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| Farmington, NM - September 2000 | Short Cuts | ||||
| by: Bart Jacobs, edited by: Randy Burleson |
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A Competitor's View
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| Bart airs out his XJ on Course A Stage 1. Kammy Caruss Burleson |
The general consensus from the competitors was that the course for Farmington's finals was the toughest course of the year. It had the usual steep 'point and shoot' climbs for which Farmington is known, but it also included long, meandering sections with extremely tight turns, favoring the rear wheel steer rigs. In balance, the course also had steep, off-camber decents that required either a good set up (again the rear wheel steer), or a good counterweight (brave spotter) and/or the ability to drive on two or three tires while pushing the laws of physics. ARCA combined these extremes with tight, technical turns on steep ascents, with loose dirt and rocks thrown in, just to make it more interesting.
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| With a short time limit, the long, twisting Stage 1 of Course A induced several 'stoppies' (inverse wheelies). Kammy Caruss Burleson |
The course was also more strict with times than the previous locations. Many stages required a clean run on all obstacles to finish the stage in the alotted time limit. If a team ran into trouble that caused any delay, chances were good that they would time out. I've never seen so many time-outs within 50 feet of the finish gate.
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| Stage Two on Course A was TIGHT. Teams had to force their rigs up a loose ledge and hard to the left - between two trees with only nine feet between them. Drivers just couldn't make it if they tried to cut it diagonally, and most hit both trees. Randy Burleson |
Then there was the dreaded tree nazi, the most hated, and well known judge, ever to work an ARCA event. Course A, section 2, had a number of trees that were marked with flags. The general rule has been that if you hit one of these hard enough to break something, it was counted as a flag (10 points). On this section all the rig had to do was touch it, not hit it, not scrape it, not brush it, just mere contact was a flag penalty. To Mr Tree Nazi's credit, he was consistant with every competitor. I don't know of anyone that made it through that section without hitting at least two trees, no matter how much they worked not to.
I think the course was indicative of what future courses will be. The sport is dynamic and evolving and the drivers and machines are getting better. It's getting tougher for ARCA set courses that challenge the field and I think it's a good thing to see results without a negative point finish. The new rules next year will limit tire size and somewhat standardize some aspects of the rigs, but you can bet that every competitor will be busy for the next five months finding ways to push the rules and make their vehicle the strongest, and most agile it can be. It's going to be a lot of fun next year.
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