considered a "landmine" and competitors will receive only one ten point penalty regardless if they struck the cone on either direction that the gate may have been utilized by UROC Course Designers.

Apparently, this issue was no problem for most teams as no one questioned why the rules were being changed halfway through the season. A few drivers discussed the issue after the meeting amongst a small group, but rendered a decision that it will obviously affect everyone in the same manner.

UROC Officials also reiterated a tremendous concern for fire prevention at the event site. UROC was not allowed to plow surrounding fields, therefore they cautioned all teams to use extreme caution during welding, refueling and vehicle repair.

We had a chance to catch up with Red Bull Spotter (Becca Webster) King Kong Lil' Rich Klein who provided us with the Pirate insight to this weekend's Modified Stock strategy.

Pirate: So, you guys are tied with four other teams in third place of the Modified Stock division. You had a great UROC Phoenix event so what's your strategy coming into St. George?

Lil Rich: We really met our goals at the Phoenix event. Our plan was simply to go into Phoenix with one goal and that was to beat Dean Bulloch one way or another. Dean had a bad weekend and we captalized on his performance and worked extremely hard to be consistent through the event. Our finish in the top five was awesome and by accomplishing that we have put ourselves in a good spot here at the midway point of the season.

Pirate: You obviously have extensive experience in course design and have a keen ability to read so many different lines. Tell us how you think this is such an advantage.

Lil Rich: I do this nearly every single day. I've just returned from Jellico, Tennessee where we hosted an event and the advantage is obvious. Lucky for me I have the ability to decipher the course pretty easily. That doesn't mean we always get it right, but there is a slight advantage to being a course designer.

Pirate: Having watched you and Becca closely in the past two UROC events and observing your communication skills it seems she's really at ease behind the wheel. What do you attribute this to?

Lil Rich: We just have a knack for excellent communications. I'm providing her with constant information about where, what and how the entire time we are competing. We discuss our strategy before we ever get on the rocks and we stick to our game plan. Bottomline is that we really trust each other and we're just starting to make this happen.

Pirate: What's you game plan here in St. George?

Lil Rich: Consistency is what we are striving for and we're hoping to score a top three spot to put us in position for an end of year run at the point's championship. The only thing that matters to us as a team, is winning that season championship. And we have to perform solid at each event to even have a chance at victory. The competition in our class is incredible and we love it.

Pirate: So tell us how your Summer is?

Lil Rich: Very Hot!

The event begins on Friday morning at 11:00 a.m. at the event site which we only visited for a short time this afternoon.

Superior Axle Mid-Afternoon Update

St. George, Utah (June 15, 2005) With temperatures hovering in the triple digits, RP Films Kingpin "The Rat" and his sidekick "Johnny Ringo" are nearly melting here at the Dixie Convention Center parking lot. The Rat commented, "Dude, there's still snow in my yard in Tahoe. This place is hot like hell. And they're not letting us camp at the event site so we are holed up at Uncle Jacko's RV Park in downtown St. George.

UROC invited Dean Bulloch and Brad Lovell to a press conference featuring local St. George newspaper, magazine and television. Both Bulloch and Lovell provided Southern Utah media geeks to their first rides in a professional rockcrawler. At the same time they had a chance to check out the course. Bulloch commented, "There is lots of dried grass in the area making for a huge fire danger, but overall the courses seem to be pretty cool. There are no major climbs and the rocks are pretty much like the Devil Rocks on the other side of Interstate 15. It should be a great comp location."

Tracy Jordan's dog - Rocky, was seen skippig around at break neck speed as he tried to escape the melting asphalt. The temperatures here are about as hot as Jordan expects to be on the rocks of St. George. The Steel Horse Cowboy has arrived with his Campbell Ent. built rock buggy looking totally different. As the story goes...Jordan and Zeller got together and re-engineered Tracy's rock rig with the help of Geiser Bros. and some other boys of the Phoenix area. Gone is the rear steer! Holy Smokes.The front end has been re-worked and Jordan/Zeller say the steering will turn further. Jordan said he sliced a pie out of the arm and bent it in to descrease the Aker-man. Basically allowing the bolt of the drag link to be centered up with the ball joint...Yeh, that's the ticket. This allows the car to turn better. Jordan also moved the links back to the original position that Campbell Enterprises had set the car up with...hopefully, to eliminate any further breakage. Bruce Zeller pointed out that the car no longer had rear steer!

But another question we didn't get from Mad Max Rock Racing was who was spotting for Tracy Jordan. Is it going to be Brian - the spotter at the first two events who was injured at Phoenix? Or is Tracy's Hot Spot - Heather coming back for more duty? And then only moments ago guess who arrived to contingency? Big Bad Jerry Watson rolled up all the way from Phoenix...hmmm, is he here to watch or tug on the rope.

Walker Evans is here back in St. George with his Campbell Ent. rock rig and it is absent of rear steer. The story goes as this. After the Phoenix event, the boss at Walker Evans Racing - Phyllis, asked Nick Campbell, "NIck, what's it going to take to make this happen?" Nick responded saying, "We gotta get rid of that rear steer."

Here we are in St. George and its gone! Walker is primed with a new DynaTrac 60 axle, which was the original axle in the car in the first place. Combined with his new 40" Goodyear sticky compound tire and a huge competitive spirit, watch for Walker to be knocking on the door for a win this weekend.

TrailReady President - Larry Trim's brand new car has arrived to contingency with Driver - Scott Gadsden after just finishing the build up of the vehicle. They have much to do as they have just unloaded the car from the trailer. They are toting a full sponsorship from Mickey Thompson Performance Tires and of course, TrailReady.

Mike Shaffer and Lance "The King Pirate" Clifford arrived mid-afternoon with Dodge Cummins Diesels raging after a bullet trip from Pirate Headquarters in the mountains of California. Shaffer is sporting a rig featuring the bad-azz all black bad boy design with the Toooooooyyyyyyyyooooooooo Tires. Lance yelled as he drove away at 75 miles an hour - "Git R Done." Rumor has it Lance is co-driving with Robby Gordan at the Baja 1000 in November. Now that's some cool stuff.

Pirate "Bender" arrived here with some Au Natural on his shoulder. She was blond, blue and wearing a little pink tank top...Ouch!!!!!!!!

Rage 4th is in the house as Big Bad Aaron arrived with the Beard Seats trailer and rock rig. Aaron-eez said he fled the Bay Area to escape any threat of a Tsunami in the area. Aaron-eez immediated telephone his Nevada real estate agent searching for beach front property outside of Pahrump. Another rumor is that the Mastercraft Seats crew - Carnage Crew Racing are here and looking for Rage 4th for a game of tiddlywinks. Mastercraft's Aaron Dusenbery and Jason Hensel said, "Let's get it on."