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[Tech Inspection] [Day 1 Action] [Day 2 Action] [Day 3 Action]

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Update 7:30 AM PST

Good morning everyone. The competition doesn't start until 10:00 AM PST. We will be heading out to the course shortly to see how things are winding up. The weather is looking good for now with clear skies and a light breeze. Out here that can change quickly, but so far it looks great.

We will see you in a few hours. If you haven't seen yesterday's tech inspection, check it out now.

Update 10:31 AM PST

We are live!! We are sitting here at the RockLogic booth, a custom fab shop right here in Salt Lake City, pumping out live action from the event. Thanks to Rock Logic and RP Films, we are able to broadcast straight from the courses.

Right now I am watching Jon Nelson take on course #7 which is a nice easy climb with a very steep off camber turn around. A rear steer low CG buggy would work best here, but Jon is working it very well taking a few backs to compensate for the no rear steer. As he strattled around the course, even the low CG of Scrapper still had him lifting a rear tire in the air while side hilling the top ledge.

Meanwhile, #302, Hullfish and Edison are hopping up and around on course# 8. It starts with a side hill test going between several cones then has you make an immediate shot up hte hill to what looks to be a double or triple wammy session. On their way up the hill, they took out a cone which added to the other cones they hit. Unfortunately they pointed out on their first course of the day.

So far the courses look awesome. Real good traction and smooth looking lines so far are making for a good start to the day. We will have pictures shortly and more driver action.

Update 11:07 AM PST

Team #24, Stapelton and Slaughter just dropped by the tent after their unfortunate roll on course #4. The course is a nasty one. With 3 severe side hills, the challenge is really high. They felt the challenge when passing the first side hill and getting flipped over on the second. Landing on their side, they tried to drive out, but wound up breaking a driver's side rear axle in the process. While the truck is still on course, they are already tapping resources to try and find a replacement before the next course.

Kelly Clifford in the #55 rig just made a phenominal run up course#5 just now. The run has a steep initial climb that is bumpy as can be. For those trying to get a launch up the hill and traction to the ground, the bumps keep launching the tires in the air preventing their progress. Kelly took a hard run at it and started to get sideways. Not a place you want to be at the beginning of the event. She backed down though and took another shot at it and LAUNCHED over with no problems.

Kelly Clifford on course having a good time

Brad Lovell in the #232 rig was on course#1 as his first run of the day. Course #1 has the precarious uphill with steep pockets to keep you from making it. Since the course is so hard, there is a painted line midway up that marks as a zero point. If the rear tires get beyond that point, the driver pulls zero points in instead of the brutal 40. Brad was making the challenge trying to see if he could be the first of the day to make the run. A few times he launched up and carried his tires high, but was able to recover by slamming it into reverse to save it. One attempt to many though and he wound up flipping over hard finishing with a disappointing start of the day.

Update 11:44 AM PST

Carlton and Grande in the green #106 buggy were on course #7 which is a nasty little pile of cement. This course has the drivers go up, cross a canyon, turn around and come back through the dip at the end. While on the course, they were doing ok looking for the final gates. As they approached the end they wound up flipping over. Unfortunately they wound up hitting to many cones and wound up signing to a 40 point score. For those people that thought these courses wouldn’t be a challenge or tough,

Getting twisted hard on course #7

Matt Peterson was on course #5 and was making great progress. He mashed up the first hill with ease. While at the top he was maneuvering for his descent down the backside. While backing up some to get a better line, the truck slipped and wound up rolling 2 and half times down into the bowl at the bottom of the hill. They tried to get it over, but there was just no way possible for that to happen. They had to resort to a tow truck. A 40 early on in the event might not be that hard to make up with so many top drivers getting hit with the 40s.

Matt Peterson upside down in the bowl

Update 12:05 PM PST

Mitch Guthrie in the #28 moon buggy is out for the cup this weekend. He is driving clean and hard. On course #7, he made quick work and drove to an awesome score of 11 points. The courses are high quality and very challenging this weekend. We are seeing a full spectrum of scores on the courses. It is going to be the drivers that think their way through this weekend that will have the best chance at taking the event.

Shannon Campbell in the #35 rig was on course #5 a few minutes ago and wasn’t having the same luck as Mitch. As stated earlier, #5 has that very steep climb in the beginning that knocks you off sideways or over backwards if you are too aggressive. Shannon lit up the ponies in his LS1 and wound up pitching it sideways. It didn’t appear to be bad at first and Shannon didn’t react to it. Suddenly though, the rig started to roll anyway. Once Shannon realized this, he popped it into reverse to try and recover, but by this point it was already too late. He flipped over completely denying him a finish on the course.

We are loving it here this weekend. The action is so intense and this is the most spectator friendly set of courses we have ever seen. Being able to view from both sides of the piles with all the vendors just outside that is making for an awesome display.

Update 12:10 PST

This just in, Becca Webster just took #1. She was the first to make it over the top of the course and now she is doing the victory dance on her rig. Congrats to Becca for being the first to take the wall that many thought wasn't possible. Just shows that with every challenge, there is a will to beat it and Becca showed that early today.

Update 12:42 PM PST

Well, leave it up to the desert gods to make the weather go from great to disappointing. The winds have picked up significantly since this morning. We do expect these sort of things to really change it up, but it was going so nice for so long. Even the clouds have started to roll in over head bringing down the temperatures enough to want to put on a light jacket. It definitely isn’t as bad as the weather could be and it is still nice out here. I know we are enjoying the action and listening to live music on the side. This is one awesome event thus far. Only a few quirks have happened that some people were irritated with, but overall, the event has been a great success.

We are trying to pull up scores from the UROC coverage for you so that you can watch the scores roll in easier. We should have that for you in a minute. We are also uploading some awesome action shots as we speak.

Update 12:54 PM PST

The scores are here. We have dumped them into our own page and are viewable live as they get updated. No more waiting. Click here or at the top of the page for live score updates at any time.
Live Score Updates

Update 1:30 PM PST

As you know, Larry McRae is out here driving the #80 buggy, Tiny. Tiny is the defending Super Crawl rig out here this weekend and this looks to be the last event for it under the ownership of the Bundrandt team. Our sources have cracked down that Lynne Nelson has dropped the cash to purchase back Tiny for next years use. They plan to completely rebuild Tiny

Larry McRae cruising around in Tiny trying to retain the title

Don Robbins is doing well out here this weekend in the #100 blue tube buggy. We caught up with him after his course where he pulled it off fairly clean. Hi only downfall was a single cone that hurt his overall score. Here is what he had to say, “Everything is going pretty good. I gave up some points on the top and I got a 14. It’s kind of a scary obstacle but it’s a good obstacle. Just one mistake down there in the crack along with rear steer penalty, a stop, and a backup. The cone really got me the points though.”

Don Robbins gets a good run in at Super Crawl

To give you an idea on how good the courses are here this weekend, we found Dustin Webster talking about his courses. He said he will be adding air to his tires because he has too much traction. A bonus to that is he can gain more ground clearance. Even though that will raise his CG a little bit, it will give him more response in his tires on turns and sidehills. The tires won’t be able to fold over so easy disguising the feedback from the course or vehicle.

Dustin plans to air up his tires some due to too much traction

Update 1:35 PM PST

We just added some photos to the Gallery. Check them out by going here:
Photo Gallery photos for day 1 action

Update 2:17 PM PST

As you remember, Becca earlier was the first to top over course#1 successfully. She has since been rocking the rest of the courses and having a blast. We were able to catch up to her to get her words on how that course went. She was trying a couple times to get up but nothing. She would take a really long run at it. She couldn’t back up enough to get the speed. The crowd was really getting her going though. She took one shot at it where she got sideways and came down almost on top of the media. This didn’t stop her though as she lined right back up thanks to the cheer of the crowd. She jumped back on the gas and screamed over the top to finish. She tried to drive up the back side again for some more bonus points, but couldn’t make it. She wanted to thank the crowd and said, “If you guys didn’t cheer, I wouldn’t be able to do it.”

Becca cheering to a victory over course #1

Team Torbett in the #215 tractor axled rig was just on course #8 trying to deal with all the cones out there. They made awesome progress hitting a few cones in the process. At the end it got a little hectic as they made a final mad dash for the finish line. With the rear steer cranked and a hill climb ahead of them, they punched the throttle and bumped over the last hill for an exciting sideways finish. Catching up with Nixon the spotter, he had this to say, “Overall the day is going pretty good. Basically the truck is working really well for us today. It was a crazy ending there. We only had 20 seconds left to get out of the course and we got it out. Even though we got a cone at the end, it’s not a 40. ”

This thing sure can turn on a dime while sideways

Tracy is making some crazy saves over here on course #8. A few attempts at the wall pitched him sideways to the point of a rollover, but Tracy was able to save the rig. On one attempt up, the driver’s side front tire pinched and spit water all over the course while driving over a cone. Well, it appears that they won’t finish this course. They appear to have pointed out on the course hurting their chances for a Super Crawl win. They will have to pull it together on the rest of their courses to stay in contention this weekend.

Update: Since this is a tie beaker course, we caught up with Tracy to get the real results. He wound up getting 32 points on the course. 2 cones and a back up pulled his score down along with a water leak penalty of 10 points. Ultimately though, they didn't 40 the course and are now back in the pits trying to fix the rig before the next course. Tracy said he is questionable if they will make the next course as they are trying to get their tire fixed.

Tracy gets sideways trying to climb the #8 wall

Update 3:44 PM PST

Dustin Webster is all smiles right now. We just watched him champ up course#8 unlike many other drivers out there. He slowly drove the off camber cone section to squeek his way to the hill climb. Once at the double wammy climb, he motored up it making full use of his rear steer. The rest of the course is technical driving to get around disruptively placed cones. Dustin was able to mix it up some and get around the cones with little time left to spare finishing the course in time. A great finish on course that has been eating up people all day today. Talking with Dustin, he said, “This is the future of this sport. UROC has taken us to a new level and they have done an awesome job here.” Dustin truly supports the man made courses and loves the action out here. The challenges are the same as the real stuff and can have some nail biting ends. On one course they grabbed 15 points, but only with 4 seconds left on the clock. Only those 4 seconds separated them from 25 points.

Mike Bailey in the #262 Modified class rig is also pumping it up for the crowd. Mike hails from Cedar City so he knows about what it takes to get a rig to work on the rocks. But how about cement? Well this father and son team are making the best of it and doing an awesome job. We pulled a few words down before they tackled course #1. When asked what he thought of these courses, he said, “We are pumped for this and love the man made courses out here.” So as you can are hearing from the words of the competitors, the courses are definite plus in their man made state.

Mike trying to make the climb on #1

Rig #110 driven and spotted by Purcell and Reeves did a great job on course #7. A clean run through the course got them an 11 point total. After the run we asked them what their thoughts were for the weekend and how well they are doing, they said, “Things are going really good. I am just really excited to be out here with the top guys in the world. It’s about all you can ask for. This is the first man made course in the world and I will tell you what, I am impressed. You can put this in a stadium any where in the world year round.”

The twisted crack makes for an exciting moment

Chris Durham getting really bound on the man made

Update 4:01 PM PST

Bob Standage is making a name for himself with the fans. With the crowd cheering, Bob was on his way to finishing course #3. He made it to the top of the hill and had 30 seconds left to get to the final gate to finish course, but he wound up rolling in the wedge where he couldn’t get out. With that, he was forced to pocket the 40 points instead of the 13 that he might of received. Bob took 3 backs and 1 gate before he rolled into the crack.

Bob Standage attacking the first wall on course #3

We were able to sneak in a little conversation with Mitch Guthrie about this weekend. We asked him what he thought of before the event and the man made courses. Mitch was a skeptic over the man made courses and what they would be like to drive on. After being out here today, Mitch was thoroughly impressed by what UROC has done and is now an advocate for these events. He is looking forward to more events like this and why not. This course design is now unlimited. The potential for course designs is nearly unlimited now. We are all really excited for this. Mitch did wish he had rear steer for some of this stuff though. The courses are really tight and favor a tight turning rig. Going rear steer next year Mitch?

Update 4:40 PM PST

The day is winding down now and only a few courses are going still. The all around consensus so far has been a thumbs up for what UROC pulled off today. This is a huge advance to our sport for making it more people friendly and competitor safe. There are more things to fix of course to make things run smoother such as the tech in, the media badge generation, and a few other course things, but ultimately people are impressed.

That even includes legendary rock racer, Chris Durham who drives the #36 portaled blue buggy. Not a man of too many words, our cracked reporter was able to get some insight to what he thinks of this weekend. Chris said, “The man made courses are great. They did a good job. Traction is going through a transition though, but it is good. The car is set up good for this with the rear steer. We just have to have fun out here and we are definitely having fun. We have run 2 courses with 40s now. We had a tire puncture on one because of a broken anti-rock sway bar. On the other one we broke a rear CV. Thanks to Charlie Melchner, he gave us his spares, so that we could fix it. We still have a chance at the top 15. The “Wall of Death”, course #1, is our first course on Sunday, so you better be there with your cameras ready. We have some strategy to get up and over the top. It’s called SPEEEEEED” Knowing Chris, that will be the show to see.

Jason Bunch is driving his new #29 moon buggy and having a hell of a time out here. Taking 40s on two courses has really pushed him far back in the points race. He said the courses are really hard but he is smiling through it all. He hopes that UROC makes money on this event so that they are successful and can continue to bring on more of these events in the future.

Jason Bunch takes the yellow and blue rig for a run on the Man Made Courses

Update 5:06 PM PST

The #302 rig piloted by Hullfish and Edison was out on course #7 when we tracked them down. They said, “We started off pretty rough on #8 in the morning. We timed out, but after that we finished the rest. We are not at the top, but we are definitely enjoying ourselves. The man made courses surprised us. They are much better than we expected.” They wound up getting 22 points on this course.

Dean Bulloch in the #9 rig has also been doing well here today. He tried a new line on course #4 which no one had tried to this point and he made it. Dean was really excited for his run on that course. He has course #1 next, so he has a good horsepower challenge to look forward to.

Dean taking on course #4

Also, we want to give another thank to the guys at RockLogic4x4 for use of their tent in front of course #8. Their position gives us a great view of the action on the courses as they happen.

Update 10:21 PM PST

Todays photos have been added to the gallery. Check them out now for some of the sweetest shots on the MMCs (man made courses). Get to the gallery now by clicking here:
Day 1 Gallery Photos