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2002 SuperCrawl World Championships, Farmington, New
Mexico
Your Events Coverage Directory
Article and Photos by: Kimber Rau
Craig Stumph had a vision a few years ago. While he wasn’t sure if it would turn out to be a pipe dream, total failure, mediocre attempt, or - dare he hope - a resounding success, he set in motion a plan to bring together the worlds best competitive rock crawling teams and their vehicles. He started with small, well-organized competitions within UROC, United Rockcrawling & Off-road Challenge. While holding these events, he made it a priority to meet and coordinate with many of the experienced competition organizers from many facets of the off-road sport. He learned from the errors of other events, then combined his ideas with the input of the competitors and created the blue print for Supercrawl World Championship 2002.
In September of 2001 at an event at Lake Amador, CA, the first invitations to Supercrawl were announced. The top 10 finishers of qualifying events all were given the opportunity to register for the upcoming Championship, with the first place finishers getting their entry fee waved. Some of the sanctioned groups for the Supercrawl included CalRocs, EROCC, ProRock, UROC, Kremmling Krawl, and others. Added to the list of candidates were specially invited teams from other countries such as Canada, Italy and Iceland to make this truly a World Championship.
In the days preceding the big event, the hiways and other forms of travel were being eaten up by spectators, teams, pit crews, volunteer staff and press in an effort to be present for this first-ever event. My trip was not unlike those others as I raced across this nation of ours with my two favorite road trippers, Chris Collard and Suzy Rosellini. (It is here that I must inject a big thank you to both of them for making my trip possible as well as very memorable!) Upon arriving at the tech inspection area, we saw many old friends, and some favorite rigs, awaiting their turn to step up and meet the equipment requirements to compete. Added into the mix were what would come to be even newer contacts as we waded through the mini side show UROC had put forth for our viewing pleasure. The old stand bys were there; car crushing, vendors, food, and eye candy of every variety.
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The first day of competition let everyone know from the get go that the UROC team had done their homework and were up to the challenge of making Supercrawl the best event in the sport. Teams were being lined up efficiently and started their courses on time. Before you could say “Get it Awn!” the first rollovers were taking place and all knew that they were going to have to rethink their game-plan. Craig Stumph and Mike Cook, the Maniacal Makers of Mayhem, had made the courses short, sweet and brutal. There was little crawling to be had. A lot of skinny pedal combined with willpower and luck was what got many of the teams through the courses in one piece. Of the 10 courses set before the teams only a few had any real technical crawl factor to them for any duration of time. The majority of the courses made Craig true to his word, “Courses are steep and short with the times even shorter in order to get 106 teams through all of the courses.”
On the 1st course the teams started from New Mexico sandy bottom base to traverse a narrow mound that cut across their path and was tall enough to leave them high and dry if they didn’t time their bounce correct to get over it. Those who had taller tires and flexier suspensions found this little obstacle tedious but of little consequence to deal with. Immediately after clearing the “mound” they made a hard right turn up a shear face of approximately 60 degrees of traction refusing stone. The required climb to exit the last gates was only about 25 feet up, but precious time had been spent on traversing the previous mound and made it necessary for some desperate dashes to the gate. Or own staffer, Terry Howe, showed his rigs finesse as he trounced over this section with ease. Others such as Iceland’s own, Ragnar Robertsson, and spotter, Jonas Sigurdsson learned a little Rock Stacking 101 when they got high centered just after clearing the entrance gates and were denied the chance to continue as the clock ran out on their efforts.
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Course 2 was the first in a series of obstacles that had the teams starting from the loose surface, only to be faced with a succession of steps that sent rigs skyward and spotters down on the ground to offset the weight balance war of rig vs. gravity. This course set the teams against a 45 degree climb for about 10’ before they were faced with a belly grabbing ledge that sent them into a 60 degree climb for another 5’. Successfully getting over the “bulge” sent the teams hard right at a lesser degree of climb towards surcease.
Course 3, resembled its predecessor at first glance, but had its own share of challenges to toss at the teams. This course split after the initial 4’ vertical climb to send the Legend Class slanting right through a calm section that circled them left into a section of steps that kept each wheel grappling for traction that seemed to be illusive. Meanwhile, the Unlimited Class stayed slightly left to climb a 60+ degree path of approximately 25’ of grueling traction robbing rock. Amy Bulloch, who would go on to win the Legends Class showed she isn’t a wilting flower and took her rig, She-J, up the optional hard way for bonus points. Amy showed what a woman can do when she has confidence and ambition on most of the courses by not taking the easy way out that was hers as a Legends competitor, instead opting to take the Unlimited path with resounding success on most occasions. A feat even some of the Unlimited competitors were not as successful at!
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The 4th course had the rigs hopping up one step after another in vertical short step fashion as they tried to get to the meat of the climb. If they had the clearance to get up and over the first mini staircase, they received a 20’ reprieve from sky visuals while chirping the tires and laying down a nest egg of rubber as they thrashed their way up the mountainous rock. In short order they were bird watching yet again courtesy of another 3’ step up followed immediately by a 2’ perpendicular climb before leveling out slightly and heading for the exit gates in front of them.
The next course was perhaps one of the most technical the teams had to face for this event, as it required accurate steering to maneuver within the time limits more so than the usual “Hammer Down” theory the other courses required. It sat deceptively on top of the rock formation that WAS Super Crawl and remained somewhat hidden from view. After entering the gates for course 5, the teams slanted uphill for about 5’ before aiming nearly straight down into a sandy wash area. They came bumper-to-rock at the bottom and had to maneuver tactilely to get their front clear of the rocky road block and turn left around a boulder that was eyeballing each driver up close before letting them head towards escape. Doing this required many point robbing back-ups and stole precious time from the clock. Successfully getting past the stone barrier, sent them on a topsy turvy pitch through burls that had the front of the rig going down one fissure while the back was trying to climb over a totally different outcropping. In the mean time, the sensitive underbelly of the vehicle was ruthlessly assaulted at each peek and ridge. Dustin Webster, found himself fighting the motion sickness of this course in an attempt to keep his head on course and avoid as many point assessments as possible.
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Page 2 of the SuperCrawl Coverage...
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