2002 SuperCrawl World Championships, Farmington, New Mexico

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Article and Photos by: Kimber Rau

Course 6 was one of the more spectacular shows to be seen over the events duration. Many rigs met their flopping demise here, some, like the team of Dean Bulloch and spotter, Karl Manford, who rolled down the hill but refused to give up and recovered to attack the face of the mountain again until time ran out. This course started from a wide, sandy swatch that gave up little momentum to assist in the first climb of approximately 80 degrees, spanning 5’ up from horizontal. A small recess in the rocky cliff worked as a potential gripping step for the teams to continue their, often-feeble climb up another 8’ of stone at a 70 degree slant before they leveled out to escape via the exit cones. Like some of the other courses, this one had two different lines. The Legend Class line split to the left side where there appeared to be some whorls in the rocks surface that would give a traction advantage over the Unlimited Class line. The apparent harder line set-up for the Big Dogs of the sport went to the right and was relatively smooth and had a high rocky ledge to munch the right side of the rig into. However, most teams ended up bouncing their way from the left line over onto the right line and disproving the theory that the Legend line was the easier path.

On the backside of the brutal #6 sat the nearly insurmountable Course 7. Here the teams were faced, yet again, with a steep climb up that tested the vertical limits of their rigs center of gravity. The first climb easily stretched the length of the longest wheelbase at the event and sent many away empty handed with only the dreaded 40 points to their score or worse yet, a rollover. If they grappled their way to the top of this first section, they reached a flat surface that aimed them slightly right and back left to set their sights on the next mound to be climbed. While this challenge wasn’t as steep as the first, it still rated just over 60 degrees and had them bouncing up and down as they used their skinny pedal and spotter leverage in search of the precious traction needed to get to the closing gates at the top.

After having clawed their way up so many mind numbingly steep courses, the teams may have thought they had the right game plan to take control and make a run for the lead, until they got a good look at Course 8. This one turned the tables and made them plunge down a 70+ degree decent that placed the spotter, hunkered down, well at the end of the strap, behind the rig and on top of the hill to keep the rig from going end over end into the sandy pit below. Suspensions were tested to their flexing limits as creaked a groaned to work slowly and deftly through the gnarled rock formation as it fed them down, into a run-off crag that dumped onto a ledge just about as wide as the vehicle. Here, they turned hard right to stay on this flat ledge and prepare for another climb. But first they had to get their equipment up a ledge that cut slightly back towards the underbelly of the rig, craftily holding the rear wheels on the flat surface. Some found that a little rock stacking sometimes helped gain the necessary clearance to make a mad dash, Nascar fashion, up the last stretch of slippery Farmington stone and garner freedom through the exit gates.

With only two more courses left of the 1st ever Super Crawl, by far the most death defying and memorable one of the event was Course 9. This course was a 70+ degree climb whose first section was approximately 30’ long. It had a short, almost flat section of a few meager feet that gave little purchase before spewing up towards the sky again with an even sharper climb through a narrow crevice not even as wide as the vehicle at it’s peek. Most teams tried to place their left tires high on the tapered wall near the crest in hopes that the right side would be held safe as they dragged the vehicles side along the jagged edge, groping for the safety of the flat top a mere breath away. Far more ended up broken, timed out, or more often than expected, rolled over in spectacular fashion. For the Legend Class, they got to avoid the last peril, if they didn’t want to go for bonus points, by veering right at the narrow flat section and climbing up about 20’ and then immediately left to traverse a ledge with its own doom built in, if the wrong move was made. Here Jeff Rector tried his hand at backing his little red CJ up the middle section to get a better turning advantage for the last leg. Doing this was an unexpected time expense that cost him 40 points when he was a fraction of a second too late in exiting the last gate despite an amazingly valiant and skilled effort.

The last obstacle was Course 10, which combined a steep decent into a narrow sandy bowl and an equally intense climb out with only a thin groove at the bottom of a rocky face for the left tires to seek traction in. If the rig gained the necessary grip for the climb, it was faced with a hard right turn around a stone mound that insisted on reducing the hard won traction needed for forward movement. The team of brothers, Mike and Mark Patey had finished up their Jeep 6x6 in time, taking just over 30 days for the build-up, before driving it from the shop onto the trailer for the big event. Without even time to test-drive it, Supercrawl proved to be a learning experience as well as an unforgettable time as they had the crowd’s full attention while they turned 6 wheels to maneuver an unusually long vehicle through and extremely tight space.

As the sun went down on the site of the first Supercrawl, it was obvious that history had been made and the event was a resounding success. UROC had stepped up and hit a homerun with competitors, spectators, vendors, and sponsors. There was no doubt that there would be a Supercrawl ’03 and that many teams would put UROC at the top of their list of series to compete in next year. 

Whether it was water in the tires to keep weight low to the ground, newly released Master Pull spotter straps to help hold on to the rig in those extreme off camber predicaments, or cardboard hood replacements to keep in rules compliance, every team had it’s own tricks to stay in the game. It didn’t matter if they won or lost for this particular event. Though there was a fairly decent purse up for grabs, the experience the teams gained, as well as the relationships they formed with other contenders over the course of this 3-day event, garnered them all something to take with them and never forget. But there is always a team that comes out on top of the heap and in the Legends Class it was Amy Bulloch who claimed the honor of Queen of the Rocks with her husband as spotter, proving they make a great team in more than matrimony. For the Unlimited Class, the Kings of the Rocks were Ken Shupe and Spotter, “Moose”.