Your Events Coverage Directory

| RCAA | ProROCK | UROC | CalROC | EROCC | | Previous Events Directory | Events Calendar | Main Events Page |  | 4x4Wire | BBS | Events Galleries |

Article and Photos By: Kimber Rau
Edited by:  Randy Wheeler

I had several explanations for my awkward and slow walk that morning. All of them greatly exaggerated and based in fantasy and conjecture. While the truth was that the rocks at Three Peaks OHV Park rendered my legs worn, tattered, battered, and abused, I took the opportunity to fib and expound upon my amazing feats during the course of the night to those who inquired as to my debility. Sadly, no one believed me. So I popped two Alieve and headed out to check-up on the teams that were limping into the competition area themselves. Many were still in repair phase, while others were trying to just patch things together in a "good enough" fashion. Still, others were assessing damages and factoring that into their strategy for the day. It didn’t take long before drivers had to mount up, spotters had to lumber into place, engines roared to life, and tires started their moans of protest for yet another day of abuse. I made it a point today to check out the action from the other obstacles and found them to be very technical compared to the ones of death defying action that I had honed in on the day before.

Number 7 started with a climb that was just to the left of 6 and not as steep, but had its own share of tall steps. As the competitors crested the top, they maneuvered left through the "suburban" sized flat area shared with #6. They then had to cross-cut down and into a canyon turning hard left over mammoth boulders. The first roll of day one, and certainly not the last for this section over the course of the event, happened in this ravine as Kinsey B. and her spotter found themselves flashing the onlookers with their Commando’s dirtier side. She wasn’t the only one of the three female competitors to go belly up here though. Jennifer Little also took a turn at flashing the working parts of her 43 vintage Willy’s to the crowd. Not to be outdone by a female, the guys did there share of flashing their bottoms (of their rigs – Thank God!) too. If the teams were successful in avoiding the off-camber perils of getting into the canyon, they were faced with crawling over boulders that moved randomly as they made their decent to freedom at the bottom.

Set between the first obstacle and the bulk of the others, on a separate rocky knoll, was Obstacle 8. This fat little horseshoe course had the contestants climbing high into the sky over huge boulders and ledges while avoiding the yawning chasm on the right that would lead to definite carnage. If they let this hole have any portion of their rig, they were doomed to plummet 15 feet down as there was no nature made safety devices to grab onto as they went. The trick came in craftily maneuvering the right side of the rig over the road blocking rocks that balanced precariously on the very edge of the chasm. Going up wasn’t so bad, traveling across the peak had a high degree of difficulty, but making the path down and to flat land again was going to take intense team work, guts, and skill. Many found themselves simply plummeting to earth, holding on for dear life with a death grip frantically yanking the wheel left and right as they came up and over the last boulder and romped on the throttle towards the final gate in the hopes of not toppling over. Amazingly this worked for most. One team was seen spun 180 degrees around by the last section of rocks, and forced to back over and down the last boulder to get out safely.

Obstacle 9 was a test of width between the rubbers, driver’s skill at straddling canyon walls, and spotter’s ability to communicate the line that would keep driver and rig safely on their perch rather than wedged down into the canyon in side-hill-go-no-where fashion. But first they had to maneuver well enough to get up the vertical wall protecting this test of balancing skill. The walls of the gorge itself, were just wide enough to get a portion of each side’s meats on the respective ledge, but too narrow for the rig to try to traverse through on the ground floor of these 6’ deep twin precipices. The precarious perch had to hold fast and true for a stretch of about 20 ft, all the while making a slight ascent to a more solid area. Once the hole-down-under was traversed, the teams made a hard right around a car sized boulder and shot out to the final gates.

Number 10 on the Obstacle List was a brutal 60 degree climb through tall, tire swallowing notches that bounced the teams back and forth in search of traction. It topped out into a short level area in which they pivoted left around a large immovable boulder and down into 12’ drop off that had them cutting across a 3’ deep trough, just wide enough to grab the tires and not let go. After making the climb out of this little water escape route, they were positioned on an exit ramp heading straight for the closing gates and, hopefully, no points to their name.

The longest and most technically brutal course was Obstacle 11. This course had a total of 17 gates, some of which were trees, each at a cost of 10 points. Course total: 170pts. Keep in mind, each Obstacle had a maximum point out of 40. The odds definitely were not in favor of the fearless teams. This course didn’t pussy-foot around either. It started with straddling a 4’ wide crevice filled with useless pebbles for cosmetic purposes, I’m sure. The teams had to cut sharp to the right through a gate that was comprised of a tree on the left and a cone on the right. Rumor has it; the odds of touching the tree were very much against the players in Vegas. After crossing through the gate from Hades, the spotter had to guide the driver back and forth, up and over, down and through a plethora of crags, notches, spears, crevices, boulders, crooks, nooks and side-hills of every size and form, all the while making a steady and tedious ascent to God only knows where. The twists of framework and suspension were amazing on this course. If the rig had no flex, it quite simple didn’t make it. If the teams made the arduous climb up the side of the ledge, they were allowed to cross over for phase two of the torture. A hard right brought them to what appeared to be a mellow soothing stretch. WRONG! The intense side-hill climb pitched the rig to the left and near its rollover breaking point with a sheer face on the right that was the only hope for topside traction and forward movement. Once back on solid ground, the spotter guided their driver through a sharp switch back that led to a boulder strewn stretch that grabbed anything that was below frame level. At this point, if they hadn’t already run out of time or pointed out, the clock was running down and they had to rapidly grope their way over a rock garden of fair proportions that protected the final gate. Captain America, raced for this gate, literally, under a time count down by the judges worthy of NASA. Tom stood on his throttle and literally launched his rig, like the space shuttle lifting off, through the final gate as the last second faded away. It is no mystery that few teams actually came away with a score at all on this course.

The final course, Obstacle 12, was truly a roller coaster ride. They started from level dirt into a straight up face approximately 6 ft high that had the left tire trying to shadow the sun and bring the atmospheric temperatures down. Meanwhile, the rear tires spun in the dirt searching for something to grip. Rock stacking by the spotters is the only thing that made this do-able for some. Once on top, the course swung right into a calm, breather section that allowed them to gain some time back from the clock by applying a little fuel to the burners. A left turn of the wheel lined the rig up for a 5’ decent over a rock covered ledge. After all four, black air holding devices leveled out, the teams could breathe easier and rehash what could’ve, should’ve, might’ve been.

As this day wound down to an end, however, there were a few straggling contestants finishing up on what many of the competitors thought was the hardest part of the event, Obstacles 1 – 6. The multiple roll-overs and breakage these courses offered up to the spectators delayed the flow of teams through each course. So I wearily made my way over to that area for some closing action. My journey was well worth it in the end as I got to witness Chris Durham, taking on the roll of spotter at this event for Brandon Gillen. This team did a great job of pounding to the top of Armageddon, only to fall prey to the hole on the right that had apparently not gotten its fill of front end parts yet. As if the journey to their demise wasn’t worth watching, actually witnessing Chris’ repair job to Brandon’s rockcrawler, while still perched on the precipice of mountain, was priceless.

As a last spectacular show, the last of the die-hard spectators got to witness "Dirty Dan" Brown and his spotter, Dave Burling attempt to conquer Obstacle 6. Though they fought hard to conquer the line to the left, the ever present right side abyss took its first opportunity to swallow Dan’s red machine whole and spit it out on the floor below.

In the end, it was all over but the tallying. While scores were compiled, the crowds got to test their vehicles flex on the articulation ramp and dine on a tasty barbeque hosted by the event organizers at the park. When all was said and done, the scores were impressive and wide spread with some amazing come-from-behind feats put up by teams Curt Hildebrand/Mark Shugart, Charlie Copsey/Curtis McNeil, Tom LeBlanc/Kevin Keith and Jeff Price/Scott Price in the Unlimited Class. In the Legends Class, teams Creighton King/Brett Davis and Mark Patey/Tom Andrews showed us all what never giving up can get you . . .

An invite to the World SUPERCRAWL Championship as a top ten finisher. Jennifer Little and her husband/spotter, Todd, were the only female driven team to qualify for this honor which had the crowd cheering "Girl Power"!

| 4X4Wire | Site Index | Links Index | Search 4x4Wire | | Trail Talk BBS | Events Calendar | Photo Galleries | | Advertiser's Guide | Information | About Us | Please support 4x4Wire by visiting our featured sponsors TreadLightly UFWDA

This site and all original materials contained herein are Copyright © 1999 - 2008 by OutdoorWire, Inc.. -- All Rights Reserved.
The use of this website, OutdoorWire, or any of its publications or services is subject to the terms of use agreement.
You may link freely to this site, but no further use is allowed without the express written permission of the owner of this material.
All corporate trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
This publication and OutdoorWire, Inc. assume no liability for your use of the material contained within this site.
OutdoorWire, 4x4Wire, SUVWire, JeepWire are all trademarks and publications of OutdoorWire, Inc.